Amazing Facts Daily Devotional January 31st An Empty Heaven. Now, after the hiatus of chapter 7, we return to the opening of the seventh and final seal. Given the other six seals, perhaps you might expect the seventh seal to be the most magnificent episode of all. But surprisingly, it seems to come across as not very important in that it is mentioned in a single verse. The heaven we have come to know in Scripture is teeming with life, angels being sent to and fro, the 24 elders seated on their thrones, “the four living creatures … [who] do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!’” (Revelation 4:8). Then there is God’s control center, the heavenly sanctuary itself, the seat of all His operations. Heaven is God’s kingdom, the pulse of the universe. Have you ever come home to a completely empty house? When you walk in the door, all the lights are off and everything is still, just as you had left it. And if you stand there for a moment, listening, you could hear a pin drop. That’s a little like what the Bible says will happen in heaven when the seventh seal is opened. There is silence in heaven because Jesus isn’t home; neither are any of His angels. Where are they? They are gathering all of God’s people from the earth. The seventh seal is the second coming of Christ. While heaven is hushed, awaiting Christ’s return, the earth is where the action is: “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16); “He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet” (Matthew 24:31). Prophetic time in the Bible is calculated from a principle found in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6. According to these two verses, each prophetic day is equal to one literal year. In the ultimate prophecy of the Second Coming, a prophetic “half an hour,” or 30 minutes, would be approximately seven literal days. It will take one week for Christ’s advent and our subsequent return trip to heaven. Imagine the joyous noise in heaven at the close of those seven days! My Redeemer, keep my eyes heavenward, ever waiting, ever preparing, ever looking for Your soon coming in the clouds of heaven, with thousands upon thousands of angels. For Further Study: Exodus 31:17; Psalm 62:1; Matthew 25:31 KEY BIBLE TEXTS And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Revelation 8:1