Let us quickly go over what we have learned so far since May 21. We have learned these things because a physical earthquake did not happen. There was no physical great earthquake that destroyed the world, but we do know that May 21 was Judgment Day, that this was the day that God shut the door to Heaven. This was the day when He began judging the world.
He had already judged the churches for 23 years, from May 21, 1988 until May 21, 2011. This was the judgment that began at the house of God. Then God transitioned on the Day of Judgment, May 21, to a judgment upon the whole world, which includes the church also. But the church is not out from under the judgment of God now. They are under the judgment of God, as well as anyone else right now.
So we have followed the idea of the great earthquake that we read about in Revelation. Then we went to Acts 16 and saw that there was a great earthquake that opened up a prison house and that all of the prisoners had their gates opened and their bonds taken off; and then we began to follow this idea of the great earthquake and the release of prisoners.
We have seen that this is a major theme throughout the whole Bible. We can take into account Israel’s stay in Egypt and how much God talks about the release of the Israelites as He delivered them in the Exodus. If we just search the Bible for this topic alone, we are going to find a lot of information, because God continues to bring this up. We even read in the Ten Commandments, “I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.”
There is another major theme, which is actually the same theme, but this is during a different period of history. This is when Israel went into Babylon and was taken captive; and when people are taken captive, this means that they are prisoners. They did not do this voluntarily. They did not go to Babylon voluntarily, even though God did command Israel to go into captivity; but still, Babylon was coming against them. The king of Babylon had besieged Judah and had taken prisoners; and so this theme is also very big in the Bible.
Actually, there is a passage in Isaiah 48:20-21 that brings both of these themes together. It speaks of those who came out of Babylon, and then it quickly makes a reference to them drinking water from a rock in the dessert. God speaks of these two events almost as if they are one, because they are very similar. They are both dealing with bondage or being a prisoner, a spiritual prisoner.
If we look at 1 Peter 3:18-20, it says:
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also…
This is a reference back to the Spirit. It continues:
…he [Jesus] went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime [or aforetime] were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing…
So Christ preached to spirits in prison. We know how. It was the same way that He preaches today, which is through ambassadors.
Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” As he constructed the ark, he was God’s ambassador to the world of that day. In doing so, Christ was preaching through the Spirit to sinners, and sinners are in prison; their spirits are in prison. They are taken captive by Satan and by sin. They are in the “house of bondage.”
The ruler in Egypt was Pharaoh, the ruler in Babylon was Nebuchadnezzar, and the ruler over men who are spiritually in prison is Satan. This is what both of these images point to.
Another thing that goes right along with spiritual captivity or with this theme that runs throughout the Bible is the Jubilee period. When was the Jubilee? The Jubilee was to come every fifty years.
If we were to go back into history, 1357 B.C. would have been a Jubilee, and then 1307 B.C., etc. It works all the way down to be every year that ends in 57 or 07 on the B.C. side of history, which was “before Christ.” And 7 B.C. is when Jesus was born and it was a Jubilee. Christ was born in a Jubilee.
This is because He came in actual fulfillment of the Jubilee. In everything that He did, He was the essence of the Jubilee. For example, we read a passage in Luke 4 that Christ is quoting from the first few verses of Isaiah 61. We read in Luke 4:18-19:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
This is really, in essence, a reference to the Jubilee. The Jubilee would be a full year. It would be every fifty years, and that fiftieth year was hallowed. If the Israelites had fellow Jews as bondmen or bondwomen, they were to set them free in that year.
We do not really find Israel doing this, except on one occasion in the book of Jeremiah after they came under judgment. Actually, this was more in relation to the “year of release,” which came at the end of every seven years. But still, the principle was there.
So Christ was born in 7 B.C., which was a Jubilee year, and the first Jubilee period began from His birth and went throughout the whole New Testament Era until 1988. Then the church age ended and this ended the first Jubilee. But then God had a plan to “set his hand again the second time.” We read of this in Isaiah 11; and this time, it would actually be more glorious, because He would save far more whom He had ever saved in all previous history.
So in 1988, the great tribulation began. For 2300 evening/mornings, virtually no one was being saved. But then came September of 1994, and 1994 was a Jubilee year.
