The 7th Seal is the one that frightens everyone who reads Revelation. They seem caught up in looking for meteorites, nuclear bombs, and literal, glittering scorpions. But I think the message of the seventh seal is something broader. We miss that meaning in struggling to somehow "paint" the images in our minds.
Most people think that the book is about the earth being destroyed. But in truth, the earth will not be destroyed, but transformed and celestialized. It is the wicked who remain on the earth that will ultimately be destroyed. As the 6th Seal snaps shut, there is silence over all the world. Then the angels of destruction are loosed. If you remember in chapter 7 during the 6th seal, the angel bearing the seal of God commands the 4 angels not to harm the earth until the work of preaching the gospel and sealing up the righteous has been completed. When God has sealed up unto Himself all who will come unto Christ, then the 6th Seal will close and the 7th Seal will open.
While chapters 8 and 9 detail a lot of the destruction that John sees, I don't know that it is profitable - it certainly isn't to me - to focus my energies on trying to decipher the meaning of each plague mentioned. What is more important is that whatever God does, it will be to get the attention of those who will not repent and come unto Christ. Who are these people? Chapter 9 tells us, without symbolic rhetoric, but in plain and simple language:
And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk:
Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. (Revelation 9: 20-21)
The sins listed include choosing Satan rather than God; idolatry; murder; sorcery; fornication/adultery; stealing - of the Ten Commandments, commandments 1-4 and 7-9. (I looked up the word sorcery in the Bible Dictionary and it said that a sorcerer is one who attempts to tell the future through the casting of lots. I think that would include things like Tarot cards, tea leaves, Ouija boards - anything other than listening to the prophets of the Lord.)
There are basically two choices in the world: God or anything that is not God. The people described in these chapters are not just sinner - for we are all sinners - but sinners who have consciously chosen not to repent despite repeated warnings.
On the other hand, those who consciously choose Jesus Christ may not be spared tribulation, but they will come out of that great tribulation, having been washed clean in the blood of the Lamb; dressed in white robes and serving Him in His temple:
These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away allbtears from their eyes. (Revelation 7: 14-17)
To which group do I want to belong? That's a no-brainer. The choice is mine as to how I get there.
Text copyright Gebara Education February 2013
Picture of an angel of the seventh seal from www.annointings.blogspot.com
Picture of Christ clothing a disciple in a white robe from www.blessendaniel.wordpress.com
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