"When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour."
This is an interesting part about John's Revelation. This was a vision he had while stranded/deported/punished/banished on the Island of Patmos. Perhaps his spirit was in heaven. Maybe it was all just a dream/vision in his head. Anyway, he had a concept or awareness of time (30 minutes) even while he was in eternity and outside of time. Fascinating...
I love the majestic idea of silence all throughout heaven. This was a grandeous moment. All of heaven was silent. And 30 minutes is a long, long time to be silent. Besides sleeping or listening to a very talkative person, I don't think I've ever kept silent for that long. (maybe a university class/lecture...)
An angel held a censer with lots of incense, which included prayers of all the saints. I imagine these were prayers of God's people, alive at the time of the vision, and perhaps saints that were already in heaven, and perhaps saints from 2006 praying today. They might have been intercessory prayers about certain specific events, they might have been prayers of thanksgiving, they might have been worshipful, praise-filled compliments about God. Either way, the angel took this censer and hurled it towards earth. (Maybe those are the prayers that didn't get answered the way we thought they would...maybe this is why!?). Instead of that promotion or an end to the pain, we got "peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake." Wow.
Reading on in Revelation chapter 8, we read that all sorts of calamity came upon the earth at this moment -- a third of the sea turning to blood. A third of the water turned bitter. Trees and grass were burned up. And this was only the beginning. An eagle in the sky called out in a loud voice:
"Woe! Woe! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels."
This vision is not about a pretty, nice, calm, friendly time on earth. This is calamitous and terrible. God is pouring out His wrath. No wonder heaven was silent for half an hour. I want to be in heaven by God when this is happening to earth, but I can't imagine I'll be happy, just grateful and full of awe.