If we go from 7 B.C. when Jesus was born and we project this into the New Testament, after remembering that we always have to subtract one because there is no year zero, 7 B.C. plus 44 A.D. would equal 51 A.D.; and so minus 1 would be the 50-year mark. This means that 44 A.D. would have been a Jubilee year. 94 A.D. would have been a Jubilee, etc. 1944 was a Jubilee and 1994 was a Jubilee.
The Jubilee was to start in the seventh month. Actually, the trumpet that blew on the first day of the seventh month, unlike any other month, was the trumpet of the Jubilee and this was blown every year as a memorial.
So in September of 1994, God set forth another plan, which was the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit or the “latter rain.” We are used to these kinds of terms. But this was also the second Jubilee, and this was to deliver the captives.
May 21, 2011 was really the end of this Jubilee period, those 6100 days. May 21 was the 8400th day, and so a lot of things began converging on May 21. It was really a day of great freedom. It was the day of the opening of the door, the opening of the prison, as well as the shutting of the door to Heaven.
First God opened up all of the doors. First He saved all of His elect. Then, finally, the door shut. And we were warning people and telling people for quite awhile, “You have until this point, and then the door shuts.”
Well, we are finding a lot of information in the Bible that has to do with spiritual imprisonment and we are seeing so many things that fell on May 21 that also have to do with this.
The great earthquake happened, but it was spiritual, and it opened up the spiritual prison that all of God’s elect sinners were in. God released them. May 21 was also the last day of the second Jubilee. It was basically the end of the 70 years, and then the captives went free. All of these things converged on a single day, and the Bible ties all of these things in.
But we also realized that at the end of 70 years, Satan had lost his official power, his official authority that was given to him by God. God says, “When seventy years are accomplished, I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation.” This is when the oppressor ceased, because God is not using him anymore.
We saw then that since the beast, which is another name for Satan, especially for his rule during the great tribulation, is put down, the Bible speaks of this as though he were slain, just like the king of Babylon was after 70 years. It is then that Satan loses all official authority, even though he had authority.
In Revelation 13, we read about Satan after God had loosed him from the bottomless pit. It says in Revelation 13:5, where it is making reference to the beast:
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power…
Sometime look up this word for “power.” It is exousia. It is Strong’s #G1849 and it means “authority.”
…and power [authority] was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
This is a reference to the great tribulation. God sometimes uses the 70-year period to indicate this, or seven years, as in Joseph’s famine, or 23 years. Here, He is referring to 42 months.
Look at Revelation 11:2:
But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.
This is the period of the great tribulation. This is the period that the beast was given to reign. Following “forty and two months,” he would have no more authority. May 21 was the end of Satan’s authority to rule in the churches and in the world. This is why Isaiah 14 speaks as if he is dead.
Remember, what is the one big thing that Satan had always wanted? He wanted to be like God, to be “like the most High.” He wanted to be that “man of sin,” taking his seat in the temple, the “abomination of desolation” that would “stand in the holy place.” But now, God has put him down. This is a blow to him. How else can Satan be hurt? He is a spirit being.
People were rightly wondering, “How can there be five months of torment for men on earth where man is suffering physically, when Satan would not be hurt by a great physical earthquake? He is not going to be injured at all.”
Well, now we see. Actually, this judgment primarily begins with him. This hits him where it hurts, right in his pride, right in his pomp, right in his glorying as God. God is bringing him down and showing Satan that he is not God. He was only God’s servant that He utilized for a short period of time to bring judgment on the churches. He is nothing more than this. But even though God used him as a servant, this does not mean that God was pleased as to how Satan went about this.
Jehu is a good picture of this. Jehu was that king whom God raised up to bring judgment on both Israel and on Judah by slaying their kings. Jehu went around zealously killing and he was very good at this, but he never departed from the sins of Jeroboam in idol worship.
This is like Satan. He is very good at destroying and very good at killing. And God used him for this purpose; but then at the end, Satan’s sins are being judged.
This helps a lot when we then go to Revelation 9. We realize that this is referring to the five months; and so beginning on May 21, Satan has no authority. He is not king of anything, not even the bottomless pit. He is not the one who is giving authority to the locusts. He is not the locusts and he is not the one giving authority to them. God is the One who gives authority, because He is the Supreme Ruler over all.
