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[ Updated October 27, 2009]

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.

Introduction

Last Week we saw what the spiritual significance of the number four is and the spiritual significance of the four angels. This week we will see what the scriptures reveal to be the spiritual meaning of “the four corners of the earth” and “the four winds of the earth.” As always we will do so with a view towards how every  word we read and hear can and must be kept and observed inwardly by each of us.

What is the spiritual significance of “the earth?”

What is the scriptural opposite of ‘heaven?” No, it is not ‘hell.’ The opposite of ‘heaven’ in the scriptures is ‘the earth.’ Notice how the spirit contrasts these two and uses these two as a symbol of all that is:

Isa 37:16  O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, that dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth: thou hast made heaven and earth.
Isa 44:23  Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel.
Jer 23:24  Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is] the earthy, s uch are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

We saw earlier concerning the “great earth quake” mentioned in Rev 6:12 that the “earth” is Bible- speak for God’s own people who live in rebellion against Him and His Word. Here are the verses we used to make that point.

Jer 22:1  Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2  And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:
Jer 22:5  But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

So the ‘earth’ is all of us as “Jews who believe in Christ, [ who see ourselves as] Abraham’s children, but we are seeking to kill Christ… because His words have no place in us” (Joh 8:30-44)

The earth is the Potter’s “vessel of clay”

But now we are reading of “the four corners of the earth” here in chapter seven, and because we will be seeing the word ‘earth’ mentioned throughout this revelation of Jesus Christ, we need to take a much closer look at this word. The word ‘earth’ appears more in this one book than in any other New Testament book. The Greek word translated ‘earth’ is the word ‘ge’ from which we get our English word ‘geography.’ In the entire new Testament, this word ‘ge’ appears 243 times. Of those 243 entries, eighty entries, or basically one third of those entries are in this one book, the book of Revelation.
Understanding what  the ‘earth’ is, is pivotal to understanding this revelation of Jesus Christ. Here are just a few of the verses in this revelation of Jesus Christ which we are yet to cover, which mention the earth:

Rev 8:5  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
Rev 8:7  The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
Rev 8:13  And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:3  And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Rev 9:4  And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

Those are only seven entries from the next two chapters where this Greek word ‘ge’ appears in this revelation of Jesus Christ. The only time this word ‘ge’ appears in this revelation of Jesus Christ, where it is not translated into the English with the word ‘earth,’ is in this verse:

Rev 13:3  And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

God’s dealings with “the earth” are central to this revelation of Jesus Christ. So we definitely need to establish firmly how the holy spirit uses this word ‘earth,’ and once again, what we will see is that when “the holy spirit teaches us comparing spiritual with spiritual,” using the word ‘earth,’ then that word ‘earth,’ through the spirit, no longer refers to the physical earth, but becomes the spiritual type of our earthy bodies in which Christ now spiritually dwells.

Now let’s see just how true this is. The first two verses of all scripture tell those with spiritual discernment what God is doing with mankind, both in mankind’s heaven and in mankind’s earth.

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

To the natural man who has no understanding of the is, was and will be nature of these words of Christ (Rev 1:8), which words will never pass away (Mat 24:34-35), these words are nothing more than a history lesson. But to the man who knows that all of Christ’s words “are spirit and life” (Joh 6:63) these words tell him what God is, was and will be doing in ‘the earth.’
To the man with spiritual discernment, the rest of Genesis one is merely a spiritual shadow of what God is doing with His ‘earth’ and His ‘heaven’ in which He has placed His ‘earth.’ The first day is merely God showing man that there is such a things as light and darkness, that there is good and evil:

Gen 1:3  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
Gen 1:4  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
Gen 1:5  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The second day shows us that God has placed a great expanse between our old earthy man, and our new heavenly man. He is showing us that the doctrines of the earthy man are not as high as the doctrines and understanding of the heavenly (1Co 15:46-49).

