SEALED FOREVER
Ancient Seals
In the early 1960s a seal carved in an opal stone was discovered in Israel. Which isn’t anything too out of the ordinary because thousands of signet rings and impressions and stamps have been dug up in that country over the years. But this one is special. It is an egg shaped seal about an inch and a quarter long with a sphinx-like character engraved at the top, a band in the middle, a cobra, a falcon, and a lotus plant on the bottom, and a few Hebrew letters interspersed between those pictures. These letters form the name of the person to which this seal belonged and, coupled together with the intricate symbols of female royalty along with the style in which they were engraved, scholars have determined with relative certainty that it was the seal of the infamous Queen Jezebel of the Bible. Jezebel was the one who had tried to kill the prophet Elijah; she was the one who had seized Naboth’s vineyard for her husband Ahab by hiring false witnesses against him so that he’d be stoned to death; Jezebel was the one who was eventually thrown down from her palace window at the command of Jehu and eaten by dogs according to the prophecy of the Lord. It was this Jezebel whose seal is now sitting in a museum in Jerusalem. And back when she was alive she would have used it to make an imprint in a variety of different things: clay jars, official documents, household articles, and the like. Because that is what a seal was used for: to indicate who owned the object or who authorized the command. A seal was almost used as a signature back then and so it was highly valued.
A seal could be a ring or a stamp at the end of a cylinder or a small disc that you would press into clay. And the sculptors that would craft these seals made sure that they were intricate enough that they could not be duplicated by anyone off the street. Because no one else had the right to anyone else’s personal seal. In fact, if you sold your seal to someone else you were not allowed to keep any instrument that could make that same impression. And there was apparently a practice of breaking your seal right before your death so that no one could use it (or misuse it) after you died. Identity theft happened even back in those days (!) and so people took great pains into producing seals, protecting seals, and paying attention to the imprint a particular seal made on any given object.
We are the Possession of the Groom
With this in mind, I want you to listen again to what John sees in his vision from the book of Revelation. It is a picture of the end of this world and of God’s seal of protection and grace. “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
The vision that John is given here is a picture of the angels placing a seal on our foreheads, an imprint, an impression that indicates who we are and whom we belong to. And because of this seal we will be spared on Judgment Day from the destruction to be sent on this earth and will be able to rest safely and securely in our Savior’s arms. It truly is a comforting vision and an encouraging picture for us as we look forward to what is to come. And although it may sound strange that the Lord would put a seal on our foreheads, there is a similar custom in one of the cultures of our world today.
In the country of India, and even within the Indian culture around the world, many of the women in that society wear a red dot on their foreheads almost right in between their eyes. And when it is the traditional circular red dot it is called a “bindi.” A bindi is now used more for decoration and as a trendy accessory by those even outside of the Indian culture than anything else, but it used to have a very narrow and special significance: a bindi was only worn by a married woman. It was a wedding ring in a way, an indication that this woman was taken, she was no longer available to anyone else, she belonged to her husband as long as she lived.
The seal that has been placed on our foreheads has been placed on us by the authority of our spiritual Husband, Christ. The Lord uses that analogy throughout the pages of Scripture: we the Church with a capital ‘C’ - all those who believe in Jesus as their Savior - are the bride of Christ. He is our Husband. And he has claimed us as his own. We are taken, we are no longer available to anyone or anything else, we belong to him for as long as we live. And you can be certain of that because you have that seal on you right now. You can’t see it; you can’t feel it; but faith proves it. And what a joy it is to know that you are considered to be that special to the Lord, that precious to the Groom; and he will always treat you as such in this life and the next.
We are Sealed Together with Others
And so look around you. Look at your spouse or your children. Look at your parents or your grandparents. Look at your friends and all of those people who believe in Jesus as their Savior. They have been sealed as well. They have been marked with that same impression of our God and will one day join us in heaven. They too are precious to your Lord. They too are special and treasured by the God of all grace. They too are part of the prized Bride of Christ and are loved with an everlasting love by the Groom himself. Of course, that also includes those believers whom you don’t like. And that includes those Christians that you don’t get along with. And that includes those spiritual brothers and sisters who annoy you and upset you and make life difficult for you. Christ loves them. Christ has sacrificed himself for them and has sealed them to be with him forever right alongside of you. Do you treat those people just as well as Christ does? Do you consider those people just as precious as Christ does? Or is your attitude towards those people, as well as your actions towards those kinds of Christians, a little less than noble?
