Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #2 of Revelation, chapter 7, and we are going to be reading the first three verses.  It says in 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.

These verses are very important because they are going to establish God’s overall program of salvation and judgment.  God first sealed His servants “in their foreheads,” and that is language that pictures salvation.  Lord willing, at a later time, we will look at the word “sealed” and we will see how that ties in with those that God saved.  But, for now, it is just good to know that in these verses God is indicating that the wrath and judgment of God that will come from the direction of the “four winds” will not blow upon the earth, sea or any tree until these servants of God have been “sealed.” 

Now this has some application to the judgment of God upon the churches.  God would not bring His judgment on the churches and congregations until the “completeness” of the firstfruits, the 144,000, had come in; that is, all those that God intended to save during the 1,955 years of the church age had to first become saved before God would end his evangelization of the world through the churches – before He would end the church age. 

That is no problem for God to do; He orchestrated things perfectly and He had all of His elect born at certain times and in certain lands where they would eventually hear the Gospel before they died and God saved them through the many centuries of the church age, until, finally, He saved the last one to be saved (whoever that was) and then He ended the church age.  He removed His Spirit from the midst of the congregations and He loosed Satan, who had been bound for the figurative one thousand year period, and Satan entered into the congregations.  At that point (once judgment began at the house of God) never again would another individual become saved within the churches; the “firstfruits” had already been gathered.  The 144,000, as we will see as we continue on in Revelation 7, is the figure that God assigns to those that were saved during the church age and that also is a figurative number to represent the “fullness” of God’s elect that were saved over that period of almost 2,000 years.

Here, again, God is speaking to these four angels (or messengers) that are on the four corners of the earth and this points to the universality or worldwide scope of what is in view.  They are holding back the “four winds of the earth.”  They are holding back the wrath of God and another angel, in verse 2, is ascending from the east, and that is the direction that identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Of course, Christ is also a messenger of God.  He is the Messenger of the Covenant, so without question, this other angel is Christ and He is “ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.”  That also fits since the seal relates to God saving individuals and it is Christ who does the saving.  The elect of God are saved by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ – it is the work of Christ and this is the work the Father had given Him to do.  So He possesses 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.”  That is interesting language.  What does it mean when God says that is given to them “to hurt the earth and the sea”?  For instance, how do you hurt the earth?  What would have to happen to the earth in order for it to be considered hurt?  Again, Lord willing, we will look at the word “earth” as we continue in the future to go through these verses.  There is a lot of Biblical information that will be helpful to us in understanding a great many verses, once we properly understand this passage.  Hopefully, we will understand why it was given to the four angels to “hurt” the earth and the sea. 

Again, this angel ascending from the east goes on to say, in Revelation 7:3:

Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.

The implication is that once the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads (or do become saved), the four angels (messengers) may proceed to “hurt” the earth and the sea and the trees.

So, that is where we want to begin right now, with this Greek word that is translated as “hurt” in these verses.  What does that mean?  What is this word pointing to?  Well, occasionally, this particular Greek word is translated as “wrong.”  For instance, it says in Matthew 20:13:

But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

This is the “householder” that gave payment to his laborers and some were murmuring because they worked longer than others and, yet, all received an equal wage, and the householder is saying he did not “wrong” them, and that is the same word translated as “hurt.”

We also find this word translated as “wrong” in Acts, in reference to an incident involving Moses.   It says in Acts 7:24-27:

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him,*and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?

In this passage, we see the word “wrong” three times and, really, when the one individual did “wrong” to his neighbor, he injured him or hurt him.  This Greek word, Strong’s #91, is actually translated (I think) one time as “injured.”  That is the idea: he did “harm” to his neighbor and in this case it was in a physical way. 

