Revelation 7~~A Bible Study by Jack Kelley

Grace Thru Faith

Between the 6th and 7th seals there’s a pause where two important events take place, one on Earth and the other in Heaven. Both involve the disposition of a group of God’s people, but neither one is the Church. It won’t be mentioned again until the end of chapter 17.
 

144,000 Sealed

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. (Rev. 7:1-8)
The multiple use of the number four here emphasizes that the Creation is in focus, because by the end of the Fourth Day of Creation light had been distinguished from darkness, the atmosphere had been formed, the land had been separated from the water, vegetation had begun to grow and with the addition of the sun, moon, and stars, day had been divided from night.  By the end of Day Four the Creation was complete and ready to support life, and so the number four is thought of as the number of Creation.
But the next cycle of judgments will be delayed until one other event takes place. This is the commissioning of the 144,000 Jewish believers who many believe will be the Lord’s primary evangelists during the remainder of Daniel’s 70th week. They carry the seal of God on their foreheads which makes them the only ones on Earth to be protected from the coming judgments.  In Ezekiel 9:4 we read of a similar case where before the City of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians, angels went through out, searching out and sealing the faithful to protect them from the destruction. Here the Lord again delays the coming judgments until His faithful can be sealed, but this time it’s just a select few that He’s chosen for His specific purpose.  Everyone else on Earth will be at risk, whether believers or not.
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Blessings,