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The Tribulation: The Last Seal is Broken, The Trumpets Prepare to Sound
Part 4
By Robert
Picking up from Part 3, we pause for a bit in the course of the seals being broken for John to describe to us a series of events that transpire in both heaven and earth:
"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. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. 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 we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." 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 7:1-8, NIV)
Here, we find out that God has four angels at this point who are in charge of "the winds" upon the earth. In continuing to read, we find that this is done to prevent harm from begin done to the land, seas or trees until the tribes are sealed by the Lord. So, with this in mind, it seems fair to conclude from text that the "winds" represent forces that would sweep across the planet, both the gentiles "sea" as well as Israel "land". The "trees" most likely would represent vegetation, which always seems to suffer in warfare. It would seem that the Lord puts an abrupt halt to all activity until his chosen from the 12 tribes can be sealed, and he ensures that NOTHING will interrupt it.
What scripture makes clear here is that it is TRIBES from Israel, and NOT the church (who is long since safely out of harm's way by this point) who are sealed. The relatively small numbers would be a very scant few across the planet were it the church, and keeping in mind that there would be no point in the church undergoing the tribulation we have to take scripture at face value here.
"After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands." (Revelation 7:9, NIV)
John sees a vast number of people from every walk of life and part of the planet before Jesus; so many, in fact, that he couldn't count them all. White robes, the sign of purity and righteousness, are indicators that they are washed in Christ's blood and are "clean" of sin. The palm branches, long a sign of peace, are held by all of them. I take this to mean that they have "peace" with the lamb, i.e. that their sins are forgiven and that there is no judgment against them. They do not stand in judgment before him, but in salvation and under his mercy. As they stand there, they are crying to him:
"And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: "Amen! Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!" (Revelation 7: 9-12, NIV, emphasis mine)
Their identity is settled in the next verses:
"Then one of the elders asked me, "These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?" I answered, "Sir, you know." And he said, "These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 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 spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:13-17, NIV, emphasis mine)
These verses indicate that these people are tribulation saints; those who trusted in the Lord, and paid DEARLY for it. They are the same ones who were under the altar in Revelation 6:9-11, and were asked to wait for a little while, until their numbers were completed. Here, we see that their numbers have swelled so staggeringly, that they cannot be counted!
Another thing to notice is that they are praising the Lord on his throne, and the Lamb (Jesus). We do not hear them asking about "judging those on earth", as they were in the previous mention of them in Revelation 6...
...that's yet to come.
"When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets." (Revelation 8:1-2, NIV)
After the breaking of the Seventh Seal, All goes Silent. Not just quiet, but DEAD SILENT in heaven. The Greek word ourano- seems to refer not merely to the atmosphere of earth, but to God's realm outside of time and the universe, where his throne is located. There is no singing, praise being spoken, or ANYTHING at ALL. from the elders, creatures, saints, angels, ANYONE.
Then we read:
Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel’s hand." (Revelation 8:3-4, NIV)
God provides his answer to those who cried out in Revelation 5 for to be avenged.
"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints." (Psalm 116:15, KJV)
In Hebrew, the word "precious" is ya·kar, which means literally "precious, rare, splendid, weighty". In other words, it means costly. To the Lord, it is costly when one of his dies, and holds great significance and value. He does NOT take it lightly, and the cries of those who were murdered have NOT fallen upon deaf ears. An angel takes a censer with incense and the prayers of the saints. He brings it before God so the prayers could go up before him. This indicates that God is giving his full consent and blessing to what is about to happen, because the next action is not prevented by him, indeed it is done in front of him! This is his reply to those prayers. The angel next fills the censer with fire from the altar.
Now, let me stop here and share a piece of scripture with you from Isaiah, when he appeared before the throne of God:
"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." (Isaiah 6:5-7, NIV)
We see that one coal from the altar was enough to temporarily cleanse Isaiah so that he could stand before the Lord and receive his instructions. The censer that the angel holds is FILLED with coals (fire) from the altar, and has fresh incense so it would CONTINUE burning.
"Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake." (Revelation 8:5, NIV)
The angel takes the censer, and flings it to the earth; the greek word here for "hurl" is ballo, from where we get our word ballistic. It means "to cast out", so we can pretty much infer that the angel doesn't just drop the censer off the edge of heaven, shrug and walk back to the throne; no, he HEAVES this censer and throws it with all of his might at the earth, making sure that when it arrives, it does so hard enough to cause an earthquake, lightning, and thunder.
But scripture doesn't indicate that this is the end of God's reply to his saints' cries. because the next event that comes up is this:
"Then the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to sound them." (Revelation 8:6, NIV)
The next major wave of God's judgment is about to strike the planet, and if anyone thought the first seven were bad, the Trumpet Judgments outweigh their severity greatly.
And we are not even HALFWAY through the Tribulation yet in this series!
In part 5, we'll witness the second wave of God's judgment on planet earth.
I bid you all peace.
YBIC,
-Robert
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