THE SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR
Habakkuk is a rather short book,
and this prophet was given a vision of the judgment years. Take a minute
to read the first 11 verses of chap. 1:
Habakkuk1:1 The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see.
2 O LORD, how long
shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even
cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and
cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and
violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
4 Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for
the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.
5 Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for
I will work a work in your days which ye will not believe, though it be
told you.
6 For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march
through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces
that are not their's.
7 They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity
shall proceed of themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more
fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves,
and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that
hasteth to eat.
9 They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as
the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
10 And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a
scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap
dust, and take it.
11 Then shall his mind change, and he shall
pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.
Right away, you can see that what he is given a vision
of, is the judgment that follows immediately after
the church has been taken out, for lawlessness is the order of the day,
and you will see that Habakkuk says the same things as the souls under the
altar in Revelation 6, at the opening of the 5th seal:
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And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw
under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of
God, and for the testimony which they held: |
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And
they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? |
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And white robes were given unto every one of
them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a
little season, until their fellowservants also
and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be
fulfilled. |
So, these souls under the altar are asking God to “avenge”
their treatment at the hands of those who dwell on the earth. These are
tribulation saints, because they are given white robes and told to wait
until their brethren and fellowservants should also be killed. This does not have
the church in mind, for we are not to see God’s wrath, and in these verses
God has withdrawn His interaction, and is allowing the saints to be overcome,
as Daniel said, “he shall overcome the saints, who WILL BE GIVEN INTO HIS
HAND….” for 3 ½ years. The Lord is clearly absent from these tortures
and killings.
Then, when the final number of these saints
has been “killed as they were” is fulfilled, we see them in heaven, an un-numberable
company of saved and resurrected, joining the souls under the altar who
were told to “wait”.
Directly after these souls under the altar
are given white robes, the cosmic / earth-change events occur:
Rev 6:12 |
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal,
and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black
as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; |
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And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,
even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty
wind. |
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And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is
rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of
their places. |
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And the kings of the earth, and the great men,
and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and
every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and
in the rocks of the mountains; |
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And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on
us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: |
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For
the great day of his wrath is
come; and who shall be able to stand? |
It is clear, here, that the day of God’s wrath AND the
wrath of the Lamb, has “come”. This happens at mid-tribulation, or pre-wrath
(Marilyn Agee has a clearer observation on this exact time, as pre-wrath),
and this is the time that indeed that wrath “has come”.
The next thing we see, after God seals His
144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel,
who will apparently serve during the time that follows (His wrath),
is that a huge un-numberable crowd turns
up in heaven in white robes:
Rev
7:9 |
After this I beheld,
and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues,
stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, and palms
in their hands; |
10 |
And cried with a loud
voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. |
11 |
And all the angels stood
round about the throne, and about the elders and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, |
12 |
Saying, Amen: Blessing,
and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour,
and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. |
13 |
And one of the elders
answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white
robes? and whence came they? |
14 |
And I said unto him,
Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb. |
15 |
Therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell
among them. |
16 |
They shall hunger no more,
neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor
any heat.
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17 |
For the Lamb which is
in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them
unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes.
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Since they have palms in their hands, I am
reminded that during the feast of Tabernacles, the people would take various
branches, as would the priests, and wave them in the air in thankfulness
to the Lord for the completion of the harvest. This completion of the fall
harvest would be “four months” after the spring harvest of barley. This
fall harvest would consist of the last of the wheat, the summer fruits,
and the grapes.
The crowd in heaven had been through the
“summer” heat, drought, and hunger. And they had done a lot of “crying”,
which our dear tender God will attend to. So, I think it is clear that
this “rapture / resurrection” occurs in the fall. And, it says they “came
out of great tribulation”, not WRATH, which is declared just prior to this,
but out of great tribulation.
Now, let’s take a look at their
“job”
Rev 7:15 |
Therefore are they before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. |
Now, this brings to mind the neighboring
communities who were spared by Joshua and the Israelite armies because of
the “fear” of the God of Israel,
who beguiled Joshua into a league to spare them.
Joshua 9:22 And Joshua called for them, and
he spake unto them, saying, Wherefore
have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you; when ye dwell among
us? 23 Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall none
of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house
of my God. 24 And
they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants,
how that the LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the
land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you, therefore
we were sore afraid of our lives because of you, and have done this thing.
25 And now, behold, we are in thine
hand: as it seemeth good and right unto thee to do unto us, do. 26 And
so did he unto them, and delivered them out of the hand of the children
of Israel, that they slew them not. 27 And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood
and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of the LORD,
even unto this day, in the place which he should choose.
These “servants” in the temple
of God,
do not qualify, as the 24 elders (and others),did,
as “priests and kings”.
Rev 5:9 |
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation; |
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And hast made us unto
our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the
earth. |
Rather, like the drawers of water and hewers
of wood, during the time of Joshua, they “feared” God, and were allowed
to “live”, for Joshua (type of Jesus), said he would spare them that they
might “live”, regardless of the fact that these neighboring people didn’t
go about it in the right way. Likewise, these servants in the temple
of God, had to undergo the great tribulation, because
they “loved not the truth” and thus were not spared the grief and agony
that Habakkuk saw.
Read the rest of the book of Habakkuk
– it is awful – people are killed, their properties are taken over, and
the “righteous” are overcome by the wicked – Habakkuk never says “my people”
nor is he referring to Israel in particular, but in this vision he just
sees that the wicked have completely overcome the “righteous”, so he would
have seen the gentiles, the Jews, everyone who had turned to Christ during
the tribulation years.
However, the lesson also holds
the truth that none of God’s people will see His “wrath”, for which He seals
144,000 protected Jews, and then takes out the worn and tired saints who
can at last shout “salvation unto our God”.