The Final Triumph

Verses 1-8: After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, 'Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond servants of our God on their foreheads.' And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel: from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, from the tribe of Zebulon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed. Here we see this phrase again, "After this" or "After these things". We saw this phrase as the beginning of a new section in Revelation 4:1. In chapter 7 we find verses 1 and 9 beginning with this phrase. The first section (verses 1-8) deals with Israel: "I heard the number....144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel" (verse 4). The second section (verse 9-17) deals with the church. "From every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." The godly remnant in Israel is protected during the time of wrath, but the church itself is raptured to stand before the Lord. Just before the wrath of God is poured out on the earth, the dead in Christ will rise and along with the living ones will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air to welcome Him back to earth - like a bride going out to welcome her bridegroom. They stand "before the throne and before the Lamb" (verse 9). In Israel, there will be at that time, a godly remnant who have not become Christians. The Lord will protect them from His wrath. In verse 2, we read of an angel coming to seal these Israelites. In Daniel 12:1 we read about this angel: Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that time, your people, every one who is found written in the book, will be rescued". There seems to be a close connection between the archangel Michael and the children of Israel. He will arise at the time when the wrath of God is going to be poured out upon this earth - a time of terrible distress - to seal and protect the God-fearing Israelites. In Daniel 12:2-4, we read that those who died in faith in Old Testament times, will also arise along with the church and be raptured: And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground (those who have died) will awake, some to everlasting life, and others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Many people feel that as far as God is concerned, His purpose for Israel is finished with the coming of Jesus Christ. But that is not true, as we read clearly in Romans 11. After explaining the gospel of salvation in chapters 1-8, the Holy Spirit explains about Israel in chapters 9-11. This is New Testament teaching, and not Old Testament teaching. "God has not rejected His people of Israel, has He? May it never be!" (Romans 11:1). (That, by the way, is the same expression the Spirit uses in Romans 6:1, 2: "Shall we sin again? May it never be!") Just as in Elijah's day there was a remnant of 7000 people, there will also be in the last days, "a remnant according to God's gracious choice" (Romans 11:2-5). When Jesus returns, there will be a God-fearing remnant in the nation of Israel. If they had put their trust in Christ they would have become a part of the church in which there is no distinction between Jews and non-Jews. But these did not recognise Jesus Christ as their Messiah. If the rejection of Israel has resulted in the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? (Romans 11:15). The whole world has had the opportunity to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ when Israel was rejected. Then when Israel is accepted back again, the earth is going to experience something like a resurrection. The wild animals will become tame again. Thorns and thistles will disappear. If you (Gentiles) were cut off from a wild olive tree and you were grafted contrary to nature to a cultivated olive tree, (into the chosen people of God), how much more shall these who are the natural branches (the Jews) be grafted into their own olive tree? I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery lest you become wise in your estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in (verse 25). "The fulness of the Gentiles" refers to those whose names are written in the book of life among the nations of the earth. And when the last person whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life is gathered in, it will be time for the rapture and time for the hardening to go away from this God-fearing remnant in Israel. We must not be ignorant of this fact. "The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable" (verse 29). God never changes. He called the nation of Israel once. He will never change His mind about them. Look back at Revelation 6:13. There we read, "The stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind". The stars falling from the sky are pictured as a fig tree shaking off its unripe figs. Immediately after that, we read about Israel in Revelation 7:1-8. The fig tree is a picture of Israel. Then we read about "four angels standing at the four corners of the earth" (Revelation 7:1). The four corners refer to 'north, south, east and west'. The Lord has brought back the Jews to the land of Israel from all corners of the earth. In the Old Testament, David is a picture of Jesus Christ Who overcame Satan (Goliath). And the initial part of Solomon's rule before he became an idolater is a picture of the future reign of Jesus Christ on earth for a thousand years. 