John Gill Commentary Revelation 7

And after these things
After the opening of six of the seals of the sealed book, and after the demolition of Heathen deities, and of Heathen worship, and of Heathen magistrates, in the Roman empire, and the representation of these to John, he had the following vision; and which therefore does not refer to the preservation of the Christians, before and at the destruction of Jerusalem, which was under the first seal; nor to the security of the saints from the wrath of the Lamb, when it fell upon the Pagan worshippers, of all ranks and degrees, which was under the sixth seal, and was now over; but rather it respects an intermediate space of time between the sixth and seventh seal, as reaching from Constantine to Theodosius;

for upon Constantine's being sole emperor, the church enjoyed great peace and tranquillity after the blustering storms of Pagan persecution ceased; and great numbers of God's elect were converted and sealed, and the winds of Heathen persecution were held, and blew no more, unless for a short time under the Emperor Julian; though the church was not free from the wind of error and heresy; and the storms of contention which arose about them, nor from the tempest of Arian persecutions, which were very grievous;

wherefore this refers to what should be between the sixth and seventh seal, which brings on the seven trumpets: and now, before John sees that seal opened, a pause is made, and this vision is shown him, to fortify his mind, and all other saints, that are observers of these things, who by the opening of the following seal would see what judgments and plagues would come upon the empire, now become Christian, and what changes and revolutions would be made in it, and might fear that the church of God would be wholly swallowed up and lost; wherefore this vision is exhibited to show, that notwithstanding the devastations by the Goths and Vandals, and the rise, progress, and power of Mahomet, and the dreadful apostasy of the church of Rome, and all the miseries of it, and the plagues that should come upon the church for it; yet God would have throughout all this, and in, every age of time, a sealed number, a true church, hidden and secured, even until the seventh angel has sounded his trumpet, and time shall be no more, and the mystery of God will be finished.

I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding
the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the
earth, nor on the sea, nor on any trees .
Four angels are mentioned, in allusion to the four spirits of the heavens, in (Zechariah 6:5) ; and though the earth is not a plain square with angles, but round and globular, yet it is said to have four corners, with respect to the four points of the heavens; and though there is but one wind, which blows sometimes one way, and sometimes another, yet four are named with regard to the above points, east, west, north, and south, from which it blows. These are commonly called "the four winds of heaven", (Daniel 8:8) (11:4) ; but here, of the earth, as in the Targum on (Isaiah 11:12) , and he shall bring near the captivity of Judah, (aera yxwr ebram) , "from the four winds of the earth". And such things as are chiefly affected with winds are particularly observed, as the earth, upon which buildings are thrown down by them; and the sea, in which ships are wrecked; and trees, which by the violence of them, are blown down, and torn up by the roots.

Some by these angels understand evil angels, who are sometimes called angels, without any additional epithet to distinguish them, and that because a desire of hurting seems to have been in them, as well as a power, (Revelation 7:2Revelation 7:3) ; and who are, in every part of the world, seeking to do all the mischief they can; and may be said to hold the winds, not in a literal sense, for God only gathers the wind in his fist, and holds it there, and lets it loose at his pleasure; but in a mystical sense, as these may refer to the word, and the ministers of the word, whose progress and success are often hindered by Satan and is emissaries; and some particularly understand by them the four monarchies of the Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; others the four emperors, after that Dioclesian and Maximianus had resigned, as Maximinus, Galerius, Maxentius, and Licinius; others Mahomet, or the Turk, in the east, who hindered the Gospel by his wars and devastations, as well as by false worship; the kings of France and Spain on the west, by fire, and faggot, and sword; and the pope in the south, by bulls and excommunications; and the empire and emperors of Germany on the north, by public edicts; or, in general, all the Popish tribe, popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, and friars, by their decrees, anathemas, sermons, writings, and lying miracles, did all they could that the Gospel might not be preached neither in the earth, on the continent, nor in the sea, or in the islands of it; or that any of the saints, the trees of righteousness, who lived in woods and mountainous places, or were forced to fly into woods, might have any advantage by it.

But, after all, rather this is to be understood of good angels, and either of their restraining evil angels from doing mischief, see (Daniel 10:13Daniel 10:20Daniel 10:21) (Revelation 12:4Revelation 12:7) ; or keeping back the winds of false doctrines and heresies from the churches of Christ, in the several parts of the world; or rather, and which is the true sense, of their holding in the storms of calamities and war to the destruction of kingdoms, provinces, islands, and the several inhabitants of them, and intends a general peace throughout the world; see (Jeremiah 49:36) (Jeremiah 51:1Jeremiah 51:2) .

