38: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 7:1-17

[Darris McNeely] Hi. We are back in Revelation. We're ready for chapter 7. As I mentioned at the end of last class, this is what we call an inset chapter in the normal flow of the book of Revelation. And it is going to be talking about a unique group of people called the 144,000. I’ll put 144k up here. And a group of people called the innumerable multitudes.

Verse 1: “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.” (Revelation 7:1) Here’s this scene, this image of four angels, the four corners of the earth, holding back the wind and the sea. You might compare this with Zechariah 6:1–8 . I’m not going to turn and read that, but there’s a similarity there.

As well as Daniel 7:2–3 . We read during that time, this is Daniel 7, his vision of these four beasts that come up out of the sea and the four winds that are stirring upon the nations, the powers of the nations. And so what we’re looking at here could indicate that before this final revived Roman system that Revelation and Daniel 7—the fourth beast of Daniel 7—pictures, we’re looking at maybe a moment before that fully rises, that God does something here in chapter 7. That’s a possibility. The similarity of the language back to Daniel 7 could lead us to make an inference there. But it could be that this will take place even during the whole time of the three-and-a-half-year period of the tribulation, as this takes place. But let’s read it and look at it and see what we can learn.

“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.’” (Revelation 7:2–3) So there’s a sealing of servants of God.

Who would you assume servants of God would be? The saints. The people of God, the Church of God, those called of God—a sealing of servants of God. That’s what it says: on their foreheads. Now, it would appear that these are sealed to survive the Great Tribulation.

In Revelation 9:4 , it speaks again about this time of intense disturbances and the seven trumpet plagues: “They were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.” So these demonic powers that come up that are being described here—we’ll talk more about it—they can only harm the men who don’t have the seal of God on their forehead. So you go back to chapter 7, and we have a sealing of the servants of God on their foreheads being described.

That sealing gives them a protection from, it seems, some of the worst elements of this period of tribulation that will be inflicted upon the nations and—even, we will see from other verses—even among the church. And so a sealing is a sign of identity: of God and His people.

We could go back to Ezekiel 9:4 : “And the Lord said to him, ‘Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.’” The sins, the lifestyle, the morality of the city—in this case, through the midst of Jerusalem, but as a type of the nations of Israel and the world, we could say—those who sigh and cry. In other words, the servants of God should be those who recognize the sin of the world and the life and sigh and cry. They cry out to God for His deliverance, help from that, to overcome that in their own lives, but also: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That’s the prayer. That’s sighing and crying. That’s recognizing the state of affairs, not being a part of it, coming out of that.

You translate that down: you’re not part of that morality. Recognizing that to butcher unborn children is going to incur the wrath of God. Is it evil? Yes. And in no way, shape, or form should it be funded, encouraged, enshrined in law. But that’s the condition that we have. We go down the list. God marks these people here in Ezekiel before releasing a judgment as He’s going to.

So when we go back to Revelation 7, the sealing language here has the effect of assuring people that God has a concern and a plan, and that He is even going to spare some who may be facing persecution from the hand of the political power being unleashed. That seal on the forehead could be equivalent to a divine mark of ownership, because that’s the way it’s used elsewhere.

“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.” (2 Corinthians 1:21–22) Paul is saying that to receive the Holy Spirit is to be sealed of God as a guarantee of His plan to save us and to give us eternal life.

So that’s a seal in our hearts of God’s intent and purpose. In Ephesians 1:13 Paul writes, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” And this is directly speaking to our, again, receipt of the Spirit and that we’re sealed in the sense that we are God’s. We belong to Him, paid for by the blood of Christ.

Chapter 4 of Ephesians 4:30 says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” So again, the sealing—now go back to Revelation 7—there is this sealing, an act of God. It fulfills His promise. And in this case, in Revelation 7, it is a promise of protection in whatever way God decides.

Now you may recall back in chapter 3, the message to the church at Philadelphia, Revelation 3:10 , Christ says, “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.” And so that promise there, and when we went through it, I showed you that that hour of trial to come upon the whole world has to be talking about this period of tribulation. And so putting all these scriptures together, we’re looking now in chapter 7 at a sealing.

Verse 4 of chapter 7: “And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.” (Revelation 7:4)

Now the tribes of Israel are twelve. And beginning in verses 5 through 8, they’re listed. You will notice that Dan is not listed, and that we have Manasseh subbed in for him. Joseph is mentioned. Manasseh then is treated here as a tribe, and Ephraim is not mentioned—but that would be under Joseph.

