The One Hundred Forty-Four Thousand - 22

I direct your attention to Revelation chapter 7. Revelation chapter 7. And I want to read verses 7 through 8. John the Revelator says, After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.

And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed, of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, of the tribe of Reuben 12,000 were sealed, of the tribe of Gad 12,000 were sealed, of the tribe of Asher 12,000 were sealed, sealed. Of the tribe of Natalie, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Levi, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Issachar, 12,000 were sealed. Of the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000 were were sealed. Of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000 were sealed.

Of the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 were sealed. Well, here we are back in chapter 7, but in order to understand a bit of the context, we need to take a look back maybe at the end of chapter 6. Chapter 6 ends with this statement, for the great day of his wrath has come.

And then a question, and who is able to stand? John envisions what will take place at the end of this age. The great day of his wrath is the end of this age as we know it.

It is the full and final judgment of God upon an unbelieving world. John is describing here, as the sixth seal is opened, cataclysmic events that will bring an end again to the world as we know it. And John describes two things, and again verses 12 through 17 deal with the sixth seal. And in this sixth seal, John is describing two things. Number one, John is describing the demise of the universe, verses 12 through 14. A great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, the moon became like blood, the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. John is not describing a temporal judgment. John is describing a cataclysmic judgment. John is describing what is coming in the great day of the Lord's wrath, the great day of His wrath. The second thing he describes, he's describing here, is the final fury of God's wrath that subdues and destroys all of His enemies, which will take up chapters 8 through 20.

You say, really? That is going to take that much time to, yes. But here in chapter 7, we have an interlude and I want to show that to you. Notice my Bible has the division at verse 12 of chapter 6, the sixth seal, cosmic disturbances, and then I'm looking for the seventh seal as I'm looking through headings and I'm looking and I finally, when I get to chapter 8, I see seventh seal, the prelude to the seven trumpets. So we're not going to hear about the seventh seal until we get to chapter 8, but we have chapter 7 to deal with.

And what do we have in chapter 7? Well, John is going to describe two visions in this chapter that in part answer the question that's raised in verse 17 in relation to the great day of His wrath that is coming. And the question is, who is able to stand?

John's going to answer that. He's going to answer that by way of two visions that he is going to give to us. Now again, who is going to stand in that day? Well, not the unbelievers who will seek cover from the mountains and the rocks, but believers who are covered with God's seal. They're able to stand before Him and before the Lamb.

Why? Because they have no fear of the judgment to come. They'll be able to stand and John will describe those who are standing before God in these two visions. John will see, I'm sorry, John will hear. John will hear in verse 4 the number of those who were sealed, 144,000. And I read to you the distinction there, the 12,000 of the various tribes of Israel.

He heard that number. And then in verse 9 he says, after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number. So he saw a great multitude there beginning in verse 9. Now chapter 8 opens with the words, when he opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

Let's put that in its context. When he opened the seventh seal, remember back to chapter 5 in verse 1 where John said, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the on the back sealed with seven seals. John saw a scroll in the right hand of God Almighty sealed with seven seals. And we have already covered the first six seals that were in that scroll. And the only thing left to be revealed of that scroll is the content of the seventh seal. Again the seventh seal is the last seal.

And it will unleash the full unmitigated wrath of God upon all of his enemies including the devil and all of its hosts. Now seven is a number that we're not, I don't think, to interpret literally. Seven is a number that John refers to numerous times throughout this book.

And it's used symbolically to convey completeness. Remember the letter to the seven churches. It's not that there are only seven churches in Asia Minor, but seven churches that spoke of completeness.

This is representative of the churches that exist in any time in any age throughout church history. The seventh seal, okay, the seventh seal leads to the seven trumpet judgments. Again let's go back to chapter eight and let me show that to you. He opens chapter eight with these words. When he opened the seventh seal, that's the last seal of the scroll, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour and I saw the seven angels who stood before God and to them were given seven trumpets. Seven trumpets. So the seventh seal introduces us to the seven trumpet judgments of God.

