Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Hurt not - by letting loose destructive winds.
Till we have sealed the servants of our God - parallel to Matthew 24:31. God's love is such that He cannot do anything in judgment until His people are secured (Genesis 19:22). Israel, just before the Lord's coming, shall be re-embodied as a nation; for its tribes are specified (Joseph, however, substituted for Dan: whether because Antichrist is to come from Dan, or Dan is to be his tool [Arethas, 10th century], cf. Genesis 49:17; Jeremiah 8:16; Amos 8:14, as there was a Judas among the Twelve). Out of these tribes a believing remnant will be preserved from the judgments which destroy the anti-Christian confederacy (Revelation 6:12-17), and shall be transfigured with the elect of all nations-namely, 144,000 (or whatever is meant by the symbolical number), who shall faithfully resist the seductions of Antichrist, while the rest, restored to Palestine in unbelief, are his dupes, and at last his victims.
Previously to the Lord's judgments on Antichrist, His hosts shall destroy two-thirds of the nation, one-third escaping. By the Spirit's operation through affliction, this remnant, turning to the Lord, shall form the nucleus on earth of the Israelite nation that is thenceforth to stand at the head of the millennial nations. Israel's spiritual resurrection shall be as "life from the dead" to all nations (Romans 11:15). As now a regeneration goes on of individuals, so there shall then be a regeneration of nations, in connection with Christ's coming. Matthew 24:34-35, "this generation (the Jewish nation) shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled:" Israel can no more pass away before Christ's advent, than Christ's own words can pass away. So Zechariah 13:1-2; Zechariah 13:8-9; Zechariah 14:2-4; Zechariah 14:9-21: cf. Revelation 12:2-14. So Ezekiel 8:17-18; Ezekiel 9:1-7, especially Revelation 7:4. Compare also Ezekiel 10:2, with Revelation 8:5, where the final judgments fall on the earth, with the same accompaniment, the fire of the altar cast into the earth, including the fire scattered over city. So Revelation 14:1, the same 144,000 appears on Zion with the Father's name in their forehead; at the close of the section, Revelation 12:1-17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-20, concerning the Church and her foes. The saints are not exempt from trial: Revelation 7:14 apparently disproves the theory that the elect shall be caught up before the great tribulation (notes, 1 Thessalonians 4:17; Jude 1:14); but their trials are distinct from the destroying judgments that follow on the world: from these they are exempted, as Israel was from Egypt's plagues, especially from the last, the Israelite doors having the blood-mark seal.
Foreheads - the conspicuous, noblest part of man's body: whereon the helmet, "the hope of salvation," is worn.