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June 30, 2013 |
| 144,000 | ||
The number 144,000 appears only in the book of Revelation in only two places. But it has caused an immense amount of trouble for being no more than a bit player. There are many interpretations of those passages, and there is even a subgroup of Christianity (Jehovah's Witnesses) that are founded on it.
The number refers to a group of people who are identified separately from others. Despite the clarity of the text, it isn't clear who they are or the significance of being identified separately.
In this study we will look at these 144,000 to try to determine who they are and their significance.
Revelation refers to the 144,000 in two separate places, in Revelation 7:1-17, in the story of the opening of the 7th Seal, and in Revelation 14:1-5 in a story from the little scroll / book. In the first place, the 144,000 are being sealed, along with many others, prior to the Holy Spirit becoming inactive, which brings on the end of the end-times. In the second place, they are in Jerusalem as a purified and faultless people. The First Fruits of God and the Lamb.
Revelation chapter 7 begins just before the last of the seven seals is opened, and that seal is opened immediately in chapter 8. If you don't remember the sequence of major events in Revelation, it is this:
And after this, I saw four Angels standing over the four corners of the Earth and holding the four winds, that the winds would not blow on the Earth, neither on the Sea, neither on any tree.
2 And I saw another Angel ascending from the dawning of the Sun and having the seal of THE LIVING GOD, and he cried with a loud voice to the four Angels to whom it was given to harm the Earth and the Sea, 3 and he said, "Do not harm the Earth, neither the Sea, nor the trees, until we seal the Servants of God on their foreheads."
4 And I heard the number who were sealed - 144,000, from all the tribes of Israel: 5 From the tribe of Yehudah, 12,000; from the tribe of Reuben, 12,000; from the tribe of Gad, 12,000; 6 From the tribe of Asher, 12,000; from the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000; from the tribe of Menashe, 12,000; 7 From the tribe of Shimeon, 12,000; from the tribe of Issachar, 12,000; from the tribe of Levi, 12,000; 8 From the tribe of Zebulon, 12,000; from the tribe of Joseph, 12,000; from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 sealed.
9 After this I saw many multitudes which were impossible to count, which were of all people, generations, nations and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, and wearing white garments and with palms in their hands.
10 And they shouted with a great voice, and they were saying, "Salvation to our God, and to him Who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!"
11 And all of the Angels were standing around the throne and The Elders and The Four Beasts, and they fell before the throne on their faces, 12 Saying, "Amen! Glory and blessing and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God for the eternity of eternities! Amen!
13 And one of The Elders responded and he said to me, "Who are these wearing white garments and from where have they come?"
14 And I said to him, "My Lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are those who came from great suffering and they have purified their garments and whitened them in the blood of the Lamb." 15 "Because of this, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in the Temple and he who sits on the throne will dwell with them." 16 "They will not hunger, neither will they thirst, and the Sun will not assail them, neither any heat." 17 Because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them unto Life and beside fountains of water, and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. (Revelation 7:1-17)
First we'll look at verses 4 through 8. This is where the number 144,000 comes from, but there will be other clues about who they are throughout the chapter. In these verses we are presented with the idea that the 144,000 are made up of 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes. But looking closely, this list of the 12 tribes is unlike any other - the order is wrong, one or two are missing, and two are listed who are never included together.
In the illustration below, the two lists on the right are the lists from the Old Testament. In both lists, birth order is followed. Sometimes Levi is included, in which case Joseph is included. If Levi is not included, Joseph is not included, but his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, which are usually considered to be half-tribes, are included in Joseph's place, as full tribes. In both cases the total number of tribes is 12.
The list on the left is the list presented in this chapter of Revelation, in the order presented.
The lines connect the names between the two lists.
This shows that the order of Revelation's list is certainly not birth order. Also notice that Dan is not included. Levi and Joseph are included, so we wouldn't expect to see Manasseh and Ephraim, but we see Manasseh, but we don't see Ephraim. This is one messed-up list.
Everyone agrees there has to be a message for us in Revelation's list, but that's where the agreement ends.
Some interpreters try to spiritualize this list from Revelation. Spiritualization is what limited humans do when they can't imagine any way that the prophetic events could be fulfilled as physical events. For example, only one hundred years ago, interpreters believed that Ezekiel's prophecy of Israel coming to life from “bones” couldn't possibly happen, therefore that prophecy shouldn't be understood literally and physically, but now, that prophecy has been fulfilled and is a reality.
