Revelation- “Victory in Jesus!”
Chapter 7
“The 144,000”
After seeing the first six seals broken and revealed, chapter 6 comes to an end
with a question: “The great day of wrath has come….WHO CAN STAND?” Who can stand
this judgment being rained down? When these judgments described in the last few
verses come on the earth, who will be able to endure? John’s answer to this
question comes in chapter 7, an interlude before the 7th seal. SO, let us look,
at what God had to say about this question:
V 1- It seems extremely clear that a pending doom is on the horizon. It seems as
if there is a restraining going on of whatever destructive forces God has chosen
to bring judgment upon mankind.
What do you think he means by “4 corners of the earth? It
designates that EVERY direction is covered. The ENTIRE Earth is involved here…NO
ONE is left out.
What do you think the 4 winds refer to? Why winds? Has he ever used winds
in similar context before? God has used winds in the past as his
destructive agents:
These could be all kinds of winds: “scattering winds”, “destroying winds” or
“winds of upheaval”. The most important note to make here in my view is this:
THESE WINDS ARE HELD IN CHECK UNTIL GOD CHOOSES TO LET THEM LOOSE! JUDGEMENT IS
UNDER HIS CONTROL ALONE!
V2- Here a new type of “seal” is introduced. What does this seal
represent? I t is used here to represent the concept of ownership. This
seal shows a “belonging to” of God. (eventually all characters in this book will
either have a “seal” or a “mark”—one indicating a belonging to God, the other a
commitment elsewhere……wanna’ guess where?)
V3- This verse should bring great comfort, both to the original Christians being
written to, and to all believers still today! God is saying that recognition and
protection is ours! He knows us, knows our struggles, and promises that things
will turnout in victory in the end (not that there will be NO struggles or
trials).
V4-8- This is where it gets REALLY REALLY interesting AND confusing. Just who is
the 144,000? We will focus the last half of class on that subject. Hold on to
this thought!
V9-12- Now the focus is back in heaven. We were on the earth, now we are in the
throne room again. Here in heaven is a new multitude. It is so huge, that no one
could put a number to it. All are clothed in white. Why? They are
made pure, made holy, and made victorious! What are the palms in their
hands for? Palms are always used in the Bible to symbolize rejoicing
(Lev. 23:26-32, 39-44, John 12:13
Who makes up this mass of people? It is all of God’s people who
have died faithful to Jesus…both Jew and Gentile. Recognizing the source of
salvation, thankful, they all break into song and worship! Angel, beast,
man….THE ENTIRE HEAVENLY party is worshiping now! What a scene that must have
been!
V13- “Who are these people?” Why does the elder ask a question that seems
so obvious? It is clearly rhetorical. He is trying to get John to center
his focus again, and zero in on the scene about to appear. These are the people
who have been washed clean by the blood of Jesus!
V15- It says that Jesus will “spread his tent over them”. What does that
mean? What does a tent offer?
*** question- It would seem that from vs. 13-15, at physical death, a
Christian goes directly to heaven to be in the presence of God. What do you
think? However, it is NOT the final state of glory. This will come in the FINAL
judgement (chapters 20-22). AT that point “face to face” fellowship with God
will occur after judgment (20:12-15, 22:3-4). What do you think of this?
I think this should be very encouraging….there is NO REASON to fear death! Death
means being with Jesus in heaven!
V16-17- The chapter ends beautifully. We are promised TOTAL comfort! No more
pain, discomfort or tears!!!!
Chapter six asked…”who will be able to stand after this all goes down?” Chapter
7 has just answered that! God’s people will endure ANYTHING! This promise was
not only relevant to the Christians in John’s day facing death and persecution,
it should also motivate you and I to live today victoriously, regardless of all
external circumstances!
Who are the 144,000?
This verse is the basis for one of the Jehovah’s Witness biggest facets of
their religion. This verse is on of much contention. What is John talking about?
Is it literal? Will only 144,000 inherit Heaven? Is it a symbolic number? What
could it mean? What do you think? Some say it shows only a Jewish salvation.
Others say it is symbolic of all believers. The JW believe that literally, only
144,000 will gain access to heaven. Then, the rest of saved Christians will live
on God’s glorified earth. What do you think and why?????
I do not think this is literal at all. Let me give you some reasons:
I do NOT think any of this can be proven to be literal. In no way can I buy that
only these 144K Jews will make up the heavenly population on the earth. By
believing this, you have to contradict the rest of the Bible. We have
established in past classes that any time a verse or passage does this, that our
interpretation CANNOT be correct! **Galatians 3:26-29. Also, in the
listing of the individual tribes, the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are NOT listed.
If John were being literal, they MUST be included! Also, Joseph and Levi ARE
included (they should not be if a literal listing of land allotments is where
John was going). Actually, mention of the “tribe of Joseph” should show this not
to be literal, as it was not a literal tribe at all (as his allotment came
through his sons). If John is LITERALLY proclaiming this for “Jews only”…these
questions MUST be answered. They are not! Also, the word “Israel” has been used
in scripture not only in reference to the Jewish nation, but as a symbol of both
Jews and Gentiles together in the body (see Galatians 6:14-16). Also, if
only the listed tribes were heaven bound, this would exclude Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob—who were never of the tribes of Israel. But, read Matt. 8:11—Here
is an example of Jesus assuring their place in heaven, along with many Gentiles!
*****So if it is a symbolic number, what could it possibly symbolize??
Ideas:
The number 12, when used in apocalyptic writing is a religious number that
indicates organization. I believe that 12 just may be the key here. One way in
symbolic writing to indicate completeness was to square a number (multiply it by
itself). Another way was to multiply it by 1000. Here, it is being “made
complete twice! It is covering all bases! It is a two-fold way of emphasizing
completeness. It is a number that is TOTALLY AND WHOLLY COMPLETE…..in other
words: it indicates ALL OF GOD’S PEOPLE ON EARTH!
What do you think about all of this?
STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK: THE 7th SEAL IS REVEALED!!!