This passage divides into John’s hearing about 144,000 “slaves of God,” to be protected from harm (7:1–8), and John’s seeing an innumerable multitude who’ve come “out of the great affliction” (7:9–17). 7:1: After this [the lamb’s opening of the first six seals] I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, gripping the four winds of the earth lest a wind blow on the earth or on the sea or against any