Revelation 7 chases its own rabbit as it doesn’t continue on with the opening of the seals. This devotional reading looks at how God’s children are sealed.
Nuggets
- Four angels control the four winds — they are holding them back.
- The fifth angel restrains the other four.
We interrupt the regularly scheduled program. We’ve been talking about the seals and the vengeance God will be extracting on this world. Then the scene in John’s vision cuts to sealing the sons of Israel.
That brings into question — again — when everything actually occurs and in what order.
One thing we can’t gloss over is that this chapter isn’t about an opening of a seal. But then, what is it?
On the surface, it kind of looks like a hey-we-forgot. But that isn’t going to happen. God isn’t going to forget His people.
Is it just a break in the action? Or is this the Rapture?
Let’s check it out to see what we can learn.
Let's Put It into Context
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Devotions in the Opening the Seals series
The Four Winds
“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” (Rev. 7: 1 ESV)
Four angels control the four winds — they are holding them back.
The notion that angels held back the winds was not limited to just God’s Word. Many ancient philosophers contended that angels did this. Thought is divided as to whether these are good angels or bad angels.
I vote for good angels. Bad angels wouldn’t hold back the wind, doing God’s work. They would scoot the violence and fury right along.
Okay. We talked about what Zechariah said when we discussed the four horses of the apocalypse.
I think it fits better here.
“Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses — all of them strong. Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’ And the angel answered and said to me, ‘These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.’ When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, ‘Go, patrol the earth.’ So they patrolled the earth. Then he cried to me, ‘Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country’” (Zech. 6: 1-8 ESV emphasis added).
In this translation, the these should refer back to the horses. It says they are going out to the four winds.
The Complete Jewish Bible translated it a little differently. “… These are the four winds of the sky that go out, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the land” (Zech 6: 5 CJB emphasis added).
It says they are the four winds themselves. That is the way the King James Version translated it. “… These are the four spirits of the heavens …” (Zech. 6: 5 KJV).
Spirits? Angels? So, which is it — if they are different???
Well, angels are celestial spirits, aren’t they? It seems strange, though, to say “spirits of the heavens” only in this passage in Zechariah instead of saying angels as in all other places.
John would have seen the four winds as judgment.
- “And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds, and there shall be no nation to which those driven out of Elam shall not come. I will terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek their life. I will bring disaster upon them, my fierce anger, declares the Lord. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them, and I will set my throne in Elam and destroy their king and officials, declares the Lord” (Jer. 49: 36-38 ESV).
- “Daniel declared, ‘I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea’” (Dan. 7: 2 ESV).
Wardlaw kind of fumbles around explaining this until he summarized it at the end. He wrote, “‘The four winds’ are an emblem — a most natural and appropriate one — of all the powers and agencies by which the earth can be affected; especially agencies of judgment — of wars and desolations, arising from the contending elements of human passions and Satanic malignity.”
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That agrees with what Gregory said. The only difference is he characterized these as ill winds that are destructive to the Church. Wardlaw expanded it to the whole earth.
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But I question Gregory’s assertion that these winds could mean persecution of the Church. In the last devotion, I was leaning toward that being the Day of the Lord. If it is, many believe the Church will already be gone.
If we are going chronologically, this verse can’t be chronological. Sealing God’s children can’t happen after worldview people have been judged.
Gregory provided a list of which persecution was only the beginning. He included false doctrine, delusion, wild fanaticism, temptation, infidelity, open profanity, blasphemy, affliction, adversity, and distress.
Winds can be destructive. Their effects can run the gamut of blowing leaves off trees to destroying houses and other buildings.
That the winds come from the four corners shows the universal destruction that will occur to the earth.
Thomas brought up a great point. We’ve talked about before how the angels don’t need salvation. Thomas showed how they take an active role in ensuring the gospel message can be provided to all mankind.
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Salvation for mankind is that important to the angels.
Yes, mankind is lower than the angels (Ps. 8: 5 ESV). But isn’t that what service is all about for God?
- “So the last will be first, and the first last” (Mt. 20: 16 ESV).
- “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn. 13: 14 ESV).
Service is about serving those lower than us.
The Fifth Angel
“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, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads’” (Rev. 7: 2-3 ESV)
The fifth angel restrains the other four.
It is the fifth angel that actually seals God’s children. The angel is not identified, but could it be Jesus, as Gregory and the Homilist contend?
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Maybe. It is our belief in the Savior that seals us.
We know Jesus will return in the eastern sky. “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Mt. 24: 27 ESV).
Jesus was also referred to as the sunrise when Zechariah prophesied at the naming of his son John (the Baptist).
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Lk. 1: 76-79 ESV emphasis added).
That is why Jesus is called the morning star.
- “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (II Pet. 1: 19 ESV).
- “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star” (Rev. 22: 16 ESV).
I can see this tying in with these verses in Revelation 7. The fifth angel ascending from the rising of the sun (Rev. 7: 2 ESV).
Jesus didn’t want Satan’s chaos of wars, persecution, and strife to hinder the spread of His gospel message.
In my mind, I keep wanting to make this the Rapture, but I am not sure that hold up. We would be out before the Day of the Lord.
It is the seal on our foreheads that I question. What is up with that?
I get salvation is the seal of the living God. When we have God’s seal, we have His character.
We need no other seal!
But what does on the forehead mean? Maybe the prominent placement on the forehead means our salvation must be visible.
We know we are to be different from the world.
- “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12: 2 ESV).
- “My son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths” (Prov. 1: 15 ESV).
- “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (I Pet. 2: 9 ESV).
- “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1: 27 ESV).
- “That you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” (Phil. 2: 15 ESV).
Maybe the seal was to indicate God has a specific plan for our lives. We know it shows that we are true believers.
Being true believers keeps us safe from the devastation seen in the sixth seal.
Making the Connections
All throughout God’s Word, it shows that judgment is entrusted to the angels.
- “He said, “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran; he came from the ten thousands of holy ones, with flaming fire at his right hand” (Deut. 33: 2 ESV).
- “Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt.24: 30-31 ESV).
- “And when the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord relented from the calamity and said to the angel who was working destruction among the people, ‘It is enough; now stay your hand.’ And the angel of the Lord was by the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Then David spoke to the Lord when he saw the angel who was striking the people, and said, ‘Behold, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Please let your hand be against me and against my father’s house’” (II Sam. 24: 16-17 ESV).
- “And that night the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies” (II Kgs. 19: 35 ESV).
- “The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels” (Mt. 13: 38-39 ESV).
- “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Mt. 25: 31 ESV).
- “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first” (I Thess. 4: 16 ESV).
The angels are God’s worker bees.
How Do We Apply This?
Study God’s Word to determine what it says to us.
Father God. Thank You for having the angels hold back the chaos from us. Lord, we want to be ready when Jesus comes again. We want to have Your character. Help us to grow to be like You. Amen.
What do you think?
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