<p>7:1 <em>After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, or on the sea, or upon any tree</em>- When we come to Revelation, especially bearing in mind its&rsquo; constant allusions to the Old Testament, the &lsquo;earth&rsquo; can generally be understood as the land of Israel. All the weight of Biblical evidence is in this direction. There are undeniable similarities between the events of the seals and vials, and what happened in the land in AD66-70. The whole idea of pouring out judgment upon the &lsquo;earth&rsquo; refers to the OT images of such judgments being poured out upon the land. Consider too how Rev. 7:1: &ldquo;And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth&hellip;&rdquo;. If the earth has corners, it can&rsquo;t really be the globe, rather, an area such as the land.</p><p>There seems to be an&nbsp;association&nbsp;between the &quot;four winds&rdquo;,&nbsp;the four &quot;living creatures&quot; and the four &quot;beasts&quot; mentioned at various points in Scripture. It is suggested that these all refer, even if indirectly, to a literal four cherubic Angels. Rev. 7:1 is the clearest evidence: &quot;I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth&quot;. The stress is on &quot;the four winds&quot;. Dan. 7:2,3 connects the winds and the beasts: &quot;Behold, the four winds of Heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea&quot;. The &quot;four winds&quot; may refer to Angels- God makes His Angels spirits or winds.</p><p>&quot;The four corners of the earth&quot; is proof enough that the earth / land doesn&rsquo;t refer to the whole planet but to a specific territory on the planet- the land, promised to Abraham, with defined borders. The Hebrew word translated &lsquo;borders&rsquo; in the context of the borders of the land is also translated &ldquo;corners&rdquo;. We think of Ez. 7:2: &ldquo;You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end has come on the four corners of the land&rdquo;.&nbsp; The four Angels on the borders of the land connect with the four Angels on the Euphrates, the northern / eastern border of the land, who shall release the hordes they are holding back to surge towards Israel. That process may already be in operation. We are here introduced to the idea that there are Angels holding back the winds of destruction on the borders of God&rsquo;s land and people. This explains the miraculous survival of the state of Israel since 1948. The hordes of neighbouring enemies have been restrained- by the Angels on the borders of the land. But they will remove that restraint, and we can see that already happening. It&rsquo;s worth noting that the key enemies of Israel in the Old Testament are described as dwelling in the corners of the earth / land (Jer. 9:26; 25:23; 49:32); and Israel are described as going into captivity in the corners of the earth / land promised to Abraham (Dt. 32:26; Is. 11:12). So it&rsquo;s appropriate that the winds of destruction come from these same corners of the land. Rev. 20:8 defines &ldquo;the nations which are in the four quarters of the land&rdquo; as being &ldquo;Gog and Magog&rdquo;; clearly the Ezekiel 38 Gog is being defined as the epitome of the nations along the borders of Israel, who both historically and currently are Israel&rsquo;s main enemies.</p><p>The four winds of the earth / land create a picture reminiscent of Dan. 7:2; the four beasts which dominate the earth / land of Israel in the last days all arise as the result of the four winds / spirits / Angels operating over the sea of nations. Now, the four winds / spirits / Angels are told not to blow upon the land and sea until the faithful have been sealed. The connection would teach that the final domination of the land by the beast systems occurs after the events of the seals; or perhaps, the seals are part of that domination period, but there is a break, the winds of destruction are held back, so that those Jews who have responded in repentance can be sealed. In Ez. 37:9, the wind from the four winds comes to spiritually revive the spiritually dead Israel who have returned to their land from dispersion. But here in Rev. 7, these four winds are the winds of destruction. It is from them and the desolation associated with them- that spiritual life is breathed into Israel. The winds are controlled by the four Angels who &lsquo;stand&rsquo; or &lsquo;are appointed&rsquo; at the four corners of the land- it may be that they were appointed from Old Testament times, not least in Daniel 7.