GOD’S TWO GROUPS OF REDEEMED PEOPLE IN THE LAST DAYS 

After having stood before the “…burning bush…”, Moses receives his charge and authority to redeem God’s People (Exodus 3). So as Moses in the type, JESUS CHRIST the Lamb of God, in the anti-type, now before a throne, receives His greater investiture (position and authority) as we have seen unveiled in the 4th and 5th chapters of the Book of Revelation. Christ then immediately proceeds accordingly, as God’s Greater Deliverer, as the only qualified Judge to execute just judgment upon this World, and to rescue His Peoples from Earth’s End Time Pharaoh, those two Covenant peoples; Jews and Christians, and bring them unto their respective inheritances, which is a “…good and a large land flowing with milk and honey…”.  

That there are two peoples to be secured in the great Tribulation period, that are distinguished one from the other, is found in Revelation chapter 7. This distinguishing is shadowed from Exodus 19:21-22 which is an example of differentiating between those who went up the mountain into God’s Presence (possibly within view of the Heavenly Tabernacle) and the people who stayed down below. This adds more light to those earlier Words of God in Genesis 22:17 of what He had in view when He covenanted with Abraham, saying that… “….thy seed (shall be) as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore” This is an allusion to His heavenly seed being like the stars of the sky, (the calling up to rule above) and is contrasted with the earthly seed being like the sand, (the calling to rule on the earth). 

God then distinguishes between “people and priests”. This can again be seen in the type written in Exodus 24:1,9-11 “Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel: And they saw — the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand: also they saw — God, and did eat and drink.”  

Revelation chapter 6:12-17; the 6th seal is being opened: “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; 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. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 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 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: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”  This is undoubtedly the event our Lord describes in Matthew 24:29-30: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn….”  

This then is that time, yet to be manifest, which the Lord had declared in prophetic answer to those who sat in judgement over Him before His Passion whether He be the son of God or not…. “Hereafter shall *ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” [Matthew 26:64] (*So it appears then both all the dead and the living will see the appearing of the sign of the Son; some stupendous scene in the first heaven within the scope of the 6th seal, before the final plagues, from which the sealing of the 144,000 in the next chapter protects. This sign possibly being in conjunction with the First Resurrection out from among the dead. Or the First Resurrection could conceivably be that sign.) So it will be then, in the scope of the 6th seal, that the terror of the Lord is in some dramatic way revealed to all mankind including those on the earth. 

Isaiah describes the same event which sends a terror in the hearts of men. “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low: And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan, And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up, And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. In that day a man shall cast — his idols of silver, and — his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” [Isaiah 2:10-21] To the Jewish people living on the earth at that time it will appear a repeat of Exodus 20:18. “And all the people saw — the thunderings, and — the lightnings, and — the noise of the trumpet, and — the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.” 

Then we move from those events accompanying the opening of the 6th seal to Revelation 7:1-8 which starts off saying, “…after these things…”. This is after Chapter 6 and the events of the 6th seal being opened, and is where we see the “sealing” of the elect of His servants, those of the Jewish people from plagues that are to immediately follow. (This sealing of protection on the earth is visible to the angelic forces and is on the elect of God, the 144,000 of the Jewish Remnant, while Revelation 7 verses 9-17 are dealing with a contrasting protection afforded in the heavens and speak about a great multitude who are too innumerable to number. Again, verses 1-8 distinguish the 144,000 from the other elect group of God in verses 9-17.) 

What is brought to mind is the similarity between the 4 angels here having to be restrained “…to whom it was given to hurt the earth…” with the passover of the destroyer loosed on Egypt “For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and — beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord…. For the Lord will pass through to smite — the Egyptians; and when he seeth — the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.” [Exodus 12:12,23]  

God sheltered the whole Nation in ancient Goshen, in that He distinguished Israel from Egypt. “And I will sever in that day — the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. And I will put a division between my people and — thy people: tomorrow shall this sign be.” [Exodus 8:22,23] So in the first eight verses of Revelation 7, there is another severing and distinguishing of the last days Jewish people of God, a very small sealed remnant.“Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.” (Isaiah 1:9, with Joel 2:15-18) Zechariah 13:8–9 declares, “And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.” 

This remnant then being the earthly kingdom’s representative living seed of Abraham, to be sealed from the hurt of the plagues to follow. This is what Ezekiel 9:4-6 shadows… “And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof. 

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.” This future sealing from hurt is in the Passover Blood of their Messiah, before the great remaining plagues are to be administered, not on the doorposts of their houses but upon their foreheads, sealed in this earth’s realm. This is the earthly “first–fruits” sealing of an earthly Passover deliverance secured for earthly priests in an earthly kingdom to come, to serve in an earthly Temple with earthly ritual and worship, in the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Millennial New Covenant and is with the Jewish seed of Abraham. 