But let us continue in looking at this word.  In Luke, chapter 10, we find it translated as “hurt.”  It says in Luke 10:19:

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

In this case, the Lord is speaking to His people that had gone forth “two by two” to share the word of God and they are rejoicing.  Christ is letting them know that they will have power or authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, which are words to represent the ungodly or the unsaved that bring other kinds of gospels or those that we today would call “professed believers,” which use the Bible, but they are not true believers.  They are not really God’s elect and, therefore, the gospel that they bring is a gospel that cannot save anyone, not even when it was the day of salvation.  God would not save individuals through the hearing of lies.  He reserved that for the proclamation of the truth, the faithful putting forth of the Word of God.  That was how God saved – when an individual would hear truth – because Jesus said, “I am the Truth.”  And who is associated with lies, but Satan, and no one can be saved by Satan and his gospels which his emissaries brought; it never saved anyone.  And, yet, even though God’s elect (that had not yet become saved) may, for a period of time, have come under the hearing of false teaching or false gospels, it would not “hurt” them because God would not permit that; He would make certain His people did become saved.  This is a similar idea to what we find in Mark 16, where the Lord is speaking of what typifies the true believers, and it says in Mark 16:17-18:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Now we need to point out that the Greek word translated as “hurt” in Mark 16 is not the same word that we have in our verse in Revelation 7 or in the other places we looked, but it is the same idea that is being expressed: God’s people cannot be injured, spiritually; they cannot be “hurt” or killed by anything.  God predestinated them to salvation and, at this point, everyone that was to become saved, has become saved.  They are safe and secure. 

There is no more warfare waging over whether there is one of God’s elect, still unsaved and in Satan’s kingdom of darkness, who needs to hear the Gospel, and with Satan doing battle in order to prevent it.  That is all past.  It is all done and none of God’s elect were ever “hurt” spiritually by the efforts of Satan and his emissaries (in the churches our without) as they designed and brought forth other kinds of teachings from the Bible with other gospels that tried to identify as closely with the true Gospel as possible, while trying to deceive and lead people off that “narrow way” and into that broad way.  It was always Satan’s end purpose to cause one of God’s chosen to fail to become saved and, therefore, die in his or her sins and be destroyed, and to disappoint God and make God’s program of election of none effect.  Yet, he failed for centuries and centuries and centuries, until now it is an utter and complete failure because God’s program to find the lost sheep of the house of Israel has now been completed and all the sheep have been found. 

Now it is not a matter of finding sheep, which “evangelization” was all about; that is, the sending forth of the Gospel that individuals might hear and become saved and, therefore, be “found.”  But now it is a matter of “feeding sheep,” because all of the sheep have been found and now it is just taking care of them and spiritually nourishing them with the truth of the Word of God.

Let us go to Revelation, chapter 2, and we are going to find a verse that really defines the passage that we are looking at in Revelation 7:1, as far as this word “hurt” is concerned.  It says in Revelation 2:11:

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

“He that overcometh” is someone that is overcome in Christ, as Christ overcame all, to win the victory.  That is what the word “overcome” means: to be victorious, to be the conqueror and the winner of the battle.  Christ did so and all those that are in Christ are the “seed of Abraham” and have overcome in Him and none of them shall be “hurt of the second death;” that is, that final judgment of God in which He will destroy the sinner for evermore.  That “second death” began once God shut the door of Heaven; at that point, He guaranteed the destruction of every unsaved individual in the world.  He guaranteed that they will, finally, at the end of Judgment Day, be completely destroyed and annihilated.  That is the “hurt” that our verse in Revelation 1:7 is referring to.  First the Lord Jesus (the ascending angel from the east that has the seal of the living God) gives instructions to the four angels “to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea.”

The four messengers bring forth the Word of God that will declare and pronounce the condemnation of the wicked and it was said to them: “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.”  We are presently living in the time when all of God’s elect have become saved and, therefore, sealed, and that means we are living in the time when the “four angels” are no longer constrained.  They are no longer bound.  They are no longer held back from performing this task to “hurt” the earth and the sea and the trees.

Lord willing, as we continue on (and this is important for us to keep looking at), we will be greatly helped in many passages of the Bible, once we get a proper understanding of what is going on here.  Actually, it will help us in the coming chapters of Revelation 8 and Revelation 9.  Revelation 8 describes God wrath falls upon the churches and Revelation 9 describes God’s wrath falling upon the world.  In other words, God is “hurting” them and He is doing so because of what is said here: first, the servants of God were sealed in their foreheads, which then frees up the “four messengers” to begin their task to “hurt” the earth.