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Rev 7:1-3 Part 4, Sealing The 144,000

[Study Aired May 31, 2024]

We are in chapter 7 of the book of Revelation. Christ has opened six of the seven seals which have the contents of this book closed and hidden from the multitudes who come to Christ. At this point in the revelation of Jesus Christ within us, the holy spirit pauses before opening the seventh seal which is the revelation of the blowing of the seven trumpet judgments upon the kingdom of our old man. Before the Lord shows us the contents of the seventh seal, which reveals our judgment being spiritually administered upon us through seven trumpet judgments, the holy spirit has seen fit to pause here and assure us that all men of all time will eventually be reconciled to their Creator. Because our Lord knows that we cannot endure these judgments without His comfort and encouragement, He pauses at the opening of the seventh seal to tell us that if we are given to “endure to the end” (Mat 10:22) then “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us” as His “overcomer… firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” (Rom 8:18, Rev 2:26, Rev 14:4). The seventh trumpet judgment is the pouring out of the seven last plagues which fill up God’s wrath upon the kingdom of our old man which has been dominated by a great spiritual whore. The Lord knows our frame, and He knows that it is at this point, just before we come to see and experience the fullness of His wrath upon the kingdom of our old man, that we, as the Lord Himself, need to be told that He has chosen us to be His “144,000… firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” (Rev 14:4), and that through our mercy (Rom 11:30-31), “a great multitude which no man can number… all in Adam” will be dragged to Himself:

Joh 12:32  And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Rev 7:9  After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Rev 7:13  And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14  And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15  Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

We have seen that the number four signifies the whole, or all of whatever is under   consideration. We have also come to know that the 144,00 and the “great multitude which no man could number, together they signify the whole or all of mankind of all time.

What are the four winds of the earth?

We have just seen that the spiritual significance of the number four is to signify the whole of that to which the spirit is drawing our attention. In this case it is the “winds of the earth.” The earth with all of its kingdoms is but a speck of dust in God’s heavens, and the sea is just part of God’s earth.

Isa 40:15  Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

Consequently, we see the heavens and the earth mentioned together many times. For example:

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Psa 134:3  The LORD that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion.

The phrase “heaven and earth” is used many times in scripture to encompass the whole of creation, both physical and spiritual. How does God work with His creation? God uses the whole of His spiritual creation to deal with His physical creation. So, the use in scripture of the phrase “the four winds,” is a way of acknowledging that God is the Father of the whole spirit world and “by His spirit… He rules in the kingdoms of men”:

Job 26:13  By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Dan 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

Heb 12:9  Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected [us], and we gave [them] reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

All the protestations of all the ministers of Babylon to the contrary, this includes both the good and the evil spirits. They all come from the “Father of spirits.”

1Sa 16:14  But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.
1Sa 16:15  And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

1Ki 22:23  Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.

Pro 16:2  All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the LORD weigheth the spirits.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Here are a few very revealing verses which tell us what the “four winds of the earth” are.

Jer 49:36  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.

How does God scatter the whole of His enemies? He does so with “those four winds.”

How will God give life to the whole of mankind? He will do so with “the four winds.”

Eze 37:9  Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
Eze 37:10  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.

Remember all Israel will be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles is come in.

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
Rom 11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

How does God work with the beast which is the whole of mankind? He does it through the four winds, and the result is four creatures in Daniel, which are revealed to actually be one composite creature within us all in the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
Dan 7:3  And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
Dan 7:4  The first was like a lion, and had eagle’s wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
Dan 7:5  And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
Dan 7:6  After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
Dan 7:7  After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

What is that fourth beast which was different from the other beasts? That beast is the great red dragon who is the father of us all while we are his children.

Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

What do the children of this dragon look like? Here they are. Like Daniel’s four beasts, this composite beast also comes up “out of the sea,” looking like those very same beasts in Daniel 7.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2  And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The spiritual significance of these four beasts in Daniel’s prophecy is to show us that all the things that happened to Israel, signifying God’s people today, at the hands of the various Gentile kingdoms of old, signifying the government of this world today, “happened to them and are written for us upon whom the ends of this age are come.”

