1Then I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea, or even on any tree. 2And I saw another angel coming up from the east, carrying the seal of the living God. And he shouted to those four angels, who had been given power to harm land and sea, 3“Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.” 4And I heard how many were marked with the seal of God—144,000 were sealed from all the tribes of Israel: 5from Judah, 12,000; from Reuben, 12,000; from Gad, 12,000; 6from Asher, 12,000; from Naphtali, 12,000; from Manasseh, 12,000; 7from Simeon, 12,000; from Levi, 12,000; from Issachar, 12,000; 8from Zebulun, 12,000; from Joseph, 12,000; from Benjamin, 12,000.
Revelation 7:1-8
You know from the previous Gem this group of God’s servants are the first to come under the Lamb’s protection. Who is able to survive? The ones marked with the seal of God; 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. Did you pick up how these chosen ones will be / are protected? John saw in the first vision how five angels were appointed to the protection detail. Four took care of the imminent threat of the winds, while one was appointed the task of placing a seal on the foreheads of each of God’s servants. Let’s look firstly at the four appointed to hold back the winds so they did not blow on the earth or the sea or even on any tree. That is a very comprehensive protection. We describe our wind around the world using the four points of the compass. The prime source of the wind is northerly, southerly, easterly or westerly. From the prime four compass points we add details of the quarters of the direction the wind is coming from by adding one or more of the other prime compass points. A northerly wind blows from due north. A northwesterly wind blows from a direction equidistant between North and West. If you want to further pinpoint the direction the wind is coming from we can call it a Nornorwester wind (NNW) or a Sousoueast wind (SSE). You get the idea I am sure.
Further detail is given in this brief statement of the conditions prevailing on the earth at the time following the opening of the Sixth Seal by the mention of earth and sea. The wind was held back over land and sea. That comprehensively covers the globe, doesn’t it? After all, the globe is either covered with water or dry land. Did you gain the impression that there is an eery stillness over the earth at this time? With the four winds held back, there is not a breath of wind anywhere, on the land or on the sea. My hunch is that lakes were included in the category of seas as well. Not only that, but the added words, ‘the four winds did not blow EVEN ON ANY TREE’ conjure up the idea of a perfectly still global atmosphere. Not a leaf on any tree was moving. Just imagine it.
The only words that were spoken were, “Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of His servants.” Hold your breath, don’t add to the movement of air until the servants of God have been sealed. Well, on second thoughts, don’t hold your breath or you will die before all the servants of God are sealed by just one angel. I don’t know how speedily one angel can seal 144,000 people. I haven’t any experience of the time that would take, nor any guesstimate. But I imagine it would take a period longer than I could hold my breath. But you get the point, I am sure. There are numbers of pause moments during which we have to take time to ponder the significance of what is happening.
Do you know how much harm the wind can do to the land and sea and trees if it is unlimited? You don’t need to be told I am sure. The destructive power of nature inherent in the power of the wind is ferocious. For Kiwis and Aussies, we only need to cast our minds back to recent weather phenomena to recall the damage. For those of you living in tornado alley in the USA, you have graphic images in your mind of the damage wind and tornados can cause. I don’t need to take you on a global tour of other examples, of which we are all familiar.
But imagine with me the feeling of the moment when the entire earth experiences not one puff of wind. No leaf is moving across the globe. After that the four angels holding back the wind from the earth are told, “Wait! Don’t harm the land or the sea or the trees until we have placed the seal of God on the foreheads of his servants.” The question in my mind at the moment is likely in your mind as well. “Who is the “we” involved in this action? Four angels are holding back the wind while one angel is sealing foreheads. Who are the “we”? Yes, I know I ask quirky questions, but I want to know these things. I conclude in fact that the fifth angel has the help of other angels, perhaps a legion of angels who are sealing the 144,000. Now it might not take so long after all.
Now I am sure you, my readers, know what lies before us at this point. I can almost hear the questions coming through the stillness to me.
- Ian, are the 144,000 a finite number or a symbolic number?
- Is there something hidden in the number 144 or 144,000?
