Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #17 of Revelation, chapter 9, and we are going to begin in Revelation 9:6:
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
We were discussing this in our last study and we saw that the phrase “in those days” is identified with “those days, after that tribulation,” according to Mark 13:24. This is a period of time (and the Bible is absolute on this and there is no question or “maybe” about it) that the Bible says, “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened,” which reveals that there are “days” (plural) after the Great Tribulation ends when the sun is dark and the moon is not giving her light and the stars are falling from heaven, and so forth.
Here, in Revelation 9, it is dealing with the very same time after the tribulation (after judgment has been completed upon the congregations) and, remember, back in Revelation, chapter 8, after the Lord was strongly emphasizing judgment on the “third part,” we saw a transition in Revelation 8:13:
And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth…
This was a key phrase signaling the transition from judging the churches, or the “third part,” to now judging all the world. That is what Matthew 24:29 is saying: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened.” In that verse “those days” is a reference to the time of the Great Tribulation, but Mark 13:24 is not worded exactly as Matthew 24:29, but it is worded differently: “In those days, after that tribulation,” and we find that it refers to the “five months” in Revelation 9. We have also learned that this is a figurative time reference; the actual number of days, very likely, will be 1,600 days in duration, and 1,600 days is language that fits “in those days,” the entire period of Judgment Day, when men shall seek death and not find it.
We were also discussing what this “death” is, according to the Bible. The spiritual meaning of this “death” is not the obvious, literal understanding. It does not make sense to seek physical death and not be able to find it; that has never been the case in this world, and it is not the case today. Men are able to find physical death, in one way or another.
But spiritual “death” in Christ is to be identified with the death in Christ. Being baptized into His death only occurs when God saves a sinner. Do people seek that identification? Do people desire to be saved and, therefore, to be baptized into His death? The answer is, yes, definitely; many seek that identification with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We also saw in our last study that God spoke of a certain time that He permitted men to seek that identification: “Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” We saw in Zephaniah 2 that God encouraged people to seek Him before the decree came to pass and before the day of wrath was here. In other words, seek Him before Judgment Day comes. You see, that is the problem we have right now – Judgment Day has already come and people do not understand this; they do not realize that we are now living in the Day of Judgment. Therefore, they think it is cruel and harsh and such a terrible thing to say there is no more salvation and, yet, that is the judgment of God. As a believer you must share the truth that you learn from the Bible, and the truth is that God has brought judgment upon the world in the form of shutting the door to heaven and ending His salvation program. So men will seek salvation now and, yet, not find it, and that is what it says in Revelation 9:6 about those days after the tribulation: And in those days shall men seek death, By the way, if you are taking notes, it would be a good idea if you are taking notes in your Bible, to write above that “salvation” or “death in Christ,” which is one and the same.
And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.
They shall desire to “die” in Christ through salvation and this “death in Christ” shall flee from them. God is not going to cooperate. God is not going to grant salvation or “death in Christ” to anyone, ever again.
Alright, let us look at one more passage before we move on, regarding seeking the Lord Jesus Christ and not being able to find Him. We read in John 7:1:
After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.
There is an interesting statement further on in verse 8 when Jesus’ brethren encouraged Him to go to the feast, He responds in John 7:8:
Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
That is an interesting statement because it reminds us of what it says in Acts, chapter 2, about the Feast of Pentecost, in Acts 2:1:
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come…
On that day in 33 A.D. God poured out the Holy Spirit and greatly blessed the preaching of the apostles, so that 3,000 became saved. It was an indicator that the church age was under way and that is what the Feast of Pentecost (or “firstfruits) had always spiritually signified, but now God was bringing it to pass. Therefore, He made the statement, “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,” or in other words, when the spiritual meaning of the Feast of Pentecost was finally realized or fulfilled.
