Revelation 7:1 - 8

1 After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

5 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;

6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;

7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;

8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed;

of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.

In the previous lesson we saw the upheaval and chaos caused in the Roman Empire when the leader reversed the policy from persecuting Christians to one of accepting Christians.

Now the future information revealed by the 6th seal continues to be given in the seventh chapter. In this information we see the consideration and care which God has for those who were killed and persecuted by the Roman government. At the same time He was bringing His wrath to bear on the persecutors He also was caring for His faithful who had suffered.

The four angels of God were ready to release God's wrath on the four corners of the Roman Empire. They were standing ready waiting for their command to set the wrath of God on the domain of the Roman Empire.

While they are waiting another angel comes from the east, east refers to the throne of God. God is the source of all spiritual light, and the sun is the source of earth light, so figuratively God's light or throne is east and that is the direction the angel comes from. This angel has a seal of God with him, he is bringing a special message to the four angels waiting to release the wrath of God.

These four angels are given the responsibility to “harm the earth and sea”, it is not damage to the actual earth and sea, what they are to do is continue the chaos and consternation which is causing the upheaval in the Roman government.

These four angels are told to wait until all of God's people are given the identification showing they are approved by God, the seal is a stamp of approval by God on His faithful.

Whatever this stamp of approval consisted of, it was said to be placed on the forehead, indicating a method the public would understand that they were faithful to God.

This would happen during the upheaval, the ones which had been participating of the persecution with the authority of the government would see how much their operations had been thwarted by the shifting of government policy and would add to their fear of them now becoming the hunted and persecuted instead of the previous conditions. The more Christians who were publicly exposed would cause them to have more fear.

The one hundred forty-four thousand is a large and exact number, it is figurative symbolically representing a large number of true Christians had gained God's stamp of approval.

We are given numbers showing each of the tribes of Israel have 12,000 members gaining the stamp of approval. In reality each of the twelve tribes were of different sizes. We also know from the conversion of Cornelius (Acts 10) many of the Christians were Gentile and also suffered persecutions because of their faith. These verses are used similar to the way James opens his book, “to the twelve tribes,” It shows the Gentiles being accepted into the tribes of God's people, the 12 tribes of Israel.

The listing of the 12 tribes shows they are all equal in God's sight, whether they are Jew or Gentile they have equal stamp of approval with God.

God knows who are His, and the Roman government did as well, including the ones who had been causing their suffering.