So we read of the Lord Jesus in the first couple of verses in Revelation 9. Let us read this. It says in Revelation 9:1-2:
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit…
This is referring to Jesus who is this star. It is Jesus who possesses the key. He has the keys of hell and death. He is the One who threw the devil into the bottomless pit in Revelation 20. He is the One who locked him in and bound him a thousand years so that Satan could not do what he wanted to do. We have seen over the last 23 years that Satan has been loosed what a difference there was from when he was bound.
Christ is the One who has these keys, and so I just want to quickly go over this language in Revelation 20, because this is going to teach us about the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit sounds awful mysterious. It just sounds evil. This was while it was holding Satan and while he was bound for this thousand-year period. But, in essence, when we look at this language, the bottomless pit is defined by God as a holding place, as a prison.
Is this not something that the bottomless pit is a prison and that we are reading in Revelation 9 that this bottomless pit is opened on May 21, when we also read in Acts 16 of a great earthquake that also opened up a prison? It was a great earthquake, which ties into May 21. This is kind of amazing.
So it says in Revelation 20:1:
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit…
I keep making reference to something that I have not read, so let us read this. We read in Revelation 1:18:
I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
Hell, too, wants to hold its prey. It could not hold Christ. But in one sense, hell, as it destroys and kills the ungodly or the sinner, is like a prison. For some, it is an eternal prison. For those whom God intends to save, it is a temporary prison for the spirits who are there.
But in Revelation 20:1, it continues:
…having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.
What is He going to do with this chain? We continue on to read in Revelation 20:2-3:
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him…
This is a lot of language that is just basically letting us know that Satan was no longer free to do as he would, but God was going to bind him with this chain and then it says that he was bound for a thousand years. He was laid hold of; and if we look at Matthew 14:3, we read:
For Herod had laid hold on John, and bound him, and put him in prison…
This has to do with being arrested. Satan is caught. He is arrested.
This is just like someone today who is caught by the police. They put the cuffs on them. They take them to the station and throw them into prison.
This is what happened to Satan. At the cross, Jesus bound him.
Even though just reading this we could come to the conclusion that the bottomless pit is a prison, yet if we look at Revelation 20:7, we read:
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
This does not say “the bottomless pit.” This says “out of his prison,” and this is the same word that we find in Acts 16.
So there is no question that the bottomless pit is viewed by God as a prison; and on May 21 when the locusts are released, where do they come from?
Let us go back to Revelation 9. We read in Revelation 9:3:
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power [authority], as the scorpions of the earth have power [authority].
The locusts come out of the smoke, and smoke has everything to do with fire and judgment. They come out of the smoke and the smoke came out of the pit; and so, technically, since the smoke came out of the pit and the locusts came out of the smoke, the locusts came out of the pit also.
What happened was that God saved all of His people whose names were written in “the Lamb's book of life.” He reserved for that final season, for this second Jubilee period, the release of the captives, which was a great multitude, a tremendous multitude. Then they became saved before May 21, before the end of that Jubilee period or before the end of the “latter rain,” however you want to look at this.
So they became saved and then we passed into May 21st and into May 22nd. This is when people started saying that nothing happened. People thought that nothing happened, because there was no great earthquake.
This is just like people, even believers, who, as they viewed Christ on the cross, could have said the same thing. They could have said the same thing, “Nothing happened! We thought that He would be the One who would deliver Israel. We trusted in this.” Cleopas even said, “But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel,” as he and another person was sad and downcast and walked along the road to Emmaus.
How about Mary as she went into the garden? She was so sorrowful because she could not find the body of her Lord. She had no idea that He had risen. She was asked, “Woman, why weepest thou?” Then she said, “If thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.”
So even the believers misunderstood. Even though they were told directly by God, by Christ, what would happen, they had no real understanding.
Also, what of the whole world of that day? What were they saying about the cross? The Jewish authorities went to Pilot and said, “Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure…lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away.” Then we read that they “went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.”
So they were saying things about that event that were not true; and we can be sure that the rulers of Israel, the Jewish leaders, the chief priests and the Pharisees, put forth to all of the people doubt that He was the Messiah. They even said while He was on the cross, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross,” but He did not; and so they would have told their people, “You see, he died like any other man. He died and do not listen to that story that he rose from the dead. No; his disciples came and stole him away.”
