Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #7 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:8:
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
In our last study we were looking at what the Bible has to say about harps. We saw that David played on a harp before King Saul and it soothed Saul’s mind and relieved him of evil spirits.
We saw in 1st Chronicles, chapter 25, in verse 3, that there was language about prophesying with a harp.
We also went to Psalm 49:4:
I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
So, in those Scriptures we have seen how the harp relates to declaring the Word of God – it relates to prophesying; and true believers spiritually prophesy when they share the truths of the Bible and when they declare the Word of God.
And, therefore, spiritually, sharing truth from the Bible is related to sharing the Gospel and it is related to bringing forth the Word of God, as God moved His people “to will and to do of His good pleasure” and sent them into the world in the day of salvation to sow seed. In a sense, they were playing the harp, if we look at it in that light and with that “figure,” they were prophesying the Word of God.
We also find in the Psalms another couple of verses that agree with this idea. It says in Psalm 71:22-23:
I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
So in verse 22 it says: “I will also praise thee with the psaltery, *even* thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp.” Singing with the harp is akin to praising God with truth. So this definition that the Bible gives for the harp is fairly certain; we can see how the Bible is defining the figure of a harp as “prophesying the Word of God.”
And this becomes important for us today when we read in Revelation 18 where God is describing in that chapter the Day of Judgment that we are presently living in and going through. And we read in Revelation 18:20-23:
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee…
With each one of these statements God is declaring that He has removed the Gospel from the world. Of course, we can see it very definitely when we read, “And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee,” Babylon (Babylon representing the kingdom of this world which includes the churches), “and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee:” That is, when the Bible is read or when it is heard with the physical ears, the voice of Christ will not be heard spiritually, as Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God has to grant spiritual ears to hear: “Let him that heareth, understand,” is a common statement we read earlier in Revelation. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
In the Day of Judgment God will remove the Holy Spirit from granting “ears to hear” and, therefore, the voice of the bridegroom (Christ, the Word of God) and the voice of the bride, as God’s people are still in the world in the Day of Judgment and still living on the earth and they still may speak forth the Word of God, but the voice of Christ and the voice of the elect “shall be heard no more at all in thee.” It just means that there will be no spiritual “ears” to hear granted to any dead sinners – they will not be regenerated by the Spirit of God and enlightened in their eyes and having their ears opened to understand the things of God any longer; all that is done and finished and over. It is the day of God’s wrath. So, all of these statements are synonyms describing the very same thing.
And Revelation 18:22 says:
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Notice that there are four musical instruments and four represents universality. This is something that is happening all over the earth. The sound of the musical instruments, as they represent the declaration of the Gospel to the world, “shall be heard no more at all in thee.” And, again, no one will be given “ears to hear” the harping of God’s people – the piping, the trumpeting – any longer.
I just want to look at one more verse before we continue in our study of Revelation 5 and that is in Isaiah, chapter 24; and we have gone through this chapter, verse by verse, and Isaiah 24 is a chapter that (unmistakably) is describing God’s judgment on the world, not on the churches. As a matter of fact, I would recommend that you read the whole chapter and you will find the “earth” mentioned, time and again. For instance, in Isaiah 24:4:
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
And, then in Isaiah 24:5-6:
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Now how can anyone read this and think it is discussing the churches? We do not find that as the subject matter at all. It is God’s wrath on the earth – on the world. And Isaiah 24 uses very similar language to chapters we might find in the Book of Jeremiah as God describes His judgment on Judah, which in turn would point to His wrath upon the churches during the Great Tribulation at the time of the end when “judgment begins at the house of God.”
And the language is similar because the judgment is similar: it is the same cup of God’s wrath; first, the cup was given to the people called by His name and they drank of the cup of the wrath of God and that wrath had to do with the removal of the Holy Spirit, the putting out of the light of the Gospel and with the silencing of the harps, as we saw in Revelation 18 (and that would also apply to the churches).
Well, now, with the emphasis upon the earth, we read in Isaiah 24:7:
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth…
(The tabrets would be a timbrel, another musical instrument)
… the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
And there God is saying something that is a tragedy. It is extremely sorrowful that this has come upon the earth. It is the time when God has shut the door to heaven and it is the time when “the joy of the harp ceaseth.”
Now we have looked at several verses following the Bible’s own “recipe,” following God’s methodology that He would have us to follow in coming to truth: Look up a word and search it out, comparing scripture with scripture. And as we have done so, we searched out the word harp and we have been able to come up with a Biblical definition and we understand that word; it has to do with declaring the Word of God – with prophesying. And now in this chapter that has to do with God’s judgment upon the earth, we read: “the joy of the harp ceaseth.”
The prophesying is not said to have ended here. We are still sharing information from the Bible. We are still sharing truth with one another. God has commanded us to feed sheep and how can we do that unless we speak the truth of the Word of God? We do not know who the sheep are and, so, we have to share the truth far and wide. We have to send forth the Word of God as far and as wide as we ever did before, for the very same reason, because we did not know where the elect were that were to be saved – we did not know where the sheep were that were lost and must be found; and now we must send the Word of God into the far reaches of earth in order to feed the sheep. We do not know who those sheep are and we do not know where they are, exactly. And, as a result, we will be speaking forth the Word of God, but “the joy of the harp ceaseth.” (repeat) The joy…
The Bible tells us that when one sinner repenteth, there is joy in heaven: joy in salvation. God and the angels in heaven would rejoice when a sinner was redeemed and when he received a new resurrected soul and the blood of Christ had been applied to his heart. But now the joy of prophesying, the joy of the harp, ceaseth. We continue to share truth, but no sinner anywhere in the world – in any country, in any city, in any town, on any street, in any house – will “hear” the Word of God that is being proclaimed which God’s people are sending forth in order to feed sheep. And even though it is truth and even though it is faithful to what the Bible says, it will not spark a “new heart.” God’s Word will not create in them a “new soul.” They will not be born again and, therefore, there will be no joy in connection with playing the harp, spiritually; there will be no more salvation. This is a grievous thing, but it is the nature of the day we are living in.