It must pain our Lord to see us treating some of those he has sealed in an unloving way. It must really be disheartening to our Lord to watch as fellow Christians with the exact same mark on their foreheads grumble about one another and complain about one another and speak poorly about one another behind their backs. We’re supposed to be on the same side! We’re supposed to be kind and patient and understanding to all people - but especially to those with whom we are sealed! And I am just as much to blame as the next Christian. My attitudes and actions towards others aren’t always commendable by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t always treat Christians who are sealed by my Lord like they are sealed by my Lord. I don’t always talk about them as coheirs with me of the glories of heaven. I don’t always think of the believers around me as people precious to my Lord and special to him. I apologize for that. I ask that you forgive me for that. I know that the Lord forgives me.
Sealed by Grace
Because that’s exactly what’s so special about that invisible seal I have on my forehead: It’s not there because I warranted it in some way; it’s not there because of how hard I try to treat others nicely or because I was able to get on God’s good side somehow. I wear that seal on my forehead because my Savior decided to place it there. There’s really no other scriptural explanation than that. The Lord sealed me for no other reason than he wanted to save me. He had mercy on a miserable sinner; he had compassion on a completely calloused soul. That’s why I proudly bear that seal. And that’s why you have the exact same mark on your forehead as well.
Mercy, compassion, love, grace. Which also means sacrifice, suffering, agony, death. Because is mercy for you led to a sacrifice for him. His compassion for you led to suffering for him. His love for you led to agony for him. His grace for you led to death for him. That seal didn’t come easy! The instrument to make that impression was not just resting near his throne so that he could simply pick it up one day and casually make that impression into our foreheads! No, that seal was sculpted with the nails hammered into a cross and stained by the blood of the Christ and chiseled into the stone taken out of an empty tomb. There was a lot of sweat that was poured into this seal! There was a lot of effort and exertion that was expended to craft this mark of our salvation! It was no mindless task! It was no half-hearted chore! This seal was produced by the unparalleled love of our God and the superhuman efforts of his Son. This is a one-of-a-kind seal. Never to be duplicated. Never to be ignored. And you wear it’s mark right now.
The Seal is Permanent
Scripture doesn’t say what this seal looks like. In fact, we can safely say that it doesn’t really “look like” anything. This was a vision, after all, and Jesus was just showing John in a picturesque way that all believers are “sealed” and secure when it comes to the judgment on the Last Day. But if you wanted to think of this seal making a physical impression of some kind, I guess you could think of a cross, perhaps - the ultimate symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for your salvation; or maybe a crown of thorns - depicting a suffering Savior but also a mighty King; or maybe even the name of our Lord in the letters of the ancient Bible texts - an indication of whom we belong to, an undeniable sign of who has bought us. But whatever image comes to your mind when you think of this seal on your forehead, you can at least be sure of this: your seal is permanent. It will never be taken away. It will not ever lose its significance. It will not be overlooked when the Judge sits on his throne with the Book of Life open for all to see. The seal that the Lord has placed on your head will remain there until you reach the majesties of heaven and live forever with the believers who have gone before you.
Keep that in mind as you live this life. As you interact with your fellow Christians here, notice that same mark on their foreheads. You might not be able to see it and they might not always act like they have it, but you know it’s there by the grace of God. With that in mind it will certainly make it easier to treat them in a loving way. And when you go home today and look in your mirror, see that same seal on your forehead as well: that cross, that crown of thorns, that name of your Lord. Because you are a marked child of God. You are a decorated Bride of Christ. The Groom has claimed you as his own. And the wedding feast is soon to come.
Amen.
