Revelation Ch 7

A WEDNESDAY NIGHT BOOK STUDY
EDGEMONT BIBLE CHURCH
FALL 2009- SPRING 2010
JANUARY 13, 2010
THE SCROLL IS OPENED! - Part 2
REVELATION 7

VII. A PARENTHESIS T6 EXPLAIN WHAT ELSE HAS BEEN HAPPENING
A. "After these things..." means after the things he had just seen, not necessarily the things which happened chronologically after.(Rev 6:12ff, see also Matt.24:14ff)
B. To offer a more detailed explanation of an occurrence of an action after it has been stated generally has biblical example. See for instance Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:4-25
C. With the opening of the seals we have seen what God is doing broadly in the whole world but the brunt of His actions have been focused on an unbelieving world. Is God slack in His promises? Has He been treating the righteous in the same manner as the unrighteous? What about His promise to the righteous to spare them from His wrath?

VIII. GOD'S PRESERVATION OF HIS OWN PEOPLE- 7:1-17
A. The 4 angels holding the winds of earth
1. They were to continue the punishing of unbelief by withholding the winds from cooling the surface of the earth
2. Another angel, with the seal of the living God, tells them to halt the action until he could finish sealing those of the servants of God in Israel.
3. God has a perpetual, everlasting covenant with Israel
a. They are the ones for whom the New Covenant was given. It is a covenant with Israel not the Gentiles…Rom. 9-11; Jer 31:31
b. God has not "cast away" His people, Israel, for they are to be the recipients of the Messiah and His kingdom promised to David.
4. This fifth angel which ascends from the east is about to seal (preserve) unto God the servants of God from the tribes, of Israel.
B. God's preservation of a working group of "priests" from Israel.
1. They are already redeemed for they are His. They have probably already been about the work of witness for the True Christ from somewhere near the beginning of the Tribulation. They would have
been a part of the promised restoration of Israel in Ezekiel 36 and 37 and responsible for the witness that draws in multitudes of Gentiles. These same Gentiles are the ones who are the redeemed in the second half of this chapter! They are the world's greatest evangelists and are the fulfillment of the preaching of the gospel in Matthew 24:14
2. They are being sealed for preservation in the coming judgments which are about to come upon the earth (last 3 ½ years)
3. The tribes of Ephraim and Dan are not included in this list though they are among the inheritors of the kingdom (Ez. 48:1-2, 32). These two tribes had a bent toward idolatry worse than the others
4. Their sealing is for the continued work of the witness of the True Christ in the days of the Great Tribulation. Their sealing is probably around the middle of the Tribulation. It may have been before the Tribulation began.
5. From chapter 14 we see that the 144,000 are indeed a special class of followers of the Lamb. They sing a song only they can know and sing. They are virgins, not defiled with women. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were redeemed as first fruits to God and the Lamb. There is no guile in them and they are without fault before the Throne of God.
C. God's consecrated mass from the Gentiles
1. John here sees a group that no one can number
a. They are from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues
b. They are seen standing before the Throne and before the Lamb
c. They are clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands
d. They sing a very clear song of Salvation which led the angels, the living creatures and the elders to fall down before the Throne and worship God with a voice in unison declaring the glory of God's Being and Work. These are those who have come from the greatest response to the gospel in all of history.
2. One of the elders asks John who these people are. Since John obviously could not know yet he returns the question. The elder's response is
a. They have come out of the Great Tribulation (second half – last 3 ½ years)
b. They have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb and made them white
c. These are believers who have died as martyrs and as well as the horrible and deadly judgments that fall upon the earth
during the Tribulation. We had already seen that martyrdom was going on in the first half of the Tribulation now we see that as the Tribulation goes on and more people turn to the True Christ, more of them will die and be glorified as these are.
d. They are before the Throne and serve Him in the temple day and night (how is there day and night? Which temple - heaven or earth?). The One sitting on the Throne dwells among them
e. They neither hunger nor thirst anymore
f. The sun will not strike them nor any heat as for instance in Rev 16:8 during the fourth bowl judgment
g. The Lamb will shepherd them and lead them to fountains of living water. He will wipe away every tear.