Well, let us go back to Revelation 5:8:
…the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
It is very interesting how God connects this idea of the “golden vials full of odours.” The word odours, here, is also translated as the word incense. For instance, in Luke 1:8-10, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, it is said that his “lot was to burn incense…at the time of incense.” And it is the same word that is translated as odours. And God says that these golden vials full of incense are the “prayers of the saints.” In other words, God is making a connection and establishing a relationship between the “golden vials full of odours” and the “prayers of the saints.”
Now, as far as the “golden vials,” this is the only place (that I could find) where the “golden vial” has to do with incense: that it is full of incense (and that being related to the “prayers of the saints.”) This same Greek word is translated as vial eleven more times; it is found twelve times in the New Testament and it is always translated as vial. Yet, all the other times it is found has to do with the “vials full of the wrath of God.”
It says in Revelation 15:7:
And one of the four beasts…
(And that is the same “four living creatures” we are reading about in Revelation 5.)
And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Then it says in Revelation 16:1:
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
And in Revelation 16:2:
And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth…
Then all the vials are poured out. Then it says in Revelation 17:1:
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
In every other instance that this word vial is found, it has to do with the wrath of God. The vials are “full of the wrath of God” and they must be “poured out” and they must be emptied. And it is unusual. It makes us wonder. What is the connection (if there is any) between a golden vial of incense that is likened to the prayers of the saints and the golden vial that we find everywhere else that is full of the wrath of God?
Well, there actually is a connection that the LORD establishes between the “prayers of the saints” and His “wrath.” We find in Revelation 8:3:
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense…
And that word incense is the same Greek word that is translated as odours in our verse in Revelation 5. And, here, it is incense and it is the same word as used to refer to Zachariah, whose “lot was to burn incense.”
… and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints…
Well, there again, we have the golden vial full of odours likened to the prayers of the saints in Revelation 5, and here we have a golden censor that this angel or messenger is given “with much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” So, there is certainly a relationship between these verses and Revelation 5:8.
And then in 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.
We can see how the golden censor is involved with “much incense that it should be offered with the prayers of the saints.” And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, begins to ascend up before God (verse 4) out of the angel’s hand and the next thing we know, the angel takes the censor and fills it with “fire of the alter” and that would typify wrath and anger and fury. It is the wrath of God because God is “a consuming fire.”
Now the censor that was previously identified with incense and the “prayers of the saints” is now filled with the “wrath of God,” and, therefore, we can relate the golden vial full of odours or incense, the prayers of the saints, with golden vials full of the wrath of God that are being poured out in the Day of Judgment.
But, again, why does God make this tie-in? Why is He joining the two together? Well, it depends on what the saints have been praying. What have the saints of God…and “saint” is just another way of speaking of a holy one and it is not some “special” individual that has achieved a status of “super holiness” and, therefore, a church elects him to sainthood; that is not a saint. Actually, it is very possible that many of those people had not even become saved. No, a saint is anyone – anyone at all – that has become saved. The thief on the cross (who was a dirty, rotten sinner and never did anything in his life that a church would consider worthy, or even remotely worthy, of sainthood) was a saint in God’s sight, once he became saved. Everyone who is elect and has the blood of Christ applied to them and has become redeemed is a saint.
And what have the saints of God been praying? We are told in Revelation 6, when the seals are taken off the Book, it says in Revelation 6:9:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
This is describing those children of God that have been redeemed and have gone to be with the LORD in heaven. In their cases, they do not have their resurrected bodies as yet, so it is “the souls of them,” apart from their bodies; in their spirit essences they are dwelling with God. And the prayer goes up: “How long, O LORD, until you bring about the day of vengeance and until you avenge our blood?” From the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the blood of God’s people has been, as it were, crying up to God out of the earth for vengeance, for God to bring justice and “balance the scales” that His Law demands, because man has greatly sinned against God and has tormented and afflicted and brought trouble to the people of God all through the many days of their pilgrimage upon the earth.
Remember what we read in II Thessalonians 1:5-6:
Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
You see, it is the day of recompense – actually, the year of recompenses – for the sake of God’s holy temple and for the sake of His people. Their prayer has ascended up to God and He has heard, just as the LORD heard the prayer of the Israelites in Egypt over the centuries that they were in cruel and hard bondage and there was no deliverance; but God heard and in the set time and at the appointed time, He sent a Deliverer and freed His people and brought them out of Egypt.
Likewise, God has heard the cries of His people (in our day) and He has freed them from spiritual bondage, but there is also the matter of answering their prayer…well, we will have to discuss in our next study how it is that God’s people would pray such a thing We will look at that because it is very important that we properly understand that before we continue with this very interesting chapter in the Book of Revelation.