Chapter 7 Verse 1

• So the Lord has broken the sixth seal of the scroll, the title deed to the earth that He was found worthy and able to take from Him who sat upon the throne of heaven and with the sixth seal all of the earth has been catastrophically affected.
• We read last week in Chapter 6 that the earth shook violently and the sun was blackened…the moon became as blood and the stars fell to the earth as rain.  We saw that something has happened to the skies even, as John saw them roll up like a scroll and every island was moved out of its place.  The men and women, young and old alike, rich and poor alike, mighty and weak alike…ran for their lives because it says there in the end of Chapter 6, “the great day of the His wrath has come!”
• And then John asks, “Who is able to stand?”  Yet the scene opens here in Chapter 7 with John looking and seeing four angels…standing…and do you know what that tells us?  That means that we are able to positively answer John’s question.  That means that we can confidently and definitively answer John to the affirmative.  Who can stand John?  Well, for one…obviously you can…because it is you that looks and sees…and we also know that these angels, these messengers of God, these that are righteous and holy…they’re standing also.  Why is that so important?
• Because it was Paul who said in 1 Thessalonians 4, as all of this is taking place, we’ll not be here.  We will be caught up in the clouds it says there in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall be with the Lord and therefore comfort one another with these words!   The folks in Chapter 6, running into the caves and calling out for the rocks to fall on them…I see no comfort…but John and the rest of the church which we’ll see in just a moment…safe and sound…standing in the presence of the holy host of heaven…who can stand…we can!
• And John says the angels were standing at the four corners of the earth and many over the years have pointed to this verse to contradict the literal accuracy of the Bible and to that argument I might say that the skeptic must also then accept that the US Marines believe the earth to be flat.
• What’s that?  Well it was the Pentagon that released an advertisement a few years back that said, “Our Marines are stationed on the four corners of the earth” and so unless you are willing to accept that the Pentagon believes the world to be flat then you cannot offer the cop out that the Bible is implying that same thing.  What we have here is a bit of symboligy…
• The Bible was actually the first source to present a round earth and was criticized for that until science caught up to it…Proverbs 8 talks about the “circle of the face of the deep,” and Isaiah 40 speaks of “the circle of the earth,” and even Job, which many agree is the oldest book in the Bible dating back to 1500 BC speaks of a circular horizon upon the surface of the waters in Job 26:10.  And so what does this mean?
• Well it’s simply speaking of the entire earth.  From the north to the south to the east and to the west…the four directional points of a navigator’s compass…and deployed to each of these four corners…not the Marines…but angels!  And they are holding the four winds of the earth.
• In Bible typology, wind speaks of judgment.  We find this in Old Testament scripture such as Jeremiah 49:36 and 51:1.  And so the seals have been opened, the scene on earth is shockingly awful…and suddenly the winds stop…no breeze, no airstream, just eerily calm.

Chapter 7 Verses 2 – 3

• So we see some interesting things here.  First, we see angels taking orders from angels which shows us that there is order in heaven and we see that also in several other passages throughout the Bible.  And we also see here that the command given is regarding the sealing of the servants of God. 
• Now in John’s time, a builder would seal with a wax blotted symbol the lumber that he chose before it was shipped from its source to the port nearest his building site.  And then when the ship would arrive with all of the lumber, the builder would take only those with his own seal upon them.  So too, the Master Carpenter, Jesus Christ, has chosen us to be the material of His eternal temple in heaven man…His family and therefore He has sealed us with His Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
• You can’t loose it man.  You’re all sealed up.  You can’t unseal yourself because no man is able to pluck you out of the hand of your redeemer, John Chapter 10 tells us.  And that seal is a seal of inheritance, a seal marking a guarantee, Paul writes to the Ephesians…and it’s a seal of family you see.  And so whatever you’re in right now, whatever you’re going through, take heart…you’ve been sealed and the Spirit who dwells in you is not on vacation…He’s there to abide…He won’t leave you or forsake you and therefore if its sin…repent man and return to the earlier works as Jesus wrote to the Ephesian church…if its discouragement, look up > your redemption is at the door and when Jesus appears your life will appear with Him, Colossians 3 says.  When you might cry…shortly!
• You’ll make it man!  Trust God!  Because even these that are about to be sealed in the Greatest of all Tribulations, we will see later in Revelation Chapter 14 that they ALL make it!  They all, each and every one of them…survive!  They live.  And so shall you!

