Title: Three Seals God Recognizes
God says He will make Zerubbabel His seal (Hag 2:23).
In English, seal is translated as (wax) seal or signet ring. And there was an imperial seal used by the king, and in Korea, there is something called a legal seal.
What do these seals mean? It shows that there is no doubt that the contents protected by the seal were created, written, and contracted by the owner of the seal or the signet ring. Therefore, the word that God will make Zerubbabel the seal of God is a promise that God will be with Zerubbabel, and He will use Zerubbabel to accomplish His work (Hag 2:21-23).
Dear Saints, today I pray in the name of the Lord that you and I may have a blessing of becoming the seal of God. I pray that there will be a blessing in which God uses you to fulfill His will and plan. However, this seal should not be used carelessly. In order to be used as God’s seal, we must know God’s circumstances/God’s heart/the Bible. In order to be used as God’s seal in this way, we must first receive God’s seal. There are three seals recognized by God.
- When escaping from Egypt, the blood of the lamb was the seal (Exo 12:6-7).
During the Exodus, God poured out 10 plagues on Egypt, and during the last plague of the firstborn, the Israelites slaughtered a lamb and applied its blood to the doorposts and lintels. And the angel of God passed over the house where the blood of the lamb was.
Since God made a contract/promise which with the blood of the lamb, He will pass over and take you out of Egypt without killing you, this incident can be seen as a place where God’s seal was used. Passover and the Lamb today refers to the event of escaping from a sinful life through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross and being reborn as God’s people and God’s children (Jhn 1:36; 1 Pet 1:3).
Among the Gentile slaves in Egypt, all those who had entered the homes of the Israelites were able to escape from Egypt. Therefore, we can see that the only requirement for the Exodus was the blood of the lamb. And only if God sees this blood can you live. Today, I believe that you and I escaped from our old sinful life/old self only through the blood of Jesus Christ without any merit, and I ask you to become saints who remember and give thanks for the blood of Jesus Christ.
- In the wilderness, ‘Sabbath’ is God’s seal (Exo 31:15-17). After going into the wilderness, all the food the people of Israel brought with them ran out in one month. God sent down manna from heaven and commanded them to keep the Sabbath every seven days. However, the Israelites lived in Egypt according to a calendar of 10 days per week. After living for 430 years without the Sabbath, they were suddenly required to keep the Sabbath every seven days. It must have been a very inconvenient and cumbersome system to them.
Why did God tell the Israelites to keep the Sabbath? Exo 20:11 says that this is because God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day. This does not mean that we should live and celebrate what God has done. Since the world of eternal rest on the 7th day of creation is the place we must enter upon exodus. God tells us to keep the Sabbath to remember that world of rest/world of eternal life while passing through the wilderness.
Exo 31:13 tells us to keep the Sabbath and says, “I am the God who sanctifies you.” In other words, we who came out of Egypt through the blood of the Lamb are not yet holy. If you are not holy, you cannot enter the final world of eternal rest. So, during the wilderness period, we must remember the world of Sabbath, the world of Sabbath must be the reason we live, and the Sabbath must be the center of our lives. This is how we become holy and the condition for entering the final Canaan.
After Jesus dies on the cross, the day He resurrected was a Sunday. So, from the time of the early church, the Sabbath system was changed to the Sunday system and was observed. Therefore, we must keep the Sabbath. If the blood of the Lamb was the seal that concludes the life in the wilderness.
(3) The scarlet cord at the entrance of the land of Canaan is the seal.
After 40 years in the wilderness, the Israelites finally entered the land of Canaan. And the Israelites sent two spies to Jericho. However, they met Rahab who hid these spies, and in return she was promised that when the Israelites army came in, if she hung a scarlet thread on the window, the string would be a sign and she would live and not die (Joshua 2:18-21).
What does this scarlet thread mean? On the surface, it means that she recognized the Israeli spies as the men of God, but in terms of content, Rahab acknowledged that the world of eternal rest belongs to God of Israel (Matt 12:8).
Canaan is a place that means eternal rest, and the scarlet thread is a sign that recognizes that the owner of that rest is the Son of Man. Recognizing and acknowledging the person sent by God can be said to be a scarlet cord (Jhn 1:10-13).
About 2000 years ago, Jesus came to this earth. Salvation was now about to be completed. However, the Israelites did not recognize Jesus. They did not acknowledge that rest would be complete through Jesus. In other words, the religious leader in the time of Jesus did not hang the scarlet thread at the entrance of Canaan. The scarlet thread becomes the final seal to enter Canaan/the world of eternal rest. Rev 9:4 also states that only those who do not have the seal of God should be harmed.
Conclusion:
God Keeps His Seal to the End (Eph 4:30)
If we have become God’s seal, please believe that God values us so much and will protect us until the end.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 