Nothing compares to the ability of an orchestra to display the majesty and the power of God; for, the collection of the sounds of the orchestra is a complete palette of all of the sounds that God created and placed into our diverse world. We have stringed instruments, instruments made with pipes, instruments made with reeds, instruments made with brass, and of course, the percussion instruments. With this collection, it is possible to reproduce nearly all (if not all) of the sounds in our natural world….elephants, birds, horses, thunder, lightning, rushing streams, rain…the sound of a ram’s horn calling troops to battle. For this reason, the orchestra is relied upon heavily in cinema to translate the broad ranges of the human emotion from a picture on a screen into the very depths of our hearts. Our humanity soars with the emotions of the screenplay, creating an unforgettable experience that often goes with us for the rest of our lives.
A well crafted orchestral piece is a story – the composers take the audience through sidestreets, cut-throughs, tensions, chaos, laughter, gut-wrenching sadness, until the percussionists rise from their chairs and the composers finally lead the audience into the main C-major thoroughfare with throaty brass fanfare, thunderous chorale, and soaring strings. When the piece is over, the audience stands to their feet in deafening applause with tears running down their faces. Why? Because we are made in the image of the God who created music, who created story – who created these sounds in our rich world.
The Biblical Story is the grand narrative of creation. The conductor is leading us on a journey to end all journeys – as Dr. Baylis says, we need to step into the broad stream of this story – we need take our correct place and play our correct part.
When teaching through Revelation recently, I was caught by Chapter 8 verse 1…
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour…
Revelation 8:1 (ESV)
The orchestra has stopped. The conductor is silent. What is happening?
Dr. Baylis notes that silence throughout the Old Testament highlights the awesome fearfulness of God when he rises to act in righteousness on the earth. This is in keeping with Zechariah when he says
“Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling…”
Zechariah 2:13 (ESV)
By the time we reach the seventh seal in Revelation, the church has been raptured, Israel has turned back to God, 144,000 Jews have been sealed, and history is now waiting for God to repossess the earth and fulfill the ancient promise to Abraham. The Sun’s light has been blackened and the Son of God appears in glory in the sky…the commanders and the generals of the earth cry out to be hidden from the impending wrath of the Lamb that is the Lion of Judah, from the root of David. Heaven goes silent for the space of half an hour. Angels are given trumpets.
Another angel steps forward containing a censer of all the saint’s prayers through the ages for justice – he goes to the fire on the altar and ignites the contents; he raises his arm and hurls the censer to the earth causing “peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake”, breaking the silence and beginning the judgment of an almighty God upon an earth that is under the control of wicked and ungodly men and the principalities of darkness in the heavenly places.
What we experience in the symphony hall today is only a mere shadow of what we will experience when the ἀρχη (ruler, source, beginning) of creation mounts the stage and the orchestra waits in silence to begin the final movement of history. I cannot imagine the thunderous applause and shouting that will take place when the Lamb has conquered, when we have conquered, not by our own righteousness, but by “the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony and did not love our lives to death”, the earth rests in perfect peace and harmony, and all the redeemed will sing “for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”.
Even so, come Lord Jesus…I cannot WAIT for this grand refrain!! When the journey to end all journeys is over, we will have truly then only just begun to live.
O the King is coming,
The King is coming!
I just heard the trumpets sounding,
And now His face I see;
O the King is coming,
The King is coming!
Praise God, He’s coming for me!
“The King is Coming” by Bill Gaither