The 144,000 of Israel Sealed (7:1-8)

7 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” 4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

5 12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh, 7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 from the tribe of Levi, 12,000 from the tribe of Issachar, 8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

Summary:

After the opening of the sixth seal there is an interlude in which 144,000 servants of God are sealed from every tribe of Israel. 12,000 are sealed from each tribe. They are sealed on their foreheads. The four angels are not allowed to release the four winds to harm the earth, sea, or trees until this is completed.

Note for life group leaders: As a pastoral team, we want to acknowledge that many godly believers understand some of the details of these chapters in different ways. We have done our best to present what we believe to be the most faithful interpretation we can. Ultimately, we hope all believers can agree that Jesus calls us to faithful endurance no matter what comes our way as we eagerly expect Jesus’ return when he will have the victory and enjoy his presence forever.

Exegetical Notes:

The seal of God on their foreheads Perhaps the most important question to answer is what is this seal that is placed on the foreheads of the 144,000 and what does it mean? Once again, the Old Testament background to this image helps us profoundly. In the book of Ezekiel, God places a mark on the foreheads of the righteous to protect them from coming judgment. In Ezekiel 9:4-6 we read about this:

4 And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to the others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. Your eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 Kill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but touch no one on whom is the mark. And begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house.

In the context of Ezekiel, the mark on the forehead of the righteous was God’s way of making a distinction in judgment. Here in Revelation 7, the seal on the foreheads of God’s servants function in the same way. When John sees this vision, he would have assurance that God is not indiscriminate in judgment. He makes a distinction between his people and the rest of those who dwell upon the earth. Earlier, Jesus had promised the believers at Philadelphia that if they kept his word he would keep them from the hour of trial coming upon the whole world. This appears to be another image of that reality. Darrell Johnson explains: “It protects them and us from the ultimate consequence of the breaking of the seals of the scroll and from the ultimate consequences of the flowing (sic) of the seven trumpets and pouring out of the seven bowls.”1 This doesn’t mean, once again, that God’s people don’t experience tribulation. That is not what they are sealed from. There are martyrs yet to come. “The divine seal and name empower the saints to remain loyal to Christ and not to compromise in the midst of pressures to do so by identification with the idolatrous world system.”2 This is where we see an important difference between the context of Ezekiel and that of Revelation. In Ezekiel the faithful are protected from being physically killed, here the sealing is of a different sort.

Do not harm… until

There is a bit of ambiguity as to when this sealing happens. Is this after the six seals being opened or does it precede them? It’s difficult to say with certainty. It is important to note, as many scholars do, that John doesn’t say here what happened next, only what he saw next. And given the fact that the four angels (messengers) aren’t allowed to harm the earth, sea, or trees, until the servants of God are sealed, it is likely that we are having a flashback to explain how God’s people are in the world while God’s judgments are being poured out upon sinful

1 Johnson, Edge, 188.

2 Beale, Revelation, 414. humanity. Interestingly, Zechariah 6:1-8 equates the four winds of heaven with four chariots which are red, black, white, and dappled. This suggests that here in Revelation 7 we are now going back to the time before the four horsemen are released and wreak havoc on the creation. Keener writes, “This one appears to report the state of Christ’s ‘servants’ during the entire period of Tribulation.”3 There is no contradiction because God’s people have been sealed by Him so as to not experience his wrath like the rest of humanity.

144,000: 12,000 from each tribe of Israel

There are two questions remaining regarding the 144,000 sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel: (1) are they all ethnically Jewish? And (2) are there only 144,000? The answer to both of these questions is most likely no.

Remember we are dealing with apocalyptic language. Think back to the book of Daniel. John has already used language in the book that would have described Israel in the Old Testament. In chapter 1:6 he calls the members of the seven churches a kingdom, priests to his God. This was Israel’s role. Furthermore, Jesus himself calls the unbelieving Jews in the synagogues of Philadelphia and Smyrna, the synagogue of Satan. In Philadelphia, promises from the Old Testament made to Israel are applied to the church. Many more examples could be provided.4 It appears as though the image here is a picture of all God’s people – believers from both the Jews and the Gentiles.

In regards to the number, it is most likely used in the symbolic way that many of the other numbers are used in the book of Revelation. Think of all the fours, sevens, twelves, and twenty- fours. In the ancient world, if you wanted to really emphasize a number there were a handful of way you could do it. One of the ways would be by multiplying that number by a thousand. Another way would be by squaring that number by itself. Here both happen. The number 12 is squared and then it is multiplied by 1000. Just as the 12 tribes represented the totality of God’s people in the Old Testament, so here we see the same idea.