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready!” - Rev. 19:6-7
Ancient Seals
In the early 1960s a seal carved in an opal stone was discovered in Israel. Which isn’t anything too out of the ordinary because thousands of signet rings and impressions and stamps have been dug up in that country over the years. But this one is special. It is an egg shaped seal about an inch and a quarter long with a sphinx-like character engraved at the top, a band in the middle, a cobra, a falcon, and a lotus plant on the bottom, and a few Hebrew letters interspersed between those pictures. These letters form the name of the person to which this seal belonged and, coupled together with the intricate symbols of female royalty along with the style in which they were engraved, scholars have determined with relative certainty that it was the seal of the infamous Queen Jezebel of the Bible. Jezebel was the one who had tried to kill the prophet Elijah; she was the one who had seized Naboth’s vineyard for her husband Ahab by hiring false witnesses against him so that he’d be stoned to death; Jezebel was the one who was eventually thrown down from her palace window at the command of Jehu and eaten by dogs according to the prophecy of the Lord. It was this Jezebel whose seal is now sitting in a museum in Jerusalem. And back when she was alive she would have used it to make an imprint in a variety of different things: clay jars, official documents, household articles, and the like. Because that is what a seal was used for: to indicate who owned the object or who authorized the command. A seal was almost used as a signature back then and so it was highly valued.
A seal could be a ring or a stamp at the end of a cylinder or a small disc that you would press into clay. And the sculptors that would craft these seals made sure that they were intricate enough that they could not be duplicated by anyone off the street. Because no one else had the right to anyone else’s personal seal. In fact, if you sold your seal to someone else you were not allowed to keep any instrument that could make that same impression. And there was apparently a practice of breaking your seal right before your death so that no one could use it (or misuse it) after you died. Identity theft happened even back in those days (!) and so people took great pains into producing seals, protecting seals, and paying attention to the imprint a particular seal made on any given object.
We are the Possession of the Groom
With this in mind, I want you to listen again to what John sees in his vision from the book of Revelation. It is a picture of the end of this world and of God’s seal of protection and grace. “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
The vision that John is given here is a picture of the angels placing a seal on our foreheads, an imprint, an impression that indicates who we are and whom we belong to. And because of this seal we will be spared on Judgment Day from the destruction to be sent on this earth and will be able to rest safely and securely in our Savior’s arms. It truly is a comforting vision and an encouraging picture for us as we look forward to what is to come. And although it may sound strange that the Lord would put a seal on our foreheads, there is a similar custom in one of the cultures of our world today.
In the country of India, and even within the Indian culture around the world, many of the women in that society wear a red dot on their foreheads almost right in between their eyes. And when it is the traditional circular red dot it is called a “bindi.” A bindi is now used more for decoration and as a trendy accessory by those even outside of the Indian culture than anything else, but it used to have a very narrow and special significance: a bindi was only worn by a married woman. It was a wedding ring in a way, an indication that this woman was taken, she was no longer available to anyone else, she belonged to her husband as long as she lived.
The seal that has been placed on our foreheads has been placed on us by the authority of our spiritual Husband, Christ. The Lord uses that analogy throughout the pages of Scripture: we the Church with a capital ‘C’ - all those who believe in Jesus as their Savior - are the bride of Christ. He is our Husband. And he has claimed us as his own. We are taken, we are no longer available to anyone or anything else, we belong to him for as long as we live. And you can be certain of that because you have that seal on you right now. You can’t see it; you can’t feel it; but faith proves it. And what a joy it is to know that you are considered to be that special to the Lord, that precious to the Groom; and he will always treat you as such in this life and the next.
We are Sealed Together with Others
And so look around you. Look at your spouse or your children. Look at your parents or your grandparents. Look at your friends and all of those people who believe in Jesus as their Savior. They have been sealed as well. They have been marked with that same impression of our God and will one day join us in heaven. They too are precious to your Lord. They too are special and treasured by the God of all grace. They too are part of the prized Bride of Christ and are loved with an everlasting love by the Groom himself. Of course, that also includes those believers whom you don’t like. And that includes those Christians that you don’t get along with. And that includes those spiritual brothers and sisters who annoy you and upset you and make life difficult for you. Christ loves them. Christ has sacrificed himself for them and has sealed them to be with him forever right alongside of you. Do you treat those people just as well as Christ does? Do you consider those people just as precious as Christ does? Or is your attitude towards those people, as well as your actions towards those kinds of Christians, a little less than noble?
