Giving God some Elbow Room
We have so much to learn, don’t we? I know I do. Did you ever consider making room in your life for God to act? Haven’t we all boxed God into a particular way to interact with us?
We should give Him some “elbow room” to move more freely. We can often over-calculate or estimate when and how this or that could occur. As an accountant, I ran many “what if” scenarios in my younger years. It can drive others a little crazy. If you are not careful, you could overlook God and His plan. He always chooses when, where, and how He moves.
Do not look for God to come in a specific way but do look for Him. Be alert, but do not expect Him to move in a certain way or how He has done before. Learn this great lesson: At any minute, God may break through. There is always this element of surprise! Stay alert and remember, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.” Isaiah 55:8
~~~ a paraphrase from Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), My Utmost for His Highest, pg 35.
Book of Revelation – Chapter 10
We are now at another lull in the judgments. This break lies between the sixth and seventh trumpet blasts and continues throughout chapter 10 and into chapter 11, verse 14. Did you wonder what God and Satan have been up to during the blowing of the trumpets? We are about to find out. Be assured that God has not abandoned this besieged planet to His foes.
We now turn our eyes upon Jesus in the first three verses of chapter 10. Check out His character. “And I saw another angel (this is the Lord Jesus Christ) come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud and a rainbow was upon His head, and His face was as it were the sun, and His feet as pillars of fire.” A few things to notice:
(a) Christ, in His deity, is usually surrounded by a cloud. Refer to these passages: Psalm 97:2, Exodus 16:10, 19:9 & 16, 40:34 & 38, Matthew 17:5, Luke 21:27, Revelation 1:7.
(b) The rainbow pictures mercy amid judgment. After the great flood, God made a covenant with Noah by placing a rainbow in the sky, symbolic of His mercy.
(c) Often, pictured as One with a shining face like the sun is Christ.
(d) Christ’s feet as pillars of fire picture judgment. Refer to chapter 1, verse 15.
Verse 2 draws attention to Christ’s claims. “He had a little book open (containing the record of judgments to be unleased) in His hand, and He set His right foot upon the sea and His left foot on the earth.” Jesus Christ is preparing to take control of the earth and sea. They all rightfully belong to Him. At any moment, He will rise from the throne and make the formal assertion of His right to reign. But this is not His final coming, for other things must first occur.
Verse 3 draws attention to His cry. The Angel “cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars and seven thunders uttered their voices when He had cried.” This cry is a cry of warning of impending danger. John was about to write down what he heard the seven thunders said, but he was forbidden to do so by God. “Seal up those things the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.” We will know someday, but presently GOD commands that this one portion of Scripture be kept secret.
With the final trumpet blast, the Tribulation hour comes to an end. There will be no more waiting periods, no more delays from this point forward. We are now at midnight on the prophetic time clock. There will be great rejoicing in heaven at the proclamation of this news.
Taken out of Christ’s hand is the open book of judgments. John eats or devours the book (he studies and digests the information and knowledge in God’s Word). Absorbing God’s Word through study and personal application it’s both sweet and bitter at times, as it should be with us. John must prophesy before many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings. He is faithful to the end, proclaiming the good news and the bad, presenting the sweet and the bitter. He does this in the following chapters.
Special note to the reader: chapters 12 through 19:15 run concurrently with the judgments already discussed and are considered a repeat of chapters 6 through 11.
Book of Revelation – Chapter 7
Chapter 7 is God’s parenthesis or pause until the opening of the last seal. He is informing us of what lies ahead for His people (Israelites and Gentiles) in the terrible period of trial that follows the Rapture of the Church. This chapter may be divided into two portions dealing with two groups and portrays God as compassionate, merciful, and loving. These saved and sealed multitudes are probably the fruit of the ministry of the two mysterious witnesses (to be discussed later).
In verses 1 through 8, four angels hold back the four winds. This pause gives time for a great revival on earth after the Church is gone. These servant multitudes are sealed by God in their foreheads. Also, during this stillness, 144,000 Jews are sealed. There are 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. As God lays claim to His own, that does not mean they necessarily escape the everyday disasters of earth. It does mean that God watches over them and takes careful note of their affairs. Notice there are two very different groups of people in chapter 7. “One company is Jewish (144,000); the other is Gentile. One passes unscathed through the fiery furnace of the Tribulation; the other is martyred to the very last man.” (John Phillips commentary, page 110). The sealed 144,000 defy the totality of Satan’s secular dominion. The sealed multitude of Gentiles saved during the Tribulation will close their testimony with their blood.
