Rev 7:1-3 Part 2 – Sealing the 144,000

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Rev 7:1-3 Part 2 – Sealing The 144,000

[Study Aired May 24, 2024]

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Rev 7:2  And 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 given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

In our last study of the sealing of the 144,000 here in Revelation 7 we learned that there are two groups mentioned in this chapter and that these two groups are inclusive of all men of all time – past, present and future. We discussed the meaning of the number four. We discussed the meaning of the word ‘corners’ which we discovered is best translated as quarters, and we discussed the meaning of the word ‘wind.’

We begin today’s study by looking at who the scriptures reveal to be these ‘angels’ who are “holding the four winds of the earth” not allowing them to “hurt the earth… the sea… nor the trees, till we  have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads”.

What are angels?

We have covered this subject already in depth while considering these verses in chapter 1.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance [was] as the sun shineth in his strength.

Rev 1:20 The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Angels are signified by stars, and stars are signified by angels. What is it these stars and angels do? What are these “four angels which stand on the four corners of the earth and hold the four winds of the earth?” If we can remember that scripturally the number four means the whole of the subject under consideration, then we know that whatever these ‘angels’ are, and whatever they are doing, we are concerned with the whole of it. So whatever these four  angels do, the whole of what they do is now being considered?

To answer this question we need, as is usually the case, to look at a few very revealing verses in the Old Testament.

Num 20:14 And Moses sent messengers from Kadesh unto the king of Edom, Thus saith thy brother Israel, Thou knowest all the travail that hath befallen us:
Num 20:15 How our fathers went down into Egypt, and we have dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians vexed us, and our fathers:
Num 20:16 And when we cried unto the LORD, he heard our voice, and sent an angel, and hath brought us forth out of Egypt: and, behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border:

The same word is earlier translated as both ‘angel’ and then as ‘messenger’ in:

Gen 32:1  And Jacob went on his way, and the angels [H4397: malak, messenger] of God met him.
Gen 32:2  And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host: and he called the name of that place Mahanaim.
Gen 32:3  And Jacob sent messengers [H4397: malak] before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

Jacob “met… the angels of God” and then “sent messengers” to Esau. Moses sent ‘messengers’ from Kadesh to the king of Edom, telling the king of Edom that the Lord had sent ‘an angel’ to bring Israel out of Egypt. What is so revealing about both of these stories is that the word ‘messengers’ in both stories is the same Hebrew word translated ‘angel’ in both stories.

Here is how Strong defines this Hebrew word:

So the word ‘angel’ can be either a physical messenger, such as Jacob sent to Esau, and as Moses sent to the king of Edom, or it can be a spirit such as the host of angels who met Jacob and the angel God sent to bring Israel up out of Egypt. Which are the angels here in this revelation of Jesus Christ? What does the revelation of Jesus Christ say about this? Here is the answer to that question:

Rev 21:17  And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel.

So the angel of each of the seven churches is “a man” or ‘the men’ whom the Lord sends as His ‘messengers.’ The seven angels of the seven churches are Christ and His complete gospel within us, His ‘messengers.’  Since the number seven has been established as scripturally meaning that which is complete, then the seven angels which are sent to the seven churches are the complete message of the messengers sent to the complete church down through all the generations of the church since Christ. We saw earlier (Rev 1:20) that the seven angels with their complete message to the complete church are in Christ’s right hand.

Rev 1:16 And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

By whom are words as “a sharp twoedged sword… out of His mouth” delivered to the complete church?

Rev 1:20  The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels [messengers] of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

Then in chapter 5 we learned that there is a book in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne:

Both the complete and the whole message is within the book:

Rev 5:1  And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

Who is sitting on the throne? Is this Christ, or is this His Father? In scriptural terms, He that is sitting on the throne in chapter 5 is the same person and same throne we saw in chapter 4:

Rev 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
Rev 4:9  And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
Rev 4:10  The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Rev 4:11  Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Revelation 1 makes it clear that this is Christ who is sitting “with His Father in His Father’s throne.”

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Colossians 1 makes it clear that it was Christ who “created all things” and that “all things were created for His pleasure.”

Col 1:16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

So it is Christ, by and for whom all things were created, who is sitting on the throne with His Father with the book in His right hand. He is at this very moment “in His Father” sitting “with His Father in His Father’s throne”:

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Who then is “the lion of the tribe of Judah” who appears as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world to whom Christ hands the book that is in His right hand? As presumptuous and blasphemous as it may sound, that lion which appears as a lamb is scripturally those also who are in that ‘Lion who appears as a Lamb’:

Mat 10:40  He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

It is those who are the very body of Christ and who, we are told, are slain with Him so as to be “seated with Him in His Father’s throne.” It is Christ Himself who informs us exactly who we are in His eyes, the only ‘eyes’ that matter:

Act 22:7  And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8  And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 5:5  And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

It is Christ whom God the Father has seen fit even to give the titles of both “the everlasting God and “the Almighty.”

Rev 1:7  Behold, he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they that pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen.
Rev 1:8  I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Who is this “slain lamb?” Of course it is Christ. Didn’t we just show that Christ is “the Mighty God, the everlasting Father” and “the Almighty” who is sitting with His Father in His Father’s throne? How then can this Lion, who appears as a slain lamb, at the same time be Christ? Here is how Christ is both sitting with His Father in His Father’s throne, and is at the same time receiving the book out of His own right hand;

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

Here is what Christ Himself tells us:

Joh 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Joh 14:8  Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Joh 14:9  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

There are very few, to this very day, who believe these words of our Lord. It is not adding to that which is written to say that those who are in Christ are that lamb which was slain from the foundation of the world. Here are the verses which make this clear:

Lev 16:21  And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
Lev 16:22  And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

What is it that “according to His own purpose… was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began?” Here it is:

Php 1:29  For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;

Surely this doesn’t mean that it is given to us to be slain with Him, does it? What do the scriptures teach?

