Revelation 7 - Part 2 - The MULTITUDE

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Matthew 23:27-39 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 

For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, 

but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also 

outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets 

and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, 

we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’   Therefore you are 

witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.    Fill up, 

then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. SERPENTS, BROOD OF VIPERS!  How can you 

escape the condemnation of hell?   Therefore,  indeed,  I send you prophets,  wise men, 

and scribes: SOME OF THEM YOU WILL KILL AND CRUCIFY,  and some of them you

will SCOURGE in your synagogues and PERSECUTE from city to city,  that ON YOU

may come all the righteous blood shed ON THE EARTH, from the blood of righteous

Abel [breath] to the blood of Zechariah [Jehovah remembers], son of Berechiah 

[Jehovah blesses], whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 

Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.  

O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM,  the one who kills the prophets 

and stones those who are sent to her!   How often I wanted 

to gather   your  children  together,   as a  hen  gathers

her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  

See! Your house is left to you 

ερημος  DESOLATE: eremos 

deprived of the aid and protection of others, especially of friends, acquaintances, kindred of a women neglected by her husband, from whom the husband withholds himself; bereft

for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till YOU say, 

‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’

[See Acts 3:13-21]

As is with 'all time' there are 'parents and children', shepherds and sheep, governments and peoples, leaders and followers.  Earth with all its nationalities, whether Jews or Arabs, blacks and whites, Asians or Indians, et al, this is not the issue. God is concerned with ALL men, with all groups, but His concern is with a man's heart, not his race or nationality, and within all categories there are those who are true, and those who are corrupt.  LEADERSHIP is 'crucial' (crux, cross) and at the 'crucial' point decided by LEADERSHIP, Jew and Roman, the population then choosing sides - Christ was 'crucified'.  Within all leadership we see division, whether family or government.  So note that Jesus is speaking to 'Scribes and Pharisees' that opposed his message- YOUR house will be left to you DESOLATE.  According to Scripture, ALL who oppose the message of Christ will be faced with 'eternal death'  .He is calling ALL to 'eternal life' [John 3:15-16; 17:2-3; Acts 13:48; Romans 2:7; 5:21; 6:23; Titus 1:2; 3:7; 1John 1:2; 2:25; 3:15; 5:11-20; Jude 1:21].

Revelation 7
7:9   After these things I looked, and behold, A GREAT MULTITUDE
        which no one could number, of ALL nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues ... 

MULTITUDE'.   br rob from bbr rabab:  numerous, greatness, abundance
      1) to be or become many, be or become much, be or become great
    1a) (Qal) 
  1a1) to be or become many 
  1a2) to be or become great 
  1a3) to be long (of journey) 
      2) (Pual) ten thousands

 [Genesis 16]  Sarai [princess], who was barren, gave into the embrace of her husband Abram [high / exalted / praised  father], her Egyptian handmaid HAGAR [flight], that offspring could carry on the 'family name'.  When Hagar conceived, Sarai perceived she was despised, and Hagar fled into the wilderness.  God spoke to Hagar to return and submit to Sarai, that she would have a son, and THAT SON [Ishmael:  God will hear] would be counted for MULTITUDE.

            Genesis 16:10 Then the Angel of the Lord said to her, 
                                     “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, 
                                     so that they shall not be counted for MULTITUDE.”  


                                    Genesis 16:12  And he will be a wild man [peh'-reh: wild ass]; 
                                                              his hand will be against every man,
                                                              and every man's hand against him; 
                                                              and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

      Galatians 4:21-28  For it is written that Abraham had two sons: 

                                  the one by a bondwoman, the other by a freewoman.  

                                  But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, 

                                  and the of the freewoman through promise,  which things are symbolic. 

                                  For these are the two covenants:   
                                  the one from Mount Sinai [thorny (distress / trouble)] 

                                  which gives birth to bondage,  which is   Hagar [flight]—  

                                  for THIS HAGAR IS Mount Sinai [thorny]  in ARABIA [BARRENNESS],

                                  and corresponds to JERUSALEM WHICH NOW IS   
                                  and is in bondage  with her children—   

                                  “Rejoice, O barren, you who are not in labor!  
                                  For the DESOLATE  has many more children than she who has a husband.”

        Revelation 11:8  And their [two witnesses] dead bodies will lie in the street of 
                                 the GREAT CITY which spiritually is CALLED Sodom and EGYPT, 
                                 WHERE ALSO OUR LORD WAS CRUCIFIED.

