1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:...
9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” (Revelation 7:1-4, 9-12, ESV)
In the previous post we saw the final judgment. Keep in mind the question of the last verse in chapter 6: “for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?” This chapter will answer that question. In order to answer that question, chapter 7 takes us back to history prior to the unleashing of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (the first four seals). Some might object that this makes Revelation chaotic in its portrayal of history. But we need to remember that that God sees everything in the universe in the “eternal now”. The ordering of the images in the vision need not reflect a strict temporal ordering, but rather may reflect other logical orderings or sequences. Thus when Revelation 7:1 says, “After this…”, it refers to the next part of the vision, but that vision does not necessarily imply the next sequence in time after what was shown in the previous vision. We will need to look for clues when, temporally speaking, this vision segment takes place.
This segment is not a seal being broken; rather it is an interlude between the sixth and seventh seals. An interlude usually provides an explanation for further elaboration of the events immediately preceding or surrounding it. There are four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. The imagery of the four corners is that the angels are surveying the entire earth. The function of these angels is to hold back the four winds. If we recall that the four horsemen of Revelation 6:1-8 has its Old Testament background in Zechariah 6:1-8, then we would also note that the four groups of horses in Zechariah are identified as the four winds of heaven (Zechariah 6:5). This means this interlude takes us back to prior to the first seal being broken. Remember, this interlude is a parenthesis that is going to provide further explanation of the previous events in chapter 6.
The purpose of these four angels is identified by a fifth angel that is ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of God. The servants of God are to be sealed before the earth is harmed. The seal will protect God’s servants during the persecutions and trials they will need to endure. What exactly is the nature of this seal? Ezekiel 9 provides the best background for divine sealing. In Ezekiel, God commands an angel to mark genuine believers and instructs another angel to slay the unfaithful Israelites. The mark on the believers will prevent them from suffering harm from the coming wrath of God, which will be inflicted by the Babylonians on the unfaithful Israelites. Ezekiel 9 speaks of a physical protection. The seal provides protection to the saints in Revelation is evident from Revelation 9:4, where the demonic powers are told not to harm those who have the seal of God on their foreheads. However, Revelation does not concern itself so much with physical protection of the saints, but rather with the spiritual protection. This spiritual protection is the protection of the believer’s faith and salvation from various sufferings and persecutions that they will have inflicted upon them.
The sealing enables the believers to respond in faith to the trials that come their way. These trails then become the very vehicles by which their faith is strengthened. From the first four seals (the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse) we see that believers and unbelievers suffer similar physical afflictions. The trails purify the believer’s faith, however, those same trials harden the unbelievers against God. The seal is closely related to the salvation of the saints. Revelation 14:1-4 tells about the saints that are sealed have the names of Christ and the Father written upon their heads. The Lamb has purchased all of these who bear the names on their forehead.
The seals also indicate that God owns the servants of God. It was a common practice in the ancient world to mark slaves to indicate who owned them. This seal, therefore, is a seal given to all believers. In this, we can infer that the 144,000 in the next few verses (4-8) also refers to the “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages.”
This sealing probably occurred before the foundation of the world. It probably refers to the divine decree to seal all those who believe all throughout the inter-advent age. This decree will be fulfilled when each person believes in Christ.
The seal is God’s sign of sovereign authority over the believers. It indicates God’s protection over them. The seal empowers the believers to remain loyal to Christ and to persevere in their faith. While the believer may face loss of their physical life, the seal protects them from loosing their spiritual life. The seal grants them eternal life. The seal also protects the believers from the final Day of Judgment. The Lamb of God has endured the wrath of God so that the true believers will persevere and overcome and be able to stand before God at the last day.
While John does not explicitly say this, the seal may be best identified with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit guarantees spiritual protection. This is seen in 2 Corinthians 1:22, Ephesians 1:13, and 4:30).
The seal is applied to 144,000. Since we have seen symbolic numbers before, it is very likely this too is symbolic. What does this number represent? There are a number of ways to look at it, but the one I think that fits with the context of Revelation is noting that 144,000 is equal to 12 times 12 times 1000. Where have we seen two 12’s before? We saw that with the 24 elders before the throne. We noted that it represents 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles, representing both the Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints. The same thing is going on with the 144,000. It includes the idea of 12 tribes, 12 apostles, times 1000 (a large number). It is numbered off with 12,000 coming from each tribe of Israel – however this is not a usual order of tribes found in the Old Testament. Judah is listed first, and that is understandable given Christ comes from the Tribe of Judah and is the priestly king. The other tribes are not listed in the usual way, in that some tribes are replaced with other tribes in the listing.
The listing of the tribes is done in the fashion of a census in the Old Testament. The purpose of a census was to prepare for war. Here God’s people are prepared for war. It is an ironic war in which victory is achieved through the apparent defeat by tribulation and death, in which the army overcomes, just as Christ achieved victory through his death on the cross.
Right after the census John sees an untold number, myriads upon myriads of people that cannot be numbered, who wear white robes and bear palm branches in their hands, a sign of victory. These countless people answer the question at the end of chapter 6, who can stand before the throne at the last day? These are the ones, who come out of the great tribulation, whose robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and thereby have been made white and pure. By implication, all of these people have been sealed with the seal of God. The seal has been applied to their foreheads. Chapter 7 closes with the refrain:
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,and serve him day and night in his temple;and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;the sun shall not strike them,nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,and he will guide them to springs of living water,and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Revelation 7:15-17, ESV)
The seventh seal is broken in Revelation 8:1. Often this is thought to be an empty seal, in which the trumpets form the contents of the seal. However, this is really not the case. In Jewish literature there was the concept of a "pimeval silence" at the end of history in which all the people die and just prior to the final judgment. There is also the response, or anticipated response to the judgment where “all the earth” stand in silent awe. There is an aspect of this silence over the judgment of God in Romans 3:19: “Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.” (ESV). So the seventh seal follows the sixth in that it is the response of silence to the final judgment of God.
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