Now again all of this is under the umbrella of the the great day of his wrath, the manifestation of the judgment of God upon again an unbelieving world. And those seven trumpet judgments run through chapter 14. So in chapter 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 John is going to be dealing with the seven trumpet judgments that again that are a part of the seventh seal.

Chapter 15 is a prelude to the bull judgments. So when you get to the seventh trumpet judgment, that's not the end of the judgment. The seventh judgment or the seventh trumpet judgment leads into the seven bull judgments. And those judgments, notice again chapter 15 verse 1, then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues for in them the wrath of God is complete. This will be the final and full and complete manifestation of the wrath of God taken up by the seventh seal. Seventh seal, the seven trumpets, the seven bull judgments. Now the sequence of judgments, these bull judgments culminate in chapter 20 at the great white throne judgment.

Now notice how quickly these bull judgments come. Notice, I don't know if your Bible has headings or not, but mine does. And I look at chapter 16 and verse 1 says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bulls of the wrath of God on the earth. Verse 2 says, so the first went and poured out his bull upon the earth. Verse 3 talks about the second bull. Verse 4, the third bull. You get to verse 8 of chapter 16 is the fourth bull.

Men are scorched. Verse 10, the fifth bull, darkness and pain. Verse 12, the sixth bull, Euphrates dried up. Verse 17, this is all chapter 16.

Verse 17, the seventh bull, the earth utterly shaken. And then all the way until you get to the great white throne judgment of chapter 20 and then chapters 21 and 22, a new heaven and a new earth. So all of that is just for us to keep our orientation, to realize that we're not to read the book of the Revelation chronologically, that we have here visions that keep being spoken about and they keep happening and we're to see things in concentric circles and that's a whole lot different than in some kind of a chronological order and I think some people get confused and lose their way by approaching the book of the Revelation the way we do some other books and look for chronology.

That's not what we're seeing here. Now there's some order in place here. There's order but we need to understand what that order is and I'm trying to show it to you. And all of this, all the way to the end of chapter 20, all of that grows out of the scroll that was held in the hand of God Almighty in chapter 5 and verse 1 that the Son comes and takes and opens, breaks the seals and begins to unfold what transpires in those seven seals. Now let's go back to chapter 7.

Chapter 7. We won't go back and revisit the first three verses that we did last Sunday night but only to say John is telling us what he saw. Notice verse 1, after these things I saw four angels. Verse 2, then I saw another angel. So he's telling us what he saw but when he comes to verse 4, we're said, and I heard, I heard, I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. He heard the number of those who were sealed. And here's the question, how are we to understand this number, this number of a hundred and forty-four thousand?

Is it to be understood literally or is it to be understood symbolically or representatively? Those are serious questions and there are people in both camps, respectable, reliable, trustworthy men in both camps. But before we deal with that which is respectable, let me speak to a false religion that finds some identity and what we're considering here in chapter 7. And I'm speaking of the Jehovah Witnesses.

Charles Russell was the founder of the Jehovah Witnesses in the 1870s. They have a worldwide membership of somewhere between eight and nine million adherents. This is what they believe. They believe that the destruction of this present world and this world system will take place at Armageddon, that that destruction is eminent and that the establishment of God's kingdom over the earth is the only solution for all the problems that humanity faces.

We say well that sounds pretty plausible, pretty legitimate. Well listen to some other things that the Jehovah's Witnesses teach. The Jehovah Witnesses believe that this number of 144,000 is to be understood literally. They teach that that 144,000 are members of the Jehovah's Witness and that when that number is reached of 144,000 that there is no more to be added to it. If you don't make that cut then you are a second-class person in Jehovah's Kingdom. Here's the problem with that.

Well there's lots of problems with that. But that number of 144,000 was reached about 1935. And if you happen to embrace this religion after 1935, you were left out. There was no way you could be included in that number of 144,000. And that 144,000, they believe, are special people who, what shall I say, they're the ones who are able to go to heaven. Every other adherent after that is to remain upon the earth. If you're not one of those 144,000, you can't be a leader in the church, you can't receive the sacraments of the Lord's table.

