<p>7:2<em> And I saw another angel ascend from the sunrising, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a great voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea</em>- The East is &lsquo;the sunrising&rsquo;. The idea of the sun rising connects with the language of the Lord Jesus returning as the sunrise (Mal. 4:2). Again the time is located around the second coming of the Lord. The allusion may be to the Lord&rsquo;s description of His coming as a bright shining arising from the East (Mt. 24:27).</p><p>Other references to sealing refer to a mark being placed on a person by God which <em>He </em>recognizes, although the world doesn&rsquo;t see it. Thus Paul&rsquo;s converts were a seal of His apostleship (1 Cor. 9:2)- to God, but not to men. The seal of God is simply that &ldquo;The Lord knows them that are His&rdquo; (2 Tim. 2:19). We are sealed by being given the Spirit in our hearts, very privately and intimately (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30). But that knowledge is to Him, and is not publicly displayed. For people to be sealed, they are as it were known by God, stamped with His mark. It might even be that there is a mass baptism into Christ of Jewish people in the land- that would certainly be a point at which believers are sealed. This would admirably fulfil the otherwise strange prophecy of Zech. 13:1, that a fountain will be opened in Jerusalem in which the inhabitants of Jerusalem can be washed from their sin.</p><p>The outline idea is of an Angel putting a mark on God&rsquo;s people so that other Angels don&rsquo;t harm them with the judgments they are pouring out. And this of course recalls the Passover Angel hovering over the homes of the Israelites who had placed the mark of the Lamb on their doorposts, so that &ldquo;the Destroyer&rdquo; Angel would not destroy them. Ez. 9:4 is similar- a mark is placed upon the forehead of those in Jerusalem who are repentant, so that they are not hurt by the judgments of the Babylonian invasion and destruction of the temple. These allusions further encourage us to understand the 144,000 as Jewish Christians within the land / earth.</p><p>&quot;The four Angels&quot; connect with how in Daniel 7 it is the four beasts who do the hurting of the land. But these are but the earthly counterparts of the Heavenly cherubim, which are portrayed also as four beasts. And here the point is made explicit- there are four Angels coordinating the desolation of the land in the last days.</p><p>&quot;To whom it was given to hurt&quot; again reminds us of the constant comfort that it is God who allows the desolation and even ultimately empowers it.</p>