Article 15

UNDERSTANDING REVELATION – 15

The 144,000 and The Great Multitude

Revelation 7

The seventh seal does not follow immediately on the heels of the sixth.  It doesn’t appear until Revelation 8:1.  The sixth seal brings us down to the time when the multitudes of the lost (v. 15) are crying to be hidden from “the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, [saying] who is able to stand” (vs. 16-17)?  Revelation 7 is an “interlude” between the sixth and seventh seals answering the riveting question of this heaven-imposed crisis of worldwide proportions.  It teaches that divine protection is essential if the last generation of God’s people is to stand unharmed during the outpouring of God’s wrath.  Revelation 7 is specifically designed to give us that assurance.

Significantly, this ultimate question had been asked earlier by three prophets.  Please read Joel 2:11, Nahum 1:6, and Malachi 3:2.  Each time the prophet answered his own question by declaring that the only way to stand in the day of wrath is by turning to God in repentance and true worship (Joel 2:12-27; Nahum 1:7; Malachi 3:3-4).

At the outset as we delve into Revelation 7, we need to be reminded that this book is a highly symbolic one, and that includes this chapter.  To see four literal angels standing at earth’s four literal corners, holding back four literal winds ready to harm the literal earth, sea, and trees until the servants of God are literally sealed with a literal seal of God until a literal number of 144,000 are sealed from this literal list of the twelve tribes of Israel is a tremendous stretch of imagination and creates many unsolvable problems.  In addition, if one compares this passage with Revelation 14:1-5 in a very “literal” sense then the 144,000 must consist of 12,000 virgin males (“they were not defiled with women, for they are virgins, 14:4) from each of the twelve tribes listed.

So where do we begin?  We must allow Scripture itself to help us successfully navigate this narrative.  For example, Daniel 7 records a vision given to Daniel where he saw that “the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea and four great beasts came up from the sea, each different from the other” (7:2-3).  Verses 17 and 23 clearly show that these beasts represent four kingdoms that would rise and fall successively.  Additionally, Jeremiah 51:1 states that God would raise up against Babylon “a destroying wind.”  The previous chapter (50:9) God declares, “I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country…”.  Therefore, the four winds in Revelation 7 represent the warring nations opposed to God and His people at the end of time just before the second coming of Christ, being divinely held back until God seals His loyal, obedient servants “on their foreheads.”  The “earth and sea” reveals the world-wide nature of this activity.  Psalm 1:1-3 states that the way of the righteous “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”  So, in Revelation 7:3 “the trees” are those who serve God.

What, then, is the seal?  Revelation 14:1 is helpful.  There it is “His Father’s name written on their foreheads.”  This “name” signifies conformity to the character of God.  In Exodus 33:18 Moses requested to God, “Please, show me Your glory.”  God Responded in verse 19, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you.  Ex. 34:5-6 continues saying, “Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed, “the name of the Lord”. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin”.  Therefore, in Revelation 7 “the servants of our God” (v. 3), with God’s seal on their foreheads are God’s people who have so habitually submitted themselves to God’s will that they are fully exhibiting His divine character in the face of worldwide opposition and the threat of death.  These virgins of Revelation 14:4 who are not defiled with women must be understood symbolically.  They are virgins in the sense that they have resisted all defiling relationships with the great harlot Babylon, with whom it is said that all the nations of the earth have committed fornication (Rev. 14:8;17:2; 18:3).  Therefore, we must not take a forced position that the 144,000—12,000 taken from each of the twelve tribes listed—are to be taken literally!  Could they “represent” the totality of the number of God’s end-time people who are fully representing His character before a world-opposing God?  Indeed, John, in Revelation 7:9, beheld “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands.”  Yes, it could be that the 144,000 are, in actuality, the great multitude which no one could number.

We press the point!  One of the elders in Rev. 7:13 asks John, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”  The answer (v. 14) is, “these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  These are the ones who were “able to stand” through the cosmic upheavals of the sixth seal because of their sealing described in the first few verses of Revelation 7. 

It is also significant that the sealing of the 144,000 comes prior to the loosing of the four winds of 7:1 and that this occurs on the earth clearly spelled out in verses 1-3.  It is also very noteworthy that John only hears “the number of those who were sealed.”  In 7:9 when John looks, he sees a great multitude of all the nations of the earth but now they are standing before the throne and before the Lamb!  Revelation 7:1-8 takes place on earth; Revelation 7:9-17 occurs subsequently in heaven.  This teaches a “progression” of time and location in this chapter.  More and more theologians and scholars are concluding that the 144,000 and the great multitude are one and the same group in different situations and progress of time.  Ultimately, they are “before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple” (v. 15).

Whatever stance one may take regarding these two groups it is clear that God, in His infinite love and mercy, is protecting them through this time of trouble such as the world has never seen.  The prophet, Daniel, agrees saying, “At that time Michael shall stand up, the great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people; and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time. And at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book” (12:1).

~Rex Frost