During the Tribulation hour, the presence of the Holy Spirit exists. In the passage of 1 Thessalonians 2:6-7, the Holy Spirit is the Hinderer. Since the Holy Spirit lives within all believers in Christ and He is everywhere, only His restraining influence over sin is removed during the Tribulation hour when the Church is Raptured home to heaven. His continued presence on earth produces one of the greatest revivals in the history of humanity. While we (believers) remain on earth, we are the salt of the earth and the world’s light, as stated in Matthew 5:13-16.
In verses 9 through 17, John sees a multitude of new believers standing before the throne of GOD. He doesn’t know who they are since they came after the Church went to heaven. This multitude comes out of the Great Tribulation. These glorious martyrs have not died yet; they may not even have been born, but God wants the saints of all ages to know about them. Hence, the reason for revealing them now.
Each group of believers saved during different dispensations of time has various duties to perform.
(1) The Church is the bride of Christ and enjoys the 1,000-year honeymoon upon the earth (chapter 20, verse 4), reigning with Christ as rulers, kings, and priests (1 Peter 2:9 and Revelation 1:6).
(2) The 144,000 serve as bodyguards of the Lamb (the Lord Jesus Christ) and His bride (the Church) – see chapter 14, verse 4.
(3) The Gentiles saved during the Tribulation will be Temple servants, waiting on Christ and His bride. They serve in the glorious Temple described in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48.
Man’s wickedness, rebellion, and sin produce these judgments. “They that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8). God, in love, creates a lull before the storm to call men to salvation and revival.
Now, Chapter 8 and the subsequent and final seal judgment.
Book of Revelation – Chapter 5
John sees a book or a scroll with seven seals. God holds it up for someone worthy to take the scroll and open the seals. But no one is worthy; no man, no angel, none who rule, none of all God’s creatures. What does the scroll represent? The scroll represents the title deed to the earth and coming judgments. But silence follows with no one worthy. At this point, there has been no sign of the Lamb (the Lord Jesus Christ). But at that moment, He steps forward into the spotlight, filling the universe’s stage with His presence, every eye on Him with endless applause erupting throughout heaven. Christ takes the scroll. As long as it remains sealed, Satan will completely control the planet.
Jesus stands as a Lamb as having been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, representing the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. The seven horns speak of powerfulness, and the seven eyes represent knowing everything. The Lamb of God (John 1:29) earned the right by redemption to the earth’s title deed and is the only One worthy to open the seals. He is worthy of being praised for time and eternity because of His sacrifice. Everyone in heaven breaks out in praise and singing and amens!
Next, opened seals and revealed judgments get discussed in Chapter 6.
Book of Revelation – Chapter 6
Jesus Christ has the right to judge and rule the world. Under the seal judgments, we see man ruin the world. Meanwhile, on earth, evil men are growing worse and worse. With the denial of all authority, wicked things invented, with the destruction of the globe at stake, it is time for God to intervene in human affairs. With seals broken one by one, we see any restraint increasingly removed from the earth. Events recorded under these seals are extensions of things that are very evident in today’s world. The chief difference is that the Church will be gone.
First Seal
Release of the rider on the white horse believed to be the Antichrist. He has a crown, a bow without arrows, and goes to conquer. He is all-victorious and wins his victories relatively peacefully through deception. This rider represents the blasphemous philosophies of the last days, those anti-Christian ideologies that prepare men’s minds for the devil’s gospel and the ultimate reception of the strong delusion, the great lie of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12. (John Phillips commentary, page 96). By the hand of the Antichrist, misery occurs during the four seal judgments. Those coming afterward are not. The one on the red horse breaks any peace that the Antichrist previously brokered. Keep in mind that coming events always cast their shadows before them. The white horse rider is not yet abroad, for the great Restrainer is still here, the book (scroll) is still sealed, and the Church is still on earth.
