Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Revelation 8:3 - 8:5
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rev_8:3-5
3Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. 5Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
Rev_8:3 "Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer" This text and Rev_5:8 have been used to promote the rabbinical theological concept that angels are the bearers of prayers to God. The Bible is silent on how to interpret this type of detail. These symbolic passages should not be used to define speculative theological details. This is a vision and not meant to define the role of certain angels. It does affirm that the prayers of the saints do affect God.
The altar has been identified as either the incense altar before the veil in the Holy Place (cf. Exo_30:1-10) or the altar of sacrifice (cf. Rev_8:5; Rev_9:13). However, this vision is not the earthly Tabernacle or Temple in Jerusalem, but the throne room of God in heaven (cf. Heb_8:2; Heb_9:11; Heb_9:24). The incense altar fits this context best.
▣ "the prayers of all the saints" Exactly which group of saints this represents is uncertain, but this does show that God knows and responds to the needs of His people (cf. Exo_3:7). Incense was a symbol of prayer (cf. Psa_141:2; Rev_5:8) because the smoke went up and disappeared from the visible realm to the invisible realm.
For "saints" see hyperlink at Rev_5:8.
Rev_8:4 Throughout the book of Leviticus incense arose to God's presence, therefore, incense came to represent the prayers of God's people.
Rev_8:5 "the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth" This is an allusion to Eze_10:2. Coals for the incense altar before the veil would have originally been taken from the altar of sacrifice at the front of the Tabernacle (cf. Rev_9:13; Lev_16:11-13). These are Tabernacle symbols whose meaning is fluid. The key theological thought is that this is occurring before God in heaven.
▣ "and there followed peals of thunder" These types of physical phenomenon are often associated with YHWH's presence (cf. Rev_4:5; Rev_11:19; Rev_16:18; Exo_19:16-19; Psa_18:10-13).