7:1-8
The image of no wind can be related to the earlier image of the ‘sea of order’ seen earlier in Heaven. There are several ‘pauses’ throughout revelation, of varying intensity. These are moments of conspicuous quiet and order within the chaos that seems to be surrounding the world. The angel who has the seal is standing in for God. When a king sent out an ambassador on an special mission, often he would give him a signet ring, or a sealed scroll with the king’s sign on it. That seal was a sign of protection and authority. To kill someone who was under a king’s seal would be a supreme attack on the king himself.
He walks in the midst of the angels who are wreaking havoc on the earth. There is almost something comedic in this moment. It is like God started the wheels of the machine a bit too early...he ‘forgot something’ and needs to stop the machine while he takes care of this neglected piece of business. It is like someone running into the machinery of a newspaper company yelling ‘stop the presses, we have something we have to add’. The four angels mentioned as the ones with authority to do damage are ambiguous. Does he refer to the angels who stopped the winds? Or to the Four Horsemen themselves? The rhythm of this passage is a bit confusing.
The angel then takes the seal and marks certain people. This marking, this ‘sealing’ would have the same meaning as the angel himself carrying the seal, they would be under God’s special protection. What does the sealing mean? Many take this moment to be an image of the rapture, of the marking of those who go to heaven without facing tribulation. But this question will follow us throughout the book, because there are some places that see these marked individuals in heaven, others place them on earth during the tribulations and trials God has in store for the Earth, but protected from their consequences. A plague hits and those sealed are unaffected, it is their mysterious invulnerability to the plagues that stands as a witness to God on earth. These images, of the sealed among those who are suffering from God’ plagues, would stand in contrast to those who would think of the sealed as raptured up to heaven. However, if you stay with the book long enough you will see why rapture theologians believe this. Again, the exact fate of the sealed is ambiguous, in the book.
Now we have an opportunity to talk about one of the great mysteries of the New Testament, and a compounded mystery found in the Book of Revelation. The first issue is that of the twelve tribes of Israel. When Israel was first organized into a tribal nation, each part of the promised land was given to a specific Israelite tribe. These twelve tribes eventually organized into a complete nation under one ruler, Saul, David and Solomon all ruled under this unified nation. However, even under these leaders tribal divisions remained, and each person continued to think of themselves as a member of this or that tribe. Solomon’s sins led to the break up of the unified nation, with ten tribes found in the north seceding from the unified State of Israel, and two tribes remaining in the southern nation, now called Judah.
Now eventually, the Northern Kingdom, still called Israel, and the ten tribes that lived there were taken into exile by Assyria. Eventually the Southern Kingdom, Judah, was taken over an exiled by the Babylonians, but were eventually brought back to their ancestral homeland under Persia.
But the earlier Assyrian Empire was far more brutal than the Babylonians. Rather than simply displacing the Jews, as Babylon had done to the southern tribes, it wiped out the northern tribes completely. Through a process of systematic rape, the southern tribes were absorbed into an Assyrian population in Northern Israel, and this nation became known as the Samaritans. Any other Jews brought away from Northern Israel were forced to marry into other nations within the Assyrian Empire.
For years the prophets, unaware of the true fate of the Northern Tribes, looked forward to a time when the ten lost tribes would return to the Northern Kingdom. But by Jesus’ time, the Samaritans, the only organized descendents of those tribes, were hated by the Jews, and in were no way looked at as “Jewish”. The simple fact is that by the time Jesus comes along, there are only two real tribes of Israel left: Judah and Benjamin. Yet, talk of the twelve tribes of Israel is found in many places (see: Luke 22:30). In fact, there were twelve disciples BECAUSE they were to rule over the twelve tribes. But what twelve tribes are they talking about? There weren’t twelve tribes any more. There are multiple theories about what this was all about.
There are some groups of Jews who have recently returned to Israel, from Ethiopia and elsewhere, who may in fact be descended from these lost tribes. In fact, some have suggested that the return of these descendents is a sign that this part of the Book of Revelation is coming true. But it must be noted that these claims to ancestry are unproven, and in any event these groups are not some kind of organized ‘tribes’ any more. They are, in fact, a lot like the Samaritans of old.
Others suggest that the 12 tribes will return at the end of the age, and this is what the Book of Revelation and Jesus are referring to. But notice, that the sealing of these people takes place BEFORE the final coming of Christ, before the final resurrection. And this would be a particular problem for those who believe this passage refers to the Rapture.
In point of fact we do not know for sure what the New Testament means when it talks about the twelve tribes. What we know for sure is that in this world, there were only two tribes of Israel left when the New Testament was written.
But in Revelation there is an extra layer of mystery. In this passage about the twelve tribes, John the Revelator makes a mistake on the names of the tribes. This is an incredible thing. The writer was undoubtedly Jewish, and knew the Old Testament very, very well. It is inconceivable that he gets the twelve tribes wrong by accident. These are the actual twelve tribes, as listed in Numbers in the Old Testament: Rueben, Simeon, Gad, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. In Revelation they are listed thusly: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin.
You see? Dan and Ephraim are excluded from the list. Joseph and Levi are added. Originally, Levi lost it’s tribal status so it’s members could serve as priests to ALL Israelite tribes. The tribe of Joseph was broken into two tribes, in the name of his sons Manasseh and Ephraim, to maintain the holy number of completeness among the tribes, twelve. Here Joseph is listed, one of the tribes of his sons is maintained, one is lost, and Dan is excluded. Levi, which lost it’s tribal status a long time ago, is added back in. What is going on here?
Here’s the rub: John the Revelator must be saying something very important in this passage. It is simply inconceivable that a scriptural scholar of this magnitude made a mistake here. This is a deliberate change, that must have meant something very important, but we cannot be sure what it is. There have been countless conjectures on this issue, none are conclusive.
My own feeling is this: I suspect that John is representing the in-grafting of the people of the church into the tribes of Israel (see: Romans 11:11-24, read in whole context Romans Chapters 9-11). The numbers 12,000 represent completeness, not one deserving person from the tribes of Israel will be lost. But those tribes have in-grafted into them, the churches themselves. The necessity of including Levi may represent the fact that the church is bringing worship of Yahweh to the world, fulfilling the commandment that Israel be a nation of priests to all people. We are fulfilling the priestly role, and so now we are as members of the nation of Israel. The inclusion of Joseph, a leader in Egypt, may be a message to the growing Christian population there. The message here is: you are as much a Jew as any other, and have the same right to be a member of the people of God. This message would make sense, given the conflict between Jews and Christians which we discussed earlier. But please remember this is only conjecture on my part, and we don’t know for sure what this passage means. What it means must be very important, however.
For me, again this is personal reflection, this is an important commentary on the relationship between Jews and Christians, in the Book of Revelation. I said earlier that John is generally positively inclined to the Jews. The fact that the protection of God is given to the tribes of Israel here is a very important thing. Our own protection and salvation is tied to our participation in the life of Israel. We are saved because we are a part of Israel. There is no hint here of God making distinctions, when it comes to salvation, between Jews and Christians. On the contrary, Jews are held up as God’s people, and our own salvation is a participation in theirs.
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