Hebrews 8:7-13 says, “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no — place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.”  This doesn’t speak of the New Covenant for the New Man, but describes the New Covenant with Israel/Judah. This New Covenant is that Book which Christ is seen opening in Revelation Chapter 5 (He, being the only One worthy to break its seals). The Jewish people had missed the 1st outpouring of the Holy Spirit described in Acts 2-3, but now they receive the full outpouring of the Holy Spirit (latter rain spoken of in Joel) which is poured out on Israel towards the end of the Tribulation and on through the Millennium.    

Ezekiel Chapters 40-48 speak about the construction and ritual of the earthly Millennial Temple. It is built in the Millennial Kingdom on earth and earthly priests will serve in it, while the Man-Child and those found worthy of the First Resurrection (spiritual Seed of Abraham) rule from the heavenlies above. As we’ve said, the two seeds of Abraham have two different destinies. The ruling of the seed (progeny) of Abraham over the earth in the millennial period is the reward to those faithful to Yahweh in the Tribulation period who refused the mark of the beast. God honors His covenant with Abraham and fulfills the prophecies of Israel’s preeminence in the earth and of being a light to all nations.  

Also, the 1000 years’ “Age of Righteousness” is a return to a period of Justice and Judgement, much like what was seen in the Old Covenant period. This phasing out of the Age of Mercy and Grace and into the Age of Judgment and Justice started before the 7 year Tribulation period, especially when the Two Witnesses come upon the scene with Old Testament-style plagues, and judgements. God’s Justice continues in Christ’s Kingdom where He and His Bride rule with a rod of iron over the earth. This return to Old-Covenant ways is why there is a return to the keeping of the Feast of Tabernacles, to Temple sacrifice, etc in the millennium, although they will be done as a memorial. To further this point, the idea that the Age of Mercy and Grace fades into one of Justice can also be seen in that the souls of those who have been martyred for their faith are crying out NOT for mercy and grace, but for vengeance of their blood. “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: 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?” [Revelation 6:9-10] 

God not only distinguishes His people from the World’s people in the last of the Tribulation, but in the Tribulation period He further distinguishes His 2 flocks of Peoples; Jews and Christians, one from another. Yet He does deal similarly with them both in Tribulation’s cleansing and ripening, (to mature both flocks) as both peoples are exhorted to patiently endure… “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” [Revelation 14:12–13] But their distinguishing is seen in their Passover deliverances unto their respective inheritances and are unique to their Millennial callings. In that the elect remnant of the Jewish seed are sealed after the 6th seal is broken and left to pass through all the remaining plagues unhurt, while the other seed, the New Man born again in Christ, (those with the heavenly calling, but were found unworthy for the First Fruits catching up…Revelation 12:5) are then exhorted to now watch and overcome, so as to keep their garments, and that even as late into the Great Tribulation as the 6th vial being poured out. (Revelation 16:10-15) They are then exhorted, “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” They wait, unsealed, patiently enduring, under the ever present threat of death of the end–time Pharaoh, in the hope for their unique deliverance, which is to be caught up in the “air”. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”  [1st Thessalonians 4:16–17] With again, “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” [1st Corinthians 15:51–52] 

These then are the final days’ 2 groups of God living and remaining on the earth in the final 3 ½ yr period before Jesus Christ’s actual return to earth (Revelation 19) in their respective judgment disciplines and final deliverances from the plagues to follow. As it relates to the living Jewish contingent, there is a protection in their sealing. They will need to be sealed in order to endure the final judgements coming upon the earth. And in the heavenly calling group, there is a protection into the first heavens (Harvest), from that vial specifically to be poured out upon the End Times’ great Pharaoh, and his hardhearted subjects throughout all the nations, and the apostates of Israel. (Revelation 15 & 16) This is like what we see in Matthew 24:16 and Matthew 24:40-41 where the Jews are told to flee to the Mountains for an earthly protection, while the righteous worthies (Man-Child/First-Fruits) are caught up, escaping what’s coming upon the earth. (See Luke 21:36 also.)  

The work of Tribulation discipline, appointed by God on His two peoples, is now accomplished. Using Old Testament typology, they have both passed through the Laver. Having gone through the Laver after bloody sacrifice, the filthiness of the world, in type, is washed off of them. The Second Passover is opened before them. “And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day: And those men said unto him, We are defiled by the dead body of a man: wherefore are we kept back, that we may not offer — an offering of the Lord in his appointed season among the children of Israel? 

