And I saw another angel ascending from [the] sunrising, having [the] seal of [the] living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it had been given to hurt the earth and the sea,
Between the breaking of the sixth seal and the seventh, the vision pauses. Four angels hold back the winds of judgment. Now another angel rises from the sunrise carrying God's own seal. He orders the destruction to wait until God has marked out a certain company as His.
The four angels can harm only what God allows them to harm.
The four angels were given their power to harm the earth and the sea. So the judgment is in God's hand, even though the instruments may be working their own will. The angels have "power to harm" simply because they have the power to restrain the harmful influences, or not. So there is a time of quiet and relative safety until God has finished His own work in those who serve Him.
One voice halts four, and that order matters.
In every upheaval, in every preparation for God's judgments, the angel who shows God's power in mercy is stronger than the angels who carry out His judgments. Good is more powerful than evil. That angel who holds the seal can cry with a loud voice, Do not harm. We see the same thing with Lot, who is a picture of the remnant that escapes at the coming of the Son of Man. The angels could do nothing to Sodom until he had left it. So there is an order among the attributes of God: His mercy always goes before His justice.
The direction he comes from matters. It points to the One whose day is about to break over Israel.
He rises from the east, the sunrise, "with the seal of the living God." This sealing angel comes up from the sunrise for the preservation and blessing of Israel. He seems to be a herald of the Messiah. As the Sun of Righteousness, Messiah will rise with healing in His wings (Mal. 4:2) and shine on the land and the people with a brightness nothing can dim. The angel brings the first fruits of the nation's blessing; the full harvest waits for Christ to appear from heaven.
Some readers take the sealing angel to be Christ Himself. Commentators differ, and how Christ appears elsewhere in the book bears on the answer.
Some have supposed that the sealing angel is Christ. One reason is the assumption that the work being done is the giving of the Holy Spirit of promise, the seal of redemption. To me all this is more than doubtful. Our Lord never takes an angelic form and title until we reach the trumpet series.
The angel's own wording points the same way.
No angel could give the Holy Spirit. This angel's own words show he is a creature. The "we" shows that more than one carries out this ministry, and those who do it speak of God as "our God."
God's title here — the living God — fits what the seal secures. Where the angel puts it matters too.
"The seal of the living God" implies safety from death. The seal on the forehead means a public, open acknowledgment that those who are sealed belong to God. We are not told what the seal is.
Scripture also calls believers today sealed, but the two sealings serve different ends.
The instructed reader will see at once how this sealing differs from the sealing of believers now with the Holy Spirit. God seals believers of this present time as soon as their sins are forgiven, and He seals them for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). The 144,000 of this chapter are sealed with the seal of the living God. It keeps them safe through the judgments that will fall on the world. For Israel those judgments will be the day of Jacob's trouble (Jer. 30:4-9; see also Matt. 24:21-22). They are sealed for blessing on the earth in the kingdom of their glorious Messiah.
Safety is not the whole story. God has a purpose for the people He seals.
These servants are drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel, and their number, "one hundred and forty-four thousand," is symbolic. This surely shows that during this time of tribulation God will raise up His servants from among His ancient people Israel. They will be a public witness to Himself in every part of the world to which they may have been scattered.
- Restraint. Four angels can strike the earth only because God permits it. One word from the sealing angel stops them. Judgment stays in God's hand.
- Mercy. God's mercy moves ahead of His justice. As with Lot and Sodom, judgment waits until His own are safe.
- Seal. Set on the forehead, the seal openly marks whose they are. We are not told what it is. It is not the Spirit's sealing of believers now.
- Life. The title "the living God" fits the promise. The sealed come through the coming judgments alive, and they are blessed afterwards in Messiah's kingdom.
- Sunrise. The angel rises from the east as herald of the Sun of Righteousness. He brings the first fruits of a blessing whose full harvest waits for Christ to appear.
saying, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we shall have sealed the bondmen of our God upon their foreheads.
Between the sixth seal and the seventh, the flow of judgment stops. Four angels hold back the winds. Another angel calls out to them, and no harm may fall until God has marked out a people as His own.
This chapter breaks the sequence on purpose:
The contents of our chapter form no part of events under the Seals. There is no historical sequence… So between the sixth seal and the seventh, belonging to neither, God brings in a deeply interesting episode of blessing to Israel and to the Gentiles. Judgment pauses, and the veil lifts so that we may see the heart of our God. It is not all judgment in those dark and evil days.
The angel names three things — the earth, the sea and the trees. Each stands for a part of the world of men:
"That no wind might blow upon the earth," the scene of settled government (Rev. 10:2; Ps. 46:2): "nor upon the sea," nations and peoples in anarchy and confusion (Dan. 7:2-3; Isa. 57:20); "nor upon any tree," the might and pride of earth (Dan. 4:10, 22; Ezek. 31:3-9, 14-18). The angel states the reason judgment stops in precise terms: "until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads."
The verse says the harm was given to these angels. That single word decides who is really in charge of the coming trouble:
Here we read that the four angels were given the power to hurt the earth and the sea. So the judgment is in the hand of God, although the instruments may be working their own will. The angels have "power to hurt" only because they can hold back the harmful influences, or let them loose. So there is a time of quiet and relative safety until God has finished His own work in those who serve Him.
This order of events has happened before:
We learn, next, that God governs the world with His people in view… In the same way, judgment was about to fall upon Jerusalem. The Lord had a mark put on the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried over all the abominations done in it (Ezek. 9). He kept this faithful remnant safe while the scourge swept over everything.
A seal is an owner's stamp. Placed on the forehead, it is the least hidden spot on a person:
"The seal of the living God" means safety from death. The seal on the forehead is a public, open acknowledgment that those who carry it belong to God. What the seal is we are not told.