Second Seal
The second rider is released. He has the power to take peace from the earth, rides a red horse, and carries a great sword. The rider symbolizes the belligerent policies of the last days. He personifies world war on a scale never before known on earth, a war that will make the conflicts of this century seem like scenes in a stilted (unnaturally formal) play. Until the Lord Jesus Christ comes back in power, war must go on and on until at last war itself is personified, mounted on a blood-red horse, and sent forth with a great sword to summon men to the Apocalypse terrible battles. There is a belief that at this time, RUSSIA will attack Israel before Armageddon in Ezekiel 38 and 39. This war of Ezekiel occurs close to or during the Tribulation hour because the facts presented in Revelation tie in harmoniously with Ezekiel’s prophecy.
Third Seal
With the third seal opened, a black horse appears. The rider carries a pair of balances in his hand, symbolizing the blighted prosperity of the last days. After the war of Revelation chapter 6, verses 3 and 4 will come famine and inflation, which usually follow any conflict. Ezekiel 4:10, 11, 16 refer to this. The oil and the wine are luxuries of the rich. Untouchable, the black horse rider proceeds to the staples of the poor, the wheat and barley. These are to be measured out a pinch at a time. This rider symbolizes the blighted prosperity of the last days. We hear the price for wheat and barley. A single loaf of bread will cost an entire day’s wages. Yet hunger will not be satisfied. People will spend everything they have just for the necessities of life. As the Tribulation continues, precious metals will become worthless. A digital system implemented by the Antichrist will replace gold, silver, paper money, and crypto-currencies. Today, the average American dog has a higher protein diet than most people worldwide. Another shortage is firewood along the fringes of the world’s deserts as people search for something to heat what little food they find. This dreaded rider is not yet abroad, but we see his shadow.
Fourth Seal
Now a pale horse appears. The name of the rider is DEATH, and HELL follows with him. This rider is the deadliest. Death destroys the body then Hell swallows up the souls and spirits of those he kills. He has power over a fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, hunger, death, and pestilence or beasts. As this rider moves forth, war and famine continue to plague humanity. Pestilence rise as war and famine move through an area. Epidemics rage the world’s population. Rats carry as many as thirty-five different diseases. A quarter of the world’s population dies through this fourth rider’s brutality taking nearly 1.98 billion people.
Fifth Seal
With our attention drawn to the brazen (or brass) altar, we see the souls of those slain for the Word of God. In verses 9 and 10, they cried loudly, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Those crying with a loud voice are Tribulation saints composed of elected Israelites and Gentiles converted by the preaching of the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. These persecuted saints and martyrs are not part of the Church, already in heaven. You will notice that souls are saved during the Tribulation hour the same way souls are saved today – through the precious shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the believers of the Tribulation hour proclaim Christ crucified, they lose their lives. These Tribulation saints cry for vengeance because they are not under grace, which will be appropriate once the age of grace is over and conditions revert to a pre-Christian era. Instead, they want blood. Seeing fulfilled prophecy, this group of saints wonders how much longer their loved ones, still alive, must suffer. The Lord speaks to them about having a little more patience. There will be one more wave of persecution in chapter 20, verse 4. Here is only a preview of the terrible persecutions that will engulf the globe in the coming days of the Tribulation hour.
Sixth Seal
What follows next is a blind panic and chaos on earth. Why? With the opening of the sixth seal comes a great earthquake. Is this a “great earthquake” Yellowstone or some combination of volcanic eruptions? This earthquake is so vast and destructive that mountains and islands move out of their usual places, a very tectonic movement. So much ash rises, there is a reduction of sunlight, temperatures plunge, and boulders and rocks from the explosion thrown high into the atmosphere now fall back to earth. The earthquake shakes everything stable, including society. With damaged infrastructure, travel stops and utilities quit working. It is so wide-ranging that there is complete panic. Men lose all hope and can find no place to hide from the anarchy that grips the globe. Notice there are four earthquakes in the Book of Revelation:
- Here in chapter 6, verse 12
- chapter 8, verse 5
- chapter 11, verse 3
- chapter 16, verses 18 and 19
The first four seals have been under the administration of the Antichrist. The 6th seal begins the judgments from heaven. But we remember that the Church is in heaven during this hour! No wonder half of the world’s population dies through the manifold (many & various) catastrophes that bombard the earth thus far.
The above is a lot to absorb as the scenes of punishment occur. Yet humanity continues to blame God and refuses to repent. If you are willing, join me next in Chapter 7, a parenthesis or pause about the seals.
Bill Wyler
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