SYNOPSIS: The seventh seal ends with the seven angels prepared to sound their trumpets – Revelation 8:1-6.
The paragraph describing the seventh seal also introduces the next sevenfold series, the Seven Trumpets. It serves to transition the narrative from the Seven Seals to the series of Seven Trumpets. Before the Seven Trumpets may sound, the prayers of the saints must be heard (Revelation 8:1-6).
Continue reading Seventh Seal OpeningSYNOPSIS – John saw an innumerable multitude of men and women from every nation standing before the Lamb and the Throne – Revelation 7:9-12.
In the seventh chapter of Revelation, the same group of saints is presented using two different images; first, an image of the tribes of Israel assembled for travel. Second, as an innumerable multitude of men and women standing before the “Lamb” and the Throne. In this vision, imagery and language from the story of Israel sojourning through the Wilderness to the Promised Land continues to be employed.
Continue reading INNUMERABLE MULTITUDE -VISIONSYNOPSIS: God’s servants are sealed before the “four winds of the earth” are unleashed by the four horsemen – Revelation 7:1-3.
At first glance, the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation appears to interrupt the sequence of seal openings with unrelated events that intervene between the sixth and seventh seal openings. However, the “interruption” is an integral part of the Seven Seals. Chapter 7 is comprised of four sections:
Continue reading Seal of GodSYNOPSIS: The sixth seal opening ushers in the Day of the Lord, the time of wrath upon the inhabitants of the earth – No one can stand before the Lamb or the Throne – Revelation 6:12-17.
The Lamb next opens the sixth seal, causing celestial and terrestrial trauma as the Day of the Lord dawns. This is nothing less than the “great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb.” Men from every societal rank panic at the very thought of the impending “wrath.” Every attempt by the “inhabitants of the earth” to hide from the Lamb and the “One Who sits on the Throne” is in vain. There is no escape for anyone; no one is able to “stand” before the Throne. Continue reading Sixth Seal Opening
SYNOPSIS: The fifth seal reveals the souls of martyrs underneath an altar where they cry out to God for vindication – Revelation 6:9-11.
The fifth seal opening reveals the souls of martyrs kept safe “underneath” an altar from where they plead with God for justice for what they have endured at the hands of a hostile world. The slain saints are told they must wait until the complete number of their “fellow servants” who are to be slain, “just as they,” are gathered to join them. Continue reading Fifth Seal Opening
SYNOPSIS: The fourth seal releases a rider named “Death” who is followed by “Hades” gathering up the dead in his wake – Revelation 6:7-8.
A word of caution. To this point, the “victims” of the forces unleashed by the first three seal openings have not been identified, although the details of each rider’s assigned task provide a few clues. Therefore, the reader ought to be careful before assuming each rider afflicts “plagues” and judgments on an ungodly human population. Continue reading Fourth Seal Opening