And Moses said unto them, Stand still, and I will hear what the Lord will command concerning you. And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If any man of you or of your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the passover unto the Lord. The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep — it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bone of it: according to all the ordinances of the passover they shall keep — it.” [Numbers 6:9-12] 

The opportunity to be a part of the 2nd Passover in the Old Testament is the perfect typology of how both groups of Jews and Christians in Revelation Chapter 7, represented separately, as they have two different destinies, but both are given a second chance to be a part of the Greater future Passover/Deliverance, being kept/rescued from the slaughter of the pursuing Pharaoh/satan.  

*(Jews who were defiled by the dead body of a man weren’t allowed to take part in Passover. So likewise, the Jews who are guilty of the “dead body” of Jesus were also disqualified to participate. But once repentant, once they have been made clean, they are now worthy to be delivered in the Second end-time Passover/Deliverance restored to the privilege of their earthly preeminence calling and are restored to the privilege of their earthly preeminence calling. Likewise, sleepy, Laodicean–type end time living Christians, are also given a second chance to the heavenly calling, having been denied participation in the 1st Passover (the First–Fruits rapture offering) and that for not being “clean”. They were covered in filthiness of the World, but now awake and repentant, being ripened by the Tribulation and enduring faithfully, they are thereby declared clean by the High Priest and received in the Harvest experience of the 2nd Passover, to join the first–fruit worthies, and the faithful raised from among the dead of all time seen in Revelation 14 in those who were “redeemed from the earth.”. See Revelation 14:14-16, 15:1-4, 19:5-6 ) 

Then in further explanation of the “…after this…” of  Revelation 7:9-17, at a later point, towards the very end of the Great Tribulation, there is a delivered People, that heavenly group, which is distinguished from the sealed Jewish earthbound seed. This heavenly group being described as a “…great multitude… of all nations, and kindreds and people…stood before the throne…these are they who are coming out  (a present act in the greek) of the tribulation the great”. These were the surviving faithful living (having been ripened for the harvest before the vintage wrath of Revelation 14:14-20), along with the Tribulation martyred (and all martyrs) and the faithful worthies of all time, are now raised up out from among the dead from Sheol, are together harvested in the rapture from the Earth’s “Egypt” into the air, that is to say; to the first heaven before the throne of Justice. The time is Revelation 19:7… “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready.” (A reference to Exodus 19:10,11 & 30:18-21.) “And the Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, And be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai.” ….“Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put — it between the tabernacle of the congregation and — the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash — their hands and — their feet thereat: When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord: So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations.”  Representative of the spiritual principle… “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word.” [Psalm 119:9] 

Now these heavenly overcomers, having washed their robes are then brightened white in the greater Passover Blood…. “….and he was transfigured before them. And his rainment became shining, exceeding white as snow: so as no fuller on earth can white them.” [Mark 9:2–3] These all being found worthies are granted the whiteness of sanctification, a purity far beyond that of mere justification. Now these, in their inheritance in the heavenly kingdom of the First–Born, are presented before the throne of His presence, consecrated as priests for service, after the order of the New Man, in the Tabernacle Temple already built (as opposed to the one to be built upon the earth). They are seen by John waving palms, thereby combining Passover with the feast of Succoth unto the Lord. (Exodus 5:1, John 12:13) They rejoice in their great Mediator and Deliverer in Passover glory… “And cried with a loud voice, saying. Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” [Revelation 7:10] Compare to Exodus 15:1-21… “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea…” He leads them out to this heavenly mount, to now dwell in a heavenly Tabernacle, which was temporary, but to a permanent Temple. (As Moses’ Tabernacle vanished into Solomon’s permanent Temple, so this Greater Deliverer will bring them on at length (after the Millennium) to that promised permanent Country and City of paradise. (Revelation 21:2) 

So it is that Scripture declares both groups of God’s redeemed people, all of one and some of the other, shall pass through the Great Tribulation until the Passover Harvest just before the final blows fall specific on the end–times’ “Egypt” (seen in  Revelation 16:16-21) and its “Pharaoh” (the dragon and his first born beast from the dead. “…and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.” [Revelation 13:2]… “And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon…”  [Exodus 12:29–30] “And the beast was taken….cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.” [Revelation 19:20] And this Pharaoh’s subjects, are not just Egyptians as before, but all of the Nations. (Psalms 2) 

WE HAVE but mostly spoken of those two groups of God that run concurrently through the Great Tribulation/Jacob’s Trouble or what Christ referred to as the “…hour of temptation…” (Jeremiah’s Jacob’s Trouble) But the Lamb’s First–Fruits offering of the heavenly calling, those who were ripe in faithful patience, resisting the last days’ increasing onslaught of the enemy, and that just before the Great Tribulation, need not pass through it; for they are qualified to inherit the promise of our Lord. “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” [Revelation 3:10]. 

NEXT, we shall speak more concerning these….