Revelation Chapter 7

1. There are 4 angels set at strategic points on the earth (corners) and they are about to unleash something on the earth, but they are instructed to wait. What are they holding back?

2. God is making sure that His servants are sealed with His mark for protection. John does not see these people, but it says he hears the command given to seal their foreheads and he heard how many were sealed. How many were sealed?

Again, I think that taking the literal translation of scripture is the best. And if my God says that He can see that a bloodline of a Jewish person is from the tribe of Reuben, and another is from the tribe of Asher. I believe Him. Why not? He is God! These men will be sealed to be evangelist for God. Stop and think about that for a moment. God is in the middle of carrying out His final judgement on the earth, and yet He still is making a way for people to come to Him and be saved.

What did it mean to be sealed by God? We can look at the example from Ezekiel 9:3-5 when God instructed angels to go to the temple and kill those who practiced idolatry, but first there were some who were saved from this judgement who had not worshipped idols, they were marked with a mark on the forehead by an angel. The mark was the Hebrew letter “taw” or the equivalent of putting an “X” on the forehead.

As you read the list of 12,000 evangelists from each of the 12 tribes you may note a couple peculiarities. For example, the tribe of Dan is missing and so is the tribe of Ephraim. Typically, we would not see the name Joseph as a tribe name but rather his sons Manasseh, Ephraim and Benjamin. We also do not typically see the Levites listed as a tribe name as they were the priests. Bible scholars have guessed that this may be because the tribes of Dan and Ephraim were most notably associated with idol worship. Whatever God’s reasoning, it doesn’t matter when we stop and think about the total picture; that He is going to send out 144,000 people to the ends of the earth in the very last days to share the Good News – that’s just – well – hard to put into words how AMAZING our GOD is!

3. How many people were sealed from each tribe? It’s hard to believe that there could be that many Jewish people who have gathered in Israel and become believers; except that it is happening in our time, right now. The Jews fulfilled prophecy in 1948 when they declared their independence. And now with the unrest in the middle east and the hatred of Jews worldwide, more and more Jews are returning to their homeland. As of 2020 there are over 7 million Jews living in their homeland.

The next event that John records is something He sees in heaven that is so beautiful. He sees a great number of people from every tribe and tongue of the world, worshipping God.

4. What are these people wearing as they worship God? And what are they waving in their hands?

5. The angels were so moved by the worship of these people that they did what?

6. One of the elders asked John who were these people that were worshipping God and where did they come from. What answer did John give him? Note: this is a different group of martyrs than those mentioned in chapter 6. Those mentioned in chapter 6 are praying to God for justice of those who murdered them. These saints in chapter 7 are worshipping God for their great salvation. I don’t really know what the differences between the two groups are. But the only thing that matters is that they all will spend eternity with Jesus.

7. What are some things noted that these believers will now get to experience and enjoy for eternity in heaven?