We can be confident that heaven is actually revealed at this point because there is no other reason that men would ask the mountains (kings) and rocks (leaders) to "hide" them from the face of God and the “wrath of the Lamb.”  In other words, they will now see God and his Son with their own eyes, so they will finally understand where the judgments of the seven seals have been coming from. Imagine their surprise when the very God whose existence they denied now reveals himself to them in such an overt fashion. They will be terrified, and they will finally understand the consquences of their actions.


"The Earth Will Mourn"

Of course, this reality will produce different reactions within different types of people. Some will become even more hardened, as with Pharaoh during the Exodus. But some will become repentant and will mourn for the Messiah that they had rejected. Those people will still have some hope for redemption, although if they miss the time of redemption at the upcoming 7th trumpet, they will have to suffer and die for their newfound faith. More on that in later posts.

In the ‘Signs of the End of the Age’ found in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we also find descriptions of the seven seals judgments, but from a slightly different perspective. There, the same men that want the mountains and rocks to hide them will be in mourning after the sixth seal is spoken forth, and they will mourn because of their own rejection of the Messiah Yeshua/Jesus;

“Immediately after the distress of those days “ ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Matthew 24:29-31)

They will mourn because they will finally realize that they had been denying and/or persecuting the very Jesus that they should have been worshipping, and that his hand of wrath will now be against them. And once again notice how his elect is gathered to him AFTER the celestial signs of the sixth seal appear. In other words, the time of Christ's redemption of his church will follow shortly on the heels of that event.


“Every Mountain and Island Was Removed”

Once again we have to consider this statement in the context of symbolism, because the Revelation was a vision, and the primary language of all biblical visions was symbolism. While most scholars interpret the removal of every mountain and island as a literal event, the immediate context of this statement suggests otherwise. The fact that mankind is speaking to the mountains and rocks and calling for them to “fall on us and hide us” is all the evidence we need to make our case.

In the Bible, mountains are often depicted symbolically as kingdoms and/or kings. In fact, this is openly stated in the riddle of Revelation 17, where the seven heads of the beast are described as seven mountains and also seven kings. Of course, in that context the seven mountains are also seven kingdoms, which is why we have the seven kings in view. 

This same concept is also illustrated in chapter 2 of Daniel, which describes the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ as a “huge mountain” that will fill the whole earth upon his appearing;

“Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:35)

Obviously these passages make it clear that “mountains” and "rocks" represent kingdoms and kings that govern and sustain the individual nations of the earth, and the larger the mountain the larger the kingdom, and the more influence it has on it’s surroundings.  In fact, mountains are generally the primary sources of water for the great cities of the world, so in this way mountains are seen as literal sustainers of life, not just symbolic sustainers.

In this context, it is clear that the inhabitants of the earth who have been targeted by the judgments contained in the Revelation are asking the kings and kingdoms of the earth to protect them from God’s hand. They will be desperate when the realize the depth of their error and that God’s judgment is upon them, and while they would be better served to turn to God and repent of their deeds, many will instead turn to the rulers of the earth for protection.

Just as the Bible equates “mountains” to the kings and kingdoms of the world's larger nations, it also equates “islands” to the smaller nations.  This is also openly stated in prophetic passages, such as this one in the book of Isaiah;

“Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires, nor its animals enough for burnt offerings. Before him all the nations are as nothing; they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.” (Isaiah 40:15-17)

The symbolism of an “island” alone in the midst of the sea would suggest a smaller nation like Lebanon that is subject to the effects of the surrounding sea of people.  This stands in contrast to larger “mountain” kingdoms like the former kingdoms of Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and so on. The islands are the smaller and weaker nations that are isolated by the sea of people around them, while the mountains are the large kingdoms that dominate the people around them.

Along this line, we can make a correlation to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Chapter 2 of Daniel. In that passage, the ten toes of the end-times beast were said to be partly of iron and partly of baked clay, suggesting a 10-nation confederation where some of the nations will be strong and some weak.  Or, in the context of the Revelation, a confederation where some are strong ‘mountain’ nations and some are weaker ‘island’ nations. And this is precisely what we find illustrated in the writings of the prophets of Israel, whose prophecies identify 10 modern-day nations that are slated for judgment in the end times. Interestingly, those 10 nations today are all Muslim nations that surround Israel, which we'll describe in detail in a future post.


“The Great Day of Their Wrath”

The Revelation tells us at this point that “the great day of their wrath has come”, and this is no small point. It should remind us of another scripture that is critical to our understanding of the time of our redemption;

“But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Thessalonians 5:8-9)

As Christians, we are not appointed to wrath, period. The wrath of God is aimed at those who have violated His ketubah provisions, as described earlier in this series. However, the arrival of God’s wrath at this point provides a strong clue that our redemption is also near, as confirmed by the prophecies of Joel and Peter that were described in a prior post. There, each man described the sixth seal, which Joel said would occur just before the coming of the great and “dreadful” day of the Lord (Joel 2:31). But when Peter quoted Joel, he changed the wording to the great and “glorious” day of the Lord (Acts 2:20). That small but notable change was no accident, because as we mentioned previously, it will be a dreadful day for those that will be subject to God’s wrath, but a glorious day for those that are awaiting Christ’s redemption.

It’s interesting that God’s wrath and God’s redemption are often mentioned as concurrent ideas throughout scripture, because that is just what we find in the Revelation. Very shortly in this series we will see how the wrath of the trumpet judgments will also give way to the redemption of the Church, and then the prophecies of Joel and Peter will make complete sense.


NEXT TIME:

In the next post we will begin our discussion of the seven trumpets, which is probably one of the most misunderstood portions of the Revelation, and also one of my favorite biblical topics. I think you'll find the content of these upcoming posts to be quite original and quite revealing.

I also have to apologize for the tardiness of this post, but our trip to Israel in February was followed by a horrible case of bronchitis for most of March. Now that I'm on the mend, posts should occur weekly once again.