Broad meadows

“After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back ^uthe four winds of the earth, ^vthat no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending ^wfrom the rising of the sun, with ^xthe seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,3 saying, ^y“Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God ^zon their foreheads.” 4 And ^aI heard the numberof the sealed, 144,000, sealed from everytribe of the sons of Israel:

5  12,000 from the tribe of Judah weresealed,

12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,

12,000 from the tribe of Gad,

6  12,000 from the tribe of Asher,

12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,

12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,

7  12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,

12,000 from the tribe of Levi,

12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,

8  12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,

12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,

12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.”

(Revelation 7:1-8)

As we discussed in earlier writing, Michael is the sun character who becomes a man and has died in the sixth seal, ending has role as the young goat. His death marks the end of a quarter of the earth’s population being killed through the various methods described in the seals. In the beginning of chapter 7, he rises from the dead, that is the rising sun described in places like Malachi 4:2 and Isaiah 59:19.
One of the things to notice is that he has the seal of the living God in his hand. This is no small matter. As when Pharaoh gave Joseph his signet ring in Genesis 41:42 or Mordecai receiving the same in Esther 8:2, having the seal of God means he is acting with God’s authority.

The four angels he is commanding here, I believe, are the four living creatures of Revelation 4 & 6. Where there was nothing between them and God in chapter 4, now there is. One of the difficulties that I had leading up to this writing was how best to approach that idea. I think if we get to the point where I can build that out more, perhaps in a separate series, that for the time being we’ll focus on Michael. His command parallels the one given in Revelation 9:4. I’ll will discuss that more when we get to the trumpets.

With the seal of God, he seals the 144,000, 12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. What makes this accomplishment remarkable is that at this time in human history, no one can really know what tribe they are descended from. Those records were destroyed in 70 ad and to my knowledge there is no effort to restore them.

One might say that, “Well, God knows.” And that would be correct, but perhaps that may have been part of Michael’s work on earth. We surmised from the second seal that perhaps Michael wields God’s word in a mighty way (the sword of the spirit). When we look at all of those genealogies of the Old Testament, perhaps he is able, once restored to his previous position, to use them in a supernatural way. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” If you read the series “Following the cup through the Bible” series, you saw that I was able, using the methodology that I have been using, to see individuals in history that lived beyond biblical times being prophesied. Perhaps he can do this in a highly elevated fashion. But not without putting in the work first.

The rest of chapter 7 deals with those who come out of the great tribulation. You can’t come out of something you were never in, further repudiating the pre tribulation rapture, which occurs at the last trumpet according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:52. This coincides with and appears to be part of Michael’s ministry as one of the two witnesses in chapter 11, when he dies for the second time and the last trumpet blows. I think it is the death and resurrection of the witnesses that triggers the rapture. Michael is the prophet who dies twice. I’ll discuss the trumpets and their meaning in the next writing.