Protection - Revelation 7
How would you feel if something were done to you that would make you invulnerable? Some of the earliest concepts of this are from Greek mythology, dating back prior to 100 AD. It is the story of Achilles, according to one of the legends of Achilles, his mother held him by his ankle and dipped him into the River Styx (the river that was said to run between Earth—the land of the living—and Hades—the land of the dead). Only the part of Achilles, his heel/ankle area, where his mother had held him, was vulnerable. This kind of power is part of a skill set among the superheros of comic books and movies as well, whether it be David Dunn of the movie Unbreakable, Hancock in the movie of the same name, Superman or Wonder Woman of DC Comics, or Luke Cage and The Hulk of Marvel Comics. Every one of these characters, and they are fictional characters, have some type of weakness, such as Superman and Kryptonite. However, I’ll ask you again, how you would feel if you were somehow, by some power, protected in such a way that nothing could harm you, and there is nothing fictional about it?
We’re going through Revelation, and last week we began the opening of the seven seals. We began considering how exactly the opening of the seven seals, and the other cycles of seven, could be thought of, not as a timeline of history or, for that matter, three accounts of the same event, but what word of hope would have been received by those under Roman persecution, and what word of hope can come to us today, by reading and understanding what exactly God’s Word is saying. Last week we saw the logical sequence of conqueror, war and conflict, persecution and lack of food, and disease and death. We heard the martyrs cry out, “How long must the persecution continue?” and watched as they were given white robes of victory and told that a few more would join them, before God would act and put an end to the evil. Then we watched as the sixth seal was opened, and God entered creation, causing it to shake and tremble…we watched as the perpetrators of the evil ran and hid among the mountains and hills and cried for them to fall upon them and hide them…and we ended there.
We would expect, that today, we would come to the seventh seal. However, as you have already heard, as we read through chapter seven, the seventh seal is nowhere to be found. We have what seems to be an interruption in the progress of the heavenly opening of the seals. We will find the same thing happening in one of the other cycles, an interruption of the progress. However, I would suggest that the message of hope is anything but an interruption, it is pure and true hope.
The people are undergoing horrendous conditions…conquerors, conflict, not enough food, and death…the earth begins to tremble and folks are fleeing to the mountains, if you thought you were vulnerable, then you would probably be quaking in your shoes watching these events take place. However, our passage today provides the hope with which the early Christians and, we ourselves, can stand strong and firm in the face of persecution and pressure.
“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four wends of the earth so that no wind could blow on earth or sea or against any tree.” God’s angles amongst creation are holding back those things with would threaten God’s creation.
“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 earth and sea, saying, “Do not damage the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have marked the servants of our God with a seal on their foreheads.” So prior to the releasing of those who would cause the conflict and persecution, God has already chosen to mark the servants of God for protection…on their foreheads would be placed that which would keep them safe…this marking is almost reminiscent of the Exodus account in which before the killing of the firstborn of every living thing in Egypt that the Hebrew people were to mark their homes with the blood of, what would come to be known, as the Passover lamb.
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the people of Israel.” Following that we have a breakdown of twelve thousand from each of twelve tribes of Israel. This one hundred forty-four thousand has been broken down so many ways, some claiming that there will be exactly one hundred forty-four thousand Jews, who have not accepted Christ, that will be received into Heaven. Others suggest that there will be exactly one hundred and forty-four thousand who are the Chosen of God, Christians, who will be received into Heaven. That puts St. Peter’s role as the gate-keeper of Heaven, in a whole new light. In these interpretations, we can picture him up there in Heaven, leaning against his little registration lectern, with a little clicker in his hand. In the first instance we could see him counting out the Jews coming in and saying, up we’ve met our quota from the tribe of Levi and Judah, but we still need three more folks from Joseph’s tribe, and a dozen more for Gad. In terms of the one hundred forty-four Christians chosen by God, St. Peter becomes like one of those gate keepers at the parking garage, clicking off folks as the enter the Pearl Gates, and after clicking off that one hundred and forty-four thousandth person, puts out a sign in front of Heaven, saying “Sorry, we’re full.” Before anyone gets upset and suggests that I am being a little too flippant with this passage, I am just trying to suggest that the concept of taking one hundred and forty-four thousand literally, produces some pretty ridiculous and hopeless understandings. If it is a literal interpretation, then if we only took the Christians living in the world today, there would be a one hundred forty-four thousand out of two billion chance of making it into heaven (and remember that is dismissing every Christian that has already died in the last two thousand years). That means you would have a better chance of hitting an exact match in the Carolina Pick 4 (no, I am not saying it is okay to play the lottery), at 1%, than being a Christian and getting into Heaven, .7%--not good odds if you ask me. There must be a better way of understanding the one hundred forty-four thousand, and if we remember the symbolic nature of the numbers in apocalyptic literature, we realize there is. One hundred forty-four thousand is a multiple of two different numbers…twelve and ten. Ten being the number of inclusiveness and twelve being the number representing the people of God—giving us, those that are to be protected being, “the inclusive people of God” or “all the people of God.” All of God’s people are marked and sealed for protection.
This notion of a number greater than the exact of one hundred forty-four thousand seems to be echoed by the next verse, “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white (the color of victory), with palm branches (symbols of victory in the era of the early church) in their hands.” We watch as this innumerable multitude of people stand before the throne of God and before the elders and living creatures offering complete (blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might) worship to God.
Then John was asked by one of the elders, “Who are these, robed in white, and where have they come from?” John turns the question back to him saying he is the one who knows. The elder says, “These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” These are the martyrs, we have seen them before in the letters to the churches, and under the altar…they have suffered and died and given victory through their the blood of Christ—the Lamb that was slain, but alive.
Some folks will say, “Hey, they have died, what happened to being protected, what happened to not dying.” Well, there are two ways of looking at this that offer hope to us. First, the people of God are what? The protection is given to all of God’s people, which is the Church. God’s Church will not be killed, will not come to an end. We know this promise to be true…for this letter was written to the Church persecuted under the Roman Empire. And as Dr. Efird would ask, “Where do we see the Roman Empire today?” In History Books, they are no more. “Where do we see the Church today?” Right, right here, and around the world, alive and active. God’s people would not and will not be destroyed.
“Well, that’s all well and good preacher, but what hope does that give to the individual Christian?” Well, to be honest with you, my friends, the whole idea of an individual Christian is a false notion, there is no “individual Christian” that is like talking about a finger or a toe, or an eye or a spleen…we are all part of the Body…individualism is a notion of contemporary society, not of the church…we are all members of the Body of Christ, past, present, and future. That is the promised survival, that is the sealing.
“Doesn’t that mean there is no hope for me, if I am the one that is near death?” No, that is not what I am saying, that is not what God’s Word says…that hope comes elsewhere. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”[i] Paul offers that same hope this way, “…in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[ii]
We are sealed, we are protected, by God. It is in the promise of the waters of our Baptism, that we are sealed by God, that we receive protection from God. It is the outward sign on our foreheads that God has chosen us and we have surrendered to God, and once we are God’s, my friends, nothing, not any empire, not any torture, not any terrorist, not any political party, not any boss, not anyone or anything can truly kill us, for we forever live in the living presence of the Lion who is the slain Lamb who lives before the throne. And it is in His presence that God’s people “will hunger nor more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
How would you feel if something were done to you that would make you invulnerable? There is!
n the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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