When the supernatural calamities begin, the earth’s dwellers—the kings of the earth, the great men, the generals, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free man—will hide “in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (6:15-17). Actually, this will not yet be the great day of God’s wrath; it will be only a foretaste and a warning to them to repent. The calamities are God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal. They reveal that God is soon to come in to avenge the blood of His dear saints and to vindicate Himself.
Following the sixth seal is the seventh seal (8:1). The opening of the seventh seal by the Lamb will bring in the seven trumpets, the last three of which constitute the most serious woes of the great tribulation. However, before the sixth seal transpires, God will do two things to preserve His people: He will seal the chosen remnant of Israel, and He will begin the rapture of the redeemed ones of the church.
God will first seal one hundred forty-four thousand out of the tribes of the sons of Israel, sealing twelve thousand out of each of the twelve tribes (7:4-8). These are the Israelites who will keep the commandments of God during the great tribulation (12:17; 14:12). These one hundred forty-four thousand faithful Israelites will be sealed on their foreheads in order to be preserved from the torment of God’s judgment in the fifth trumpet (9:4).
In addition to the chosen remnant of Israel God has another people—the redeemed saints of the church (7:9-17). The Israelites are God’s earthly people, and the Christians are God’s heavenly people. In order to preserve the faithful ones among His earthly people, God will seal them but still keep them on the earth. However, God’s way of preserving the overcomers among His redeemed saints is not to keep them on earth but to take them away from the earth to the heavens by means of rapture.
The overcomers, among the redeemed saints, whom God will rapture comprise the man-child in 12:5, the firstfruits in 14:1-5, and the other overcoming believers living in this age (3:10; Luke 21:36; Matt. 24:39-42). Their rapture is before the sixth seal, because the sixth seal will be the beginning of supernatural calamities executed by God as the trial that is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth (Rev. 3:10). At the end of the great tribulation, God will continue to rapture His redeemed saints. He will rapture the two witnesses in 11:12, the late overcomers in 15:2, and the harvest (the majority of the believers) in 14:14-16. These saints will pass through the great tribulation and will not be raptured until before the end of the great tribulation.
The seventh seal consists of the seven trumpets, for the seven trumpets are the content of the seventh seal, and the seventh trumpet consists, in part, of the seven bowls. Both the seventh seal and the seventh trumpet continue for eternity. The seventh trumpet will close this age and usher in the kingdom, the new heaven, the new earth, and the New Jerusalem.
When the Lamb “opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour” (8:1). Silence in heaven indicates solemnity because the age is about to be changed. The period before the opening of the seventh seal is the age of God’s toleration. For the sake of His purpose of preaching the gospel to produce the churches to fulfill His eternal plan, God has been tolerating the sinful situation on earth. But with the opening of the seventh seal, the age of toleration will be terminated, and another age will be initiated—the age of God’s wrath. When the seventh seal is opened, God will come in to intervene in the rebellious and sinful situation on earth. Heaven will be silent because this occasion is so solemn.
In the midst of this solemn scene, Christ appears as another Angel (v. 3) to execute God’s administration over the earth in the way of ministering to God as the High Priest with the prayers of His saints. When He offers the prayers of His saints to God, He adds His incense to the prayers for them to be acceptable to God (v. 4).
“The Angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar and cast it to the earth; and there were thunders and voices and lightnings and an earthquake” (v. 5). This is God’s answer to the prayers of the saints, especially the prayer in the fifth seal (6:9-11) and the prayer in Luke 18:7-8. God’s answer to the saints’ prayers is the execution of His judgment upon the earth by the seven trumpets. At this moment John saw the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepare themselves to trumpet (Rev. 8:6).