Revelation 8:1-3

When He [the Lamb] broke open the seventh seal, there was silence for about half an hour in heaven.

• A Half hour is a brief moment in time. So in Heaven there is silence for a brief moment in time right before the seventh seal is broken and Jesus returns.  
• Think about right before something really huge is about to finally come together, how we stop to watch it all unfold. The same thing seems to be happening here. The angels have been held back, all of Heaven has eagerly been awaiting this event for thousands of years. And now, Jesus is about to take over as the Ruler of the Earth. Jesus is about to begin His thousand year reign: a thousand years of peace, a thousand years of joy, a thousand years of the lion laying down with the lamb. The inhabitants of Heaven know the glory of what is about to happen and their silence speaks loudly! 
• The Two witnesses will be killed and allowed to lay dead in the streets for 3 days right before Jesus returns, Revelation 11. Here is the seventh seal, the last seal, so the two could easily be tied together.  

² Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

• Seven, the number of God’s timing, so once again we are shown the loud, clear, and powerful messages of the Truth that will be proclaimed during the last days.
• Remember that Jesus told us that the one sign of His return will be the Gospel of the Kingdom, which is the power of our Father clearly being shown to the world, will be preached everywhere, Matthew 24:14.
• Once again we are clearly shown that our Father is in control of the End Times, not satan, not man, and not the anti-christ. This is important to be repeated because most people believe that the anti-christ and satan are in control during these times. 
• Now John is going to be shown something different, the seventh seal was the end of the earth as it has been and now John is taken back in time and the seven trumpets are shown to him to further clarify the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Remember that John was told that all things are to be shown to us in their entirety. Revelation is not written in one time line, the time line keeps going back on itself to further clarify the Truth of what is going to happen over the last three and a half years of this period of the earth’s history. 
• Trumpets in Bible prophesy represent loud warnings of our Fathers approach, Joshua 6:4-5, Exodus 19:16-17. These are the seven warnings of our Lord’s return.
• If the world were going through massive wars, great famines of food, and droughts of physical water, the world would be looking for Jesus like crazy. But if these terms and references were about spiritual food and water, and there was a drought of Jesus’ Truth because times were so good and worldly, no one would be looking for His return. 
• But we also know that Jesus is returning for a glorious Church that will be doing the works that He did and even greater ones as we are used to preach the Truth to every nation, tongue, and tribe.

³ And another angel came and stood over the altar. He had a golden censer, and he was given very much incense (fragrant spices and gums which exhale perfume when burned), that he might mingle it with the prayers of all the people of God (the saints) upon the golden altar before the throne.

• Our prayers are offered in a golden censor, so they are perfect. They are mingled with incense so they are pleasing.
• Even if we are praying wrong, the Holy Spirit is changing our prayers to perfection, Romans 8:26.
• So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groaning s too deep for utterance.