Gen 1:6  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Gen 1:7  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Gen 1:8  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

The third day, like the first day, shows us that while the sea is of the earth, God separates the dry earth from the seas, and He reveals that the earth brings forth only herbs and the fruits that come of the earth for man to eat. God calls that which is just above the waters of the sea, ‘earth.’ But He does not give strong meat to us before we are able to bear it, so while we are yet only on the ‘earth’, He feeds us only with herbs and the fruits of the earth (Heb 5:12-15, and 1Co 3 1-4):

Gen 1:9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:12  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed [ was] in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:13  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

The perception of what is light and what is darkness is greatly increased upon the fourth day. Our understanding is now far superior to the mere “knowledge of good and evil” of the light and darkness of the first day. We now understand that our light comes from the ‘heavens”, and we now understand that even the darkness is really just a “lesser light,” and there are “signs and seasons, days and years” to be endured in what God is doing when He “gives us light upon the earth to rule the day and the night.”

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [ he made] the stars also.
Gen 1:17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

God’s work in the earth is far greater on the fifth day when He causes the sea out from which we all come (“the dry land”)  to bring forth many and various types of life, over which He later commands us to gain and exert dominion. But on the fifth day we also learn that the seas and the earth and the heavens are all very intimately connected, and that the sea waters and the heavens both bring forth an abundant variation of life. It is on this day that we learn that the fowl that are created to fly about the earth in the  heavens can and do “multiply in the earth.”

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, a nd fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Gen 1:23  And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

It is on the sixth day that God reveals to us His crowning achievement. It is really just a marred prototype of that to which He intends to give the true dominion of all the creatures He has placed upon the earth and in the seas and heavens of the earth. It is also on this day that the strong meat is created which will later be given to nourish those who will be given to receive it. Strong meat will not be given to mankind until after the baptism of the flood of Noah, but strong meat is created as “the beasts of the earth” right along with the ultimate beast of the field which God calls mankind.

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Gen 1:24  And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, a nd beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Gen 1:25  And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27  So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Gen 1:28  And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Gen 1:29  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Gen 1:30  A nd to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Gen 1:31  And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

So the days of creation are a spiritual type of what God is doing with His ‘earth’ which is our physical bodies. But as is always the case, that which is used to typify that which is said to be “very good” in Genesis one rebels and begins a life of opposition to God in Genesis two. This use of one symbol for both good and evil is continued throughout scripture. For example, Pharaoh is a type of the Father giving the kingdom over to Christ, in Gen 50, while in the very next chapter of scripture, Pharaoh becomes a type of the man of sin who seeks to destroy God’s elect, by destroying all of the first born of Israel. Likewise the earth, in Genesis one typifies the “many called” out of the waters of the sea, who later revert to becoming but a part of the sea when it is revealed that they “cannot receive” Christ’s Word.

In passing, the Hebrew word here translated ‘replenish’ in verse 28 is ‘male’ pronounced ‘maw- lay,’and it means to fill. It does not mean to re fill as some teach in support of their false gap theory doctrine. God is in the process of making mankind to rule over all the beasts and creeping things and the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air. He will be finished with this work when mankind has entered with Him into His rest on the seventh day.

Gen 2:1  Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Gen 2:2  And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

It is in the New Testament that we learn that the work of God really is ended on the seventh day, and only after mankind has entered into His rest and has, with and in Christ, “ceased from his own works as Christ did His.”

Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Now, for the sake of this study, let us ask of what was mankind made? Many people teach and believe that Adam was made of spirit and put into a body of clay. But is there any basis in scripture for such a doctrine? What material does God Himself tell us He used to make mankind? What did He use to make Adam? Here are the plain words which have proceeded out of the mouth of God concerning Adam’s composition:

Gen 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Man is not “the breath of life.” Mankind was not made of ‘the breath of life.’ “The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” So Adam is “of the dust of the ground.” What happens to Adam when he dies? Is Adam an immortal spirit which needs no resurrection and which goes to his reward the moment of his death, as all of Babylonian Christendom and all Pagan religions teach? What did Adam’s Maker tell Him concerning Adam’s composition and Adam’s fate without benefit of a resurrection from among the dead? What did Adam’s Maker tell him was Adam’s place after his death and until his resurrection from among the dead? Here is what the One who ought to know had to say to Adam concerning Adam’s makeup, and of what sort it was.