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“All these things… are written for our admonition,” because it is “every word” coming upon us all at the hands of “the four winds of the earth.”

What is the sea?

As we saw in the story of the six days of creation, the earth itself, and therefore all upon it, comes up out of the sea and is separated from the sea. What is the spiritual significance of the sea? Here is a verse which, along with every other verse containing the word ‘sea’, gives us the answer to what is the spiritual significance of the sea. The sea is the symbol of all that is flesh. The sea is the ‘abussos‘ or the abyss of scripture. The sea is all flesh of all time.

Psa 18:16  He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.

Isa 17:13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but [God] shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

Speaking of Babylon in both the Old and New Testaments, Babylon is found to be sitting on “many waters.”

Jer 51:1  Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

Jer 51:13  O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.

What exactly are these “many waters?” Here is what the sea and many waters are:

Rev 17:15  And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

We have demonstrated that the heaven and the earth are very symbiotic. This symbiotic relationship extends to and includes the heaven, the earth and the sea. All three are an essential part of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Gen 1:9  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Act 4:24  And when they [the disciples] heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:

Act 14:15  And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

It is obvious that God thinks of these three as a unit. He sees them all as the work of His hand. Each of these three, just like the three festival seasons in the year, are symbolic of the three stages of the process of salvation.

Here, of course, is the true heaven:

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [the blood of bulls and goats]; but the heavenly things themselves [those in whom Christ dwells] with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us [God dwells in His people (Rev 21:3)]:

Rev 21:3  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Both the earth and the seas are “under the heavens,” and yet they are within, and are a vital part of the heavens as surely as the “waters under the earth” are a part of the earth.

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
Gen 1:21  And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.
Gen 1:22  And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

Notice that “the fowl… fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven,” and still we are told that the “fowl multiply in the earth.” So, the “fowl of the heaven” are also the fowl which “multiply in the earth.”

It is Christ Himself who gives us our understanding of the spiritual significance of the fowls that fly in the firmament of the heavens when He tells us it is the fowls who “catch away that which was sown in his heart.”

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

What was the spiritual type of “the wicked one” in this parable? What was the spiritual type which catches away “that which was sown in his heart?” It was the fowls that fly in the firmament of heaven.

Mat 13:4  And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

So “the four winds of the earth,” are the exact same “four winds of heaven,” which blow in the expanse of the firmament of the heavens which are above the earth. Look at how Christ uses this phrase “the four winds.” Notice how they are used in the same verse of both the heaven and the earth.

Mat 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.

If this were all we had to go by, we might not see the intimate connection between the works of God in the heavens and the works of God which are done on earth. This is not the only account of this prophecy. Here is Mark’s account, which adds much to the sum of God’s Word on this subject.

Mar 13:27  And then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.

Now we should have a deeper appreciation for these Words of our Lord, which demonstrate the symbiotic nature of the heavens and the earth.:

Mat 16:19  And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be [Greek: esomai,  shall have been] bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be [Greek: esomai, shall have been] loosed in heaven.

When we put the sum of God’s word in Matthew 16:19 together with Luke 17:20, we see that this “kingdom of heaven” also known as “the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

When we put these verses together with Matthew 4:4, we discover that we are all, in due time, given the keys to “the kingdom of God within you.”

Mat 4:4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

When we put together the sum of God’s Word concerning “the four winds of the earth,” we find that they are really the same as “the four winds of heaven,” which are the winds which blow in the expanse of “the firmament which is above the earth.”

Gen 1:20  And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

What is so revealing for us about all the scriptures in the Old Testament which contain the phrase “four winds” is that the Hebrew word for ‘winds’ in every case is the Hebrew word ‘ruach‘, which is generally translated ‘spirit.’ Here is the e-sword breakdown of how this word is translated in the King James Version.