Chapter 7 Verses 4 – 8

• Here the Bible is very clear.  144,000 folks, 12,000 from each of the tribes of the children of Israel.  And so they are Jews.  Not replacement theology Jews…which are not Jews at all…but Jews.  Jews that are directly linked to the actual tribes of Israel.  Why does that matter?
• Because there are many who claim to be the 144,000.  Historical Mormonism claimed to be the true 144,000 until they abandoned that false idea when they grew to 144,001 in membership.  (Man I bet that 144,001th guy was hated)  Ellen G. White and the Seventh Day Adventists claim to be the true 144,000 although their membership numbers in the millions now.  And of course the Jehovah’s Witnesses hold quite firmly to their teaching that they represent the 144,000. 
• It’s quite odd to me for several reasons but one of which is most is that why would they even want to be?  These 144,000 go through the entire Great Tribulation.  The world falling apart around them…and then I answer my own question…first, it’s a way to gain control and power over men.  If I’m the true 144,000 then that means you’re not, you see and in that if you become like me then you can be in the “club” also…just pledge this much money…just go on this many missions...just hand out this many magazines…just prop me up and treat me like you superior and then I’ll declare you in the 144k club…
• Second, by proclaiming themselves as the 144,000, they conveniently write the Jews right out of prophecy.  You may have heard of this false teaching referred to as “Replacement Theology,” or “Reconstructionism,” or “Kingdom Now.”  All false and I’ll tell you that each time the Jewish nation and Jewish people have been persecuted, hated, removed…the motivating power behind it has been great evil.  And so it is with this false theology.  Because you see if Israel is the apple of God’s eye as they indeed are…says so in Zechariah 2:8, then the enemy wants nothing more but to poke ‘em out.  He’s tried several times throughout man’s history and he continues his wicked campaign even today.
• But these here…are Jews.  Jewish folks, 12,000 from each tribe who are sealed with the seal of God and given a mission to preach throughout the world during the Great Tribulation.
• Now, I’m not sure if you noticed, but the 12 tribes listed here are different than the 12 tribes that we see blessed by Jacob or Israel in Genesis 49.  Who’s missing?  That’s right, the Tribe of Dan.  And who’s added then to round out the twelve?  You got it, Joseph’s oldest son Manasseh!  But why?
• Jewish Rabbis have consistently interpreted Genesis 49:17 to mean that the false Messiah, or Antichrist, will somehow be in the lineage of the Tribe of Dan.  Genesis 49:17 reads, as Jacob was handing out blessings on his death bed, “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse’s heels, so that its rider shall fall backward.”  And then Jacob proclaims something that seems out of context, out of place, but maybe not so if the Rabbis are correct.  Genesis 49:18, “I have waited for your salvation, O Lord!”
• Considering this with passages such as Daniel Chapter 11 and I’m not sure that anyone can say that this isn’t a possibility.  However Dan’s exclusion may also be the result of something else.  You see, in Deuteronomy 29 God specifically states that any tribe involved in idolatry would be separated from the remaining tribes of Israel and that is precisely what happened to Dan.
• When they came into the Promised Land, the people of Dan were given coastal territory…but they grumbled.  They weren’t happy with what God had provided.  They soon migrated away from their apportioned territory heading north and finally settled north of the Sea of Galilee in close proximity to the pagans.  They were the northern most tribe settlement wise…right next to their neighbors…and man bad company corrupts good habits, it’s a truth and shortly thereafter Dan fell into idolatry and just as Deuteronomy 29 prophesied, Dan was blotted out as a tribe.
• And what’s amazing, what should stop us in our tracks is when the Lord returns and establishes His kingdom upon the earth from Israel, as Ezekiel prophesied of the city that will have the name “The Lord is There”, we find in Ezekiel 48 verse 1 that the first tribe to receive a place to rest is….Dan.  Not Rueben, the first born of Israel.  Not Joseph the highly favored one who was given the forfeited birthright of Rueben (through a sin of sleeping with Bilhah, his father’s concubine).  Not even Judah from who would come the Lion…but Dan…the busted and failed son.
• Man that speaks to me!  What incredible grace!  What immortal mercy!  How great is the love of our God and the forgiveness of His heart towards us that just like Dan, while I ran head first into open denial of His power, majesty and authority…He divides out for me a mansion in His presence.  He’ll do the same for you too, for anyone who would simply choose Him…
• And so next week we’ll switch gears, we’ll turn the camera back to the scene in heaven as these 144,000 are being sealed upon the earth…