Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #1 of Revelation, chapter 7, and we are going to begin by reading Revelation 7:1-3:
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. 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, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
We are progressing in our study of the Book of Revelation and we are entering into chapter 7, where we will learn some interesting things concerning God’s salvation program. We will find in this chapter that God is going to lay out some details concerning those that He saved during the church age and also those that He saved during the Great Tribulation period. This will set the stage for the information in chapters to come, as the Lord will get more focused on the Great Tribulation and the judgment upon the churches and the judgment on the world at the time of the end, the time we are now living in.
Let us begin with the first verse, in Revelation 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.
We need to mention, as always, that the word “angels” (angelos) is a Greek word which can also properly be translated as “messengers.” Here, God is continuing to give the Apostle John this divine revelation and John sees four messengers “standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth.” We also notice that God is emphasizing the number “four.” There are four angels, four corner of the earth and four winds. It is pretty obvious that God is emphasizing the number “four” because what He is discussing has application to the whole world. It is a universal truth and a universal teaching; it will impact everyone and, therefore, the number “four” is in view. The four corners of the earth represent the four points of the compass: north, south, east and west. That encompasses everything. It is the complete world that is in view.
As we are looking at this verse, we cannot help but notice the reference to the “four winds of the earth,” and this reference to the “four winds of the earth” is not only found here, but God makes reference to the “four winds” in a few other places in the Bible. The “wind” itself is sometimes referred to, but when God speaks of “four winds,” that helps narrow things down and we can go directly to Scriptures where the Lord speaks of “four winds” and we can correctly understand what we are reading in these other places and this will help us in coming to learn what the Lord is telling us in Revelation 7:1. Let us begin by going to the Book of Zechariah, the next to the last Book in the Old Testament. It says in Zechariah 2:6-7:
Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the north, saith JEHOVAH: for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith JEHVOAH. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.
Here, God is speaking to His people. It is basically a command to “come out of her, my people,” as we read in Revelation, chapter 18. He is directing them to “flee from the land of the north.” The Babylonians came out of the north against the southern nation of Judah, historically, and God is directing His people to come out of Babylon, “For I have spread you abroad.” The Lord is speaking of His people. They are the ones that have been spread abroad “as the four winds of the heaven, saith JEHOVAH.” This is interesting because it likens the “four winds” to God’s people, to those that are coming out of Babylon.
By the way, that helps us to understand a reference such as we find in Matthew 24:29, which is that verse we are becoming increasingly familiar with, day by day: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened.” And in that context of Judgment Day (the present time we are living in), it says in Matthew 24:31:
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
You see, that goes hand in hand with what we read in Zechariah 2. God’s people came out of Babylon and verse 7 said: “Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon.” Again, when God speaks of “delivering thyself” and “coming out of Babylon,” He has in view becoming saved – to experience deliverance from sin, deliverance from the kingdom of Satan. Once delivered, we are translated into the Kingdom of God’s dear son and we have come out of Babylon, spiritually. In Zechariah God’s elect are encouraged to come out from the land of the north, and once they have become delivered and have experienced the salvation of God, they are likened to being spread abroad as the “four winds.” So that is indicating that God’s people are saved; they are outside of the kingdom of Satan; they are not a part of that spiritual Babylon. They are part of the Kingdom of Christ.
In the Day of Judgment, the Lord sends His messengers with a great sound of a trumpet and they go about gathering together his elect and we have learned recently that this time period is a time of “reaping” and reaping means to gather the fruit, so Matthew 24:31 is picturing the Feast of Ingathering, which is held in conjunction with the Feast of Tabernacles. When we reach 10,000 days (and the 1,600th day of this period of judgment has concluded, if we are correct about that), then that will be the last day of Tabernacles and also the last day of the Feast of Ingathering, as God would have completed this process. He saved His people and, therefore, they were scattered abroad as the “four winds.” They are all over the earth, but then there is a process of “reaping” or gathering them together and that will be completed by the last day on the Feast of Tabernacles, which would also be the last day of the Feast of Ingathering.
Well, these are two places that we find reference to the “four winds,” in Zechariah 2 and Matthew 24, but we also find it in another interesting place in Ezekiel, chapter 37, where the Lord is giving Ezekiel instructions to preach or prophesy to the “dead, dry bones” and he does so. It says in Ezekiel 37:7-10:
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.
Here, God is giving us a wonderful and beautiful illustration of what He did when He saved a “great multitude” of sinners out of the Great Tribulation. They were spiritually dead – as dead as you can possibly be and, yet, God commanded that there be prophesying from the direction of the “four winds.”