Now think about this. This passage does not teach that. The 144,000 that John hears, they are not in heaven. They are on the earth. Now the Jehovah Witnesses say these are the ones that are in heaven. No, these are the ones, according to this passage, a correct understanding of this, these are the ones that are on the earth.

The ones who are in heaven is the multitude which no man can number. So they have it completely backwards and completely misunderstood. That's really not our major concern, but because the Jehovah Witnesses at times will come to our door and tell us that they're Jehovah's Witnesses, we need to understand a little bit about where they find some kind of agreement in the scriptures for their position. Now what about those in the evangelical church, those who we would find within the sphere of orthodoxy, there are those who hold to a literal interpretation. They believe that the tribes, the 144,000, verse 4, of all the tribes of the children of Israel are to be taken literally, that that is a reference to ethnic Jews. Now there are three different nuanced interpretations of those who hold to a literal interpretation.

Let me try and communicate that to you without at the same time creating confusion. The first nuanced position is this understanding that during the Great Tribulation, before the final judgment, there will be an unprecedented moving of the Spirit of God resulting in the salvation of those who are Jews, those who are natural descendants of Israel. There will be a 144,000 of them that God saves and that they will be witnesses dispatched across the globe, across the earth, bearing witness and they are sealed, that is that they will be protected from any harm while they do this gospel work.

That's one nuanced interpretation. A second that I think is much, much harder to defend and I don't hear too many people arguing for this but it's one to be thought of under this literal interpretation, that the idea that the 144,000 are of all the tribes of the children of Israel, that this is all of Israel, that all Israel will be saved, that there'll be a restoration of national Israel, Israel as a nation. Well I've done some reading about that and it certainly did not commend itself very well to me, particularly when there's a number here if we're going to again interpret this to be 144,000, that is a pretty, pretty small number in light of the Jewish population around the world. There are 15 to 16 million Jews in the world.

There are 6.7 million Jews residing in the nation of Israel even right now. So to say that this 144,000 is to be understood literally, that it's speaking of all Israel to be saved, there's an awful lot of problems in reconciling that position with the text of Scripture. And then number three, which I think has a pretty good hearing, is that these 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel, that they are the elect Jews who will be saved during the New Covenant Age, during the Church Age, grafted back into the olive tree.

It's not the nation as a whole, but a believing remnant out of the nation, that there will be a moving of God within ethnic Jews toward the end of the age, and we will see a harvesting of a large number of Jews. And that would be, I think, consistent with an interpretation of some of the things that Paul says over in the book of Romans. You know, you may be listening tonight and say, well, that notion of all Israel being saved, I mean, that is so out there, I can't believe anybody would give thought to that. Well, I'm going to give you one verse that they hold to, that they look to, and you're going to have to wrestle with this verse in light of how they're going to interpret it. It's Romans chapter 11 and verse 26. Paul's talking about Israel's rejection of the gospel and of Christ, and that it's not a final rejection, that there's yet an opportunity, God will work. And he says, verse 23, and they also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

For if you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will they, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. Verse 26, and so all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the Deliverer will come out of Zion, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, and it goes on. But that context, all Israel will be saved. You're going to have to wrestle with what that means. So again, this is distilling an awful lot of study into just a few minutes. So we'll probably revisit this because it comes up different times. We'll have to wrestle with literal interpretation versus symbolic or representative interpretation.

So let's move on. As there are those who hold to a literal interpretation, there are others who see here a symbolic interpretation. That is, that the sealed ones refer to those who are of Abraham's seed, of those who are the Israel of God, of those who are the true circumcision. And let me just turn to a couple of verses in Galatians that explain a little bit about what those distinctions are. Paul says in Galatians chapter 3, verse 26, For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And then this verse, And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise, says Paul. And then he says this in Galatians chapter 6 as he comes to the end of the book. Verse 16, And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. The Israel of God. And Paul is equating the church of Jesus Christ and those who make up the church as the Israel of God. The believers in Jesus Christ, according to what he says in Galatians 3, verse 29, are of the seed of Abraham. We are Abraham's children.

