SECTION FOUR OF FIRST FOUR Revelation 8:1-12 1. THE SEVENTH SEAL OPENED Revelation 8:1-2 1 And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.--When the preceding seals were opened there was an immediate disclosing of the things they contained, but in this there is a brief silence before the scenes begin to appear. Commentators offer various explanations of what is represented by the half-hour silence, but the text gives no hint why such delay occurred before the things of the seal were made known. Often there is a brief, impressive calm before the storm in material elements. So this short silence in heaven between breaking the seal and appearance of its visions may have been intended only to emphasize the storms that would break loose when the four restraining angels no longer held back the destructive winds mentioned in 7:1-3. 2 And I saw the seven angels that stand before God; and there were given unto them seven trumpets.--All the events revealed by the sounding of the seven trumpets come under the seventh seal, else there would be no disclosures at all by that seal. The acts of worship described in verses 3-5 are only preliminary to the sounding of the trumpets, as verse 6 indicates. This demands the view that events of the seventh seal did not end till the sounding of the seventh trumpet or, that the seventh seal extends to the end of the world. All we know about these angels is that they were some that stood "before God." Probably the only reason for seven is the fact that there were seven trumpets to be sounded. If more than one was needed, then naturally there would be seven. It is not stated by whom the trumpets were given to the angels, but, as they "stand before God," it would be a reasonable presumption to say that God gave them. It was by his authority, of course, that they were to sound them.