- Why are some tribes of Israel omitted; not mentioned or included?
- Why is Dan not mentioned and why if Manasseh is included is Ephraim not included?
- Why is this list in Revelation 7 not seen in the same order or using the same criteria of inclusion anywhere else in the Bible?
- What is going on here Ian? I don’t understand it.
These 144,000 servants of God have been sealed as representatives of the tribes of Israel over time since Old Testament times. This number must include Old Testament redeemed and those redeemed from the tribes of Israel in New Testament times and since. Read again what Paul had to say in Romans 11.
For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead! . . . And so all Israel will be saved. As the Scriptures say, “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness.
Romans 11:15, 26
God is not finished with Israel. There will be more redeemed in the latter days. So how are we to understand the 144,000 servants of God? If that is a finite number how can more be added to it? That is a good question which leads us to understand that it can’t be a finite number. It has to be symbolic. How so? Quite simply 144,000 is derived from 12 x 12 x 1,000. Each of those numbers are symbolic. They express the perfection of the final number of the redeemed from the tribes of Israel. Twelve is the number symbolic of structure and organisation, twelve tribes, twelve apostles. Thus the final number of the redeemed from the tribes of Israel will be perfectly ordered and contain those God knows are His. As I have written in the Gems before in the context of the 153 fish, the final number of the redeemed will be perfection from God’s perspective of all those who are worthy of redemption. Only He knows exactly who they are and none will be lost. That includes those who are still to be gathered in, including those who are destined to become martyrs for the sake of the Gospel. All of those who are still to be redeemed are safe because they have been marked as belonging to the Lamb of God.
We need to realise we are only part way through the mayhem coming to the earth. John is still in heaven seeing what will happen. Stop and think about the implications of that. In John’s time it was still to come. We think it’s set for some time in the future from our perspective now. Now that adds to the complication, because it means it was still to come for those seven churches of Revelation. Do you see how we have to hold the past, present and future tenses loosely? There is more to come on that point in a later Gem. We are only at the midpoint of the wrath to come and biblical prophecy is always cyclic and repeated.
I was forced to look into this way before I began to write these Gems on Revelation. In fact some years ago because of a question asked in a God’s Awesome Book Seminar in Puri Indah, West Jakarta. Pak Suryadi Hertanto put his hand up and the end of a seminar during the Q&A time. I have talked about that within the context of the Bible Gems before. Suryadi’s question was a pearler. He asked, “Why does the list of tribes in Revelation 7:5-8 miss out Dan but add Manasseh? And why is it in a different order to all other lists of the tribes of Israel?”
I gave a him a straight answer at the time. “Does it? I have never noticed. I don’t know the answer to those questions.” But I assumed I knew what the likely answer was.
He said, “Pak Ian, I have been looking for an answer to that question for 20 years and haven’t found anything which satisfies me.”
I said, “I will find out and tell you the answer when we come back to this church for the Digging for Hidden Treasure Workshop.” I thought, “It’s that which will be the answer, or if not that, then this.” It has to be one of those factors. It wasn’t at all. It proved to be way more problematic than that. Everything I tried didn’t work. I asked God for insight and then an idea came to me which blew my mind. I gave Pak Suryadi my answer six weeks later. I will unfold the answer layer by layer in the succeeding Gems but keep the gem in the crown for those doing Deeper Bible 701 in the next few months. When Suryadi got his answer after a further 6 weeks I asked him publicly if he was now satisfied. He said, “Yes Pak Ian, I knew it had to be something significant like that.” The way John has written this according to the instructions given is measured, dramatic, and drawn out with pauses for his readers and hearers to reflect on. We still have questions to ask and to answer. Wait and maintain the stillness of the moment without a breath of wind.
When a society or a civilisation perishes, one condition can always be found. They forgot where they came from.
Carle Sandburg
Don’t tell me the SKY is the limit, when there are footprints on the MOON!
Paul Brandt
Instead of thinking outside of the box, GET OUT OF IT!
Rick Godwin
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
Rick Godwin