God's seal--our identification and protection

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TODAY’S SPECIAL: Revelation 6:1-17

TO CHEW ON: “Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried 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, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.’” Revelation 6:2,3

What does the forehead seal in Revelation 6:2-3 remind you of? The forehead seal from the dark side? “He [the beast] causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, slave and free, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads’” - Revelation 13:16,17.

The seal of Revelation 6 is not that seal. It is God’s seal of identification and protection on those who are His. My Bible’s study notes explain:

“Those sealed by the Holy Spirit are God’s possession, in dramatic contrast to those who bear the mark of the beast - Revelation 13:16,17)” Earl Wesley Morey, New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1827.

God placing a seal on those who are His occurs in other places in the Bible as well.

• In Ezekiel it marks those who are troubled by and grieve over Israel’s idolatry - Ezekiel 9:4.

• Paul mentions a seal on Christ-followers several times in his letters. He sees this seal as the Holy Spirit:

“God … who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” - 2 Corinthians 1:22 (all emphases added).

In Him … also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise - Ephesians 1:13.

“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption - Ephesians 4:30.

• Then we have these believers sealed in Revelation by God against the apocalyptic events to come.

“He who overcomes, … I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God the New Jerusalem … And I will write on him My new name - Revelation 3:12.

• Scorpion-like locusts are released by an angel but not allowed to harm any with the seal of God on their foreheads - Revelation 9:4.

• Those 144,000 sealed in Revelation 6 (our passage) appear with the Lamb before God on Mount Zion “… having His Father’s name written on their foreheads” - Revelation 14:1.

• Finally, John in his Revelation vision sees God’s servants, the sealed, assemble before God in the New Jerusalem: “They shall see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads - Revelation 22:4.

What a grand thread to follow today! May we all rest secure in our identification with the name of Jesus and its power and protection, stamped on us by the indwelling Holy Spirit!


PRAYER: Dear Jesus, though I only understand imperfectly this concept of being sealed by You, help me to enflesh what I do understand of it. Thank You for Your powerful name and Your Spirit and how You have sealed me. Amen.  

MORE: All Saints’ Day

Today the church celebrates All Saints’ Day. The day’s liturgy begins with this prayer:

Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Breaking the bondage of confusion

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Isaiah 61:1-11

TO CHEW ON: “… And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.” Isaiah 61:7

Today, as I read amazing Isaiah 61, verse 7 jumps out at me:

“Instead of your shame, you shall have double honor,
And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.
Therefore in their land they shall possess double;
Everlasting joy shall be theirs.”

I’d like to focus especially on one snippet of verse 7: “And instead of confusion they shall rejoice in their portion.”

Isaiah wrote this (entire chapter) to a nation that would spend many years in exile. This prophecy in the immediate spoke to them of a time they would again live in their own land.

A few word definitions:

“‘Shame’ and ‘dishonor’ describe the experience of the Babylonian exile of the sixth century” - Reformation Study Bible (accessed through Biblegateway.com).

“Confusion” (kalimmah) is also translated humilation, disgrace, reproach, shame, dishonor, insult, ignominy.

“Portion” (cheleq) means one’s share, part, territory, one’s possession.

To the exile, this prophecy spoke of a time when they would come out of the confusion or “humiliation” (NAS) of being exiled outsiders to again owning and rejoicing in their own “portion” or possession of land.

One of the reasons this verse speaks to me at this time is that in our western society, one of our most precious possessions, our gender norms and sexual identity, are under attack. New theories that claim our birth sex means nothing and that we can decide whether we are wishing to identify as male or female on any given day, are being instituted and upheld in society at large. Of special concern to me is that these new theories are now mandated instruction and practice in the schools—whether religious or secular.

This is leading to the need for new pronouns in our dictionary to address those who feel they are neither a “he” nor a “she,” genderless bathrooms, changes on official forms to accommodate those who don’t want to be identified with their biological sex—in other words, a whole lot of confusion.

This is especially troublesome for children who are now to be taught this new fluid sexual identity theory as truth. Who, if they question their birth sex as defining their gender identity are being encouraged to experiment with living as the other sex and in some cases given puberty blocking medications* (drugs that may make them sterile).

As a Christian who lives by the principles of the Bible, I see this gender identity confusion as only one more evidence of the “Has God indeed said...?” rebellion first sown in the human heart way back in Eden (Genesis 3:1). For God has indeed said “…male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:27) and has made His position on sexual relations between genders and gender identity clear in passages like Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:27 and Deuteronomy 22:5.

Male and female is how He made us. This is not some cruel edict from a stern, unfeeling deity. It’s wisdom. It’s love. Living as a male or female, according to our physical biology is how we work best. We’re only asking for trouble when we defy the way we were wisely and lovingly created (see Romans 1:24-27).

So Isaiah 61:7 gives us the hopeful assurance that Jesus (who declared this passage was speaking of Him as the One who can bring liberty to the captives - Isaiah 61:1 compare Luke 4:17-21) can also set free from from this. Instead of the bondage of confusion over whether we, our children, and grandchildren are and should identify as the gender we were born, we can rejoice in our portion (our possession of a sure male or female identity).

Let’s pray this for and over ourselves, our children, and grandchildren in these days, as we are forced to navigate this tsunami of lies and confusion.

PRAYER: Dear Father, I pray for the children of this generation. Deliver them from confusion. Help them to recognize this theory as the lie that it is. Please help us as those who believe You created us wisely and well to know how to express Your loving intentions toward all people. Amen.

MORE:

*Additional reading about puberty suppression from The New Atlantis:
Growing Pains: Problems with Puberty Suppression in Treating Gender Dysphoria


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Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.