Revelation 7:1-3

This vision is expressed in conceptions of the world which were the conceptions of the days in which John wrote.

The earth is a square, flat earth; and at its four corners are four angels waiting to unleash the winds of destruction. Isaiah speaks of gathering the outcasts of Judah from the four corners of the earth ( Isaiah 11:12 ). The end is come upon the four corners of the earth in Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 7:2 ).

It was the belief of the ancient peoples that the winds which came from due north, south, east and west were all favourable winds; but that those which blew diagonally across the earth were harmful. That is why the angels are at the corners of the earth. They are about to unleash the winds which blow diagonally. It was the common belief that all the forces of nature were under the charge of angels. So we read of the angel of the fire ( Revelation 14:18 ) and the angel of the waters ( Revelation 16:5 ). These angels were called "The Angels of Service." They belonged to the very lowest order of angels, because they had to be continually on duty and, therefore, could not keep the Sabbath as a day of rest. Pious Israelites who faithfully observed the Law of the Sabbath were said to rank higher than these angels of service.

The angels are bidden to restrain the winds until the work of sealing the faithful should be completed. This idea has more than one echo in Jewish literature. In Enoch the angels of the waters are bidden by God to hold the waters in check until Noah had built the ark (Enoch 66:1, 2). In 2Baruch the angels with the flaming torches are bidden to restrain their fire, when Jerusalem was sacked by the Babylonians, until the sacred vessels of the Temple could be hidden away and saved from the looting of the invaders ( Baruch 6:4 ). More than once we see the angels restraining the forces of destruction until the safety of the faithful has been made secure.

One of the interesting and picturesque ideas of the Old Testament is that of the winds as the servants and the agents of God. This was specially so of the Sirocco, the dread wind from the south-east, with the blast like hot air from a furnace which withered and destroyed all vegetation. Zechariah has the picture of the chariots of the winds, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth ( Zechariah 6:1-5 ). Nahum speaks of the Lord who has his way in the whirlwind (the Sirocco) and the storm ( Nahum 1:3 ). The Lord goes with the whirlwinds of the south ( Zechariah 9:14 ). The winds are God's chariots ( Jeremiah 4:13 ). God comes with his chariots like a whirlwind ( Isaiah 66:15 ). The wind is the breath of God ( Job 37:9-10 ). The wind rends the mountains ( 1 Kings 19:11 ) and withers the grass ( Isaiah 40:7 ; Isaiah 40:24 ) and dries up the stream, the river and the sea ( Nahum 1:4 ; Psalms 18:15 ).

So terrible was the effect of the Sirocco that it gained a place in the pictures of the last days. One of the terrors which was to precede the end was a terrible storm. God would destroy his enemies as stubble before the wind ( Psalms 83:13 ). God's day would be the day of the whirlwind ( Amos 1:14 ). The whirlwind of the Lord goes forth in its fury and falls on the head of the wicked ( Jeremiah 23:19 ; Jeremiah 30:23 ). The wind of the Lord, the Sirocco, will come from the wilderness and destroy the fertility of the land ( Hosea 13:15 ). God will send his four winds upon Elam and scatter the people ( Jeremiah 49:36 ).

This is difficult for many of us to understand; the dweller in the temperate countries does not know the terror of the wind. But there is something here more far-reaching than that and more characteristic of Jewish thought, the Jews knew nothing of secondary causes. We say that atmospheric conditions, variations in temperature, land and mountain configurations, cause certain things to happen. The Jew ascribed it all to the direct action of God. He simply said, God sent the rain; God made the wind to blow; God thundered; God sent his lightning.

Surely both points of view are correct, for we may still believe that God acts through the laws by which his universe is governed.