The 144,000

7:4 And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel: 5 Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand:

9 After these things I saw, and behold, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of every nation and of all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 and they cry with a great voice, saying, Salvation unto our God who sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb. 11 And all the angels were standing round about the throne, and about the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, 12 saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, These that are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and whence came they? 14 And I say unto him, My lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 15 Therefore are they before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat: 17 for the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life: and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes.

It seems that the 144,000 are the same as the great number of the redeemed spoken of a little farther on. You have two different ways of looking at the same people.

First, virtually all sides but the most firmly convinced literalists will acknowledge that the 144,000 are symbolic of something or other, because numbers in the Apocalypse are regularly symbolic.

That really is the only responsible way of taking the 144,000 in chapter 14 they have to be the totality of the redeemed.

In terms of the sealing language (this is tied also to chapters 13–14), there you get very explicitly the contrast. Everybody who’s on the Devil’s side is sealed with his seal, and everybody who’s on God’s side is sealed with his seal, and then you face the opponent’s wrath.

Now if that’s the case here, it’s not just an identification question with 144,000 in chapter 14. You’re dealing with part of the structure of the sealing language.

When you actually get the list of the 12 tribes, there are some anomalies in it.

Why is Dan omitted and Joseph’s son Manasseh included? You could argue that the tribal lands broke up into Ephraim and Manasseh, but on the other hand, the tribal lands also had Dan.

By the time of the writing of this book it was already becoming impossible for anyone to say from what tribe they came.

Sacred records were kept of genealogies until the fall of the Jerusalem temple in AD 70

Since the records have been destroyed, there was no attempt to keep up tribal purity. The lines are all mixed. There’s just no way you can untangle them. God does not undo history

That ties in with the general New Testament perspective that with the coming of Jesus, the barrier of hostility, to use Paul’s language in Ephesians, between Jew and Gentile is broken down in the new humanity, the people of God, the church. Romans 2:25:

Verse 28: “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.”

What you often have is a kind of typological takeover, so that there is a sense in which the people of God now embrace Jew and Gentile. A distinction can be made for certain purposes, but for other purposes, the antitype of Israel is Jesus, who is the true Israel, and all who were grafted into him. As in the Old Testament, Israel is the vine (Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, and other passages).

Jesus then says he’s the true Vine, and those who are in him, thus, truly belong to this true vine, which has come from the old covenant community and are unto him. This might be a way of saying that you have a completeness of all of the people of God in all their proportionality coming. They constitute the true Israel of God.

This becomes sort of an apocalyptic equivalent to what you find in the Pastoral Epistles. “The Lord knows those who are his. They’re sealed with his ring

the second part of this vision

v9 “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’
Then one of the elders asked me …” Again, an interpreting angel. “ ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst. The sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ”

If you just look at the people corporately as fulfilled Jews or antitype Jews, you lose that dimension of things.

You miss the element of praise. You miss the sheer bliss of heaven. In other words, the main point of the first part of the vision (verses 1–8, the 144,000) is those who really are God’s are spared his wrath.

The second part of the vision, but reconfiguring it in different terms, is the people of God enter into the wonderful bliss of God himself, seen in a variety of ways.

These two components are then sandwiched between the sixth seal and the seventh seal. So while you have this wrath being poured out on rebellious men and women, before you have the climactic seal, you have this alternative vision. “It doesn’t have to be this way. This is what happens to the people of God. They’re protected.” Not only are they protected but they are in the very presence of God himself.

They’re wearing white robes. We’ve seen that before. They’re holding palm branches. That brings you to the feast before Passover. A lot of joy and enthusiasm and remembrance for what God has done.

Then, there is a series of concentric circles, all of the angels standing around the throne and around the elders and around the four living creatures, all of the angelic myriads of heaven, and they’re all worshiping, and they’re saying,

Who are they?

John says, “Sir, you know.” These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Now here we get into another of the most disputed questions in eschatology

Who are the 144,000 (7:4)? Are they the same people as the great multitude that no one could count (7:9), in much the same way that in chapter 5 the Lion is the Lamb? What or when is the “great tribulation” (7:14)? Is it a brief period of time? If so, when, in A.D. 70, or toward the end of the age? Or is it a way of referring to the entire period between Jesus’ first and second comings?

the “great multitude that no one could count.”

They spring “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (7:9). There is not a whiff of racism here. Moreover, this theme keeps recurring in the book.

Everything significant about these people turns on the work of God effected through the Lamb, in short, it turns on the Gospel of God. Whatever else is found in Revelation, this book overflows with the Gospel.

There is nothing in this passage that makes distinctions about the seven years of the great tribulation. That’s not mentioned here. We’ll come to the seven and the three and a half years and the forty-two months when we get to chapters 12–13.

There’s just a reference to the great tribulation. It doesn’t say how long it is or where it is or who’s in it. It doesn’t say any of that. You cant build any end time system from these verses.

The second thing that should be said is that the actual description of these people is exactly the same categories as you get for the description of all of the people of God in the new heaven and the new earth. The sun doesn’t beat down. The Lord God and the Lamb are the temple. God will wipe every tear from their eyes. chapters 21–22.

There’s no special category for them here. The only thing in this entire description that might make you think they’re a subset of all of the redeemed is this one phrase, “They came out of the great tribulation,” if you think the great tribulation refers to a subset, a sub-period of seven years or something else.

If you don’t assume the great tribulation is a little seven-year period from which these people come and you simply look at the description of them here, the description is exactly the same description you get of the people of God in the new heaven and the new earth in Revelation 21–22.

What does the great tribulation mean.

Tribulation and even great tribulation is not a technical term with a narrow univocal meaning. You have to check the context. It means different things in different places. It can be sort of generic, not referring to a particular period at all.

The term tribulation, does not always have the same narrow technical term for this particular period. You have to check the context in every instance in order to establish what is being meant.

When we get to chapters 12–13 that the three and a half years and the seven years and the forty-two months we see these terms come out of standard Jewish apocalyptic. The numbers are symbolic, and they’re well-known symbols.
In a number of important passages, including the eschatological discourse (Matthew 24–25, Luke 21, and Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse), that there the tribulation refers to the entire period between the first coming of Jesus and the second.

It is bound up, again, with a variety of related notions. It’s bound up with the notion of the birth pangs of the Messiah. Before the Messiah comes back, there are birth pangs you go through, tribulation, but during what period do you wait for Messiah to come back? Well, from the time he went away. That’s the whole period of tribulation. it’s tied also to a lot of the teaching of Jesus. “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”

It is a category of expectation. Yes, all of those who live godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, tribulation. That’s a common theme in the New Testament. It is expected that there will be opposition, and it is tied up even with the notion of Antichrist, and Antichrist figures.

Remember what John said about Antichrist in 1 John, chapter 2. He says, “My little children, it is the last hour …” It is the last hour. “… and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so also now there are many antichrists.” Whatever particular tribulation comes along with the Antichrist at the end, there are antichrists wherever there’s Christ in this fallen world.

During this whole period between the first coming and the second coming, while you have Christ reigning but now still contested, you have antichrists. That is the way it has been from the beginning. It is the way it will be until the end.

That doesn’t mean there is no final outbreak of antichrists. The whole logic of 1 John 2:18, is predicated on the assumption that there is an Antichrist at the end who is the model of all of the antichrists when we get there.

It says, “As you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so even now already there are many antichrists.” So all of the antichrists, as it were, lead up to the Antichrist, which is part of the language also of 2 Thessalonians 2 in slightly different terms, and later we’ll see the two peculiar beasts, the False Prophet and the Antichrist, coming out of Revelation 13

Who’s mark do you have on you now?