Now that's not a physical or an ethnic distinction, but a spiritual one. Now the number 144, this symbolic interpretation, holds that that number is to be interpreted symbolically, and that number is an expression of perfection. You say, well, you're gonna have to help me with that.

Well, I intend to do that. Revelation chapter 21, John gives us a description of the New Jerusalem, beginning at verse 9. He says, Then one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came to me and talked with me, saying, Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God.

Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. And she had a great and high wall with twelve gates and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel, three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, three gates on the west. Now the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. The city is laid out as a square. Its length is as great as its breadth. So we're talking about a cube. And he says, And he measured the city with the reed. Twelve thousand furlongs, its length, breadth, and height are equal. Then he measured its wall, one hundred and forty four cubits, according to the measure of a man that is of an angel. Now it's hard for us to envision or to think, at least as far as I'm concerned, that we're to understand this literally, that the New Jerusalem literally has these dimensions.

No, I believe that it is another description, symbolically, of perfection. Twelve times twelve times a thousand. Twelve times twelve is what? A hundred and forty four times a thousand makes a hundred and forty four thousand. And why a thousand? Well, a thousand to emphasize magnitude. You recall some of the descriptive language that John uses about these scenes that he saw in heaven, in the worship scenes.

Let me just point you to one of those. That's in Revelation 5, verse 11. Then he says, Then I looked and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands. Now we did get a calculator out and start multiplying thousands times thousands?

No. It's a way of expressing a number nobody can count. Magnitude.

That's what he's describing. So, symbolism. The number 12. Let me get back to Revelation, chapter 7. The number 12 is used throughout the book of Revelation, symbolically. It refers to the Saints here in chapter 7, I believe. The woman with 12 stars on her head, chapter 12, in verse 1. The 12 tribes of Israel, chapter 21, in verse 12.

The various aspects of the New Jerusalem. I tried to emphasize that number 12 as I was reading there in Revelation, chapter 21. Revelation, chapter 22, he's describing the new heaven and the new earth. He says, chapter 22, And he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bore, what, 12 fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. Again, I think that number 12 is, again, used symbolically to speak of perfection. What else would we expect in the New Jerusalem? I mean, the new heaven and a new earth, but perfection.

So, he's describing perfection. For us to, here's some problems, I think, with a literal interpretation. One of the problems is, if we hold to a literal interpretation, I think we're doing, we're fighting against the work of Christ on the cross, which was done in order to remove distinctions between Jew and Gentile. Listen to what Paul says.

He says, well, he speaks there in a number of places. Romans, chapter 10, verse 12, 1st Corinthians 12, verse 13, Galatians 3, 28, Ephesians 2, 14 to 16, that the walls of racial distinctions have been broken down. All believers are one in Jesus Christ. Harmony in Christ Jesus transcends all ethnic, racial, and social divisions.

Here's another difficulty. When you look at the the tribes that are listed there, beginning at verse 5, they do not correspond to the list that we have in 1st Chronicles chapter 2 and in Genesis chapter 35. There are significant differences. And it says, again verse 4, we're introduced, I heard the number of those who were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. So if you're going to take a literal interpretation and it says, of all the tribes of the children of Israel, you would expect that that list of tribes would include all the tribes of Israel.

But it doesn't. Dan is omitted. Ephraim is omitted. You remember that Levi was a tribe, but Levi did not have a land territory because the Levites were scattered throughout the occupied land to represent the people in their religious observances. There are, the list is not consistent either.

You go back and you look at the the distinctions in the divisions. The firstborn son was whom? It was Reuben. But Reuben's not the first name mentioned here. The first name mentioned is Judah.

Of the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed. And the question is, well why is Judah mentioned first? Why don't they maintain the birth order?