According to Scripture (symbolically) HAGAR corresponds to 'Jerusalem that now is who walks in the covenant of Sinai - the LAW.  That ISHMAEL is HAGAR's son, he then is  a 'son of the law':  Jewish.   In Scripture, the 'house of bondage' is  Egypt, the beggarly elements [ στοιχειον stoicheion ] of the world, sin and death.  That Christ was crucified in Jerusalem, spiritually called Egypt, was that Jews and Gentiles be delivered from the beggarly elements of the world and death by which we are held in bondage.  

             στοιχειον stoicheion {stoy-khi'-on}
             1) any first thing, from which the others belonging to some series 

                 or composite whole take their rise, an element, first principal
          1a) the letters of the alphabet as the elements of speech, 

                not however the written characters, but the spoken sounds
         1b) the elements from which all things have come, 

               the material causes of the universe
         1c) the heavenly bodies, either as parts of the heavens 

               or (as others think) because in them the elements of man, life

Abraham [father of a MULTITUDE]  and Sarah [noblewoman] were given the PROMISE [in Hebrew 'dabar'] of a SON.  [Genesis 15:4; 18:9-10]

 [Genesis 22]  Abraham is asked to take
ISAAC [laugh / mock (death)] - THINE ONLY SON -  to MORIAH [chosen by Jehovah] and offer him as a sacrifice.  By faith Abraham obeys, God now knowing that Abraham will withhold nothing from Him, stays His hand.

            

               Genesis 22:16-18  and said: “By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, 

                                  because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, 

                                  your only son [ yachiyd:  sole, only also translated solitary, desolate]— 

                                  blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants
                                  as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore;
                                  and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.   In your SEED

                                  all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”

Your 'ONLY" son ???  It appears God was speaking prophetically.   Isaac was 'son of promise', from whom came the 'only begotten son', the 'Seed" (Galatians 3) yet Isaac was not an 'only son' as Ishmael was Abraham's firstborn son of the flesh.

To JACOB [heel-catcher / to trip (put under the sole of the foot)  God confirmed the PROMISE:

       Genesis 32:12  For You said, ‘I will surely treat you well, and make your descendants 

                                 as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered FOR MULTITUDE.

To JOSEPH [to add; give increase], Genesis 48 [4x12 | Dalet / Door x 12 (tribes / apostles)]  he confirmed the PROMISE:

            Genesis 48:4-16  and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, 

                               and I will make of you a MULTITUDE of people, and give this land 

                               to your descendants after you as an everlasting possession.’   And 

                               now your two sons, 

                               Ephraim:  [double ash-heap (to become) doubly fruitful)  and 

                               Manasseh [allowing (exile) to be forgotten], 

                               WHO WERE BORN TO YOU IN THE LAND OF EGYPT 

                               BEFORE I CAME TO YOU IN EGYPT  are mine; 

                               as Reuben [A SON]  and Simeon [WHO HEARD], they shall be mine. 

                              The Angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; 

                              Let my name be named upon them, and the name of my fathers 

                              Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a MULTITUDE 

                              in the midst of the earth.”

When Joseph saw Jacob's right hand on Ephraim [double ash-heap] he tried to remove it and spoke to Jacob that Manasseh was 'firstborn'.  Jacob said, 'NOT SO', Manasseh [forgetting his exile] would be great, would be a people, but that Ephraim [double ash-heap] 'his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a MULTITUDE of nations.”
 

            Genesis 48:19  But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know. 

                             He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great [gadal]; 

                             but truly his younger brother shall be greater [gadal]  than he, 

                             and his descendants shall become a MULTITUDE of nations.”

                            Deuteronomy 33:17  His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, 

                                         and his horns are like the horns of unicorns:
                                         with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth:
                                         and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, 

                                         and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

                                         Hosea 8:9   For they are gone up to Assyria, 
                                                            a WILD ASS [peh'-reh]  alone by himself: EPHRAIM
                                                            from the root parah 'to be doubly fruitful'
                                                            hath hired lovers. 

Revelation 7:13-17   Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, 

     “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
      And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”  So he said to me, “   

      THESE ARE THE ONES WHOM COME OUT OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION 

      and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.   

      Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. 

      And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.   

      They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; 

      the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;  for the Lamb who is in the midst 

      of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters.   

      God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”  

Selah

Shalom