After the six seals are broken, the angel says, “‘Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’ And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” And just as God promised the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as the prophets proclaimed throughout this story, the Lord will fulfill His promise to the tribes of Israel.
“After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” And the ones gathered around the throne of God “serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
When Jesus opens the seventh seal, trumpets begin sounding. At the sounding of the first six trumpets, these events take place:
1) ⅓ of vegetation is burned
2) ⅓ of the sea is destroyed
3) ⅓ of fresh water is destroyed
4) ⅓ of the luminaries are darkened
5) more power is given to evil – “Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth. And to them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. And they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will desire to die, and death will flee from them.”
6) ⅓ of mankind is killed – “So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred million…By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths… But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”
The angel then tells John to take the little book that he is holding and eat it. “Then I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth. But when I had eaten it, my stomach became bitter. And he said to me, ‘You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings.’”
Tomorrow the seventh trumpet sounds, so keep reading.
(Revelation 7:1-10:11)
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Chronological Bible in Layman's Terms 