But Dan is excluded. Why is Dan excluded? We don’t know. There have been all kinds of speculations about that through the centuries. You go back to the second century AD, an early church father named Irenaeus—he would not have been what we would call a true minister of God by that time in the development of the church, but he did still hold to elements of the truth and contended against a lot of heresy. In the late second century, in some of his writings, he comments on this and mentions that the Antichrist, or this false prophet or false religious leader—however you want to call it—would come from the tribe of Dan.

Again, I haven’t read all the source material to know that, but he must have known something about the character of the tribe of Dan. When you look in the Old Testament story about Dan, Dan’s inheritance was way up here in the northern part of Israel. They were the northernmost tribal inheritance of the land. There’s actually a little archaeological site called Dan in Israel today, the capital of Dan, where they’ve found some interesting things. But Dan, it seems from the stories, left Israel. They were an outlier, and they left quite early. There was a lot of idolatry, not much good said about them, but they seem to have left early.

And if the stories about Dan and the migrations of Dan into the Isles of Ireland and Scotland, connecting with the story in Genesis of the scarlet thread, are telling us anything, then it may mean that they had some really strange ideas. Because when you study Celtic antiquities and religion, those peoples in Ireland and Scotland before the Christian missionaries came were wild, fierce—painting up blue, waving their kilts, doing all those things you see portrayed in the movies. It may be that they were incorrigible in some ways, yet to be redeemed, but at least not a part of the sealing. But after all the discussion, we really don’t know.

But there are twelve tribes, and twelve thousand from each are sealed. So we come up with 144,000.

Now, I want to hit pause right here and let’s turn over to chapter 14. I’ll go ahead and cover this here since chapter 14 is a second reference to the 144,000. It’s kind of an inset section beginning in verse 1: “Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.” (Revelation 14:1)

There’s another reference to the 144,000—but here they’re on Mount Zion with the Lamb. That is in Jerusalem. That is a geographic spot in Jerusalem.

“And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.” (Revelation 14:2–3)

So the song’s going on, but they’re the only ones who can sing it. What’s the song?

I don’t know. Is it an Elvis tune? Is it Johnny Cash? I don’t know. But probably not, because we can sing those songs and you can’t sing this one, right?

“These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” (Revelation 14:4–5)

All right. Who are firstfruits?

What do we know about firstfruits from Scripture?

Are you a firstfruit? Are you baptized? Do you have God’s Holy Spirit? Well, you’re a firstfruit of God’s salvation. That’s what we teach on the Day of Pentecost. That’s the meaning of Pentecost. This is the day of firstfruits, the first harvest of God’s plan of salvation. And that term, “firstfruits” in Scripture refers to the saints. Those that are called, the church would be included—you, me, we who have God’s Spirit.

But look at the descriptors. They follow the Lamb. Do we follow the Lamb?

Are we Christian? Do we follow Christ’s teachings? Yes, we do. We follow the Lamb. We’re not like Mary who had a little lamb, but we do follow the Lamb. Where do you think that one came from? But we do follow the Lamb. We follow His teachings. Are we redeemed? Yes, through the blood of Christ. Firstfruits? Yes.

In our mouth, is there deceit? Well, sometimes, unfortunately, we all might say things we shouldn’t say. We have to repent, be forgiven. But our intent is not to. We’re without fault before the throne of God because we’re of the blood of Christ and through His grace. So Revelation 14 is describing a group of people here that are redeemed.

Firstfruits, F-F. What else does it say about them? No guile or no deceit. Without fault. I mean, we’re describing a Christian, the disciple of Christ. They follow the Lamb. And so the Lamb is in their life. And they’re pictured here in an interesting setting with Christ on Mount Zion in a relationship, so we could say, of intimacy and closeness that reflects the church, the firstfruits.

Now, it says they sang a song. I gave a sermon a couple of years ago on Trumpets about my take on that. I won’t go into it right now. But they know the words where no one else does. And that can set up some interesting discussions, but we won’t go into all of that right now.

So let’s go back now to Revelation 7, and let’s look at who these are. We’ve got two groups in Revelation 7: the 144,000 and the innumerable multitude. What does it tell us about them? Well, let’s look at the Scripture. Verse 3 says, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” (Revelation 7:3)

All right? So they’re servants of God. And we’ve looked at the Scriptures that say it is in the forehead, and other Scriptures give us a pretty strong indication that when we receive God’s Spirit of redemption, etc., that is a sealing. Very clear from the other Scripture.

And so they are of the tribe of Israel—12,000 from each of the tribes of Israel. Now, the church is spiritual Israel, or the “Israel of God.” Paul tells us that in Galatians. The church is the Israel of God, and the church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. And so there’s a connection. The Old Testament Israel is a type, a forerunner, of the New Testament church. Prophets are even like the sons of Israel, the tribes of Israel, and the apostles, 12 and 12. We’ll see that later in Revelation 21 with the New Jerusalem.

