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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

We will look at the scriptures which show us what trees represent in the scriptures, and we will do that first. But the main question we will address today is, exactly what is it that hurts the earth, sea and trees, and we will ask why are the four angels are told to wait “till we have sealed the servants of God in their foreheads? We are plainly told that it is “the four angels, to whom it is given to hurt the earth and the sea.” We saw in our previous study that those four angels represent the whole of God’s spirit, and the whole of the spiritual realm, working with and upon the ‘four corners,’ or the whole of  ‘the earth,’ His physical creatures, the sons of Adam. We saw that ‘four,’ or ‘the whole’, is symbolic of God as “the father of [ all] spirits.”

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?

The scriptures make it clear that God uses both good and evil spirits to both trouble and to bless His creation, and they also make clear that whether that creation is being troubled or blessed, it is all working together for the good of all in the end.

Rom 11:30  For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31  Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32  For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

What is it that judges us all?

So the “four spirits” are the whole of God’s spirit realm, and we are told by Christ, that realm is dealt with and sustained “by the word of His power.”

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

What is that  “word of His power?”

Joh 6:63  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Psa 148:7  Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps:
Psa 148:8  Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

So it is these very words which we are studying which will “hurt the earth, and the sea, and the trees.” Why do these words “hurt” God’s creation? The reason is that “judgment is upon the house of God,” and that judgment is a “fiery trial.”

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

So these words are spirit, and life, but they are also fiery words which are judging us at this very moment.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

“Judgment must begin at us… for the time is at hand.” But what happens at this point in our walk? We need to count the cost and know what happens when we discover that we all have to eat these words and live these words, and realize that the flesh and the outward “profit nothing.” Here is what happened when Christ revealed that His Words, “every word,” was spirit and life which must be eaten and drunk as His flesh and His blood.

Joh 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

What a well- numbered chapter and verse – 6:66! Remember that. When you come to the point of understanding that Christ’s words are not to be understood as outward, physical words, but they are to be understood and inward spiritual words, your own flesh and the flesh of all men will “go back and walk no longer with our Lord.”
So let’s first ask…

What is the spiritual significance of trees in scripture?

The first time this word ‘tree’ appears in scripture is in Gen 1:11, as part of the creation narrative.

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.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word which is often translated as ‘tree’ in the Old Testament.

H6086
e ts
ates
From H6095; a tree (from its firmness); hence wood (plural sticks): –  + carpenter, gallows, helve, + pine, plank, staff, stalk, stick, stock, timber, tree, wood.

Notice that the Lord caused “the fruit tree” to be “brought forth… upon the earth.” Where did Adam and Eve go to hide themselves after they disobeyed God? They went where we all go when we simply “cannot hear” Christ’s Word.

Gen 3:8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

Yes, Adam and Eve were the only two people on earth at that time, but we will now see that scripture reveals that trees are simply one more type of God’s Adamic creation, and Adam and Eve hiding themselves among the trees of the garden is but a type of our own sheepish instinct to hide among great numbers of men when we cannot yet receive the words of our Lord.
Look at how this word is used in the words of prophecy:

Son 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit [ was] sweet to my taste.
Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

How does prophecy refer to men who place their trust in their own flesh, and they take God’s glory to themselves?

Isa 7:2  And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

How easy it is for God to effectuate change on this earth, when He declares that it is time to do so. “The heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.” That is what we are studying today. We are being told that God uses His spirit to move in the hearts and minds of His people. But back to the meaning of the word ‘trees’ in prophecy

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

It is interesting to note that the word translated ‘wood’ in Jer 5:14 is the same Hebrew word translated ‘tree’ in Gen 1:11. Once again people are trees.
Look at how Christ, and the New Testament speak of us as trees:

Mat 3:10  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
Mat 7:17  Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Mat 7:18  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Mat 7:19  Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 7:20  Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Jdg 1:12  These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [ they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;

Throughout the new Testament, trees are types of men, and the fruit of the trees are the works of men. Since we are to “read, hear and keep the things written in this revelation of Jesus Christ, the trees in this prophecy are the men and their works within each of us.
Later in this revelation of Jesus Christ, we will see that one of the heads of our beast within receives a “deadly wound.” But we will find that “deadly wound is healed,” and we become a completely healthy beast once again. So it is us whose “fruit is [ at our own time] withered, and we are without fruit,” and we must be “twice dead and plucked up by the roots.” This is all an ongoing is, was and will be process within us which must continue “to the end” until the symbolic “third day.”
I just got off the phone with a sister in Christ, who pointed out to me that Christ was hung on a ‘tree.’

Act 10:39  And we [ Peter at Cornelius’s house] are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
Gal 3:13  Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

Where is that written?

Deu 21:22  And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
Deu 21:23  His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

Realizing the spiritual meaning of a ‘tree’ makes it clear that Christ was hung upon our sins so that His blood covers our sins, and that is it “through our offenses” that He was delivered up.

Rom 4:25  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

The Greek word translated ‘for’ in both cases in this verse is not ‘gar,’ but it is ‘dia’, and it should properly be translated “Who was delivered through our offenses and was raised again through our justification. So in a Biblical sense Christ was delivered up and hung upon us, and it was upon us and our sinful flesh and blood that His blood was shed. He was “hung upon a tree.” In this book of symbols there are seven nations and many men within those nations. It is into that one beast that the kingdom of God, with which this book is concerned, must be established, as the King of that kingdom grows within each of us.
Here is where this word appears elsewhere in this revelation of Jesus Christ.

