Between the 6th and 7th Seal
(Chapter 7)
Two Preserved Companies of People on Earth
A parenthesis is opened to show us that God is in complete control of all the coming events, and many will be spared in the judgments and will participate in the millennial kingdom of Christ. Not only will the Lord order providential judgments to fall on the earth (chap. 6), but He will also order providential preservation for two blessed companies of people who will pass through that terrible time (chap. 7).
Vss. 1-8—The first is an elect company of Israelites (under the figure of 144,000) who will believe the gospel of the kingdom. They are a remnant from “all the tribes” of Israel. Their preservation is signified by the “four angels” restraining “the four winds of the earth” (the universal working of demonic powers to crush and destroy). A “seal” is put on them indicating that they have been marked out for blessing. The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are omitted perhaps because of their complicity with idolatry (Deut. 29:18-21; Judg. 18:1-31; 1 Kings 12:25-30; Hos. 4:17). This does not mean that there won’t be any saved from those tribes, for Scripture indicates elsewhere that some from every tribe in Israel will be brought into blessing (Ezek. 48).
Vs. 9—The second is an elect company of Gentiles out of all nations on earth who will also believe the gospel of the kingdom.
Vss. 10-17—Both companies will survive this terrible time and will enter the Millennium. They will happily join the praise of the Lamb, which the angels and the elders have already begun in heaven. They will praise Him “day and night” in the earthly “temple” that will be built in the Millennium (Isa. 56:6-7; Ezek. 40-44; Psa. 134:1). The Lamb will “tabernacle over them” in the heavens (vss. 15-17 – J. N. Darby Trans.).