In Revelation 7:1-8, we are introduced to a group popularly called the "144,000." Just to get some perspective, here is a picture of Neyland Stadium where the UT Vols consistently bring in crowds of 100,000+ on home game Saturdays. The group identified in Revelation 7 would fill Neyland and need another 44,000 overflow seats. This is not a trifling group!
It is common to ask, "Who are they?" Your answer depends a lot on your view of the Book of Revelation. If you are like me, you consider Revelation a straight-forward description of actual future events using normal descriptive language. There are those who would claim otherwise. Some of them see the number, "144,000," as a symbol for completeness or fullness. But this number is not introduced as a symbol (using the customary phrase "which is" - see 1:20 for two examples).
God is good with numbers. He knows the number of hairs on my head, which is a moving target, I can assure you. When Elijah threw a pity party (So typical of pity parties, no one else came!) because he believed "I alone am left" (1 Kings 19:14), God corrected the prophet's math by declaring that He had marked out 7,000 others in Israel who love God and despise Baal. It seems perfectly reasonable for the Lord to do something similar (but involving bigger numbers) in the future. If God wanted to say that this group is a vast multitude, he could easily have employed just such language as He does in Rev. 7:9 which introduces another distinct group.
Others who see the church as the "New Israel" see the 144,000 as a description of all living believers. There are two problems with this view. First, there is no clear example of the church being called "Israel" in the NT. Second, the breakdown of this group into tribal units associated with sons of Jacob provides no meaningful connection to the church. If the 144,000 are all believers on earth at the time, what in the world does it mean for them to be broken into 12 equal groups each associated with a certain son of Jacob?
I prefer a very simple and straight-forward understanding of Rev. 7:1-8. Please bear in mind that angels have access to technology that goes way beyond ours. Prior to unleashing the seven trumpet judgments, an angelic team equipped with amazing DNA scanners will mark out a group of descendants from Jacob. The angel's search criteria will also include a second variable. Those receiving a seal must also be "bond-servants of our God." It is implied that this sealing provides a measure of protection against the coming judgments. This is made explicit in Rev. 9:4.
Here is a great question: Since these 144,000 are a select group of Jewish believers, are they the only ones to receive this protective sealing? Are Gentile bond-servants in these days vulnerable to the trumpet judgments in a way that Jewish bond-servants are not? These 144,000 will not be the only bond-servants living on earth in these days. The protection promises for bond-servants and overcomers are relevant to all, both Jewish and Gentile. Note that these promises do not offer protection from persecution, but from God's wrath. All believers will not experience God's wrath!
Note this! The formation of the 144,000 will represent a remarkable development. Even as life on planet earth is going from bad to worse, an incredible number of Jews will be coming to Christ and dedicating themselves to live for His pleasure. Imagine a stadium with twelve separate sections that can each seat 12,000. The seventh seal will not be broken until every seat in the house has been occupied by a Jew for Jesus! This has got to be one of the more dazzling sights to be seen in what will otherwise be oppressively dark days.
Let me reiterate that no Christian will ever suffer God's wrath (although we may face the wrath of men in the form of persecution). This is a point that is clearly and repeatedly made in the letters to the seven church and elsewhere in the New Testament. Paul states it plainly, "For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess. 5:9). When passages in the New Testament explain that we have been sealed by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30), the same word, "sphragidzo," is used that is also found in Revelation 7. Revelation 7 does not mention the fact that all believers are sealed and thereby protected from God's wrath, but the rest of the New Testament does make this point.
What is a remarkable "new development," according to Revelation, is that a massive group of Jews are becoming Christians at this moment in future history. Who would have guessed that a people who have, historically, been so resistance to the Gospel would now become receptive to it in droves. Their numbers will swell to 144,000 before the trumpet judgments begin, and they, like Israel at the time of the Exodus in the Old Testament, will be protected from these plaques by "the blood of the lamb." Revelation 7 is not telling us that these are the only sealed bond-servants (see Rev. 1:1), but that they represent a remarkable new addition.
Posted by: James Fleming | February 08, 2010 at 01:12 PM