Sealing the Israel of God - The Four Winds

Before Jehovah unleashes this fury, heavenly angles perform a special service.  John now beholds this in vision:  "After this I saw four angels standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding tighg the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow upon the earth or upon the sea or upon any tree." (Revelation 7:1)   What does this mean for us today?  These  "four winds" are a vivid symbol of destruction judgment about to be let loose on a wicked earthly society, on the surging  "sea" of lawless humanity, and on lofty treelike rulers that draw support and sustenence from the people of the earth.  - ISAIAH 57:20; PSALM 37:35, 36. 

No doubt, these four angels represent the four angelic groups, whom Jehovah uses to hold back the execution of judgment until the appointed time.  When the angels release those winds of divine wrath to whirl at one time from north, south, east, and west, the devastation will be tremendous. It will resemble , but on a supendous scale, Jehovah's use of the four winds to scatter the ancient Elamites, shattering and exterminating them.  (Jeremiah 49:36-38)   It will be  a gigantic storm wind far devastating  than the "tempest" by which Jehovah annihilated the nation of Ammon.  (Amos 1:13-15)   No part of Satan's organization  on earth will be able to stand in the day of Jehovah's fury, when he vindicates his sovereignty for all eternity to come. - PSALM 83:15, 18; ISAIAH 29:5, 6. 

Can we be sure that God's judgment will ravage the entire earth?  Listen again to his prophet Jeremiah:  "Look!  a calamity going forth from nation to nation, and great tempest itself will be roused up from the remotest parts of the earth.  And those slain by Jehovah will certainly come to be  that day from one end of the earth clear to the other end of the earth."  (Jeremiah 25:32, 33)  It is during this tempestuous storm that darkness will engulf  this world. Its ruling angencies will be shaken into oblivion.  (Revelation 6:12-14)  But the future will not be dark for everyone. For whose sake, then,  are the four winds held back? 

Next time: Sealing the Israel of God - The Sealing of God's Slaves

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