A further aspect to this may be found in the way the 144,000 are listed. Every time in the Old Testament there is a census like this, it is depicting the military strength of the nation. This is a picture of the army of God. However, as we’ll shortly see, this army is quite different than one might expect.

3 Keener, Revelation, 229. 4 Mounce, Revelation, 158.

A Great Multitude from Every Nation (7:9-17)

9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 “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 shelter them with his presence. 16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. 17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Summary:

After hearing the number of the 144,000 sealed from the 12 tribes of Israel, John turns to see a vast multitude that no one could number from every tribe, language, people, and nation. They are before the throne of God worshipping. The angel asks John who these are, and when John cannot answer the angel tells him, “they are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them clean in the blood of the lamb. As a consequence, they will enjoy the blessings of life eternal in God’s kingdom.

Exegetical Notes:

Same Group or Different One?

One of the big disscussions about this group described in the latter half of chapter 7 is its relationship to the 144,000 in the first half of the chapter. The main question is whether we are supposed to see these passages as referring to two separate groups, or if this chapter is describing the same group in two different ways. Those who argue for two different groups have the advantage that a ‘straight-forward’ reading appears to suggest that these are different groups. The language used to speak about them bears several notable contrasts. The first group is Jewish and numbered at 144,000. The second group is comprised of people from ever tribe, language, nation, and tongue, and is a numberless multitude. These groups in some ways are opposites. However, many are convinced that we have the same group described in two different ways. Craig Keener suggests, “If, as we have argued above, the first vision portrays symbolically God’s end-time army, then this second vision is a more literal interpretation of the first.”5

Many have pointed out that in the first half of Revelation 7, John doesn’t see the 144,000 from the tribes of Judah, he hears the angel saying that the servants of God must be sealed, and then he hears the number of the those sealed. It is in verse 9 that John then sees the countless multitude from all the nations. Many see a parallel hear with what we saw in chapter 4. There John hears that the lion from the tribe of Judah has conquered, and then he turns to see the lamb that was slain. It’s possible that the same kind of thing is happening here. Darrell Johnson brings this idea together: “’I heard the number one hundred and forty-four thousand from every tribe of Israel’ (7:4). ‘And I saw a multitude, which no one could number, from every nation’ (7:9) of the world.”6

It is very likely, that John sees in the great multitude the fulfillment of the promises made to Abram in Genesis. In Jesus (Abraham’s seed) all the nations of the earth are blessed.

Great Tribulation

This is one of the only places in Revelation that we have the phrase “great tribulation”. It occurs one other time in Jesus’ message to the church in Thyatira. This phrase has been understood in a few different ways. (1) “The awesome totality of tribulation which from century to century has been the experience of the people of God.”7 In other words, the cumulative total of all the churches tribulation between Christ’s first and second coming. Or (2) “It is that specific period of distress and cruel persecution which will take place prior to the return of Christ.”8

The second option is probably the way most have understood the great tribulation, although surprisingly, it doesn’t fit the way that Revelation uses the term (see especially Rev. 2:22;

5 Keener, Revelation, 243.

6 Johnson, Edge, 187.

7 Hughes, Revelation, 97.

8 Mounce, Revelation, 164. although cf. Mark 13 and Matthew 24). There is good reason to consider the first option. Notice that the entire countless multitude comes out of the great tribulation, not just the final generation of believers before the end.

Beale writes, “The use of the article highlights that this is the expected tribulation prophesied by both Daniel and Christ. But this tribulation does not occur only at the very end of history. The trial has already been set in motion in John’s day.”9 If the great tribulation is decribed as belonging to the end times, it should be noted that eschatologically speaking, that is precisely where we are living. “The tribulation that will come in the future is but a continuation of what has already begun.”10

Coming out of the Great Tribulation

This verse is one that has been used by proponents of rapture theology. In and of itself it is not specific enough to argue for or against the idea of pre-tribulational rapture. Looking at the overall context of the book of Revelation, thought, makes it clear that God’s people are not supposed to expect to be raptured off the earth before tribulation comes. It’s important to realize that we’ll see the saints on the earth throughout the remainder of the book of Revelation. It’s likely that the multitude described here has come out of the great tribulation by remaining faithful in it to the point of death thereby coming out the other end. Craig Keener says just this, “They have endured the dramatic end-time Tribulation and proved faithful to death.”11

9 Beale, Revelation, 434.

10 Beale, Revelation, 435.

11 Keener, Revelation, 245.