So the world of that day would have heard that story, the church of that day would have proclaimed that story, and yet they were the ones who were completely wrong. They had it all backwards, and the disciples fell for this, “Oh, what a bitter defeat. What an awful disappointment that Christ, the Messiah who would deliver us out from under Roman authority, died like this in shame. He died naked on a cross, whipped and scourged.”
The true believers fell for this until Christ made it known what the real truth was, as He came and told Cleopas and his friend who were on the road to Emmaus, “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory?” Then Christ repeatedly showed Himself, and it was no wonder that He stayed around for forty days afterwards. Christ had to clarify a lot of things with His people, because His people just did not get it.
So if the true believers did not understand what took place on the cross without God opening their understanding, it is no wonder that the true believers do not understand what happened on May 21. And if you are listening to the media of the world, it was a non-event. To them, nothing happened. If you are listening to the church, something happened alright. You became a laughingstock to the world. But if you listen to the Bible, if you listen to God, He is saying that this was the greatest victory that has been for the Kingdom of God, apart from what He Himself did in going to the cross, because He set all of the captives free.
Was the exodus from Egypt a great event? Was this not a wonderful event? Wow; what mighty power God demonstrated as He brought plague after plague after plague on Egypt and finally the death of the firstborn, which came at midnight. Then Pharaoh finally released them and all Israel went free. All Israel left Egypt, and yet it was not long before the Israelites were missing Egypt and wanted to go back, as they murmured and complained. They had no gratitude and no realization of what God had done. Well, we also know that the vast majority of the Jews, except for a handful, perished in the wilderness due to unbelief.
Let us look at Exodus 20. These verses are sprinkled throughout the Old Testament, as God is constantly reminding Israel of this. He says in Exodus 20:1-2:
And God spake all these words, saying, I am JEHOVAH thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Then He goes into the Ten Commandments, and these kinds of verses are everywhere.
In essence, He is saying, “Look; remember Israel, I am your Deliverer. I am your Saviour. I released you from captivity, from slavery, from bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt,” and yet they were never released from their spiritual prison, from their spiritual bondage, except for just a handful.
We know this. It was only a physical deliverance, but God magnifies it; and it should be magnified. It was a great and mighty work of God to physically deliver them from Egypt.
Well, how much more great, how much more mighty, how much more glorious is it to be delivered from sin, to be delivered from the house of spiritual bondage? Can we put a number on this? Is it a thousand, ten thousand, a million times greater?
We know in this that God released 600,000 men. He does not tell us the number of the women and the children and the mixed multitude who went up out of Egypt. But let us say that there were a million or a million and a half people.
How many did God release from spiritual bondage on May 21, which is a far greater release? How many did God release from captivity to sin and to Satan on May 21? He actually tells us in Revelation 9 that it was 200 million people. 200 million people dwarfs what happened in the Exodus in many ways. These were all released from bondage.
We are not pulling this number out of a hat. If we go to Revelation 9, it says in Revelation 9:12-14:
One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
We will come back and look at this, but let us read the next couple of verses. It says in Revelation 9:15:
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men.
We knew May 21, 2011. We knew the year, the month, the day, and perhaps we had the hour right, too; but they were prepared for a year, a month, a day, and an hour “to slay the third part of men,” and then we read in verse 16, Revelation 9:16:
And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them.
This is 200 million. Out of 14 billion of all history, this would be 1 in 70. Out of about 7 billion who are presently alive, this would be 1 in 35. It would 2 out of 70 and almost 3 out of 100. God released them.
We are going to find this same language of the four angels that we found concerning the locusts. The locust came out of prison, and locusts swarm in great multitudes when they devour crops and when they devour a land; and here we find 200 million.
So here we are, a couple of months after May 21, and if anybody is embarrassed or if anyone is just ashamed, you should be ashamed of being ashamed. This is because on May 21, God set His people free, and so this was not a day to hang your head about. It was a day, as God said of Egypt, “to be much observed.”
What was the Passover feast about? It was about deliverance from Egypt. What about the feast of tabernacles? He said, “Ye shall dwell in booths...that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” God was constantly reminding them of this.
But what if they said that they did not want to ever talk about that 14th day of the 1st month when God brought them out of Egypt?
