The 144,000

I can't tell you how many opinions I have read regarding the 144,000 found in the seventh chapter of the book of Revelation. Allow me now to throw in my own. For many reasons I have not read the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ as though it were a book of literal physical truths, but instead as a book of literal spiritual truths. This is the way I view the 144,000 as well. Here is the verse.

Rev 7:1-12 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth so that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. (2) And 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 given to hurt the earth and the sea, (3) saying, Do not hurt the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. (4) And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousands, having been sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel. (5) Out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand had been sealed. (6) Out of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand had been sealed. (7) Out of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand had been sealed. (8) Out of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand had been sealed. Out of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand had been sealed. (9) After these things I looked, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palms in their hands. (10) And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb. (11) And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, (12) saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

Some things should almost immediately stand out. First is that this looks an awful lot like the book of Numbers in the Old Testament where the able bodied men of the tribes of Israel were numbered just before Joshua led them into the land of the Canaanites to conquer it. An army! This should be our first clue as to the identification of the 144,000. They are those who fight to defeat the enemies of our God, with Christ as their General. They have been sealed with the seal of God as a marker of 1)protection against schemes of the enemy and 2)authority over the enemy as God's representatives in the earth. This leads us to more interesting observations. The tribe of Levi is mentioned while the tribe of Dan is excluded. The tribe of Levi was purposefully excluded in the book of Numbers because they were not to have a portion in the land and were dedicated solely to the ministry of the Lord. So this indicates that the manner in which the 144,000 fight does not exclude them from the list. Interestingly the way in which we fight is quite different. As Paul says, "we do not wrestle with flesh and blood..." And how do you fight darkness? With light! And what is light? Light is the glory of the Lord. So what is darkness? It is simply the absence of God's glory. In this vein then, as Thomas Aquinas points out, does evil truly exist since it is an absence of something that does exist? No, evil being resultant from choice it is merely the absence of what is good, therefore it does not truly exist as an entity. And since good has substance, as light has substance, then it has the ability to restrain and overcome as superior. Evil is also limited by death into which those who practice it are condemned, while those who have chosen the good, the glory of God, live beyond death and are eventually resurrected to eternal life. Once those who practice evil are gone, there will be no more evil. If everyone who had chosen the good were to die and never return there would still be God, so good can never be vanquished because it has its being in God, who is the source of all good. So those who fight the good fight cannot lose, and Christ is their head.

So the numbers also have meaning. 1000 is 10 x 10 x 10 which are the dimensions of the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God. And 12 is the number of God's authority in a corporate man, as an army, to enter through the gates of hell and defeat the enemy, occupying the land. 12 x 12 is the area of a perfect square, similar to the area of the City of God, the New Jerusalem, that finally rests in the earth when God dwells with men. This should also be added to our clues. This 144,000 are those who have brought the presence of God with them into the earth to fulfill the mandate laid out in Genesis. As the book says:

Gen 1:27-28 And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. (28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens, and all animals that move upon the earth.

A mandate that has been included in every major covenant God has had with men, which men have always failed to accomplish until Christ. Man being made in the image of God is very important because it assumes that the men who subdue the earth are "righteous". But this does not complete the picture because those who have been called are listed as belonging to a particular tribe which seems to indicate that they belong to the Jewish people. Here is my take on that. The twelve are carried along in the twelve apostles who had mission to both the Jews and the gentiles. The early churches saw one another in terms of which apostle had established or founded that particular region. We still have the Roman Catholic church which has always declared it was founded by Peter, the Eastern Orthodox claims the apostle John, etc... The branches that were Israel have been cut off and the branches that are the church, including gentiles, have been grafted in. It is not the physical Israel that is the source, or the main vine, but it is Christ who is the true remnant.

The twelve sons of Jacob (Israel) were born out of struggle between two sisters, Leah who was unloved, Rachel who was loved, and the servant girls that belonged to the two women. The names of each of Israel's sons has particular meaning in that struggle to compete for the affections of Israel. In this, I am suggesting that each member of the body of Christ fits under one of these twelve banners. And as such, the 144,000 can be identified as the church living on the earth from age to age. Those who live physically, working to redeem the earth from its fallen condition, while those who have been taken out, through physical death, await the time that they can return. I have left out a great deal but I am still working on this idea, developing it further. Perhaps in a later post I can elaborate on the meanings of the names of the twelve tribes and how we fit into those categories. But not today.

God Bless