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Is that really how God wants us to think of ourselves? Yes, it definitely is! That is exactly how the scriptures want us to think of ourselves:

Act 5:41  And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

We are expected to identify with our Lord in all of His sufferings. Here is how God’s elect are to see themselves:

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

If there is any truth to those words, then why would we not also be Christ’s lambs slain from “before the world began”; “slain from the foundation of the world?” Indeed, are we not commanded to live by the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world?

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Psa 139:16  Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Are we not Christ’s lambs? Of course, we are.

Joh 21:15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

Paul goes so far as to tell us that the afflictions of the Christ are “behind” and are not “filled up” and are not finished until they are filled up in and through our bodies, which are, of course “His body, the church.”

Col 1:24 Now, am I rejoicing in the sufferings on your behalf, and am filling up the things that lack of the tribulations of the Christ, in my flesh, in behalf of his body, which is the assembly, (REV)

Here is this same verse in both the King James and in the Contemporary English Versions.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church: (KJV)

Col 1:24  I am glad that I can suffer for you. I am pleased also that in my own body I can continue the suffering of Christ for his body, the church. (CEV)

There it is. We “are crucified with Christ” and as such we, too, are that lamb “as it had been slain… before the world began”, and it is each of us to whom Christ hands the book with seven seals, and it is Christ in us who looses those seven seals to reveal to us the revelation of Jesus Christ within us through the judgments of the seven trumpets and through His wrath on all our ungodliness and unrightousness.

Who are these four angels?

What an incredible calling! In the revelation of Jesus Christ we are not only Christ’s complete seven messengers, but we are given His whole message. We are His body, we are His church; we are His temple in which He dwells and we are His messengers, and we are His lambs who, in Christ, are still in the process of being slain with Him from the foundation of the world.”

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Christ is His Father’s messenger, and we are His messengers. Those are His very own  words to His disciples immediately after His resurrection. These four angels, like all others Biblical symbols, are in some way Christ and His Christ. They are Christ’s messengers seen as their whole. In other words, these four angels, just like the seven angels, are you and me as the whole of Christ’s messengers.

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

So we are Christ’s seven complete messengers, and as such we receive the whole message signified by these four angels on the four corners of the whole earth which ‘earth’ we will cover in more depth next week.

The four angels signify the whole chastening work of God upon the whole earth within us, with all of its complete seven kings and seven kingdoms. Being ‘the earth’, we are dealt with and are affected by “the four winds of the earth.” Both the four winds and the seven spirits are concerned with “all the earth.”

Rev 5:6  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Rev 7:1  And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

We live by every word, and we keep these things which are written therein inasmuch as what is said will happen is exactly what will happen to us. It is all the revelation of Jesus Christ within us.

Summary

We have seen many scriptures which demonstrate that the number four, wherever we find it within the Word of God, is concerned with the whole of whatever is under consideration.
We have seen that in this seventh chapter of Revelation the whole is concerned with “the earth,” and while we are yet to see the scriptures, next week, Lord willing, we will find that “the earth” in scripture signifies our bodies of flesh and blood, through which Christ is, at this time, doing His work within our lives.

We have seen that angels and stars both signify God’s messengers, whether men or spirit beings. We have seen that in this book of revelation, these angels are God’s messengers in the form of “a man” – the man in whom Christ dwells, and by whom He is making known this revelation of Jesus Christ.

We have seen that through the work of “the four winds of the earth”, the work of these “four angels” affect both groups – the numbered and the innumerable, the whole of mankind with whom this chapter is concerned. The whole message and the whole work of the revelation of Jesus Christ is the subject of this 7th chapter of Revelation.

We have seen that the man sitting on the throne in Revelation 4 is Christ sitting there with His Father, and He is handing the book to His Christ – His elect who will now blow seven trumpets of judgment upon our earth and the seventh of those trumpets will be the pouring out of the seven vials which “fill up the wrath of God”:

Rev 15:1  And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.

Notice that the holy spirit tells us that the four angels of chapter 7 and the seven angels with the seven trumpets and the seven vials are given to “hurt the earth.” The four angels are four angels because they are concerned with the whole work of God, both the numbered and the innumerable.  The “seven angels which have the seven trumpets and the seven vials” identify themselves as “they who keep the sayings of this book… your fellow servant.”

Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am [I “signify” (Rev 1:1)] thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am [I “signify” (Rev 1:1)] thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.
Rev 22:10  And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

“They which keep the sayings of this book” are those of the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3 to whom are given ears to hear what the spirit says to the overcomers of the seven churches. That is those to whom this entire book is addressed:

Rev 1:4  John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 2:7  He that hath [been given (Mat 13:10)] an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Next week, Lord willing, we will compare the spiritual significance of the four horses of Zechariah 1 and Zechariah 6, with the spiritual significance of the four horsemen of Revelation 6:1-8, and the four winds of heaven which are in the hands of the four angels who stand on the four quarters of the earth here in Revelation 7:1. Comparing the spiritual significance of the things of the Old Testament, with the spiritual significance of the things of the New Testament, we will demonstrate the meaning of ‘the earth’ and the scriptural meaning of “the four winds of the earth.”

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