No; we want to thank God. We want to rejoice in our feast as we continue on, going to the last day of the feast of tabernacles, which will be October 21.
Okay, let us go to Revelation 9:13:
And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,
You can read about the golden altar in Revelation 8:3-4. This relates to the prayer of God’s saints going up as incense.
Then in Revelation 9:14, we read:
Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound…
This is the same word used for Satan being bound. It continues:
…which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
So this says to “loose the four angels,” so let us look at “loose.” If we go to Acts 24, it says in Acts 24:24-27:
And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix' room: and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.
Here we find the same two words, “loose” and “bound.” “Loose” is luo and “bound” is deo. I pronounce these words in a way that I am comfortable with them. I do not try to pronounce them perfectly. In the Hebrew, you cannot because they never really had vowel pointing. That was added later. God did not put it there. In the Greek, I try the best I can, but Greek words have accents and things like that and I am sure that I mess them up.
So in the Greek, we basically see two three-letter words, deo and luo, but the words in the Greek can change. Prefixes can be put on them. Their endings can change according to whether they are singular or plural or what kind of case the word is in, but the word itself stays the same.
If you look up luo, you will find that every place in the Bible, in whatever form it is in, in the Greek it will be one Strong’s number. You would then have to look for the tense and everything like that.
But we find these two words used together a few times, because they have this idea. Paul is bound and he is in prison. Felix was interested in loosing Paul for some money; but we see that Paul was bound. If he had been loosed, this would have meant that he would have come out of prison.
Let us also go to Mark 11:2:
And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied…
This is the same word deo or that is translated as “bound” in Revelation 9:14; and so this colt is bound; it is tied.
We have all seen enough westerns. We know how they do this. They mosey on up to the saloon and they tie their horse to something. Well, maybe the saloon is not the right example. Let us say that they go to the General Store and they tie the colt so that he does not just break free and run down the street.
So Jesus is saying:
…ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat…
This is important, because there is actually a spiritual picture here as God likens His people to donkeys or asses, or as in this case, a colt. “To sit” in the Bible means “to rule,” as we read that the “man of sin… sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
So here is a colt that is bound, and this is actually pointing to those whom Christ saved before the foundation of the world and will redeem at some point in time.
It continues:
…whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.
Again, the colt is bound. Jesus gives the command, “Loose him, and bring him.” Then we read in verse 7, Mark 11:7:
And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him.
So Christ becomes the Lord and the King over the sinner. This is the case for everyone whom He saves. He must rule and He is sovereign in the lives of His people. But again, we see binding and loosing.
Look at John 11:44. We know that Lazarus was dead for four days and then Jesus commanded that he come forth. Then it says in John 11:44:
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Here is a wonderful picture of salvation. Lazarus was physically dead, pointing to how all men are dead spiritually. Christ commands that he come forth.
So, first of all, he is alive. He is alive because he came out of the tomb, and yet he still has his grave clothes on. He still has these clothes on, and so Jesus is speaking to the disciples and He says, “Loose him.”
We can relate this to the prison being opened and to all of the prisoners still being there in the prison. The door was opened in Acts 16. If they wanted to go, they could go. They were free. The great earthquake opened the door.
But some people do not realize this. They do not understand; and so we see the example here of Jesus giving this job to the disciples to take off the grave clothes and, basically, to let Lazarus know that he is no longer dead, that he is alive.
So, too, we have this task to bring the Gospel; and we will look at how we are to bring the Gospel later. But we have this task to feed the sheep.
The first point to probably take note of is for people to realize that they are sheep, that they have been freed, that they have been delivered, that they are free from sin and bondage and all that this entailed, to sin and to Satan.
Also go to Luke 13. Luke 13 is the account of a woman who was bowed down and could “in no wise lift up herself.” We have seen people like this. They are bowed over as they walk down the street, because they just cannot lift themselves up due to their ailment or affliction. It says in Luke 13:12-16:
And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?
This has everything to do with salvation, everything. She was bound to Satan for 18 years. I do not know how her affliction bound her to Satan, but I do know that sinners were bound to Satan, as he was previously their ruler.
