The action in Revelation pauses between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals on the scroll. For the past several days we've studied unsealing, but today some sealing must be done. This sealing has to do with the nation of Israel.
"After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree." (Revelation 7:1) John says "after this", meaning after the great earthquake that occurred in Chapter 6. He now sees four angels preventing any wind from blowing from the north, south, east, or west. Some scholars suggest that these winds may symbolize the four horsemen of the apocalypse and that the Lord temporarily pauses their activities while He seals 144,000 members of the tribes of Israel. It's difficult to say for certain whether these winds are literal or symbolic, but either way, a sudden hush falls on the world. The Lord pauses the action because something needs to be done between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals. The opening of the seventh seal will unleash the most terrible disasters the world has ever known. The final, and worst, days of the Great Tribulation will begin then and Satan will do everything he can to bring hell on earth. The Lord has to place a protective seal upon a particular group of people so they can make it through those days.
"Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God." (Revelation 7:2a) In ancient times, the seal of a king or other great authority was a symbol of ownership. At this particular point in our study, the Lord is going to mark a certain group of people with His seal of ownership.
The angel holding the seal speaks to the four angels who are holding back the winds. "He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 'Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until the put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.'" (Revelation 7:2b-3) These four angels have been given power to bring destruction on the earth. Their stopping of the four winds is merely the calm before the storm. But before they unleash calamities, and before Satan makes the most of the time he has left because he knows his "time is short" (Revelation 12:12), the Lord wants to put a special mark on His servants (likely priests) from the nation of Israel. This seal marks them as His own, it sets them aside for His service, and guarantees their safety during the Great Tribulation.
"Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000." (Revelation 7:4-8) I want to stop for a minute here to point out that there are some Christian denominations that have attempted to make the 144,000 about them, and this is a misuse of the Scriptures. The Bible plainly tells us that the 144,000 are from the twelve tribes of Israel and that the sealing of the 144,000 doesn't take place until during the Great Tribulation. Attempting to apply these verses to any denomination on earth at this time or to any group of Gentile believers is an error. The Bible couldn't make it any clearer that the 144,000 are Jewish people and that their sealing takes place in the final days before Christ comes to rule the world.
I agree with the vast number of scholars who feel that the 144,000 represent Jewish people who have accepted Christ as Lord during the end times. This doesn't mean that only 144,000 out of the twelve tribes of Israel will come to Christ in those days, but that these who are sealed may be specially chosen Jewish evangelists who will preach Christ to the nation of Israel during the remainder of the Great Tribulation.
It is believed by a number of Bible scholars that the sealing of the 144,000 is part of the fulfillment of a prophecy given to the nation of Israel by the prophet Joel. The Lord told Joel to tell the people this: "I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on My servants, both men and women, I will pour out My Spirit in those days. I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and billows of smoke. The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls." (Joel 2:28-32)
The Apostle Peter said that this prophecy from the book of Joel began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts when the Holy Spirit came to indwell believers. On that day, with so many converts to Judaism coming into Jerusalem for the religious holiday, thousands of people were present whose native tongue was different than that of the apostles. Yet the Holy Spirit gave the apostles the ability to preach the gospel in other languages, languages they had never learned, so that these visitors could hear and understand the gospel and so that they would know that the power of the preaching was not of human origin but of divine origin. On that day, the Lord began to pour out His Spirit on all people, both the Jews and the Gentiles who were putting their faith in Christ. On that day, the prophecy of Joel began to come true, but it won't be completely fulfilled until the last days when untold numbers of Jewish people call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. In those days, when the sun is darkened and the moon is turned red like blood (as we saw in our passage yesterday), these believers will be filled with the Holy Spirit and will prophesy in the Spirit and will have dreams and visions in the Spirit. It is clear that this prophecy is about the Jewish people because Joel references Mount Zion and Jerusalem. In addition, the Lord refers to these people as "your people" when He speaks to Joel, and Joel himself was of the nation of Israel.
There are nations in the world today who would like nothing more than to see Israel wiped off the map, but the Lord will never allow His people Israel to be destroyed. In many ways, He has only just begun to bring about the beautiful promises He's made to Israel. None of the tribes are "lost", though they may be scattered throughout the world. The Lord knows the location of every descendant of every tribe, which is why He is able to place a calling and a seal upon 12,000 from each tribe. These 144,000 will be His witnesses, like the prophets of old, to the nation of Israel. The Lord has to place His protective seal upon them so they can endure the hardships of the last days and still be standing when we see them later on with Christ on Mount Zion. They need to be able to endure til the end so they can preach the gospel of Christ to the twelve tribes of Israel through the remainder of the Great Tribulation. These 144,000 represent only a fraction of the Jewish people who will become a part of the body of Christ in those days.
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