The seventh seal heralds the beginning of a new cycle of calamities. There is an interpretation that these seals, and the seven vials of wrath, and the seven trumpets are like a parallel story about the same thing, that is, the Apostle tries to present the same theme in different ways, in different languages. Such an interpretation is accepted by many, but I do not think that such a sequence is possible that then an earthquake will come, then this and that will come... There were earthquakes then and now. The world is now in crisis, and monstrous earthquakes are shaking it, and it may be that in another thousand years it will be the same.

7

1 And after these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east 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 given to injure the earth and the sea, saying, 3 Do no harm to the earth, or to the sea, or to the trees, until we have sealed the foreheads of the servants of our God. 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed: those who were sealed were one hundred and forty-four thousand out of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

9 And after these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Salvation belongs to our God who sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb!' 11 And all the angels stood round about the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and fell down before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 saying, 'Amen! blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God forever and ever! Amen. 13 And having begun to speak, one of the elders asked me, 'Who are these clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?' 14 I said to him, 'You know, sir.' And he said to me, These are those who have come out of great tribulation; they have washed their garments, and have made their garments white with the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore they are now before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple, and he who sits on the throne shall dwell in them. 16 They shall hunger no more, nor thirst, nor shall the sun burn them, nor any heat: 17 for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them to fountains of living waters; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Comment

Open. 7, 1–3. The Four Angels is an image borrowed from the book of the prophet Zechariah, which speaks of four angels standing at the throne; they, according to the number of cardinal points, denote the fullness of the spiritual world. Before the days of tribulation come, all the elect are sealed, in other words, the sacred remnant. The remnant is a term taken from the Old Testament that refers to the little flock among the people of God. The book of the prophet Ezekiel says the same thing – calamity comes, but the Angel puts the seal of "tav" on people's foreheads. And here is an amazing, mysterious coincidence of transformations. In the modern Hebrew square script, the letter "tav" resembles the Russian "p", but in the ancient alphabets, in the ancient Canaanite and in the Phoenician, the letter "tav" looked like a cross, either like the cross of St. Andrew (see some inscriptions from the tenth century BC), or simply like a cross, as in all Phoenician inscriptions. (By the way, in the Russian Synodal translation these words of the prophet Ezekiel are quoted in an inaccurate form. make a sign." And in the original it says so: "make a tav.") For the ancient Christians, obviously, this was the first sign of the sign of the cross and the blessing of the believer during baptism with holy water, that is, it was the sign of Christ, and few people noticed what this amazing prototype was in the prophet Ezekiel. Here is the same symbol. In the midst of the storm and turmoil of the world, a little flock is chosen, and they are sealed. In this case, it is the seal of baptism, and not just the seal of baptism, but the seal of following the Lamb.

Open. 7, 4. In the opinion of most interpreters, we are talking about the remnant of the Old Testament church, the church that is the first in time, the remnant of the church of Israel. One hundred and forty-four thousand is a symbolic number, the product of twelve thousand on the twelve tribes of Israel. And then comes the following text: "From the tribe of Judah..."

(Rev. 7:5-8). All the tribes of Israel are enumerated, this is a solemn enumeration as a sign that the twelve chosen inheritances, twelve thousand in each, are one hundred and forty-four thousand. The tribe of Dan is not mentioned here, some think that it had disappeared from the record by that time. There is even an opinion, though not confirmed by anything, that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan, so there was not a single person from this tribe who would remain faithful to God and follow Christ. In fact, during the first centuries of the church, there were almost no people left from the tribe of Naphtali and Asher, who disappeared many centuries ago in Assyrian captivity. In fact, the descendants of the tribes of Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Simon, and their remnants remained in Palestine and in the diaspora, and all the other tribes disappeared, so that the enumeration is purely symbolic. This means that in the church of the Old Testament there is a small remnant, the core of the church of the New Testament. But the movement of the kingdom of Christ throughout the world is not limited to this small number, this remnant.

The next picture takes us into a broader perspective (Rev. 7:9-17). Here we are talking about the universal Church, about people who cannot be counted, from all tribes and peoples. They walk in white robes with palm branches in their hands. Feast garments and palm branches are attributes of the Feast of Tabernacles, and in the second part of the book of the prophet Zechariah, it is the Feast of Tabernacles that is associated with the era of the coming of the Messiah, so that these people with palm branches celebrate a new eschatological Feast of Tabernacles, a feast associated with the Exodus from Egypt, with liberation from slavery, just like the Feast of the Passover. The Old Testament Temple may have been destroyed (it probably no longer existed at that time), but John the seer tells us that the Temple exists, that it is a heavenly Temple, and that all who have washed their garments with the blood of the Lamb, that is, who have received baptism and the redemptive power of Christ's sufferings, will serve Him who sits in the Temple day and night. This Temple is already a heavenly Temple, a universal Temple, a universal Church. And then the author quotes literally the words of the prophet Isaiah: "They will hunger no more, nor thirst, and the sun will not burn them, nor any heat." "The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will feed them and lead them to living fountains of waters" is a quote from the prophet Isaiah, that is, everything here is said in the words of the Old Testament seers. In other words, the universal Church will celebrate the liberation of the world from the power of darkness and evil, and God will be with her until the complete destruction of all darkness. No evil will touch them, because the Lord will be with them, and the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be their Comforter and only Shepherd.

8

1 And when he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven, as it were for half an hour. 2 And I saw seven angels standing before God; and seven trumpets were given to them. 3 And another angel came, and stood before the altar, holding a golden censer; And a great quantity of incense was given to him, that with the prayers of all the saints he might lay it on the golden altar which is before the throne. 4 And the smoke of incense went up with the prayers of the saints by the hand of an angel before God. 5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the ground: and there came voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

6 And the seven angels, having seven trumpets, prepared to blow.

7 And the first angel sounded, and hail and fire were made, mingled with blood, and fell to the earth; and a third part of the trees was burned, and all the green grass was burned.

8 The second angel sounded, and it was as a great mountain burning with fire that was cast down into the sea; and a third part of the sea became blood, 9 and a third part of the living creatures that dwell in the sea died, and a third part of the ships perished.