Revelations 7 (Part I)

By Odon Bulamba (13th May 2005)

Revelation 7:1-2
After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.
I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to damage the earth or the sea,




VERSE 1


John was in the heaven and he saw something different from what he had seen in Chapter 6. He saw four angels standing up at the four corners of the world and these angels were trying to stop the air blowing over the world, the sea and the trees. Let’s imagine if there was no oxygen for 4 or 10 minutes. How many people will survive? This was a bad vision, four angels stopping the wind and consequently everybody dying. John was shocked.


Many times in the church, God brings signs and threatens us to act if we don’t obey Him. If we continue to sin, we’ll perish. Remember that no matter how long we’ve lived for, we might never be given the opportunity to repent. People who know God and look at the eternal life, must stop and say: “If you stop the oxygen for the church today, we will all perish.”


And here, John saw it happening not only in one part of the world but on the four corners. They were ready to block, to stop the whole world. On that day, many things will be useless, the power of science will become powerless, and everything around us will not be able to produce oxygen.


VERSE 2


When John saw that, another angel in verse 2 came from the East and he had a seal from God. So let’s put that together; first God decides to stop the world, in other words “death penalty for the world” and then someone with the seal of God comes from the East. This is a sign for the world.


That angel spoke loudly to the other angels saying: “Don’t kill, don’t destroy”. Because of grace, because of the message you’re receiving today and because of Jesus our Lord, we’re alive today. God should have finished with the world long ago. Jesus told His Father: “Please, wait, give them a chance to get ready. Someone might come back to me and accept to change their lives.”


Remember the sun comes from the East every morning. We know a new day begins when we look towards the East. If one day the sun came from another corner of the world, people will be terrified. East is the beginning of life and this is where that person comes from.


Jesus has many names referring to the morning: Morning Star … Thanks to Him, people are given another chance to get ready. Unfortunately, instead of getting ready for the coming of Jesus-Christ, the church today is getting discouraged and shows the world they don’t belong to Him. People are tired and get weaker every day.

 VERSE 3


Saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants our God with a seal on their foreheads.”


If the world still exists today it’s thanks to God’s mercy. We pray and God looks at His people and thinks it’s better to wait for more people to be saved.


In Genesis 18, Abraham recognised God although He was in the flesh and had a body just like ours. Abraham discerned God under these human bodies and insisted for them to come in. He first asked his wife to prepare some food and then asked his servants to prepare a calf so that the visitors could stay. Abraham changed God’s programme; these men had first come to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah but Abraham stopped God (the men) on their way. Abraham wanted the visitors to stay and sleep in his house and by doing that, Abraham was told God wanted to destroy these two cities because of their sins.


Abraham remembered he had some members of his family there and he felt the need to forgive problems that were in the past (with the servants and the land). He started begging God not to destroy the cities. Abraham looked at the human beings in these cities and pleaded God not to destroy them. God accepted to save the cities for only 5 righteous people. Unfortunately, there were less than 5 of them and Lot was told to leave. The angels of God had to push him to hurry up and leave. He left just with his daughters and his wives, nothing else. They left Sodom by force as morning was rising, a new day was starting. That morning God showed the East part of His glory through Abraham’s descendance. Lot left and Abraham believed in God, the God Almighty and knew God really loved him. Five righteous people couldn’t be found but Abraham’s family was spared.


And today, the church is crossing a serious situation; we sometimes forget we don’t meet God’s requirements in our lives. When Jesus was on earth, people reminded Him about God’s Ten Commandments. But Jesus answered; “If you can’t even practise 2 or 3 of them, how will you practise all of them?” This is why He gave us only one: love God with all your heart and love each other, love only and forget the rest. Up to now we don’t really know the meaning of love. Although we see a new day coming and we know grace is still here, and God’s only requirement is love, but we are still unable to do it. It’s a new revolution in the church. Today, if you want to see how people hate each other, go to churches: hatred, jealousy and everything that doesn’t glorify God is in the church. This man has a seal that will release everything because we keep refusing to obey Him and that will be the end of everything.