Complete silence in heaven

The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
~ Revelation 8:7

But when the seventh seal is broken and what is to happen becomes visible as the scroll is unrolled – and the implication is they can all see what it says – they are reduced to utter silence. And all the triumphant ringing hallelujahs, all the exaltation halts. And I think it is the silence of awe, it is the silence of the anticipation of the grim reality of what is coming as well as the joyous reality of the exaltation of Christ and the devastation of Satan and sin. This half hour of silence is the calm before the storm, the silence of foreboding, the silence of expectation, the silence of awe.

It’s interesting that John measures the time in his vision experience as about half an hour. Absolute silence in that large crowd of innumerable angels running into the millions, absolute dead silence for half an hour would seem like an eternity. The margin of suspenseful expectancy seems to us brief, but it must have seemed to him very long. Some have even suggested that it is a brief half hour for a few more on earth to repent before the next wave of judgment hits, a brief half hour of agonizing suspense.

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