It must pain our Lord to see us treating some of those he has sealed in an unloving way. It must really be disheartening to our Lord to watch as fellow Christians with the exact same mark on their foreheads grumble about one another and complain about one another and speak poorly about one another behind their backs. We’re supposed to be on the same side! We’re supposed to be kind and patient and understanding to all people - but especially to those with whom we are sealed! And I am just as much to blame as the next Christian. My attitudes and actions towards others aren’t always commendable by any stretch of the imagination. I don’t always treat Christians who are sealed by my Lord like they are sealed by my Lord. I don’t always talk about them as coheirs with me of the glories of heaven. I don’t always think of the believers around me as people precious to my Lord and special to him. I apologize for that. I ask that you forgive me for that. I know that the Lord forgives me.
Sealed by Grace
Because that’s exactly what’s so special about that invisible seal I have on my forehead: It’s not there because I warranted it in some way; it’s not there because of how hard I try to treat others nicely or because I was able to get on God’s good side somehow. I wear that seal on my forehead because my Savior decided to place it there. There’s really no other scriptural explanation than that. The Lord sealed me for no other reason than he wanted to save me. He had mercy on a miserable sinner; he had compassion on a completely calloused soul. That’s why I proudly bear that seal. And that’s why you have the exact same mark on your forehead as well.
Mercy, compassion, love, grace. Which also means sacrifice, suffering, agony, death. Because is mercy for you led to a sacrifice for him. His compassion for you led to suffering for him. His love for you led to agony for him. His grace for you led to death for him. That seal didn’t come easy! The instrument to make that impression was not just resting near his throne so that he could simply pick it up one day and casually make that impression into our foreheads! No, that seal was sculpted with the nails hammered into a cross and stained by the blood of the Christ and chiseled into the stone taken out of an empty tomb. There was a lot of sweat that was poured into this seal! There was a lot of effort and exertion that was expended to craft this mark of our salvation! It was no mindless task! It was no half-hearted chore! This seal was produced by the unparalleled love of our God and the superhuman efforts of his Son. This is a one-of-a-kind seal. Never to be duplicated. Never to be ignored. And you wear it’s mark right now.
The Seal is Permanent
Scripture doesn’t say what this seal looks like. In fact, we can safely say that it doesn’t really “look like” anything. This was a vision, after all, and Jesus was just showing John in a picturesque way that all believers are “sealed” and secure when it comes to the judgment on the Last Day. But if you wanted to think of this seal making a physical impression of some kind, I guess you could think of a cross, perhaps - the ultimate symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice for your salvation; or maybe a crown of thorns - depicting a suffering Savior but also a mighty King; or maybe even the name of our Lord in the letters of the ancient Bible texts - an indication of whom we belong to, an undeniable sign of who has bought us. But whatever image comes to your mind when you think of this seal on your forehead, you can at least be sure of this: your seal is permanent. It will never be taken away. It will not ever lose its significance. It will not be overlooked when the Judge sits on his throne with the Book of Life open for all to see. The seal that the Lord has placed on your head will remain there until you reach the majesties of heaven and live forever with the believers who have gone before you.
Keep that in mind as you live this life. As you interact with your fellow Christians here, notice that same mark on their foreheads. You might not be able to see it and they might not always act like they have it, but you know it’s there by the grace of God. With that in mind it will certainly make it easier to treat them in a loving way. And when you go home today and look in your mirror, see that same seal on your forehead as well: that cross, that crown of thorns, that name of your Lord. Because you are a marked child of God. You are a decorated Bride of Christ. The Groom has claimed you as his own. And the wedding feast is soon to come.
Amen.
“Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready!” - Rev. 19:6-7
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