'Solomon' means 'peaceable', and in Solomon's time, "Judah and Israel lived in safety, every man under his vine and fig tree" (1 Kings 4:25). The vine and fig tree mentioned here were two symbols used to represent Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus said in John 15:1: "I am the true vine". But He never said, "I am the true fig tree". We in the church are now part of the vine. But the fig tree remains as Israel. When Jesus comes to rule on the earth, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and the word of the Lord will go forth from Jerusalem. And He will judge between many peoples. Nation will not lift up sword against nation and never again will they train for war (during the 1000-year reign of Christ) and each of them will "sit under his vine and under his fig tree (Micah 4:1-4). In Deuteronomy 32:8, we read about God giving the nations their inheritance. "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it" (1 Corinthians 10:26). And because the earth is the Lord's, He has apportioned different parts of the earth to different people. When He separated the sons of Adam, He set the boundaries of all the nations. But first of all, He set the boundary for the sons of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:8). The Lord had told Abraham, I am going to give your descendants this land, from the river of Egypt to the River Euphrates (Genesis 15:18). That was the land God had promised Israel and that was the land over which Solomon ruled when he was king of Israel. And that is the land which will once again become Israel's possession when Jesus reigns on the earth. In Genesis 35:9-12, we read that God appeared to Jacob and told him, "Your name is Jacob. You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name....he land which I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I will give it to you, and to your descendants after you". This gives us a clear answer. The whole earth belongs to God. And God has said, "I have given this land to the descendants of Jacob". In Joel 1:12 we read, "The vine dries up and the fig tree wastes away". That was the beginning of the decline of Israel which was completed soon after Christ ascended to heaven. But then we read further in Joel 2:22, "After the Lord has done the work, the fig tree and the vine have yielded in full". The fig tree that wasted away starts blossoming again. There are many promises in the Old Testament that we can apply to ourselves spiritually. But they will also be literally fulfilled in the nation of Israel before Jesus establishes His kingdom on earth. Joel 2:28 says, It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit upon all mankind, And your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Your old men will see dreams. I will pour out My Spirit in those days. The sun will turn into darkness, the moon into blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes". The first part of this was fulfilled spiritually on the day of Pentecost when the first disciples were baptised in the Holy Spirit. It will be literally fulfilled in Israel when the day of the Lord comes. In Mark 11:12-14, 20, we read that Jesus saw a fig tree once and when He came close to it looking for fruit, all He saw were leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He cursed it saying, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again". The next day the disciples saw the fig tree withered up. That action of our Lord's was a prophecy that could be interpreted like this: Jesus came to the nation of Israel to look for fruit for the glory of God. But all that He saw were leaves of religious rituals and no fruit. Jesus cursed Israel. But the nation did not wither away immediately. In fact it looked as if nothing happened. But by the next day (40 years later) it had dried up completely". At the completion of His ministry, Jesus walked out of the temple saying, Your house is left to you desolate. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wanted to call you, but you did not know the time of your visitation. Henceforth you will not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord' (Matthew 23:37-39). The fig tree was cursed. Jesus Christ was crucified in the year 29 AD or 30 AD. The Jews then cried out saying, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). God took them at their word and forty years later in 70 AD, the Roman army entered Jerusalem under General Titus and destroyed the temple. The Jews were then scattered to the ends of the earth. But that was not the end of the fig tree. Once the disciples of Jesus asked Him about His return saying, "What will be THE sign?" (Mark 13:4). Jesus replied saying, "Learn this parable from the fig tree" (Mark 13:28). Notice that He told us to learn something! Just like Jesus told us to learn gentleness and humility from Him (Matthew 11:29), He also told us to learn from the fig tree. So it is important for the church to know about Israel - the fig tree which Jesus cursed and which dried up in the morning. What are we to learn from the fig tree? Jesus said, When its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves you know that summer is near. Even so, you too, when you see these things happening, recognise that He is near, right at the door. Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place (Mark 13:28-30). Which generation was Jesus referring to? Obviously the generation which sees the fig tree (Israel) budding again! He who has ears to hear, let him hear. The fruit has not yet come in Israel. They are not converted and there is no fruit for the glory of God. But the fig tree has started putting forth its leaves. In Luke 13:6-9, Jesus spoke a parable about a man who had a fig tree and who came looking for fruit on it but did not find any. That too was about Israel. So the master said to the gardener, "Cut it down. Why is it wasting the ground? Why is it occupying the land?" The gardener pleaded saying, "Let it alone Sir. Let me try for a little more time. And next year if you still don't find any fruit, then cut it down". So Israel was spared for 40 years and then cut down. But now it has started budding again. But very few in Israel are God-fearing. The Lord once showed Jeremiah two baskets of figs. One basket had good figs while the other had rotten figs (Jeremiah 24:1-3). Today in Israel, most of the figs are rotten. But there are also a few good figs, who will form part of that remnant of 144,000 that we read of above. We see one example of that in John 1:47. Jesus said about Nathaniel, "Here is an Israelite in whom there is no guile (no rottenness)." Nathaniel asked the Lord, "How do You know me?" Jesus answered and said, "I saw you when you were under the fig tree!" Nathaniel was a good fig, although unconverted at that time. He is a type of that remnant that will be in Israel in the last days. God has His eye on them and He will gather them together. Before Israel even entered Canaan, Moses had told them that one day the Lord would scatter them from one end of the earth to the other (Deuteronomy 28:64). When God chose Abraham (around 2000 B.C.), He took him to Canaan. God allowed Abraham's descendants to become slaves in Egypt for over 400 years, and then, around 1400 B.C., brought them back to Canaan through Joshua. After Solomon died (900 B.C.), the nation of Israel was split into two. The southern kingdom called itself Judah and the northern kingdom called itself Israel. In 722 B.C., the Assyrians came and conquered Israel (the northern nation) and took them captive. Israel then ceased to exist. Later, in 586 B.C., Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, came and conquered Judah (the southern kingdom), and took them also captive. But God had already told them through Jeremiah, "After 70 years in Babylon you will come back to your land" (Jeremiah 29:10). Exactly 70 years later the Jews came back. They built their temple in the days of Ezra, Haggai and Zechariah. But in all those years, Israel was never scattered to all the nations of the earth. They had been taken to Assyria and to Babylon but they came back. But Moses prophesied of a time when they would be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. This happened only in 70 A.D. After the Jews had crucified Jesus, God gave them 40 years to repent. But they did not repent. Then He scattered them to all the corners of the earth. But Moses also prophesied saying, Then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers (Deuteronomy 30:3-5). That is what has happened in our time. The fig tree has begun to blossom. Israel has been gathered back from the four corners of the earth. Isaiah prophesied saying, On that day that the Lord will again recover the second time the remnant of His people who will remain in Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath and from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations and will assemble the banished ones of Israel (the northern kingdom), and will gather the dispersed of Judah (the southern kingdom) from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:11, 12). The first time the Lord brought Israel back was after their 70 years of captivity in Babylon. The second time was in this century. This passage in Isaiah is connected with the millennium, when the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra. (Isaiah 11:6-8). The animals will no longer be wild when Jesus reigns on the earth. But that could happen only after Israel had come back into her land. So we can say that Jesus could not have returned to earth until Israel had come back to the land and occupied the city of Jerusalem. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared itself to be a nation. In June 1967, they occupied the temple-site in Jerusalem. So Jesus could not have come in 100 A.D. or even in 1900 A.D. The earliest He could have returned was only after June 1967. Another prophecy is in Ezekiel, I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land" (Ezekiel 36:24). Yet another prophecy is found in Jeremiah. The Lord told him, Have you not observed what this people have spoken saying, 'The two families which the Lord chose (Judah and Israel), He has rejected them? (That is what many people are saying today that God has chosen the church and rejected the Jews). Thus they despise My people, no longer are they as a nation in their sight. But thus says the Lord, 'If My covenant for day and night stand not, and the fixed patterns of heaven and earth I have not established, then I would reject the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, not taking from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But I will restore their fortunes and have mercy on them' (Jeremiah 33:23-26). In other words, as long as there is the cycle of day and night, we can be certain that God has not rejected Israel. That is crystal clear. The land of Israel was ruled by the Romans (63 B.C. to 313 A.D.), the Byzantine empire (313 to 636 A.D.), the Arabs (636 to 1099 A.D.), the Crusaders (1099 to 1291 A.D.), the Mamluk rulers (1291 to 1516 A.D.), the Ottoman empire (1517 to 1917 A.D.) and finally by the British (1917 to 1948 A.D.). It is interesting to see how various people through the centuries tried unsuccessfully to get the Jews back to their land. In the 4th century A.D., the Roman emperor Julian promised the Jews that he would build their temple. But each time he tried to build the temple, some calamity would take place and he would not be able to build it. Why? Because God's time had not yet come. In the 16th and 17th centuries A.D., three Jewish leaders tried to bring the Jews back to their land. They also did not succeed. Why? Because God's time had still not come. At the end of the 19th century, Benjamin Disraeli (a Jew) became Prime Minister of Great Britain. He too promised to bring the Jews back to Palestine. But just before he could do it, he was voted out as Prime Minister. In 1917, Lord Balfour of England, put forth what is known as "The Balfour Declaration". promising Palestine to the Jews. But because England wanted to please the Arabs, she went back on her word to the Jews for 30 years. Finally, when God's time came, He used one of the greatest enemies of the Jews, Adolf Hitler, to help fulfil His purpose. Hitler was inspired by Satan to kill over 6 million Jews. But that resulted in Jews everywhere fleeing to the nation of Palestine for refuge, and there they established their homeland, some four years after Hitler's death. In Jeremiah 16:14-16, this exodus to Israel is prophesied. There God said, The days are coming when it will no longer be said, 'As the Lord lives Who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt', but it will be said, 'As the Lord lives Who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north (Hitler's land, Germany is north of Israel) and from all the other countries where He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their own land. (And how was He going to bring them back?) I am going to send for many fishermen and they will fish for them; and afterwards I shall send for many hunters, and THEY WILL HUNT THEM from every mountain and every hill, and every cleft of the rocks". First of all, God would get fishermen (friends of Israel) to draw them to Israel with attractive baits. When that didn't succeed sufficiently, He would send hunters (enemies of Israel) to chase them out from every nook and corner and make them flee to Israel. Notice the amazing sovereignty of God that used both the friends and enemies of Israel to fulfil His purposes. Consider another interesting verse. Isaiah 43:5, 6 says, 'Do not fear, for I am with you', says the Lord, 'I will bring your offspring from the east (that includes India from where many Jews have gone back to Israel), and gather you from the west (that includes England and America). BUT I WILL SAY TO THE NORTH, 'GIVE THEM UP' AND I WILL SAY TO THE SOUTH 'DO NOT HOLD THEM BACK'". Notice the different expressions used here. There was never any problem about Jews migrating from the East or from the West, so the Lord uses the phrases, "I will bring them and gather them". But when it comes to the north (Russia), He says, "I will tell them that they had better GIVE THEM UP!" This was because Russia did not allow the Jews to emigrate. But the Lord destroyed Communism in Russia and thus made Russia send 600,000 Jews to Israel after 1990. And when it comes to the countries south of Israel, the Lord warns them NOT TO HOLD THEM BACK. This was because those countries also did not permit the Jews to emigrate to Israel. Yet the Lord brought them from there too. It is an amazing story how every single Jew from the country of Oman - 43,000 of them - came back to the nation of Israel in 1948 and in the following years. 30,000 Jews were brought back from Ethiopia through two amazing operations conducted by Israel in 1984 and 1991. All this was an exact fulfilment of Biblical prophecy. The Lord has also said in Amos 9:15 that once He has planted the Jews a second time in the land of Israel, they would never again be rooted out from that land. So Israel will stay forever in their own land. And that will not be by the help of any super-power, but by the power of the Lord. Another verse that is relevant to the time in which we are living is Zechariah 10:9, 10: When I scatter them among the peoples, they will remember Me in far countries, and they with their children will live and come back. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them from Assyria, and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon until no room can be found for them". Here we are told that the number of immigrants will be so large that no room will be found for them. This is why Israel is constantly building new settlements for its immigrants. Not enough room can be found for them! The word of God is up-to-date! God is giving back to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all the land which He gave to their fathers 3000 years ago. No-one can play the fool with God. The amazing thing is that in all these 19 centuries of their dispersion, the Jews did not get assimilated with the people of various countries. They have always remained distinct, unlike any other people on the face of the earth. After 19 centuries they are still Jews. They have been like the prophet Jonah. The Jews scattered into all nations have been like Jonah in the whale's belly. The whale tried to digest Jonah for three days. But it did not succeed and finally spewed him out on the Israeli coast. In the same way, all nations tried to digest the Jews for 2000 years, but did not succeed. Finally they threw them back into the land of Israel. In Revelation 7:1-8, we see how God protects His people in the last days. This remnant of 144,000 people are like Nathaniel who did not initially believe that Jesus was the Messiah. But when Nathaniel saw Him, he believed. There are going to be people like Nathaniel in Israel in the last days - God-fearing people - who do not believe that Jesus is the Messiah until they see Him in glory. The number of 144,000 is only symbolic of a small number and not literal. These people are going to be protected from the wrath of God that is going to fall upon the world at that time. In Egypt, when the Israelites were being harassed by Pharaoh (a type of the Antichrist), they were protected from the plagues (judgment) that God sent on Egypt. God's judgment fell on Egypt, but it did not touch Israel. In Babylon, when Nebuchadnezzar (another type of the Antichrist) forced everyone to bow down to his image, there were three Jews (a type of the remnant) who refused and who were put into a flaming furnace. But the fire could not harm them. Even so God will preserve His godly remnant in the last days. They will be sealed and protected. "Say to the righteous, it will go well with them" (Isaiah 3:10). It will always go well with humble, God-fearing people. Verses 9, 10: After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation to our God Who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.' This is the church - which includes Jews and Gentiles who are born again. And this is the time when the church is raptured to meet the Lord in the air. In Song of Solomon 2:10, the bridegroom says to the bride, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come along." Why? Because "the fig tree has ripened its figs" (verse 13). That call is going to come from the Bridegroom (Christ) to the Bride (the church) one of these days. So that is why Jesus told us to learn from the fig tree. Then we will be ready for His call, "Arise, my darling, and come". The marriage of the Lamb is drawing near. During the time of judgment, the church is not going to be on the earth. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 is clear: God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said that the last days will be like the days of Noah and the days of Lot. Just as Lot was taken out before the judgment fell on Sodom and Gomorrah, and Noah was taken into the ark before the judgment fell on the earth, in the same way, the church will be taken out before judgment falls on the world. We see the saints here standing with palm branches in their hands. In the Old Testament, the Israelites were told to celebrate the feast of tabernacles with palm branches (Leviticus 23:40). All the feasts of Israel had symbolic meanings. The passover portrayed the death of Christ and the feast of tabernacles pictured the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on this earth. That is the significance of the believers holding palm branches in their hands. When they cry out saying, "Salvation to our God", what they are saying is, "Our salvation is entirely due to our God and not due to anything in us". They gladly acknowledge that their salvation is by the grace of God and the Lamb. "They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb" (Revelation 7:14). "I stand upon His merit, I know no other stand - Not e'en where glory dwelleth, in Immanuel's land Every true child of God will confess when he stands before the Lord that it was only the grace of God and the blood of the Lamb that brought him there. Verses 11, 12: And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and around the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God saying, 'Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.' In the book of Revelation, in the midst of all the many sevens - 7 churches, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 vials, and 7 thunders - we also have 7 glimpses