Some use these oddities in the list as an excuse to spiritualize the list and therefore throw it out. Their thinking seems to be that the oddities are a sign that the list shouldn't be taken literally. The Jehovah's Witnesses are one such group. They have determined that the 144,000 are all members of the Jehovah's Witnesses Church. Yet, no Jehovah's Witness seems interested in answering the question: "Which tribe am I in?"
One problem that interpreters foresee is that most of the people in Israel now are not certain which tribe they are from. Therefore how would anyone know which 12,000 was theirs? This also goes along with a false teaching that tries to make the Christian church a replacement for Israel2. This thinking results in a spiritualization of these verses that throws away their detail and thus their value.
No one needs to worry about who belongs to which tribe. God didn't say the people would know, but God knows. The verses don't say they will be organized by tribe and shout "Woop! Woop! for our tribe."
No one should think that the people in these tribes of Israel are not literal. The verses make it clear. After describing the 144,000 and counting their number in verses 4 through 8, verse 9 says that many multitudes were seen "which were impossible to count" as the 144,00 had been counted. The verse says the multitude "were of all people, generations, nations and languages". So we've gone from counting those that were called Israel and then describing the remainder as uncountable, and from all peoples. Therefore it seems certain that the 144,000 are real physical people.
Some interpreters say that verses 14 and 15, which say "[they] came from great suffering" and "they are before the throne of God," show that they are dead and in Heaven. This is particularly true of Jehovah's Witnesses. But verse 15 continues by saying "he who sits on the throne will dwell with them". The future tense here and throughout verse 16 indicates that he is not yet with them. This is especially notable when verse 16 says "[he] will lead them unto life", which means everlasting life. So they have not yet achieved eternal life. Therefore they must be physically alive.
Also, the verses depict them as having foreheads on which they can be marked.
The clause saying they have "purified their garments" shouldn't dissuade us. It is a metaphorical description of the Christian walk, where we reject our sinful natures and learn to live a more Christ-like life. And they have "whitened them in the blood of The Lamb" as we have by seeking Jesus forgiveness. And "they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in the Temple" as we do as a priestly order3.
The general consensus is that the order used is their faithfulness to God. This would explain why Judah would move to the top of the list and why Dan and Ephraim would be dropped from the list. It wouldn't explain why Benjamin would be at the bottom of the list. Benjamin generally sided with Judah against the others.
From the time that Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, it was known that Dan was going to be a problem.
Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a horned snake in the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward. 18 For Your salvation I wait, O Lord. (Genesis 49:16)
Ultimately Dan and Ephraim1 would lead Israel into idolatry. They created their own priesthood and worship centers, while claiming to serve the true God. This would cause Israel to split into Northern and Southern kingdoms, with the Northern kingdom being in the area called Samaria in Jesus' time. This comes up in the discussion between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4:7)
From God's perspective, when the Assyrians took the 10 Northern tribes of Israel away 900 years before Jesus, they were mixed with other peoples, and they vanished. But a time came when God sent his son to call a people out of those people who were not Jews, of whom God had said, "Not my people." They became, prophetically, the tribe of Joseph, who the Bible never counted as a tribe of Israel. With that calling, those who responded become Jesus' people and are represented in prophecy by Ephraim, one of the sons of Joseph.
Jesus tore down the wall between Jew and Gentile, but the Jews rejected Jesus and insisted the wall was still there. The Christians, led by the Roman Catholic church, who hated Jews, built that wall back up. But God is determined to unify his people, and Ezekiel 37 talks about that.
Now as for you, son of man, take for yourself one stick and write on it, "For Judah and for the sons of Israel, his companions"; then take another stick and write on it, "For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel, his companions." 17 Then draw them together for yourself one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. (Ezekiel 37:16-17)
Here we see both the idea that Joseph and Ephraim symbolize something different than Judah, and the idea that God is going to merge them into one.
Hosea 11 talks about this and about something else about Ephraim.
Ephraim surrounds Me with lies and the house of Israel with deceit; and Judah is also unruly against God, even against the Holy One who is faithful.
