There’s no denying that Revelation is bit strange. Back in chapter 6 we watched as six seals were broken and evil flooded the world, but the seventh seal never materialized. Have you been wondering about it?

Now at last it’s opened, but instead of the expected destruction, all we have is the sound of silence.

I’m afraid it’s getting darker by the day. As the fifth trumpet sounds we move from natural disasters to direct satanic attack. John sees a vast bottomless pit belching out smoke and fire which darkens the sun. Then, emerging from the black hole, he sees locusts who morph into horses with human faces.

We tend to have a rather domesticated view of angels. Gentle, floaty creatures with delicate wings, or chubby cherubs sitting astride gravestones. The angel we meet now is of a different order. He is a colossus of a creature with a lion’s roar, threatening to release another wave of evil on the earth.

So God proposes to redeem his world through the witness of his Church. I know – it’s breath-taking. As we are faithful, God will work. That’s the contract. Now in today’s passage, we read the small print.

There are encouraging things in it.

So far we have seen what is happening to the world and the Church throughout history. Now we begin to see why it is happening: enter Satan. How do you see him? A principle of evil, a scary character with a pitchfork? John pictures him as a great red dragon with seven crowned heads and seven horns, and a tail that can dislodge a third of the stars.

Have you ever been so sure someone could rescue you by speaking up on your behalf that you started your request with words of praise and thanks?

That’s how the Psalmist begins: “O God, whom I praise! Do not remain silent.” 

Some surprises are never good. Slander is among those. It’s unexpected, sudden and it hurts.

This two-verse proverb compares slander to an unexpected wind that brings in damaging rain, the kind that can ruin a crop.

One commentator points out that people in Israel expect the rain to come with a west wind, not a north wind.