of worship in heaven. And here is one of those glimpses. We saw two of them earlier in chapters 4 and 5. We see in all these glimpses that people in heaven - the angels, the twenty four elders, and the four living creatures - are always waiting for the slightest opportunity to worship God and to say, "Hallelujah, praise the Lord!" How wonderful if we can have this atmosphere in our hearts at all times! We sing in a song, "Heaven came down and glory filled my soul". One mark of heaven coming down into a person's soul is that he is forever waiting for the slightest excuse to worship God and to praise Him. The spirit of praise and worship is the spirit of heaven. So when the believers say, "Our salvation is due to our God", all the millions of angels, the 4 living creatures, and the 24 elders immediately say, "Yes. Amen. That's right. Let us give glory to this wonderful God". Verses 13, 14: And one of the elders answered saying to me 'These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?' And I said to him, 'My lord, you know.' And he said to me, 'These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Verse 14 teaches very clearly that the church is going to go through the great tribulation and then come "OUT of it". When we say that someone has come OUT of a room, we mean that he was in the room and then came OUT of it. In Revelation 18:4, when God tells His people to come OUT of Babylon, He is calling people who are in Babylon to come OUT. Likewise here, when it says that the believers have "come OUT of the great tribulation", the plain meaning is that they were in the great tribulation and then came OUT of it. It is because the flesh of man does not like tribulation that a doctrine was invented 150 years ago in the Western world that the church would not go through the great tribulation. That is the doctrine that my flesh would like to believe too - just like your flesh. Everybody's flesh would like to hear a doctrine that tells us that we are going to have a comfortable time. BUT THERE IS NOT A SINGLE VERSE IN THE SCRIPTURES THAT TEACHES THAT THE CHURCH WILL ESCAPE THE GREAT TRIBULATION. God has never promised to protect us from tribulation from man. Throughout the history of the church, the church has always faced tribulation. Even today, more than one-third of the world's population is under anti-Christian rulers who persecute Christians. And believers are suffering tribulation in these lands. That is not something strange. It has happened for 20 centuries and it is happening right now. It will happen on a wider scale in the future. Humanly speaking, we may not have the courage to be burnt at the stake or to face lions. Our flesh is fearful and cowardly. But God will give us special grace when that time comes. That is His promise. That is why we do not fear the great tribulation. We have already seen how John who wrote this book says in Revelation 1:9, "I John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation." If you had told John that tribulation was not for the church, he would have told you that he was going through tribulation himself. The doctrine of a "pre-tribulational rapture of the church" originated in comfortable, Western Christianity. No believer living in a country where he is being persecuted, would ever have invented such a doctrine or believed it. These saints came OUT of tribulation triumphantly! They were glad to lay down their own lives and to be slain, counting it a privilege to suffer for the sake of Jesus Christ. And they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. They were cleansed and they were faithful. Verse 15: For this reason they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in the temple; and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them. Only the pure in heart can stand before God and see Him (Matthew 5:8). These are pure because they were cleansed in the blood. Therefore they stand before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night. This teaches us that even in eternity there will be some form of service that we will do for the Father. And God Himself will be a covering protection from them. They will have the comforting presence of God, wherever they go. Verse 16: They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat. Every unsatisfied longing that we had on earth will be satisfied over there. There will be no heat of any trial or tribulation over there, as there is on earth. Verse 17: For the Lamb in the centre of the throne shall be their Shepherd, and shall guide them to the springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes. The Lord will be our Shepherd there in a far deeper and greater way than here on earth. He will guide us to the springs of the water of life - to deeper experiences in the Holy Spirit - far deeper than we can ever have on this earth. And God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. There will be no more sorrow or death. This is actually a glimpse of what it will be like in eternity. But God gives this vision of grace, before the judgment begins in chapter 8. Again and again in the book of Revelation, we find that every glimpse of judgment is preceded by a glimpse of God's grace.