The
point is that there is the scroll, and there are the seven seals on the scroll.
What we see in the seven seals is not a description of what is on the scroll,
but a description of the things that will take place all around the fulfillment
of the scroll.
Each
time Jesus opens a seal, something happens. We are not told that this is what
was on the scroll, but what happened because Jesus opened a particular seal. These
things are not accidents surrounding divine deliberations. These things are not
the unexpected experiences that come because God didn’t think through how his
work would affect our planet. These are things that happen because Jesus opened
the seal on the will, the word, and the work of God.
As
believers (the true saints of Scripture) wait for the unfolding work of God to
reach its fulfillment, we are to face everything described in these seals,
however they come, whenever they come, wherever they come, why-ever they come,
and whomever they touch, as fully compatible with all that God has planned and
purposed for his people. In other words, these seven seals cover everything
that could possibly happen surrounding the fulfillment of all that God has
written on this scroll, and all of it happens consistent with all that God is
doing.
God
has said in his word that he works all things together for good, for those who
love him, meaning, those whom he has lovingly called to himself through the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.[1] He
has said in the same chapter of Romans 8 that we who love God, who have been
called according to his purposes, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who
loved us”.[2]
The “in all these
things” includes what Paul has just listed: “tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or
danger, or sword”,[3] and what he states immediately after: “For I am sure that neither death nor life,
nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will
be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord”.[4]
When we come to the book of Revelation in general, and the
seven seals in particular, we have a symbolic photo gallery of things that
would threaten to undo us, would threaten our faith in the unstoppable love of
God fulfilling all his good plans and purposes for his people, unless we see
them in divine perspective. The message is clear: all these things will happen
between the time of Jesus’ first and second comings, and not one of these
things will separate us from the love of God that is ours in Jesus Christ.
In fact, it is Jesus himself who opens all the seals so
that these things happen during the course of history, and in so doing, he
presents to us the scroll of God, written on both sides, guaranteed in its
fulfillment because Jesus is the Lamb slain for the redemption of God’s people,
and he is the one who breaks the seals and opens the scroll.
Conclusion: Keep in step with the Spirit of Jesus Christ
now, because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are working out everything
contained on the scroll, while surrounded by all the world events described in
the seven seals, in full conformity to all that God has planned and purposed. Another
way of saying this is: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”.[5]
This
is illustrated in another description further along in Revelation: “And the angel said to me, ‘The
waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes
and nations and languages. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate
the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and
burn her up with fire, for
God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind
and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are
fulfilled” (17:15-17).
The point here is that all these terrible things will
happen by the world, the flesh, and the devil, “until the words of God are fulfilled.” That is another way of
saying that, all the things described in the seven seals will happen just as
described, until the words of God written on the scroll are fulfilled exactly
as God planned. We do not need to know how any specific world event fits in to
any particular seal; only that what we are going through right now fits both
the seven seals on one side, and everything written on the scroll on the other
side.
“But thanks be to
God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my
beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”[6]
From my heart,
Monte
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~
in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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