This says Ephraim has become very bad, so bad that elsewhere in Hosea 11, God considers destroying them as he destroyed the towns around Sodom and Gomorrah. These verses say that God is so enveloped in lies and deceit that people cannot see him. 400 years after Jesus, Christianity had become unrecognizable by those who began it, and it has only gotten worse.
The verses also say that Judah, the Jews, are unruly against God and against the faithful holy one, who is Jesus. This became true in Jesus' time and continues to this day.
Therefore Ezekiel 37 says:
They also will no longer defile themselves with their idols or with their detestable things or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all their places of habitation in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them. (Ezekiel 37:23)
So when we see Joseph in that list of the tribes, along with Manasseh, we know it represents Christians, like modern Christians and worse.
The 144,000 are seen again in chapter 14.
1 And I saw and behold, the Lamb standing on the Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name upon them and the name of his Father written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a sound from Heaven as the sound of many waters and as the sound of a great thunder; the sound which I heard was like a harpist playing on his harp. 3 And they were singing as a new hymn of praise before the throne and before the Four Beasts and before the Elders, and no one was able to learn the hymn but the 144,000 redeemed from the Earth. 4 These are those who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins who cleave to the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from men, the first fruits to God and to the Lamb. 5 And there is no falsehood found in their mouths as they are without fault. (Revelation 14:1-5)
We saw earlier that the 144,000 are unruly toward God and Jesus. Now we see them as being without fault. A huge change has occurred.
In these verses we learn some more things about these redeemed 144,000. They have the name of the Lamb "upon them," and they have the name of the Father "written on their foreheads".
We need to understand two things here. First, the word "name" is commonly used in the Bible in the sense of "reputation" or "character", in the way that we might say "A gunslinger made quite a name for himself."
Second, "written on the forehead" in other places in the Bible means "memorized 'by heart'"4. Therefore this phrase can be understood as "they were the embodiment of the Lamb and they knew everything about the Father by heart."
The “name” is more than just knowledge. It is like a cattle brand, but only in the sense that it shows permanent ownership.
The 144,000 have been "redeemed from the Earth" (v.3). This is part of a complex metaphor whose explanation is out of scope in this study. It also says they have been redeemed from men (v.4). "Redeemed" means a price has been paid for them. We understand the price to be Jesus' sacrifice. The point is that they were chosen from among ordinary people to be the people they now are.
They are able to learn a song that no other man is able to learn. The word "as" is used 4 times in the passage above. Three of those have the meaning of "like" as in being similar to something but not exactly the same. This means that they are doing something that is "like" singing a new song. Singing "a new song" appears elsewhere in the Bible and especially in Psalms, where it is likely a prophetic reference to the event described here. Exactly what they are doing is unclear.
Why is the Bible being intentionally unclear about this? The Bible hides things for many reasons. I think the two most likely reasons here are that "as humans we can't understand it" and "it would reveal something that God doesn't want to reveal to everyone yet." More generally, the intent is to show that the 144,000 have a new way to praise God.
The 144,000 are perfect or perhaps perfected. If this referred to physical virgins, the use of "defiled" here would require a difficult reconciliation with God-created marriage. They are spiritual virgins - they have never worshiped another God. Even this requires some explanation. When God redeems us he wipes our record clean. In his eyes, we never did anything wrong.
They are called First Fruits to God and the Lamb. The concept of First Fruits is lost on most Christians. In the Old Testament, the first part of the crops and produce that was ready to eat was brought to the Temple as a sign that the rest of the crops and produce would also be good. It was also a thanksgiving for the provision of God.
Jesus was the First Fruits of the Old Covenant, that is, the First Fruits to God. He was resurrected on the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering, when the First Fruits of the crops and produce were waved before God. He was the sign that a good crop like him was coming. The 144,000 are then the First Fruits of the New Covenant, that is, the First Fruits to God and Jesus.
That leaves us asking: If they are the First Fruits, who are the "coming crop." They are the people who will be transformed in the blink of an eye and those who are resurrected into new spiritual bodies. This tells us something about the 144,000 that fills in a couple of blanks above. They must also be transformed.
The stories of the 144,000 have shown us:
1 Judges 17 and Hosea 7
2 Replacement Theology
3 1 Peter 2:5, Hebrews 4:14 (priests have a high priest), Revelation 1:6
4 Deuteronomy 6:6-8, Deuteronomy 11:18