2 Timothy 2 tells us, as we were to bring the Gospel to the world during that period that has just past, that we were to bring it in meekness. 2 Timothy 2:25-26 says:
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
This is mankind. Unsaved people are prisoners in a spiritual prison, and God has released some.
So we see this language of binding and loosing. There are more verses that we could go to. In many cases, this has to do with spiritual bondage and the salvation that Christ gives.
What did Jesus say in John 8? He said in John 8:31-32:
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
How did these disciples respond, these individuals who were following Him and believed on Him? They said in verse 33, John 8:33:
…We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
They could not see the spiritual truth that Christ was giving them. This is why we spent some time earlier pointing out the nature of the Bible.
We were wrong about a physical earthquake, the great earthquake. We were wrong. But there was a great earthquake, spiritually; and in this great earthquake, God set His people free. The truth that was declared to all of the world set them free and they are free indeed right now.
But these Jews, these disciples, these followers of Christ, they are just like the church today. “What are you talking about? No one was set free. Nothing happened!”
Well, they need eyes to see this. They need eyes to understand this and they need to know how God wrote the Bible, that He has this Gospel meaning, this deeper spiritual meaning. So, indeed, 200 million were set free.
Let us quickly go back to Revelation 9. We read again in Revelation 9:14:
…Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates.
We see that this word “loose,” luo, has much to do with salvation. These four angels are bound, and this has much to do with spiritual captivity.
Here again, we have these two words being used in a situation concerning four angels; and, immediately, we think that this is something going on in Heaven and that it has no relationship to anything here on earth, and that God, for some reason, bound four angels in a river, in the Euphrates, and that He is now loosing them. This is in Revelation 9, so this has a relationship to May 21. But the real question is who these four angels are.
So let us look at this idea of four angels. Turn to Revelation 7:1-3:
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, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And 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 given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Once the servants of God are sealed, what is the implication? They are loosed and they are then to go hurt the earth and the sea and the trees. They had this permission at that point, but they could not do this until the servants of God were sealed.
It also says that these four angels are standing on “the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth.” This points to north, south, east, and west.
Do you remember what we understand about the number 4? This points to the furthest extent of whatever is in view.
This is easy for me, because I learned this before. I do not think that it is incorrect to think of universality or something that is worldwide in relation to the number 4. This is exactly what we see with these four angels, as they are standing on “the four corners of the earth.”
Let us go to Matthew 24. We know that Matthew 24:29 says:
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
Then look at verse 31, Matthew 24:31:
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
So again we see the number four and the “four winds.” Since God’s elect are everywhere, this is very clear that this is all over the world, that this is all over the earth. It is very clear that after the great tribulation, God sends His elect and they are gathering together.
We are not going to get into what is going on here, but the number 4 is pointing to universality, something going on all over the world. These four angels are representative of something that is worldwide and all over the earth.
Let us go to Daniel 1 and just take a quick look at the number 4 at it is used there. It says in Daniel 1:17:
As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams.
Who are these four children? I know their Babylonian names better than their Hebrew names, but they are Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Now name some other Jew from the book of Daniel. Can anybody think of another Jew who is named in the book of Daniel? Are there only four names in the whole book of Daniel? Yes; this is true.
So these four children are representing all of the thousands of Jews, as God gives us this account of what takes place, especially in the first five chapters of Daniel. In this historical narrative, what we read is either always happening to Daniel or to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. We do not read of any other Jews.
There were other Jews in Babylon. Ezekiel was later taken captive. We know that there were also other individuals, because Jeremiah wrote to them. There were thousands of Jews taken to Babylon; but in Daniel, only four children are mentioned and that is it; and these four children are picturing and are representative of all of the Jews who were taken to Babylon.
Let us stop here and close with a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do, once again, thank You for Your Word. Father, we thank You that it is a light and a guide and that You are a revealer of secrets and that You will do nothing without first telling Your servants the prophets of what You are doing. Father, we pray for wisdom since we have none of ourselves. We ask that You give us wisdom that comes down from above and is pure and peaceable and perfect. We pray that You would give us wisdom towards Your Word and towards one another and towards all people. Help us to have wisdom to know what to say and what to do and when to do it and where to go. In all things, we pray that we would look towards You for Your guidance. We ask, once again, for Your blessing upon Your Word, and we pray this in Christ’s Name. Amen.