SCRIPTURE: Revelation 7:1-17
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
Here we see the fullness of God’s rescued family, the fullness of old covenant believers (12x12x10x10 = 144,000) and the fullness of new covenant believers (great multitude that cannot be counted), united around Jesus, the perfect Lamb, the perfect Shepherd.
The tribulation is the unfolding plan of God (as seen in the scroll opened by the Lamb). Throughout history God has been guiding and restraining the evils of this world for the sake of His people, that they might be saved. The 4 angels of judgement are restrained by the 4 angels of grace.
There are many symbols and allusions to biblical passages, but the basic point is this: evil is happening, but God remains in control, and His people will be rescued in the end.
This is not a prideful or exclusionary hope. All who humbly accept God through Jesus, no matter how sinful, are welcome!
PRAYER:
Lord, if only people understood Your grace and generosity, they would sense Your compassionate desire to rescue everyone. Help me to get this message out. Amen.
The angels held back the winds from their great destruction until the seal was put on the foreheads of God’s people. Our God is in control, His purpose to fulfill. And the mass of people standing before the throne of God were in white and holding palm branches. The white reminds me of those purified by the blood of Jesus Christ and the palm branches remind me of Palm Sonday, Christ’s entry to Jerusalem. All praise and glory and honour belong to our God. It is a miracle that the robes washed in blood become white! But it in His power that I have life. He feeds me each day. He is my living water so that I can have life. The joy of the Lord is my strength and song, today and always. He is my Shepherd.
The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want.
He makes me down to lie
in pastures green; He leadeth me
the quiet waters by.