This mystical way of speaking seems to agree with the notions of the Jews, who speak of angels standing at the gates of the four winds, (xwr yxtpmw) "and the keys of the wind in their hands", whose names they give us ^F24 ; and make mention of (axwr ykalm) , "the angels of the wind" ^F25 ; and the Magi among the Persians call the angel of the wind "Bad", or "Badran" ^F26 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Raziel, fol. 36. 1. 2.
• F25: Targum in 1 Reg. xix. 11.
• F26: Hyde, Hist. Relig. Pers. c. 12.

And I saw another angel
Not Constantine, who came from the eastern parts to the empire, with the true knowledge of God, and theauthority of God to propagate it; and who repressed the four angels, or evil spirits, contention, ambition,heresy, and war, from doing the mischief they otherwise would; and sealed the saints, by giving them aplatform of doctrine at the council of Nice, as Brightman and others think. But the uncreated angel, theangel of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ; for who but he should have the privy seal of heaven, who is theangel of the great council, as the Septuagint render (Isaiah 9:6) and who could speak in such anauthoritative manner to the four angels, "saying, hurt not the earth" but he who is the head of allprincipality and power? and who should seal the servants of the Lord, but he who has them in his hands, andkeeps them by his power, so that none of them shall perish? And to him agrees all that follows:

ascending from the east ;
from Judea, from Zion, from whence Christ, as the salvation, or Saviour of Israel, came, (Psalms 14:7) ;and whose name is the east, as some render (Zechariah 3:8) ; he is the dayspring from on high, the sun ofrighteousness, who rose from the east, the place of the rising sun, and brought light, life, and joy to hispeople, when he came to seal them. Compare with this (Ezekiel 43:1Ezekiel 43:2Ezekiel 43:4) (44:1-4) (Ezekiel 46:1Ezekiel 46:2) (Ezekiel 47:1) .

Having the seal of the living God ;
having the impress of deity upon him, being the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image orcharacter of his person; having a testimony, an authentic proof and demonstration of his being the Son ofGod, of his being the true and living God; as also a commission from God, as Mediator, being sealed by him;and having all power and authority from him, to seal and secure the people which were given unto him, and forwhich purpose he now came.

To which may be added, that Christ has the Spirit, with his gifts and graces, without measure, by which the saints are sealed unto the day of redemption; and moreover has likewise theseal of the book of life, or of eternal election, in his hands; the elect are chosen in him, and the book oflife, in which their names are written to eternal life, is in his keeping, and is therefore called the Lamb'sbook of life. The Jews speak ^F1 of the east gate of one of the palaces they suppose above, whichthey say is shut all the six days, and on the sabbath day is opened, and the governor of this palace has twoministers, one on his right hand, and one on his left, and two seals in their hands, (Myyx Mtwx) , "the seal of life", and the seal of death, and all the books of the world,before them; an, some are sealed to life, and some to death, with which this passage may be compared.

They speak also of an angel that presides at the eastern part of the heavens, who receives the prayers of theIsraelites, whose name they call "Gazardia" ^F2 , as this same angel is said to offer up theprayers of the saints, (Revelation 8:3) .

And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels ;
to show his power and authority over them, they being his creatures and ministers; and to express his greatconcern for his people, his care of them, and affection for them; and to signify the danger they were inthrough the calamities that were coming on, should they not be sealed:

to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea :
they had a commission from God to let loose the winds, or to bring on wars, devastations, calamities, andplagues, of various sorts, upon the Roman empire, now Christian; and on the seat of the beast, not only onthe continent, but upon the islands also, even upon all the nations, tongues, and people subject to the seeof Rome.

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: Zohar in Exod. fol. 100. 1.
• F2: Zohar in Exod. fol. 79. 2.

Saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees ,
etc.] That is, as yet, for their commission was not contradicted, nor taken away by Christ; and at the time appointed, at the blowing of the several trumpets, they let loose the winds, and let in the Goths, Hans, and Vandals, the Saracens and Turks into the empire, and after that poured out the vials of God's wrath upon the Romish antichrist: this retarding of them was but in appearance, that there might be an opportunity to show to John what care would be taken all along of the church of Christ, and true servants of the living God:

till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads ;
the servants of sin, Satan, and the beast of Rome, were took no notice nor care of; they were the persons to be hurt by the winds, signified by the earth, sea, and trees, even idolaters, small and great; but "the servants of our God", who serve him with grace in their hearts, from a principle of love, in the exercise of faith, without servile fear, and with reverence and godly fear, in righteousness and true holiness, and with a view to his glory; and are worshippers of him in spirit and in truth, being followers of the Lamb, whithersoever he goes; and so are the servants of his God, and their God;

the sealing of them does not design the sealing of them with the seal of election, this was done in eternity; nor with the seal of the Spirit, which is common to all the saints in all ages; but it denotes the hiding and concealing, and so securing the saints amidst all the calamities of the empire, and throughout the whole time of the Romish apostasy, from first to last; and respects the time when the church fled into the wilderness, and was hid, and nourished with the hidden manna, for a time, and times, and half a time, (Revelation 12:14) .

