Scripture reading: Revelation 8:1-6
Revelation 8:1, “And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.”
We must understand what is meant by “silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.” It means, of course, that there were no angel movements, neither spiritual movements by men. Those whom God had anointed to preach had stopped preaching, the angels who were anointed to help them had stopped helping them, and those who were anointed to work, to do service, had stopped working.
What could have caused that? THE DEATH OF THE SONS OF GOD. In chapter 6, dealing with the fifth seal, the souls of those under the altar who called to God said to Him, “How long…dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” And He gave them “white robes” and “it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”
We see here a picture of what happens in heaven when the sons of God are slain. When Jesus Christ was slain, His work was cut short, there was no more healing of the sick, no more deliverance for a period of time, because the Son had died.
Coming back now to the sons of God, He said things ceased for “about the space of half an hour.” We have to look at this as a PROPHETIC UTTERANCE. A spiritual half an hour could be anything. We have to get the revelation. For a space of time there was no movement. None of God’s business was being done.
Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.” This is the time we are reading about in Revelation 8:1, a time when the sons of God will be slain. “Silence in heaven” is talking about the death of the sons, even as it was the death of Christ Jesus. The sons will die. The sons of God will be dead for three and a half days.
The sixth seal is symbolic of the overshadowing. Now we are dealing with the seventh seal which is the church of the man child. God has always described the church as feminine, as a woman. The reason is because the church had no power in itself to give forth life. It had to receive life to give life, like a woman has to receive the life, or the seed, from her husband in order to bring forth a child. We the church were receiving life from God and bringing forth nothing.
The church has been described as a barren woman. Hannah, for instance, was a barren woman and she brought forth. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, was a barren woman. God always uses the barren woman as the type of the church. This barren woman church has never brought forth anything but now she is being overshadowed by the Mercy Seat or the two angels on the Mercy Seat which is a symbol of God Himself. No man can overshadow and bring forth God. Man can only bring forth man. When a person is discipled to another human being, he cannot rise above that human being, because the master is greater than the disciple, but if we are discipled unto Christ, then we will bring forth Christ.
God has brought the female church to the point where she will bring forth a male church which is called the church of the overcomer or the man child-church. (The words “man child” will be described in other devotionals.) Let us really understand what we are writing about.
The child that this woman church will have (churches always bring forth churches) will be a life-giving being. The church will be a life-giving church. Why? Because the church will have Christ in it. Remember the picture we saw in the first chapter in Revelation with the Christ standing in the middle candlestick? This is the same picture that we are seeing through the whole Revelation, as we speak of this seventh seal. The seventh seal is the mystery of the man child.
This mystery of the man child therefore is a type of the ARK OF THE COVENANT.
(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 153-154 & 165-166)
Thought for today: As Hannah cried out for her barrenness and was delivered so also may we cry out to God that we may be part of the man child company.
Sonlight Devotional 