Wednesday Bible Study: The last two seals

 

Rev 6:12  When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, Rev 6:13  and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. Rev 6:14  The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Rev 6:15  Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, Rev 6:16  calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, Rev 6:17  for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" 

Rev 8:1  When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. 

It took me being led through Job and Micah to realize what- somewhat- was going on here.  The short answer- because we have a long story before us- was entitlement.  In our last post, the martyrs 'demanded' an answer from God, just as Job had; they felt their suffering entitled them to an answer.  And they got one, but not what they expected.  the rest of chapter six and all of seven (and I realize this isn't usually taught this way) is a three part, highlight reel, and not in linear order answer, connected twice by the phrase, "after this, I saw/looked".

I believe now (and could be wrong) that the first part of this judgment (above) is ripped from what was GOING to happen at the pouring of the seventh bowl in chapter thirteen.  John McArthur posits that this is the judgment of FEAR:  that men are not going to have courage in them in these last days.  And on the wrong side of God, could you blame them?  And yet, they didn't seek God to repent of their evil; they begged the mountains (go ahead, see if that works) to hide them from God.  Might of been helpful had they known what Jesus said:

Mat 17:20  He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you." 

But without faith, those mountains were as helpless as they were.

Rather than deal with the details of what they saw here, let's move to stage two:

Rev 7:1  After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 

Rev 7:2  Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 

Rev 7:3  saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads." 

"Saying, do not harm..."  which means this happened BEFORE all that.  Maybe even before the Tribulation itself started.  Who are these 'servants of God'?  Well, see, here's where the Jehovah's Witnesses theology comes to destruction.  

Rev 7:4  And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: 

They tried to say that these were the only ones EVER going to heaven, which was a complete misreading of the text.  What it is, is 12,000 each from each tribe of Israel, anointed to be special witnesses during the Tribulation for Jesus.  The text even goes on to list each tribe, but with a twist.  During the OT the 12 tribes usually split Joseph into his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (after Jacob adopted them at the end of Genesis), with Levi left out since this was the priestly tribe split among the others.  But NOW, Joseph and Levi are in, and out are the two tribes whose idolatry was most responsible for the idolatry that first destroyed Israel- Ephraim and Dan.  (some even suggest that the Anti Christ will be a Danite!)  And they will have a mighty ministry, as the vision now leaps into the future:

Rev 7:9  After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 

Rev 7:10  and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!" 

And here's how we know this is the (relative) future:

Rev 7:13  Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, "Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?" 

Rev 7:14  I said to him, "Sir, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 

Rev 7:15  "Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. 

Rev 7:16  They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 

Rev 7:17  For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." 

These then, are the martyrs of the Tribulation that the earlier martyrs under the altar were to wait FOR... those that would be added to their number, mostly (apparently) by the preaching of the 144,000.

So in this ONE seal, God shows the power of His judgment, the mercy of His provision, and the perfection of His plan, and thus when the vision ends and the final seal opens.... stunned silence.  Awed worship in Heaven of the power of God.

With this, the stage is set for things to get even more intense:

Rev 8:2  Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. 

A set of Trumpet judgments await.  And even these are just prelude to the "fast foreward" the faithful just watched.