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
Gen 3:19  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Is that not astounding? Here is our Maker telling us what are the wages of our sins, and He fails to even mention the eternal flames of hell. Instead our Maker tells us that we are of the earth and we will return to the earth, and later we are told that if there were no resurrection, then those who have “fallen asleep in Christ are perished.”

1Co 15:16  For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
1Co 15:17  And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
1Co 15:20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ?” Does that not sound like there is hope in Christ, beyond this life? Indeed there is, and it is not even in this life that most men will be saved, because Christ’s Words have no place in the lives of most who believe on Him in this life (Joh 8:37). The reason for this has nothing to do with mankind’s fabled “free will.” The reason most of mankind will be saved after this life is “because they cannot hear Christ’s Words.”

Joh 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
Joh 8:43  Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Here is how the Lord likens giving His Words and His doctrines to His people:

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

Here is how God explains His dealings with all who are “in Adam.”

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make [ it].
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
Jer 18:7  At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;

So mankind is “of the earth, earthy,” and that is why Jer 22:29 reads “Oh earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord.” But let’s look at a few more verses which make clear that the word ‘earth’ is spiritual language for mankind in the first Adam. Here are some examples.

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. [ At the resurrection]

Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Heb 6:7  For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God:
Heb 6:8  But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.

Heb 11:13  These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Jas 5:5  Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2Pe 3:13  Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

How true are the words of Jeremiah, “Oh earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.” It is only those who are given ears to hear to can “hear the word of the Lord.”
Here, in conclusion, is the function of  “the earth” which is in us all:

Psa 2:1  Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
Psa 2:2  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying,
Psa 2:3  Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

This same earthy sentiment is repeated at the end of the New Testament.

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

What are the four winds of the earth?

We have just seen that the spiritual significance of the number four is to signify the whole of that to which the spirit is drawing our attention. In this case it is the “winds of the earth.” The earth is but a speck of dust in God’s heavens, and the sea is but part of God’s earth. Consequently we see the heavens and the earth mentioned together many times. For example:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Psa 134:3  The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

As we saw above, the phrase “heaven and earth” are used many times in scripture to encompass the whole of creation. But with what does God work with His creation? God uses the whole of His spiritual creation to deal with His physical creation. So the use in scripture, of the phrase”the four winds,” is but a way of acknowledging that God is the Father of the whole spirit world.

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [ us], and we gave [ them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

All the protestations of all the ministers of Babylon to the contrary, this include both the good and the evil spirits. They all come from the “Father of spirits.”

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.
1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Here are a few very revealing verses which tell us what the “four winds of the earth” are.

Jer 49:36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.

How does God scatter the whole of His enemies? He does so with “those four winds.”
How will God give life to the whole of mankind? He will do so with “the four winds.”

Eze 37:9  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10  So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

Remember all Israel will be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

How does God work with the beast that is the whole of mankind? He does it through the four winds, and the result is four creatures in Daniel, which are revealed to actually be one composite creature within us all in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

What is that fourth beast that was different from the other beasts? That beast is the great red dragon who is the father of us all while we are his children.

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

What do the children of this dragon look like? Here they are. Like Daniels four beasts, this composite beast also come up “out of the sea,” looking like those very same beasts in Dan 7.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The spiritual significance of these four beasts in Daniel’s prophecy, is to show us that all the things that happened to Israel, at the hands of the various Gentile kingdoms of old, “happened to them and are written for us upon whom the ends of this age are come.”