So that is what Christ is saying here in John 7:8: “Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.” This is indicating that this third major Hebrew feast, in which all the males were to appear before the Lord, was not yet spiritually fulfilled. The significance of the Feast of Tabernacles points to the end of the world, as it is the feast held simultaneously with the Feast of Ingathering, which is the final harvest of the year. The language of the Bible strongly projects that this feast will be fulfilled at the time of the end and, especially, at the time of the destruction of the world. The term “last day” is used twice in association with this feast and six other times it is used in relationship to the resurrection, Judgment Day and the actual last day of Judgment Day for this world. So Christ is indicating that a spiritual fulfillment is yet to come for this feast and once it does occur, it is as though He has gone up to the feast because the time has “full come,” just as it did with the Feast of Pentecost, and the spiritual meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles will then have been fulfilled.
But in this context, where Christ is referring to this feast which points to the end of time, we read some interesting things in John 7:32-34:
The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take him. Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.
Now this is pertinent because we are looking at other language in the Bible where God encourages seekers and, yet, He then points out in Luke 13:24 that once the door is shut, the seekers will not be able to enter. He points out, in Revelation 9:6, that, once the Day of Judgment has come, the seekers after “death in Christ” will not be able to find it.
Then, here in John 7, Jesus is saying that it is “Yet a little while am I with you,” and then He will go to Him that sent Him. Then He says, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me.” What does that “little while” represent and why are seekers unable to find Him after He goes away? And it is so important that it is repeated in John 7:35-36:
Then said the Jews among themselves, Whither will he go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles? What manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am, thither ye cannot come?
Then notice the next verse, in John 7:37:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
There is the language of the “last day” in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles. We have every expectation that God will bring about the resurrection on the “last day.” It will be the rapture of the living saints and it will be the last day of the world; all of the Bible’s language points to that, so this really is establishing a context of Tabernacles leading up to the “last day,” and in that context, the Lord Jesus Christ makes that unusual statement: “Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me.”
You know, this sounds a little like John 9:4:
I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Notice, here, Jesus is indicating he must work the works of the One that sent Him while it is “day,” and we rightly understand that to point to salvation. John 6:29 says, “This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.” So Christ will work the work of faith in sinners; He will save sinners while it is day and that would be the “day of salvation,” and that fits in with what God said in Isaiah 55:6: “Seek ye JEHOVAH while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” But, “the night cometh, when no man can work;” that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, who does the work of salvation in sinners, will no longer work once the “night” comes. Then He makes the statement that as long as He is in the world, He is the light of the world. That statement, together with the previous verse, lets us know He is referring to His work of salvation when He is as the sun shining in its brilliance, enlightening the world with the Gospel unto salvation during a set period of time, an appointed time, by the Father in which men may possibly become saved. All of the elect to be saved would be saved through God’s work of salvation in them through the hearing of His Word.
But then comes the “night” and no man can work and that would point to the end of the work day – the 12-hour day – the end of that last hour, the “eleventh hour.” Remember when God hired laborers to go into the vineyard to work “one hour,” one last hour, and that “hour” identifies with the “one hour” of Great Tribulation.
We find back in John 7:33:
Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.
When we take a closer look at the words which Jesus spoke, we find the two Greek words that are translated here as “little while” and they are the two identical words that are translated as “little season” in the Book of Revelation, two different times. For instance, it says in Revelation 6:11:
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
Here, the context indicates that these souls that are under the altar are those that were saved during the church age. They are told to “rest yet for a little season,” and that would refer to the period of the Great Tribulation, and then their fellow brethren shall be killed as they were. That points to the great multitude that are saved out of great tribulation.