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 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

So now that we know that it is the whole of the spirit of God that is given to hurt the earth and the sea, and the trees of the earth…

Why must the four spirits “wait till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads?”

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.

If the “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth” are the symbol of the whole of the spirit realm under “the Father of spirits”,  then who is this “other angel” who ascends from the east and commands the four angels not to blow upon or hurt the earth, the sea or the trees “till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads?” What is this seal, and why is it “in their foreheads?
Once again, we must look “line upon line and precept upon precept, here a little and there a little,” to discover what the spirit is signifying with these words.

Isa 28:9  Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, [ and] drawn from the breasts.
Isa 28:10  For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

To answer this question we must first ask…

What is the spiritual significance of one’s ‘forehead’?

Here is where the forehead is first mentioned in scripture:

Exo 28:36  And thou shalt make a plate [ of] pure gold, and grave upon it, [ like] the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
Exo 28:37  And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be.
Exo 28:38  And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; a nd it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.

The words “HOLINESS TO THE LORD” were to be engraved in a “plate of pure gold,” and it was to always be “upon his forehead,” as a symbol of what God wanted within Aaron’s mind and spirit.
Here is how Jeremiah uses this word ‘forehead.’

Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou [ Israel, God’s own people] hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

A whore is not ashamed of being a whore because her heart and mind is corrupted because she is not following the heart and mind of God. Therefore she has a whore’s forehead.
Here is how Ezekiel uses this symbolic word, forehead:

Eze 3:8  Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
Eze 3:9  As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

What is it that God uses to make Ezekiel’s forehead “as an adamant harder than flint… against their foreheads?” Here is what affects our foreheads. It is in the very next verse:

Eze 3:10  Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears.

Here is how the holy spirit contrasts the mark of God with the mark of the beast:

Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

Where is the name of the great harlot to be found?

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

What are God’s words, “all My Words” of Eze 3:10? What is it that gives us the ability to withstand all the fiery darts of the enemy? We simply cannot get away from the fact that it is God’s Words which “are spirit” which are “fire, hail: snow, and vapour; stormy wind [ which all] fulfill His word.”

Psa 148:8 Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

Why are the four angels told to wait until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads?

It is “all My words” which we read, hear and keep through which “judgment is now on the house of God. It is “the thing written therein” which will fulfill all we read about in the seven trumpets and in the seven vials which are the seventh trumpet. “Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” is part of the revelation of Jesus Christ within us, all “fulfilling His word.” It must all be placed within our hearts and minds. When it is given us to receive these, His words, then we will have been sealed in our foreheads, and it is then that we can begin to receive the revelation of Jesus Christ, which is within these seven seals, trumpets and vials. Only after we have been prepared by our loving heavenly Father will the fiery trials of that judgment, which is these seals trumpets and vials, begin to be poured out upon us. 
“Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads” is just another way of saying that God prepares the heart of His people for every move He makes in their lives. It is in His love and consideration for our frame that He reveals nothing to us before He prepares our hearts and makes us “able to hear it.” It is in His love and mercy that he places none of the “fiery trials that are to try us” until after He has prepared us to bear that trial.

Mar 4:33  And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [ is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

The way of escape is demonstrated to be through the flood, through the prisons of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the lion’s den, through the fiery furnace and through the death of the cross. But it is of wonderful comfort that we are never given Truth which we cannot bear, or a trial for which we have not first been prepared to receive and endure to the end.

Joh 16:12  I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
1Ch 29:17  I [ King David] know also, my God, that thou triest the heart, and hast pleasure in uprightness. As for me, in the uprightness of mine heart I have willingly offered all these things: and now have I seen with joy thy people, which are present here, to offer willingly unto thee.
1Ch 29:18  O LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee:
Psa 10:17  LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
Jer 12:3  But thou, O LORD, knowest me: thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

When we accept that God’s Word is a two edged sword, then we will understand that “the day of slaughter… works together for good” in us as our old man dies daily and we are crucified with and buried with Christ. When we accept that “all things are ours,” that we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, only then does the “day of slaughter become words of comfort in and to the new man within us. Only then can we see that the table prepared for us in the presence of our enemies is also within us.

Psa 23:5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

It is for all these reasons that we read:

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.

Summary

We have seen once again in this study that the fire that judges us all is “every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” We have seen that the word ‘trees’ signifies men, mankind or Adam, upon whom God’s judgment must come. We took note that the word translated ‘tree’ is even more often translated ‘wood,’ and that it is wood which the fire which issues out of  the mouth of God’s former elect, burns out of His latter elect. We have seen that the word ‘forehead’ in scripture, typifies and signifies what is in the hearts and minds of God’s elect. God’s elect first have the forehead of an whore, and in time that old whore is destroyed and replaced by Christ who gives us a new mark in out foreheads and in our hands. Finally we saw that while we “keep the things written therein,” we will not keep them until we have been prepared to do so by a loving heavenly Father who will not suffer us to be given either knowledge or trials for which He does not first prepare us and for which He does not first prepare our hearts.
Next week, Lord willing, we will learn why the tribes of Ephraim and Dan are missing from the list of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will also learn why there are only 144,000 who receive the seal of God in their foreheads, but “after this” there is also “a great multitude which no man could number” who are dressed in white robes, and we will learn why there are two groups mentioned here and what the difference is between these two groups.