Sign, Sealed, and Delivered

The Church has not replaced the Jews, whom Scripture says will someday look upon the One they have pierced and mourn.  Before they are delivered (importantly!) by faith as Paul indicates with grafting back in (Romans 11:17-32), there will be a sign and a seal.

Revelation 12:1 “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.  2 She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth… 5 She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.  6 The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.”

The Sign describes the faithful Jewish people who are heirs with Gentiles on account of Christ, the Son who was born and snatched up to God.  As in Joseph’s dream in Genesis 37, when the sun, moon, and stars bowed down, it was a picture of the tribe of Jacob, Israel.  But moreover because of Christ and being co-heirs, it’s also a picture of God’s people together. 

Someone will flee to the wilderness.  But who?

Jesus said, Luke 21:17 Everyone will hate you because of me… 20 “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near.21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.  22 For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.

(It’s those in Jerusalem and Judea… the Jews.)

Luke 21: 23 How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

(Which people?  The Jews, contrasted with the Gentiles.
Jews receive the wrath of man at the hands of other nations, the Gentiles.)

Luke 21:24 They will fall by the sword and will be taken as prisoners to all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. 25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

All the signs are in process for a coming Tribulation. We can all feel the “birth pains” as Jesus called them in Matthew 24:8. But what about the Jews?

Jesus says that before He returns, Jerusalem will be surrounded, Judea will flee to the wilderness, there will be signs in the sun, moon, and stars, and on the earth the nations will be in anguish at the tossing of the sea (chaos of evil).  During the first half of the Great Tribulation, all of God’s people remaining on earth will be persecuted, both Jew and Gentile. (If you want the math displaying the midpoint: i.e., figurative 1,290 days of wilderness in Revelation 12:6 … cut short as Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, to 1,260 days which corresponds to the forty-two months of Revelation 13:5 after which the two witnesses then preach for the other 1,260 days in Revelation 11:3.)

Mark 13:24 “But in those days, following that distress, “‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ 26 “At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. 27 And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

The four winds.  Hold that thought.

The Tribulation comes, but we’ll all be sealed.  Christians are sealed by the Holy Spirit indwelling, and tribes of Israel are the sealed 144,000 who understand Christ in the wilderness and will recognize Him as the political leader they’ve awaited, symbolically on a white horse. 

They are sealed by God Himself in the heavenly realms in Revelation 7: 1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.”

I’ll be honest: I don’t know how it works, but it seems that somehow those in the wilderness who have been sealed by God will not be raptured with the Church but remain as witnesses as God testifies that He is the God of Israel.

Zechariah 12:3 On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves… 5 Then the clans of Judah will say in their hearts, ‘The people of Jerusalem are strong, because the LORD Almighty is their God.’

Some remaining Jews will recognize their God (who is our God as co-heirs). Jerusalem will remain intact in her place.

Zechariah 12:7 “The LORD will save the dwellings of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and of Jerusalem’s inhabitants may not be greater than that of Judah. 8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem… 10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”

Those sealed will say in their hearts that He is God, they’ll look upon Him, and repent.  Confess and repent. Delivered, not from death because they’ll be martyred (see Revelation 20:4), but delivered from God’s final wrath.

It is not another way to God, Nope, Pope, there are not many paths to God (Pope Francis, arrgh!).

There’s only one way: by faith in Christ (the exact same way as all people who are saved). Jews in a number of fullness will have been sealed (as God’s people who are all sealed by God) … in order to be delivered into Heaven as God pours out His wrath on a world that hates Him in the final battle against the dragon (Revelation 20:7-10) since the last enemy to be destroyed is death itself.

Sign, sealed, and delivered.