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“All these things… are written for our admonition,” because it is “every word” coming upon us all at the hands of “the four winds of the earth.”

What is the sea?

As we saw in the story of the six days of creation, the earth itself, and therefore all upon it, comes up out of the sea and is separated from the sea. What is the spiritual significance of the sea? Here is a verse which, along with every other verse containing the word ‘sea,’ gives us the answer to what is the spiritual significance of the sea. The sea is the symbol of all that is flesh. The sea is the ‘abussos’ or the abyss of scripture. The sea is all flesh of all time.

Psa 18:16  He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
Isa 17:13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but [ God] shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Speaking of Babylon in both the Old and New Testaments, she is said to be sitting on “many waters.”

Jer 51:1  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;
Jer 51:13  O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

What exactly are these “many waters?” Here is what are the sea and many waters:

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

We have demonstrated that the heaven and the earth are very symbiotic. This symbiotic relationship extends to, and includes the heaven, the earth, and the sea. All three are an essential parts of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Gen 1:9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
Act 4:24  And when they [ the disciples] heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
Act 14:15  And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

It is obvious that God thinks of these three as a unit. He sees them all as the work of His hand. Each of these three, just like the three festival seasons in the year, are symbolic of the threes stages of the process of salvation.

Here, of course, is the true heaven:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [ the blood of bulls and goats]; but the heavenly things themselves [ those in whom Christ dwells] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: [ God dwells in His people, Rev 21:3]
Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Both the earth and the seas are “under the heavens,” and yet they are within, and a vital part of the heavens as surely as the “waters under the earth” are a part of the earth.

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which t he waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [ it was] good.
Gen 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Notice that “the fowl… fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven,” and still we are told that the “fowl multiply in the earth.” So the “fowl of the heaven” are also the fowl which “multiply in the earth.”
It is Christ Himself who gives us our understanding of the spiritual significance of the fowls that fly in the firmament of the heavens when he tells us that it is the fowls who “catch away that which was sown in his heart?”

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

What was the spiritual type of “the wicked one” in this parable? What was the spiritual type which catches away that which is sown in his heart?” It was “the fowls that fly in the firmament of heaven.

Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

So “the four winds of the earth,” are the exact same “four winds of heaven,” which blow in the expanse of the firmament of the heavens which are above the earth. Look at how Christ uses this phrase “the four winds.” Notice how they are used in the same verse of both the heaven and the earth.

Mat 24:31  And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

If this were all we had to go by, we might not see the intimate connection between the works of God in the heavens and the works of God which are done on earth. But this is not the only account of this prophecy. Here is Mark’s account, which adds much to the sum of God’s Word on this subject.

Mar 13:27  And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Now we should have a deeper appreciation for these Words of our Lord, which demonstrate the symbiotic nature of the heavens and the earth.:

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be [ Greek, shall have been] bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be [ Greek, shall have been] loosed in heaven.

When we put the sum of God’s word in Mat 16:19 together with Luk 17:20, we see that this “kingdom of heaven,” also known as “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

When we put these verses together with Mat 4:4, we discover that we are all, in due time, given the keys to “the kingdom of God within you.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

When we put together the sum of God’s Word concerning “the four winds of the earth,” we find that they are really the same as “the four winds of heaven,” which are the winds which blow in the expanse of “the firmament which is above the earth.”

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

But what is so revealing for us about all the the scriptures in the Old Testament which contain the phrase “four winds,” is that the Hebrew word for ‘winds’ in every case is the Hebrew word ‘ruach’, which is generally translated ‘spirit.’ Here is the e- sword breakdown of how this word is translated in the King James Version.

