“Then I saw another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, ‘Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads’” (Rev 7:2-3).
If we live in a state of grace, we can confidently await the return of our Lord and, in the midst of great turbulence, escape the “wrath of God”.
Just as our heavenly Father saved Noah from the great flood and led him safely into the ark, so He preserved His chosen people from the deadly plague that struck the Egyptians, so that, seeing their gates sealed with the blood of the Lamb, “the Destroyer of the first-born might not touch them” (Heb 11:28); just as He saved Israel from the hand of the Egyptian Pharaoh and led them through the wilderness, so the Father will protect His own in the “hour of trial” (Rev 3:10).
The “seal of the living God” is placed on our foreheads if remain faithful to our faith, if we receive and live all that our Father has done for our salvation. We have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, as St John describes the multitude he saw “clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands”: “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14).
Thus our Father has prepared for us a place of safety, and has set a seal upon us, so that no power can snatch us out of His hand. Nothing can separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38-39).
We can live in this certainty, attentive and vigilant, trying to show all people the Ark of Salvation in the Heart of our Heavenly Father, especially when the plagues fall upon humanity. All men can enter this ark, be washed in the blood of the Lamb and receive on their foreheads the “seal of the living God” to pass through the Great Tribulation dressed in white robes.
