When heaven becomes silent

By Elizabeth Prata

I’m fascinated with heaven. Aren’t you? It is our home, the next destination for us, and where Jesus is. We SHOULD be fascinated with it.

Jonathan Edwards is known for his monumental sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, with its vivid focus on the terrors of hell, but he actually wrote about heaven much more. Here in his sermon The Christian Pilgrim, or The True Christian’s Life A Journey Toward Heaven, he observed:

That we ought not to rest in the world and its enjoyments, but should desire heaven. We should “seek first the kingdom of God.” (Mat. 6:33) We ought above all things to desire a heavenly happiness; to be with God and dwell with Jesus Christ. Though surrounded with outward enjoyments, and settled in families with desirable friends and relations; though we have companions whose society is delightful, and children in whom we see many promising qualifications; though we live by good neighbors, and are generally beloved where known; we ought not to take our rest in these things as our portion. We should be so far from resting in them, that we should desire to leave them all, in God’s due time. We ought to possess, enjoy and use them, with no other view but readily to quit them, whenever we are called to it, and to change them willingly and cheerfully for heaven.

For a while in Christian publishing we had a spate of books that were classified as “Heaven tourism.” That is, books whose authors had recounted an alleged trip to heaven. Their books were filled with gushing, breathless descriptions of what heaven looks like, what people were doing there, even the smells and sounds. And of course, many times, it was Jesus guiding the person around. Thus, ‘Heaven tourism’.

I understand the curiosity about heaven but we cannot look to man’s alleged visits there to satisfy our need for knowledge about the place that’s really our home. Only the Bible has that information. These heaven visits are ‘extra-biblical’, and cannot be trusted. Only a few people in the Bible were given a glimpse into heaven while they were alive and told about it: Stephen as he was dying, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Micaiah, and Paul. Paul said it wasn’t permitted to tell what he heard. And he didn’t.

There were several views of activity in the second heaven, or the sphere above ours, such as Elisha and his servant seeing the chariots all around, and Jacob seeing the ladder from heaven to earth with angels ascending and descending.

But the Lord did give us several ‘permissible’ glimpses of the “third heaven” or God’s abode. He obviously wanted us to know about these becuase they are in God’s word. Ezekiel’s vision, Isaiah’s vision, John’s book of Revelation are biblical places to see true information about heaven.

Of these glimpses into heaven we see that heaven is an active, busy, and loud place.

There are seraphim surrounding the throne of God proclaiming “holy holy holy is the Lord God almighty” so loud the pillars shake and the place fills with smoke. (Isaiah 6:3-4).

There are people singing and worshiping. There are harps and trumpets. Angels are busy proclaiming. There are living beings with 4 faces rushing left and right. “And the living beings ran back and forth like bolts of lightning.” (Ezekiel 1:14).

And I also heard the sound of their wings, like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of a crowd like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stopped, they let down their wings. And a voice came from above the expanse that was over their heads; whenever they stood still, they let down their wings. (Ezekiel 1:24-25).

In Revelation 5 there is much activity. There are proclamations in a loud voice, myriads of angels:

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:” (Revelation 5:11-12)

In Job 1 and in 1 Kings 22:19-21 we see the myriads of angels assembling, reporting, discussing. Angels are constantly coming and going from heaven to earth.

Heaven is busy and it’s loud. Not bad-loud, but loud. Activity, whirring, proclaiming singing, bustling, flashing, shaking…Which makes the next verse all the more significant.

As the seventh seal is about to be opened,

When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. (Revelation 8:1)

EVERYTHING STOPS

The grim significance of the moment has stunned all into silence. There are no words. God is about to speak in wrath, and the fury unleashed upon the world in the previous seal judgments will be as nothing compared to the coming fury of his righteous anger.

When we think of heaven we may think of bucolic pastures and green lushness and peace and quietude. Perhaps talking quietly with Abraham or Paul on a bench by the Tree of Life. And I’m sure that beauty and peace will be present, certainly.

But God’s current administration of His universe is busy and active. It’s stunning that all the sounds stop when the 7th seal is about to be opened.

Saints, judgment is a fearsome thing. We should be in awe of it, and eager to tell the GOODNEWS that will release a lost soul from it’s coming certainty to one of peace with God and a blissful eternity in heaven.

Our citizenship there should also give us comfort and gratitude. We will be “up there”, “over yonder” when that seal is unsealed, stunned into silence ourselves, not down here about to endure the worst time on earth there shall ever be. No, the Lord graciously had mercy on our souls and transferred us from the domain of darkness and judgment to the domain of glory and bliss.

Thoughts if heaven can’t some at the expense of gratitude that we escaped judgment, either on earth during the Tribulation or in hell for all time. And as Edwards said of any pleasures or comforts of earth, we should be “readily to quit them, whenever we are called to it, and to change them willingly and cheerfully for heaven.“

Our cheerfulness resides in the fact that we know heaven is where Jesus is. Someday we shall see His face. If you are in Him, it will be a smiling face, saying, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’” (Matthew 25:23)