Q: "The seven angels are yet to begin sounding their trumpets. What does the activity around the altar in vv.3-5 signify?"
A: Jesus referred to everlasting fire, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt.25:41) By the same everlasting covenant for the blessed has another place prepared for them. " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (25:34) This is the kingdom to which the covenant has been drawn up between God and Man, and of the latter we discussed already. In order to indicate his earthly ministry the Spirit gives us a sign, which is silence in heaven 'about the space of half an hour.'
Judgment upon the covering cherub follows "from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." The same day covers the works of man. "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Co.3:13). The same fire judged the two sons of Aaron. "the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not./And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." God judged similarly the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Altar of incense metonymically refers to the body of a believer. Curse on man was fixed after the murder of Abel. God tells Cain, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground./And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."(Ge.4:10-11). In Re.8:4 we read,"And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." Abel is not forgotten by God
Q: "The seven angels are yet to begin sounding their trumpets. What does the activity around the altar in vv.3-5 signify?"
A: Jesus referred to everlasting fire, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." (Matt.25:41) By the same everlasting covenant for the blessed has another place prepared for them. " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." (25:34) This is the kingdom to which the covenant has been drawn up between God and Man, and of the latter we discussed already. In order to indicate his earthly ministry the Spirit gives us a sign, which is silence in heaven 'about the space of half an hour.'
Judgment upon the covering cherub follows "from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee." The same day covers the works of man. "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." (1 Co.3:13). The same fire judged the two sons of Aaron. "the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not./And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord." God judged similarly the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Altar of incense metonymically refers to the body of a believer. Curse on man was fixed after the murder of Abel. God tells Cain, "the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground./And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand."(Ge.4:10-11). In Re.8:4 we read,"And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand." Abel is not forgotten by God
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