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, (Revelation 7:2)
That is, in addition to the four holding the winds (see on v. 1).
From the east.
Literally, “from the rising of the sun.” In ancient times east was the cardinal point of the compass. Directions were reckoned from the point of view of a person facing east (see on Ex. 3:1). It was from this direction that Ezekiel saw the glory of God entering the temple (ch. 43:2-5). The sign of the Son of man will appear in the east (Matt. 24:30; cf. GC 640, 641). The direction from which the angel comes may therefore denote that he comes from, and is dispatched by, God.
Some prefer the literal rendering, “from the rising of the sun,” and believe that the stress is not on locality but on manner, that is, the approach of the angel is like that of the sun rising in its splendor. See on ch. 16:12.
Seal.
From remote antiquity seals were used in the Near East much as signatures are today. Thus they attested the authorship of a document, indicated the ownership of the object upon which the seal was impressed, or secured objects such as chests, boxes, tombs, against being opened or molested. One inscription indicates that the seal is that “of Shema’ Servant of Jeroboam” (David Diringer, The Biblical Archaeologist, XII [1949], p. 84). Another reads, “Belonging to ‘Asayau son of Yauqïm (Yöqïm )” (W. F. Albright, Journal of Biblical Literature, LI [1932], p. 81).
The concept of God’s placing a mark upon His people goes back to Ezekiel’s vision of the man with the writer’s inkhorn who was commanded to “set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in” Jerusalem. By virtue of the mark they were to be saved from destruction. (Eze. 9:2-6.) The concept of sealing is also applied in other circumstances. Paul referred the figure to the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit in connection with conversion and baptism (see 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; Eph. 4:30). Jesus spoke of Himself as being sealed by the Father, doubtless with reference to the Father’s attestation of Him through the Holy Spirit at His baptism (see on John 6:27).
The symbolism of sealing finds an interesting parallel in Jewish eschatological thinking. One of the Psalms of Solomon (a pseudepigraphical work from about the middle of the 1st century B.C.) declares of the righteous that “the flame of fire and the wrath against the unrighteous shall not touch him, when it goeth forth from the face of the Lord against sinners, to destroy all the substance of sinners, for the mark of God is upon the righteous that they may be saved. Famine and sword and pestilence (shall be) far from the righteous” (15:6-8; R. H. Charles, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2, p. 646). The Jews thus conceived of the mark on the righteous as keeping them from the perils of the time of the coming of the Messiah.
Similarly the present passage points to a sealing of God’s people that prepares them to stand through the fearful times of stress that will precede the second advent (see on Rev. 7:1). As in ancient times a seal on an object testified to its ownership, so the seal of God upon His people proclaims that He has recognized them as His own (see 2 Tim. 2:19; cf. TM 446).
The seal to be affixed upon God’s faithful servants is “the pure mark of truth,” the “mark” of His “approval” (3T 267). It attests “likeness to Christ in character” (EGW Supplementary Material on v. 2). “The seal of God, the token or sign of His authority, is found in the fourth commandment” (EGW ST Nov. 1, 1899; cf. GC 640). For a more detailed discussion of the seal see on Eze. 9:4.