</p><p>Significantly, the Koran likens the judgment of Jews and apostates to the coming of winds. The whole of Sura 77 is entitled <em>Al-Mursalat </em>(The Emissaries, Winds Sent Forth). These winds of judgment come &quot;when the stars are put out, and when the sky is riven asunder, and when the mountains are blown away&quot; (Sura 77:8-11). This is all very much the language of the seals, trumpets and vials. The judgments upon Israel are brought by the Moslems in terms of their own understanding of condemnation. And they too will be judged in the same way- the thing they greatly fear comes upon them, the cup they give Israel to drink, they must drink.</p><p>We noted at the beginning of the seals in Revelation 6 that the first four seals, the four horsemen, are based upon the horsemen of Zechariah 1 who desolate the land of Israel and scatter her people. Here in Revelation, the thought then moves on to the four winds- and the same is to be found in Zechariah, where Zech. 2:6 associates them with the scattering into the provinces of Babylon and Persia: &ldquo;flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord: for I will gather you from the four winds of heaven&rdquo; (LXX). The land of the north (Babylon, where Judah were in captivity in Zechariah&rsquo;s time) is &ldquo;the four winds&rdquo; because its territory covered much of the land promised to Abraham. The same Hebrew words are found in Zech. 6:5, where the four horses responsible for desolating Israel are &ldquo;the four winds AV &ldquo;spirits&rdquo; of the heaven&rdquo;. Judah were also gathered from the four winds in the sense that the Angels were with them, as demonstrated by Ezekiel&rsquo;s vision of the four beast cherubim. This is surely the idea of Mark 13:27: &ldquo;Then shall He send His Angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost part of the earth land to the uttermost part of Heaven&rdquo;. The earth / land in view is that promised to Abraham, and the heartland of Israel&rsquo;s enemies is and always has been at the uttermost part of it, at the Euphrates border where ISIS are from and are currently. The parallel between Heaven and earth here in the Lord&rsquo;s teaching is in line with what we find so often in Revelation- the situation on earth is reflected by the Angels in Heaven who stand in the Heavenly throne room.</p><p>The four winds / four Heavenly cherubim beasts are the Heavenly antithesis of the four winds and four beasts of Daniel 7 on earth who desolate the land. The four horns which arose from the third empire were &ldquo;towards&rdquo; the four Angelic winds of Heaven; there was a connection between them (Dan. 8:8; 11:4). There is no such thing as radical evil- even the worst desolators of God&rsquo;s people are under direct Angelic control. We note too the prophecy of the four winds in Jer. 49:36 against Elam, modern day Iran: &ldquo;I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven. And I will scatter them to all those winds&rdquo;. The &ldquo;quarters&rdquo; of Heaven suggest that Heaven, like the earth / land with its corners, is a territory. I suggest that &lsquo;Heaven&rsquo; here is a reflection of the earth / land promised to Abraham. Elam / Iran will likewise be judged by the Arab nations living in the corners of the land promised to Abraham, and will be scattered into those areas.</p><p>The four winds plural are spoken of as one wind (7:1). This is rather like how the four beasts are effectively one beast. Scattering to the four winds was scattering to &ldquo;the land of the north&rdquo; (Zech. 2:6). The four cherubim beasts of Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10 are effectively one system, moving the same way. We shouldn&rsquo;t therefore be necessarily looking for four distinct entities to dominate the land in the last days. The &lsquo;four&rsquo; refers to Heaven&rsquo;s organization, and how it is reflected on earth.</p><p>&quot;Holding the four winds&quot; is better 'restraining'. This sounds similar to the idea of the Angels restraining the hordes which then burst over the Euphrates to desolate the land; and to the restraining influence which stops the antichrist being revealed in 2 Thess. 2:5-7. This period of restraint is maybe seen by John in order to serve as a dividing point between the suffering of the six seals, and the fact that some in the land repent as a result of this. These are sealed, and then the trumpet judgments are poured out, and then the desolating powers are destroyed, as outlined in the seven vials. But there may not be an actual period of time required to &lsquo;seal&rsquo; the 144,000. The language of winds blowing is that of the final judgment in Mt. 7:25,27.</p>