The sixth seal of the scroll has been broken; there is now only the seventh seal left. Then the content of the book will appear in full – the ’Day of the Lord’ and the return of Christ. John writes about the breaking of the seventh seal only at the beginning of chapter 8, however. The 7th seal will be seen to contain both the seven trumpets and the threefold ‘woes’, as well as the seven bowls full of God’s wrath. The structure of chapters 6 to the end of the book is that the seals contain the history of the ages of world history gone by, corresponding to the Lord Jesus’ ‘discourse on the last things’ on the Mount of Olives,1 up to the final phase which is the ‘Day of the Lord’. That apparently constitutes the real content of the scroll, culminating in the return of Christ and the Coming of the Kingdom and everything associated with it.2 The sixth seal brings us to the threshold of that last and final phase. However, John first takes a little step backwards to reveal something very encouraging to Israel and the Church. He inserts a pause, an intermezzo, in the story, to make it clear to two ‘multitudes’ that the Lord will look after them when they stand at the threshold of the ’Day of the Lord’. And in fact, this has been the case for almost 2000 years already. But He will continue to do so until the very end, when everything will come to a climax.
In this pause, John sees a picture belonging to the six seals. John writes “after this I saw” so this is the next thing to write about for him. It does not necessarily refer to something that is following in time after the sixth seal but it is the next thing that John sees. The next prophetic picture.
He sees how four angels at the four corners of the earth—North, South, East and West—hold back the four winds to prevent them from bringing any damage to the two ‘multitudes’ about which he is going to speak. The four winds contain ‘My fierce anger’, which destroys the enemies of the people of God, according to Jeremiah.3 When the four winds blow, they churn up the sea of nations.4 When Zechariah sees his red, white, black and dappled horses riding out with their chariots, they are going from their base with the Lord of the whole world to the four points of the compass.5 When He comes to judge it will burst forth like ‘a wind that will be too strong for them’. “Now I pronounce My judgments against them.” “Look! He advances like the clouds, His chariots come like a whirlwind, His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! We are ruined!”6
There is always protection for the children of God— in all the centuries behind us and in the future. They are not affected by His wrath and His judgments, even though they have to suffer as martyrs as a result of Satan’s violence. As it has happened to our brothers and sisters in the persecutions over the centuries during the last 2000 years – until this very day. They are—and will be—‘sealed’ however, and they enjoy the eternal protection by the blood of the Lamb, the guarantee for an everlasting glorious future.
Creation (earth, sea, plants and trees, animals and nature itself) can only become the target of the four winds and earth will be shaken when the ‘multitudes’ are well versed founded in their ‘only comfort in life and death’. Even more so in our time, now that we appear to be at the threshold of this final phase of this period of world history, of the climax of this ‘age’, and the ‘Day of the Lord’ is about to commence.
• Ascribing a ‘primitive world view’ to the Bible because of an expression such as ‘the four corners of the earth’ seems to me to almost testify to a hostile attitude towards the Word of God. Such critics treat these kind of expressions as if the Bible presents a world view of a flat earth with four corners like a square. When the Bible uses such terms, it presents its truth in normal daily language. In the way we express ourselves in our ordinary every-day language. When the Bible says that the sun is ‘rising’, that the sun ‘comes up’ in Psalm 19:4b-6, the Bible does not use scientific language. The Bible just speaks like we do.
• If we would use scientific language to describe this ‘rising of the sun’ we should say that the earth’s rotation around its axis causes us to have the impression that the sun moves along the skies, causing the effect of day and night. We know that the sun does not move, but the earth does. That the sun is ‘free-floating’ in space, as it is beautifully described by Job 26:7 (NIV/ NASB) “He spreads out the northern skies over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”
Bible References:
1.Matthew 24:3–14 2.Matthew 24:15–31 3.Jeremiah 49:34–39 4.Daniel 7:2 5.Zechariah 6:1–7 6.Jeremiah 4:12–13
