NOTES for Rev 7:13-14
Speaking of those who came "out of the great tribulation," the elder addressing the apostle confirms that everyone who has partaken of the Kingdom, even directly on the day of Judgment, receives it in the same fullness as anyone else. They are given the same life, they see the same Throne, and they serve together with those who found themselves in the Kingdom much earlier than they did (Rev. 7:15-17). Only now, when the Church has finally reached its fullness, does the Judgment begin. But when viewed from the Kingdom, the Judgment is no longer simply a natural cataclysm putting an end to the former order of things; it turns out to be what it truly is, a spiritual act, a determination of God concerning all humanity as a whole and each person individually. It is not accidental that heaven and earth fall silent: they too await this determination, which will change their nature and their fate (Rev. 8:1). Meanwhile, for the world the Kingdom itself becomes judgment, its breath, which at the Throne merges into one with the prayers of its inhabitants belonging to the heavenly Church, who here, as in other books of the New Testament, are called "saints." It is not accidental that the censer with aromatic herbs, "incense," like the one used for censing in the Tabernacle and the Temple, is filled with the fire that falls upon the earth (Rev. 8:3-5): already in antiquity it was believed that aromatic smoke rising to heaven from the censer carries with it the prayers of those standing at the altar and those performing the sacrifice, not only the priests but all who take part in the sacred action.
The sacred space surrounding the altar became a prototype of the Kingdom, and now it was opened to John that this idea, despite its naivete in some cases, was deeply true at its foundation. But what for the residents of the Kingdom is the breath of life, without which not only prayer but existence itself is unthinkable here, becomes for the world, still not freed from the power of sin, a fire whose burning touch becomes judgment for those who oppose Christ and the Kingdom.