H7307
ru ach
Total KJV Occurrences: 379
spirit, 227
Gen_6:2-3 (2), Gen_41:8, Gen_41:38, Gen_45:27, Exo_6:9, Exo_31:3 (2), Exo_35:21, Exo_35:31, Num_5:14 (2), Num_5:30, Num_11:17, Num_11:25-26 (3), Num_11:29, Num_14:24, Num_24:2, Num_27:18, Deu_2:30, Deu_34:9, Jos_5:1, Jdg_3:10, Jdg_6:34, Jdg_9:23, Jdg_11:29, Jdg_13:25, Jdg_14:6, Jdg_14:19, Jdg_15:14, Jdg_15:19, 1Sa_1:15, 1Sa_10:6, 1Sa_10:10, 1Sa_11:6, 1Sa_16:13-16 (5), 1Sa_16:23 (2), 1Sa_18:10, 1Sa_19:9, 1Sa_19:20, 1Sa_19:23, 1Sa_30:12, 2Sa_23:2, 1Ki_10:5, 1Ki_18:12, 1Ki_21:5, 1Ki_22:21-24 (4), 2Ki_2:9, 2Ki_2:15-16 (2), 1Ch_5:26 (2), 1Ch_12:18, 1Ch_28:12, 2Ch_9:4, 2Ch_15:1, 2Ch_18:20-23 (4), 2Ch_20:14, 2Ch_21:16, 2Ch_24:20, 2Ch_36:22, Ezr_1:1, Ezr_1:5, Neh_9:20, Neh_9:30, Job_4:15, Job_6:4, Job_15:11-13 (3), Job_21:3-4 (2), Job_26:13, Job_27:3, Job_32:8, Job_32:18, Job_33:4, Job_34:14, Psa_31:5, Psa_32:2, Psa_34:18, Psa_51:10-12 (3), Psa_51:17, Psa_76:12, Psa_77:3, Psa_77:6, Psa_78:8, Psa_104:30, Psa_106:33, Psa_139:7, Psa_143:3-4 (2), Psa_143:7, Psa_143:10, Pro_1:23, Pro_11:13, Pro_14:29, Pro_15:4, Pro_15:13, Pro_16:18-19 (2), Pro_16:32, Pro_17:22, Pro_17:27, Pro_18:14 (2), Pro_25:28, Pro_29:23, Ecc_1:14, Ecc_1:17, Ecc_2:11, Ecc_2:17, Ecc_2:26, Ecc_3:21 (2), Ecc_4:4, Ecc_4:6, Ecc_4:16, Ecc_6:9, Ecc_7:8-9 (3), Ecc_8:8 (2), Ecc_11:4-5 (2), Ecc_12:7, Isa_4:4 (2), Isa_19:2-3 (5), Isa_19:14, Isa_26:9, Isa_28:6, Isa_29:10, Isa_29:24, Isa_30:1, Isa_31:3, Isa_38:15-16 (3), Isa_40:7, Isa_40:13, Isa_42:1, Isa_42:5, Isa_44:3, Isa_48:16, Isa_54:6, Isa_57:15-16 (3), Isa_59:19, Isa_59:21, Isa_61:1, Isa_61:3, Isa_63:10-11 (2), Isa_65:14 (2), Isa_66:2, Eze_1:11-12 (2), Eze_1:20-21 (4), Eze_2:2, Eze_3:12, Eze_3:14 (2), Eze_3:24, Eze_8:3, Eze_10:17, Eze_11:1, Eze_11:5, Eze_11:19, Eze_11:24 (2), Eze_13:3, Eze_18:31, Eze_21:7, Eze_36:26-27 (2), Eze_37:1, Eze_37:14, Eze_39:29, Eze_43:5, Dan_2:1, Dan_2:3, Hos_4:12, Hos_5:4, Joe_2:28-29 (2), Mic_2:7, Mic_2:11, Mic_3:8, Hag_1:14 (3), Zec_4:5-6 (2), Zec_6:8, Zec_7:12, Zec_12:1, Zec_12:10, Zec_13:2, Mal_2:16
wind, 82
Gen_8:1, Exo_10:13 (2), Exo_10:19, Exo_14:21, Exo_15:10, Num_11:31, 2Sa_22:11, 1Ki_18:45, 1Ki_19:11 (3), 2Ki_3:17, Job_1:19, Job_6:26, Job_7:7, Job_15:2 (2), Job_21:18, Job_30:15, Job_30:22, Job_37:21, Psa_1:4, Psa_18:10, Psa_18:42, Psa_35:5, Psa_48:7, Psa_78:39, Psa_83:13, Psa_103:16, Psa_104:3, Psa_107:25, Psa_135:7, Psa_147:18, Psa_148:8, Pro_11:29, Pro_25:14, Pro_25:23, Pro_27:16, Pro_30:4, Ecc_1:6 (2), Ecc_5:16, Ecc_11:4, Isa_7:2, Isa_11:15, Isa_17:13, Isa_26:18, Isa_27:8, Isa_32:2, Isa_41:16, Isa_41:29, Isa_57:13, Isa_64:6, Jer_2:24, Jer_10:11-13 (4), Jer_13:24, Jer_14:6, Jer_18:17, Jer_22:22, Jer_51:1, Jer_51:16, Eze_5:2, Eze_12:14, Eze_13:11, Eze_13:13, Eze_17:10, Eze_19:12, Eze_27:26, Eze_37:9 (2), Hos_4:19, Hos_8:7, Hos_12:1, Hos_13:15, Amo_4:13, Jon_1:4, Zec_5:8-9 (2)
breath, 27
Gen_6:17, Gen_7:15, 2Sa_22:16, Job_4:9, Job_9:18, Job_12:10, Job_15:30, Job_17:1, Job_19:17, Psa_18:15, Psa_33:6, Psa_104:29, Psa_135:17, Psa_146:4, Ecc_3:19, Isa_11:4, Isa_30:28, Isa_33:11, Jer_10:14, Jer_51:17, Lam_4:20, Eze_37:5-6 (2), Eze_37:8-10 (3), Hab_2:19
winds, 11
Job_28:25, Jer_49:32, Jer_49:36 (2), Eze_5:10, Eze_5:12, Eze_17:21, Eze_37:9, Dan_8:8, Dan_11:4, Zec_2:6
mind, 6
Gen_26:35, Pro_29:11, Eze_11:5, Eze_20:32, Dan_5:20, Hab_1:11
side, 5
Jer_52:23, Eze_42:16-19 (4)
spirits, 5
Num_16:22, Num_27:16, Psa_104:4, Pro_16:2, Zec_6:5
blast, 4
Exo_15:8, 2Ki_19:7, Isa_25:4, Isa_37:7
vain, 2
Job_16:2-3 (2)
air, 1
Job_41:16
anger, 1
Jdg_8:3
cool, 1
Gen_3:8
courage, 1
Jos_2:11
quarters, 1
1Ch_9:24
sides, 1
Eze_42:20
spiritual, 1
Hos_9:7
tempest, 1
Psa_11:6
whirlwind, 1
Eze_1:4
windy, 1
Psa_55:8

So, when we read in Daniel:

Dan 7:2  Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.

We now know from all the scriptures we have just seen the spiritual definition and the spiritual meaning of the number four, the spiritual meaning of ‘the earth,’ the spiritual significance of the phrase ‘the four winds,’ and the spiritual meaning of the word ‘sea.’ We now know that God uses His spirit to deal with and to form the vessel that was made of clay upon the Potter’s wheel which we now know to be our own individual physical bodies in this eon, which the scriptures refer as “chronos aonios” (times eonian).

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called [us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Or, as the Concordant Version puts it:

2Ti 1:9 Who saves us and calls us with a holy calling, not in accord with our acts, but in accord with His own purpose and the grace which is given to us in Christ Jesus before times eonian,

Next week, Lord willing, we will learn what trees are in scripture, and we will discover why the four angels cannot hurt the earth, the sea or the trees until after the servants of our God are sealed in their foreheads.

Rev 7:3  Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.