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
The “four winds,” as we consider what God said in Zechariah 2, would be where God’s people were found outside of the kingdom of Satan. Since the kingdom of Satan included the churches and congregations during the period of Great Tribulation when God was sending forth the “latter rain” to save that great multitude, we can know this is a reference to the Word of God coming from “outside” of the churches and congregations and accomplishing the purpose the Lord sent it forth to accomplish, the salvation of a great many souls from every nation and tribe and tongue and people. This is the glorious picture we are seeing here in Ezekiel, chapter 37.
Notice, also, that it says: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain.” This reminds us of our verse in Revelation 7:1, as it says:
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.
The word “blow” that we see here is also found in the Gospel of John and it is used in an interesting way. It says in John 3:5-8:
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Now, in these verses we see that the blowing of the wind is likened to the working of God’s Spirit. God’s spirit – His Word – breathes upon sinners and they become saved. That is the picture in Ezekiel 37:9:
Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Of course, that would be like the wind blowing, yet, God has in view the idea of His Word and His Spirit coming forth and creating life in spiritually dead souls, so the prophesying that comes forth from the “four winds” was able to bring salvation and it is also able, therefore, to blow upon the wicked in the form of bringing judgment. That is more the case in our verse in Revelation 7, verse 1, as the winds are held back from hurting and, therefore, we could understand that the Lord has in view that the Word of God that will be declared by His people from their position outside the churches and congregations will “blow” and declare the information from the Word of God which brings judgment upon those that hear it.
You know, we see the wind blowing in judgment in Matthew 7:24-27:
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
Here, the winds are beating upon the house and, finally, causing it to fall. We think of great storms, like a hurricane, that come every year and the tremendous winds that are found within those storms that are able to completely blow away homes. That is what God is saying here, but the “winds” that are blowing are a spiritual reference to the Word of God which is pronouncing judgment. For instance, as we entered into the period when the church age ended and judgment began at the house of God, these things became known from the Word of God and the Word of God destroyed the house of God (the churches and congregations of the world,) and they were destroyed, spiritually, by the declaration of the Word of God. The information came forth from the Bible; it was “God breathed,” as all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and God sent forth His Word and it accomplished the purpose of pronouncing the judgment that completely destroyed the entity that was the corporate church. So the winds blew upon the churches and, since they had no foundation because the Lord Jesus had departed from them, they had no ability to withstand against the fierce “winds” that came forth from the wrath of God. The Bible tells us that not one stone was left upon another; their house has fallen.
Likewise, the Word of God is that which is pronouncing the judgment in the Day of Judgment, which began May 21, 2011, and it is the fierce “winds that are blowing and bringing forth this news from the Bible that is bringing damage and destruction and spiritual hurt to the inhabitants of the earth.
Well, let us just look at one more place before we finish our study. In Jeremiah, chapter 49, we read of God’s judgment upon Elam and I will read Jeremiah 49:34-38:
The word of JEHOVAH that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying, Thus saith JEHOVAH of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith JEHOVAH; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them: And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith JEHOVAH. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith JEHOVAH.
Now this is an interesting passage that God has given us and we find our phrase, the “four winds from the four quarters of heaven,” and we wonder what God is saying. Who does Elam represent? As we search the Bible for references to Elam, we are helped with what we find in Daniel, chapter 8, and this will help us to understand the entire passage we just read. It says in Daniel 8:1-2:
In the third year of the reign of king Belshazzar a vision appeared unto me, even unto me Daniel, after that which appeared unto me at the first. And I saw in a vision; and it came to pass, when I saw, that I was at Shushan in the palace, which is in the province of Elam; and I saw in a vision, and I was by the river of Ulai.
Here, Daniel is still in Babylonian captivity. King Belshazzar is the King of Babylon and Daniel is at Shusan in the palace and the palace would be where the King reigns from, and that palace is in the province of Elam. This means that Elam is a very important province of Babylon because that is where the palace of the King of Babylon was found. Therefore, we can understand that Elam is a representation of Babylon, so what God is saying here of Elam would apply to Babylon. Once we see that connection, then we do understand, for instance, verse 36:
And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds;
This is very similar to what we read in Zechariah 2, where God was encouraging His people to flee from the land of the north, from Babylon. Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 49:36:
… and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
That would be in keeping with God’s people being spread abroad as the “four winds of the heaven.” Then it says in Jeremiah 49:37:
For I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith JEHOVAH; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.
Now we can see that the blowing of the four winds, as God brought the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, identifies here with the wrath of God as He is bringing evil upon Elam (Babylon), and then it says in Jeremiah 49:38:
And I will set my throne in Elam…
Once the King of the Medes and the Persians (Cyrus, also known as Darius) conquered Babylon, we find that he became the King of Babylon. Likewise, once God conquered the kingdom of Satan on the Day of Judgment, the Lord Jesus Christ took over the throne and began to reign over all that Satan once reigned over. So, right now, it is the Lord that reigns with a “rod of iron” over this world.
We will continue looking at Revelation 7:1 and consider what God is saying there, when we get together in our next Bible study.