Revelation 8:5; Divine Judgment
Revelation 8:5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Hear the words of our Lord Jesus in Luke 18:7And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Herein is the visible picture of God’s response to the saints’ prayers when divine wrath was poured upon the earth after the half-hour of silence in heaven.
The fire of the altar was cast into the earth. Robert L Thomas observed well, “The angel … filling his golden censer with coals from the fire of the altar and hurling them earthward. This connotes judgment about to be imposed in answer to the prayers connected with that same altar in 8:3-4 (Alford, Swete, Charles, Beckwith). The connection between the divine wrath about to fall upon the earth and the prayers of God’s people is conspicuous (Lenski, Morris). The censer normally used for offering incense has become a symbol of judgment in response to prayer (Swete, Walvoord), an action similar to the one in Ezekiel 10:2-7 where the hands rather than a censer carry the hot coals (Moffatt).”
2And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight. 3Now the cherubims stood on the right side of the house, when the man went in; and the cloud filled the inner court. 4Then the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the LORD’S glory. 5And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh. 6And it came to pass, that when he had commanded the man clothed with linen, saying, Take fire from between the wheels, from between the cherubims; then he went in, and stood beside the wheels. 7And one cherub stretched forth his hand from between the cherubims unto the fire that was between the cherubims, and took thereof, and put it into the hands of him that was clothed with linen: who took it, and went out. (Ezek. 10:2-7 KJV)
The psalmist portrayed well this scene upon earth that provoked God’s wrath when he wrote in Psalm 2:2-5 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure.
Luke 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint.
Amen.