H7307
ru ach
Total KJV Occurrences: 379
spirit, 227
Gen_6:2-3 (2), Gen_41:8, Gen_41:38, Gen_45:27, Exo_6:9, Exo_31:3 (2), Exo_35:21, Exo_35:31, Num_5:14 (2), Num_5:30, Num_11:17, Num_11:25-26 (3), Num_11:29, Num_14:24, Num_24:2, Num_27:18, Deu_2:30, Deu_34:9, Jos_5:1, Jdg_3:10, Jdg_6:34, Jdg_9:23, Jdg_11:29, Jdg_13:25, Jdg_14:6, Jdg_14:19, Jdg_15:14, Jdg_15:19, 1Sa_1:15, 1Sa_10:6, 1Sa_10:10, 1Sa_11:6, 1Sa_16:13-16 (5), 1Sa_16:23 (2), 1Sa_18:10, 1Sa_19:9, 1Sa_19:20, 1Sa_19:23, 1Sa_30:12, 2Sa_23:2, 1Ki_10:5, 1Ki_18:12, 1Ki_21:5, 1Ki_22:21-24 (4), 2Ki_2:9, 2Ki_2:15-16 (2), 1Ch_5:26 (2), 1Ch_12:18, 1Ch_28:12, 2Ch_9:4, 2Ch_15:1, 2Ch_18:20-23 (4), 2Ch_20:14, 2Ch_21:16, 2Ch_24:20, 2Ch_36:22, Ezr_1:1, Ezr_1:5, Neh_9:20, Neh_9:30, Job_4:15, Job_6:4, Job_15:11-13 (3), Job_21:3-4 (2), Job_26:13, Job_27:3, Job_32:8, Job_32:18, Job_33:4, Job_34:14, Psa_31:5, Psa_32:2, Psa_34:18, Psa_51:10-12 (3), Psa_51:17, Psa_76:12, Psa_77:3, Psa_77:6, Psa_78:8, Psa_104:30, Psa_106:33, Psa_139:7, Psa_143:3-4 (2), Psa_143:7, Psa_143:10, Pro_1:23, Pro_11:13, Pro_14:29, Pro_15:4, Pro_15:13, Pro_16:18-19 (2), Pro_16:32, Pro_17:22, Pro_17:27, Pro_18:14 (2), Pro_25:28, Pro_29:23, Ecc_1:14, Ecc_1:17, Ecc_2:11, Ecc_2:17, Ecc_2:26, Ecc_3:21 (2), Ecc_4:4, Ecc_4:6, Ecc_4:16, Ecc_6:9, Ecc_7:8-9 (3), Ecc_8:8 (2), Ecc_11:4-5 (2), Ecc_12:7, Isa_4:4 (2), Isa_19:2-3 (5), Isa_19:14, Isa_26:9, Isa_28:6, Isa_29:10, Isa_29:24, Isa_30:1, Isa_31:3, Isa_38:15-16 (3), Isa_40:7, Isa_40:13, Isa_42:1, Isa_42:5, Isa_44:3, Isa_48:16, Isa_54:6, Isa_57:15-16 (3), Isa_59:19, Isa_59:21, Isa_61:1, Isa_61:3, Isa_63:10-11 (2), Isa_65:14 (2), Isa_66:2, Eze_1:11-12 (2), Eze_1:20-21 (4), Eze_2:2, Eze_3:12, Eze_3:14 (2), Eze_3:24, Eze_8:3, Eze_10:17, Eze_11:1, Eze_11:5, Eze_11:19, Eze_11:24 (2), Eze_13:3, Eze_18:31, Eze_21:7, Eze_36:26-27 (2), Eze_37:1, Eze_37:14, Eze_39:29, Eze_43:5, Dan_2:1, Dan_2:3, Hos_4:12, Hos_5:4, Joe_2:28-29 (2), Mic_2:7, Mic_2:11, Mic_3:8, Hag_1:14 (3), Zec_4:5-6 (2), Zec_6:8, Zec_7:12, Zec_12:1, Zec_12:10, Zec_13:2, Mal_2:16
wind, 82
Gen_8:1, Exo_10:13 (2), Exo_10:19, Exo_14:21, Exo_15:10, Num_11:31, 2Sa_22:11, 1Ki_18:45, 1Ki_19:11 (3), 2Ki_3:17, Job_1:19, Job_6:26, Job_7:7, Job_15:2 (2), Job_21:18, Job_30:15, Job_30:22, Job_37:21, Psa_1:4, Psa_18:10, Psa_18:42, Psa_35:5, Psa_48:7, Psa_78:39, Psa_83:13, Psa_103:16, Psa_104:3, Psa_107:25, Psa_135:7, Psa_147:18, Psa_148:8, Pro_11:29, Pro_25:14, Pro_25:23, Pro_27:16, Pro_30:4, Ecc_1:6 (2), Ecc_5:16, Ecc_11:4, Isa_7:2, Isa_11:15, Isa_17:13, Isa_26:18, Isa_27:8, Isa_32:2, Isa_41:16, Isa_41:29, Isa_57:13, Isa_64:6, Jer_2:24, Jer_10:11-13 (4), Jer_13:24, Jer_14:6, Jer_18:17, Jer_22:22, Jer_51:1, Jer_51:16, Eze_5:2, Eze_12:14, Eze_13:11, Eze_13:13, Eze_17:10, Eze_19:12, Eze_27:26, Eze_37:9 (2), Hos_4:19, Hos_8:7, Hos_12:1, Hos_13:15, Amo_4:13, Jon_1:4, Zec_5:8-9 (2)
breath, 27
Gen_6:17, Gen_7:15, 2Sa_22:16, Job_4:9, Job_9:18, Job_12:10, Job_15:30, Job_17:1, Job_19:17, Psa_18:15, Psa_33:6, Psa_104:29, Psa_135:17, Psa_146:4, Ecc_3:19, Isa_11:4, Isa_30:28, Isa_33:11, Jer_10:14, Jer_51:17, Lam_4:20, Eze_37:5-6 (2), Eze_37:8-10 (3), Hab_2:19
winds, 11
Job_28:25, Jer_49:32, Jer_49:36 (2), Eze_5:10, Eze_5:12, Eze_17:21, Eze_37:9, Dan_8:8, Dan_11:4, Zec_2:6
mind, 6
Gen_26:35, Pro_29:11, Eze_11:5, Eze_20:32, Dan_5:20, Hab_1:11
side, 5
Jer_52:23, Eze_42:16-19 (4)
spirits, 5
Num_16:22, Num_27:16, Psa_104:4, Pro_16:2, Zec_6:5
blast, 4
Exo_15:8, 2Ki_19:7, Isa_25:4, Isa_37:7
vain, 2
Job_16:2-3 (2)
air, 1
Job_41:16
anger, 1
Jdg_8:3
cool, 1
Gen_3:8
courage, 1
Jos_2:11
quarters, 1
1Ch_9:24
sides, 1
Eze_42:20
spiritual, 1
Hos_9:7
tempest, 1
Psa_11:6
whirlwind, 1
Eze_1:4
windy, 1
Psa_55:8

So when we read in Daniel:

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

We now know from all the scriptures we have just seen the spiritual definition and the spiritual meaning of the number four, the spiritual meaning of ‘the earth,’ the spiritual significance of the phrase ‘the four winds,’ and the spiritual meaning of the word ‘sea.’ We now know that God uses His spirit to deal with and to form the vessel that was made of clay upon the Potter’s wheel which we now know to be our own individual physical bodies in this aion, which the scriptures refer as “chronos aonios,” “times aionian.”

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,

Or, as the Concordant Version puts it:

2Ti 1:9 Who saves us and calls us with a holy calling, not in accord with our acts, but in accord with His own purpose and the grace which is given to us in Christ Jesus before times eonian,

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn what trees are in scripture, and we will discover why the four angels cannot hurt the earth, the sea or the trees until after the servants of our God are sealed in their foreheads.

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.