Revelation 8:5

This scene comes straight after the opening of the seventh seal, when there is silence in heaven for about half an hour (Revelation 8:1). Into that stillness “another angel came and stood at the altar”. “Another” is állos, the ordinary word for a different individual, and it sets this angel apart from the seven angels who hold the trumpets in verse 6. John gives him no name. The word ángelos comes from a verb meaning to bring tidings, so it means a messenger, and in Scripture it is used especially of the messengers of God. He came (érchomai, the everyday word for coming or going) and stood (hístēmi) at the altar, which is the place of a servant ready for his work.

He holds “a golden censer”. The word libanōtós means frankincense, and by extension the vessel in which frankincense was burned. chrýseos means made of gold. Gold marks both the censer and the altar as precious and holy, fit for use in the presence of God.

“There was given unto him much incense.” thymíama is fragrant powder burned in worship, and polýs tells us there was a great deal of it. The angel receives the incense, so even the means of this worship are supplied from God’s side. The verb is dídōmi, “to give”, and the same verb stands behind “offer” later in the verse: what was given to the angel, he gives at the altar.

He offers it “with the prayers of all saints”. proseuchḗ is prayer to God, the act of speaking to him and bringing him requests, and the word can also name a place of prayer. hágios means holy or set apart, and the saints are all believers, the people God has set apart as his own. With pâs, “all”, the prayers of the whole church are gathered here, those of believers who have died and are with the Lord and those still living on earth. God hears and values the prayers of his whole redeemed people together, as well as the prayer of each one.

The offering is made “upon the golden altar which was before the throne”. thysiastḗrion means a place of sacrifice, an altar. “Before” is enṓpion, “in the face of”, and thrónos is a stately seat, a throne. The altar stands in front of God’s own seat of rule, so the prayers of the saints are presented where he reigns.

Verse 4 shows what happened when the incense was offered: “the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.” The word for smoke is kapnós, and “ascended up” is anabaínō, to go up. The smoke and the prayers rise together. The prayers are the heart of the offering, and the incense is their fragrant, rising form. They go up “before God”, the same enṓpion as in verse 3, into his sight. theós is the word for a deity, and with the article it names the one true God. The “hand” is cheír, the angel’s own hand, from which the smoke rises.

So every prayer of the saints is collected, valued and brought before God himself. That holds while judgments fall on the earth, and it holds for prayers we cannot put into words, for the Spirit himself intercedes for the saints according to the will of God (Romans 8:26–27). The saints in Revelation are those who keep faith with God and with Jesus through trial (Revelation 14:12), and these are their prayers. John’s first readers would have known the picture of an angel bringing prayers before God, which is also found in Jewish writings from between the Testaments, such as Tobit 12:12–15.

Then “the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth”. It is the same censer, libanōtós, that carried the incense, and now it carries fire. The fire comes from the golden altar where the prayers were offered, so the judgment that follows comes from the very place where the saints were heard. “Cast” is bállō, to throw, and the act is deliberate and forceful. “The earth” is gē, the earth’s surface where people live, set against the heavens above. What went up as prayer comes down as fire, and the scene moves from the worship of heaven to trouble on the earth.

This is God’s answer to the prayers of his people. Earlier John saw the souls under the altar, persecuted saints crying out for justice and vindication (Revelation 6:9–11). God comforts his people, and here he answers their cries with justice on those who oppose him and his kingdom. His timing and his ways may differ from what we expect, but he acts, and the fire shows that his patience with the wicked has limits.

The fire of the altar is holy fire. When the tabernacle’s worship began, fire came from the LORD and consumed the offering on the altar (Leviticus 9:24). So the judgments that follow are holy and righteous, sent from God’s own presence and joined to the prayers offered at that altar.

“And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.” The word for trumpet is sálpinx, an instrument used in war and in worship, and it can also mean the blast itself. “Prepared” is hetoimázō, to prepare or make ready. The angels stand ready, each holding his trumpet, and the pause that began with the silence of the seventh seal is about to end. Their readiness shows that the judgments to come are part of God’s plan, carried out in his time and in the order he has set.

Seven in Revelation speaks of completeness, so the seven trumpets are a full series of judgments ordained by God. Angels are his ministers who do his word (Psalm 103:20), and Jesus says that his angels will gather the evildoers at the end of the age (Matthew 13:41–42). These angels are the active servants of his righteous judgment.

Revelation was most likely written about AD 95, under the emperor Domitian, when Rome demanded worship of the emperor and refusing could cost a believer his life. To churches in that danger, the sight of God’s angels standing ready showed that he rules history and will bring final victory and justice.

The angels sound the trumpets, and Christ holds all authority over judgment and salvation. He is the Lamb who was slain, found worthy to open the seals (Revelation 5:9), and he is both the Lion and the Lamb (Revelation 5:5–6). The prayers for justice that bring this fire are answered at last in his victory over sin, death and evil.

He will return with the sound of a trumpet (1 Thessalonians 4:16), to carry out the final judgment and to gather his own. Through his sacrifice there is refuge from the coming wrath, and his finished work on the cross (John 19:30) is the one way of escape from the judgments these trumpets announce. The upheaval of heaven and earth clears the way for the new heaven and the new earth, where righteousness dwells and God makes his home with his people (Revelation 21:1–4). He is the righteous Judge and the compassionate Saviour, and he offers deliverance from the very judgments he oversees.

This scene shows what becomes of the prayers of God’s people. Whether whispered alone or offered with the church, they are gathered, joined with incense, and brought up before God from an altar that stands in front of his throne. They have their place in his purposes, and his answer reaches the earth.

It also shows us God as the one who listens and the one who judges, and he does both from the same throne. The cries of persecuted saints for justice are answered with fire from the altar where they were heard. The seven angels standing ready tell us that his judgments come in his time and in his order. And because Christ lives to intercede at God’s right hand, the prayers of the saints rise to a Father who receives them and will make all things right.