Christ set a mark upon them, as was upon the houses of the Israelites, when the destroying angel passed through Egypt, and destroyed the firstborn in it; and as was upon the foreheads of those that sighed and cried in Jerusalem, when orders were given to slay young and old, (Exodus 12:23) (Ezekiel 9:4) . Christ will have a people in the worst of times; he knows who are his, and he will take care of them; he has his chambers of protection to hide them in, till the indignation is over past:

the sealers, "we", are either Father, Son, and Spirit, who are all jointly concerned for the welfare of the elect; or Christ and his ministering angels that attend him, whom he employs for the good and safety of the heirs of salvation: the seal with which these are sealed is the seal of the living God, the foreknowledge, love, care, and power of God; and the name of God, even Christ's Father's name, and their Father's name, in their foreheads; the new name of children of God, by and under which they are known and preserved by him:

and this is said to be "in their foreheads", in allusion to servants, who used to be marked in their foreheads; hence they are called by Apuleius ^F3 "frontes literati"; and by Martial, a servant is called "fronte notatus" ^F4 : but then these were such who had committed faults, and this was done by way of punishment ^F5 ; wherefore it can hardly be thought that the servants of God should be sealed, in allusion to them: but rather with reference to the mitre on the high priest's forehead, as some think; or it may be to (Ezekiel 9:4) , and shows, that though these persons were hid and concealed from men, they were well known to God and Christ; nor were they ashamed to make a public and open confession of Christ before men, as did the true and faithful witnesses of Christ, the Waldenses and Albigenses, in the midst of the greatest darkness of Popery, and of danger from men; and who seem to be chiefly intended.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: Metamorph. l. 9. p. 130.
• F4: Epigr. l. 3. Ep. 20.
• F5: Vid. Popma de Operis Servorum, p. 170

And I heard the number of them which were sealed
And therefore could be sure of the exact number, which did not depend upon his sight, and telling them, in which some mistake might have been made, but he heard the number expressed:

[and there were] sealed an hundred [and] forty, [and] four thousand :
which is a square number arising from twelve, the square root of it, being just twelve times twelve thousand; and may denote their being the true and genuine offspring of the twelve apostles of the Lamb, holding their doctrine, and being built on their foundation; see (Revelation 21:14) ; and these were

of all the tribes of the children of Israel ;
not that these were all Jews in a literal sense, for the time of their conversion in great numbers is not yet come. Dr. Goodwin thinks these sealed ones design the believers of the Greek and Armenian churches, and his reasons are not despicable; but this is to limit and restrain them to a particular part of the church of Christ; whereas they take in all the saints within this long tract of time, even all that are the true Israel of God, who are Jews inwardly, of what nation, kindred, tongue, and people soever; and is a certain and determinate number for an uncertain and indeterminate one; and only intends a large number of persons known to God and Christ; see the Apocrypha:

``Arise up and stand, behold the number of those that be sealed in the feast of the Lord;''

Of the tribe of Judah [were] sealed twelve thousand
Judah is mentioned first, because Christ sprung from that tribe, and the pure worship of God was preserved in it; and that itself was preserved a distinct tribe until the coming of Shiloh; its name signifies "praise God", (Genesis 29:35) ; and shows, that it becomes all the sealed ones, all true believers, and every member of the church of God, to praise him for all favours and blessings, temporal, spiritual, and eternal.

Of the tribe of Reuben [were] sealed twelve thousand ;
Reuben was Jacob's firstborn, but by his sin he lost the honour and privilege of birthright, and therefore is mentioned after Judah, who prevailed above him and the rest of his brethren; his name signifies "see the Son", (Genesis 29:32) ; and shows that the Son of God is to be looked unto for righteousness, life, and salvation, by all that expect to be saved, and to him does the true church look for eternal life and happiness.

Of the tribe of Gad [were] sealed twelve thousand ;
his name signifies a "troop", (Genesis 30:11) , and may denote that there would be a numerous company of saints and faithful witnesses during the time of sealing, and amidst all the troubles and afflictions that would attend the church and people of God, and who in the issue would be conquerors, and more than conquerors, through Christ; see (Genesis 49:19) .