That is one place where “little season” is found and the other is in Revelation 20, and, here, there is no mistaking that we can pinpoint, with great accuracy, exactly what “little season” is referring to, in Revelation 20:3:
And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Now when we read this verse and we look at the language, we know precisely what is going on. Satan was bound at the cross for a figurative “thousand years,” and the “thousand years” represents the completeness of his binding. The Bible indicates that he would be loosed at the end of the church age, at the beginning of the Great Tribulation period. It says, “and after that he must be loosed a little season,” and that can only refer to the Great Tribulation because the “thousand years” ended in 1988 and then the Great Tribulation began for a “little season” of twenty three years. So this phrase “little season,” in both Revelation 6:11 and Revelation 20:3, is describing the entire Great Tribulation period that went from May 21, 1988 to May 21, 2011.
Now, with that in mind, let us go back to John 7:33:
Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.
What do we know about the “little season?” The Great Tribulation is a time in which God reserved the best for last. He brought judgment on the churches, that is true, and no one was saved during that entire period of that “little season,” and that is true, but outside of the churches, God saved a great multitude – tens, upon tens of millions of people from the nations of the world, all outside of the congregations. It was the climax and the conclusion of the day of the Lord. When the Great Tribulation, the “little season,” ended on May 21, 2011, and God had finished pouring out the latter rain and He finished saving all the company of the saints and, therefore, the work that Christ came into the world to perform was complete: “This is the work of God, that ye believe.” So He worked the work while it was day and then the night came (after that last “hour” that finished the work day) and the spiritual night was upon us and the night came “when no man can work,” and John 7:34 follows that pattern and idea: “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.” After the Great Tribulation, and that is the setting of verse 34, which is set up by John 7:33 and its reference to “little season” is identifying with the Great Tribulation at the end of the world, then verse 34 is restating what we find in Revelation 9:6 and in Luke 13:24 and in Matthew 24:29. The day is salvation has closed.
So then Jesus said, “Ye shall seek me.” Once again, this is confirmation that many will seek the Lord during these days after that tribulation. They are going to seek salvation and seek identification with the death of Christ and seek a drop of water, as the rich man. They are going to seek for the door to be ajar just the slightest bit. They are going to seek for the candle to shine once more. They are going to seek for the voice of the bridegroom and the bride. Although they will seek, the Bible gives no encouragement and no indication of “finding.” But, rather, the answer is consistently, “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come,” because Christ is in heaven, and now there is no more salvation, so no more sinners can be seated in the “heavenlies” in Him any longer; they cannot follow and they cannot come into the kingdom of God. They have been thrust out.
This is the grievous judgment that leads up to the last day (John 7:37), and remember what we have learned about the 1,600 days, which is based upon the 1,600 furlongs of Revelation 14, in a chapter which is dealing with Judgment Day, May 21, 2011. Then God gives us that number that just stands out tremendously because 1,600 days, added to 8,400 days, totals 10,000 days, the completeness of the judgment of God. That, in itself, makes it a possibility, but then when we find that 1,600 days after May 21, 2011, falls on October 7, 2015 and that day happens to be the “last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles. So you can see what God is doing here in John 7. He is indicating that “yet a little season,” pointing to the Great Tribulation, in which Christ will work, but then following that: “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me.” That language goes right up to John 7:36:
What< em>manner of saying is this that he said, Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me, and where I am,thither ye cannot come?
Then it says in John 7:37:
In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
You see, for 1,600 days (and, again, let me mention it is a strong possibility) there has been seeking, without finding; there has been desire, without satisfaction. There has been no salvation on the face of the earth. The “last day,” is the 10,000th day, and the 1,600th day, and the number 1,600 breaks down to 40 x 40, the completeness of testing and that final complete day of the judgment of the wrath of God upon the unsaved of the world. It is the “last day” of the Feast of Tabernacles, which the Bible indicates is yet to be fulfilled by God, ending the world and bringing all His people into His kingdom. On that day, Christ cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.” Now it is time for the eternal satisfaction of the thirsty soul; men had received their born again spirits, but now they will be born again in both body and soul – it is the day of the resurrection and the day that God’s people are made complete. Now salvation is complete and God turns the attention to eternity future. Notice what it says in Revelation 21:5-6:
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.