Why isn't Reuben the first one mentioned? And again, we don't know the answer to that question and I'm only implying an explanation. But I think that the emphasis is not on ethnicity. The emphasis is not on physical Jewish descent. The emphasis is on spiritual descent. And Judah is that tribe in which, that's really the only tribe that any Jew could trace his lineage down through.

And that was necessary to preserve the royal line by which Jesus Christ would come. When you talk to any Jew, they don't say, well I'm from the tribe of Gad, or I'm from the tribe of Asher, I'm from the tribe of... They just recognize themselves as Jews. They don't have this tribal distinction because it was lost when the northern tribe was exiled by the Assyrians and they were dispersed. They lost that territorial distinction or that tribal distinction. You say, well God didn't lose it.

Well, I understand that argument, but I think it still creates a bit of a difficulty. So, let's think about this list again. Ephraim. Ephraim is not mentioned here, nor is Dan.

And the question is, why not? Well, you recall those two tribes were influenced by Jeroboam in the north when he built temples of worship and put idols in the places of worship so that the people would not be tempted to travel back down to Jerusalem. He's trying to consolidate his territory. He didn't want the people migrating back to Jerusalem for fear that when they went down for the religious observances that they would stay. So these tribes gave themselves to idolatry and to apostasy and therefore Dan and Ephraim are not mentioned.

Question. Did those, if we're going to hold to a literal interpretation, did those tribes therefore forfeit all rights to salvation? Because it says 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed. Must we then assume that there will be no saved ones at all from those two tribes?

Another observation. Joseph is mentioned. Did you notice that in verse 8 of the tribe of Joseph, who as far as we know never formed a tribe among Israel. Joseph didn't have a tribe. And if you're going to argue that that's that this name takes the place of his two sons, then that argument doesn't hold up because you see Manasseh's name in verse 6.

Manasseh was one of Joseph's sons. So all of that to say that I think it's probably not best to think here of literal tribes of the nation of Israel, but of the spiritual Israel that's gathered from Jew and Gentile alike. That we are all Israel.

We are Abraham's seed. That what is being described here is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm still studying. I'm still trying to get my mind around it. And prior to diving in to my study to prepare for this series, I had previously held to a literal interpretation. But when I began to see the problems and the difficulties withholding to that, begin to understand how numbers were being used and how a symbolic interpretation is very tenable and very easy to defend, I have been leaning in that direction.

So I think if we look at that list and we see in this list a portrayal of the church as the new Israel, it resolves in my opinion an awful lot of difficulties. Now again I'm interested in continuing to learn and to study, but the next question and we don't have the time tonight to look at it, is what is the relationship of this number of 144,000 to that John heard. He didn't see, he heard.

And again that helps me think. You know if you're in a crowd and you hear, you get a sense of numbers. He heard. He wasn't told exactly. He heard.

I heard the number of those who were sealed. But when he gets to verse 9, he's going to describe a vision of what he saw. And we have to think through how does this 144,000 relate to this multitude which no man can number. And that's where we will go when we come back to the text, Lord willing, next Sunday night. Well thank you for persevering with me and praying for me as we make our way through the book of the Revelation. It is in some respects has been a bit of a daunting task, but it's been challenging. It's been encouraging and God has been faithful, I think, to help me in my study.

And I'm trying to do my best to work through my own confusion so that when I come to preach to you that I'm making things clear. Well let's bow and dismiss in prayer. Father, how we thank you for your eternal Word. How we thank you that you have a plan that transcends all of history, that your purposes cannot be thwarted, that all things are moving toward a wonderful and glorious climax, that you are not satisfied with a world that is partly redeemed, that you are going to fully put your stamp on this world. There will be a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells. And Lord, we long for that day.

We look for that day. We thank you for the book of the Revelation and the promise of blessing upon those who read it. We pray that you'd help us to understand it, that we might receive additional blessing. Father, as we think about our place in this world and what you are doing and what you have yet committed yourself to do, for the honor and glory of our Savior and for your own eternal glory. And again we would close with this benediction. Amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.