Later in the book a different mark appears on foreheads:
God's seal on their foreheads stands in contrast to the mark of the beast that unbelievers receive in Revelation 13:16-18.
A reader may ask how this sealing relates to Christians now:
Any instructed reader will at once see the difference between this sealing and the sealing of believers now with the Holy Spirit. Believers today are sealed as soon as their sins are forgiven, and they are sealed for the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). The 144,000 of this chapter are sealed with the seal of the living God. This preserves them through the judgments that will fall upon the world… They are also sealed for blessing on the earth in the kingdom of their glorious Messiah.
Commentators differ over the identity of the sealing angel. Some read the plural as Christ acting with His own:
I have little doubt this points to Christ (though in a new character, and in connection with the earthly people) and the saints. He holds the seal of the living God. Of course He alone could; but the saints are associated with Him. He says, "until we have sealed the servants of our God."
Others argue the wording itself rules this out:
The words "until we have sealed" would be beneath the surpassing dignity of Christ. So would the closing words of the angel's cry, "the servants of our God." The language and spirit of John 20:17 runs right through the New Testament: "I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God." We never meet the terms "our God" and "our Father" as covering Christ and believers together.
The title fits their history. Older translations render the word "bondmen":
They had kept up the testimony of God through trial and difficulty. Their path was marked by conflict and service. So the title "servants" fits them well.
- Restraint — the harm was given to the angels, so the storm never moves until God releases it.
- Reason — the restraint exists for one purpose: God is marking out His servants first.
- Mark — the seal is His stamp of ownership, set where everyone can see it, and it carries protection with it.
- Not ours — today's sealing is by the Spirit for the day of redemption. This one carries a faithful remnant through judgment into an earthly kingdom.
- Pattern — Ezekiel 9 shows the same order. God governs the world with the safety of His people in view.
And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred [and] forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of [the] sons of Israel
The number 144,000 draws more guesswork than almost any figure in the Bible, and this verse is where it first appears — heard, not seen, twelve thousand to a tribe. Three questions follow: who are these sealed people, is the number literal, and why does this list of tribes match no other list in Scripture?
The chapter interrupts the sequence of seals. Before the next wave of judgment falls, God marks out people He will spare:
Revelation 7 is a parenthesis — in the middle of judgment, mercy is remembered. First, 144,000: that is, 12,000 from each tribe of Israel are sealed, so that no judgment meant for the earth may reach them (verses 1-8). Second (verses 9-17), a countless multitude from all the nations of the earth stand before the throne and the Lamb, clothed in white with palms in their hands. How precious these rays of mercy are!
The tribes are named one by one. The prophet then sees a crowd from every nation, and the contrast between the two groups settles how to read the first:
Those twelve tribes, described as they are there, with their names given, can mean nothing but the literal twelve tribes of Israel... The prophet sees another multitude which no one could number, drawn from all nations, tribes, peoples, and languages. That is, it is as expressly a Gentile body as the hundred and forty-four thousand were out of the tribes of Israel.
Their sealing points to a future on earth, not in heaven:
Their sealing guarantees that they will come safely through the Great Tribulation. They are kept not simply as individuals, but as Israelites, and so with earthly blessing as a nation in view. The tribes are mentioned by name (vv. 5-8), which would have no place if their destination was heaven.
God counts them Himself, and the count carries meaning:
When David tried to number the people, it was a presumptuous sin. But here it is the grace of God taking a full number out of the tribes of Israel for Himself. The number 144,000 is a regular and complete number, though I take it to be a symbolic one, with a view to God's use of Israel, His favoured nation, here on earth. The number twelve always points to what is perfect for God's work when man administers it. You can see this in the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve apostles, and even the twelve gates and twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem.
Commentators differ here. One takes the count as a symbol rather than arithmetic:
The numbers given here might of course be literal. More probably we should take them as symbols, since twelve and the square of twelve carry a symbolic sense elsewhere in the book. The godly remnant of Israel will have an important place in the government of the coming age, and twelve is the number of completeness in government.
The seal does two things at once, and one thing about it stays hidden:
"The seal of the living God" implies safety from death. The seal on the forehead is a public, open acknowledgment that those who are sealed belong to God. What the seal is, we are not told.
This is not the sealing Christians know:
This sealing is the work of angels. It is very different, therefore, from the present sealing with the Holy Spirit, and from any power or gift of the Spirit. No angel could give that... The effect is that God's people are shown to be His, and so kept safe from the judgments about to be sent.
Dan is missing from the list, Ephraim is missing, and Levi is counted in:
In Revelation 7, where the tribes are sealed for blessing, Dan is left out, as a type of the Antichrist. Ephraim is also left out, the number being made up by inserting Levi and by naming Joseph as well as Manasseh. In the future division of the land Dan will have a portion, but will be the farthest from the temple (Ezekiel 48:1-35).
Not everyone accepts that explanation. One writer will not guess at the reason, and says plainly that he has no satisfactory answer. Yet no tribe is lost to God:
Faith is sure that God knows where they are, and that He will make it clear in His own time and way... Israel is in the dark of night, beyond all question; but God's eye is on them. Not one of the tribes is forgotten before Him. He knows where to lay hands on them when He needs them for restoration and blessing.
- Mercy first — the chapter breaks into the seals: God secures His own before the storms break.
- Mercy counted — 144,000 is a full and definite number. Twelve marks God's work done through man, as with the tribes, the apostles and the gates of the New Jerusalem.
- Mercy marked — the seal of the living God goes on the forehead, in plain view. It brings safety from the coming judgments.
- Mercy for Israel — the named tribes are literal Israel, kept for blessing on earth. They are not the countless crowd from every nation in verse 9.
- Mercy remembers — Dan drops out of the list, and no one can say for sure why. Yet no tribe is lost to God, who knows where to find them.