And so 12,000 from each tribe, and it comes up to 144,000. Are they talking about the same group? Now, if you look at that, what would you conclude? Are these the same group? Chapter 7 and chapter 14. Look at the characteristics. What do you think? Same group? Is that tentative? Yes? Okay. Well, in our booklet, The Book of Revelation Unveiled , we say that they are both the same. That’s our official teaching.

You will find other commentators that will say they’re different—that the 144,000 of Revelation 7 are a physical grouping of people, physical Israel, 12,000 from each of the literal tribal descendants of Israel. And therefore different from this. I could quote John Walvoord, whom I’ve used and quoted earlier, an evangelical scholar whose basic commentary on Revelation is very helpful and mirrors so much of what we teach. Walvoord taught that these are two groups—that this (Revelation 7) is physical descendants of the people of Israel sealed at the time of the end, and this (Revelation 14) is the church.

Let me just read what he says in his commentary: “The remnant of Israel portrayed in Revelation should not therefore be taken as meaning the church. It would be rather ridiculous to carry the type of Israel representing the church to the extent of dividing them into 12 tribes as was done here. If it was the intent of the writer to describe the church,” which he says about chapter 14 (and we do as well), “it is instead a clear indication of God’s continued purpose for the nation Israel and their preservation through this awful time of trouble.”

So he says this is 12,000 from each physical, descended tribe of Israel to preserve Israel through the tribulation so that what is described in Isaiah and Jeremiah as a second exodus of Israel being returned to the land after the coming of Christ, the Messiah, could be fulfilled. And so in other words, there would be 144,000 sealed of physical descendants of these tribes.

That’s what Walvoord says. Now, I have wondered about that myself. This is my personal opinion I’m talking about, and I’ve thought about that in that connection as well. And others have within the church as well. In fact, I was teaching this last year to the class.

I had a conversation with Aaron Dean afterwards, and Aaron Dean told me that Mr. Armstrong, before he died, actually they were talking Scripture, and he said he believed, he thought he concluded that the 144,000 of Revelation 7 is physical Israel. Okay? I said, did he write it down? No. Well, it’s anecdotal. Okay. But that was, to be honest, probably through the years in Radio and Worldwide Church of God teaching about Revelation, there was probably back and forth on this. But in United, in our official teaching, we say that they’re both the same and it’s both the church. And I see a logic to that myself, that based on what is said in the Scripture, that they’re servants of God, sealed in their forehead, and can connect to that.

I guess this could be one of those things that sincere people could agree to disagree on. But I do remember when we discussed this many years ago, editing that booklet in the Prophecy Subcommittee and the Doctrine Committee, we concluded that they both are talking about the same group of people, and it’s the church. So that is what we put into our booklet, and that’s where it stands today.

What I would say as we look at Revelation 7, and you look at verses 5 through 8, these 12 tribes, there is a specific mentioning of 12 tribes. And here’s what I conclude, and I think that this can be supported by what we’re seeing in Revelation: the name of Israel and God’s design on Israel stands. The name “Israel” is found throughout the book of Revelation, the tribes.

As I said, we’ll see that again in chapter 20 on the New Jerusalem that comes down. God is, in this period of time of the end, dealing with Israel. We talked about in the last class about a time of Jacob’s trouble during the Tribulation. Jacob’s trouble—Israel. That will be God’s punishment upon them. And could God save a remnant of Israel?

Here’s the way to look at it. Does God know in today’s world where the descendants of these tribes still are? I think He does. I think they do exist. And that is part of our received prophetic narrative regarding the promises of Abraham.

I’ve talked about the English-speaking peoples being originally Ephraim and Manasseh, the English-speaking nations that have come. America split off from England. We’ll talk about that. And separating of that birthright passed on to the sons of Joseph in Genesis 49. And America, the English-speaking nations, inheriting the fullness of the physical promises to Abraham in this end-time age.

And I believe that. We teach that. And I think that, are there 12,000 from the tribe of Reuben somewhere on the earth today? Yes, I believe that. So that if chapter 7 is referring to a sealing of them in some way, God can do that. I do think that there will be, in that second Exodus, prophesied by Jeremiah, after Christ’s return, Israel being reunited in the land, David in the resurrection becoming their king and the nations coming back together (Ezekiel 37). There’s got to be a setup for that.

And somehow God will do that. If that is being told here in Revelation 7, within the overall meaning, perhaps God can. He knows what He’s doing anyway. But even Walvoord says that the mention of the 12 tribes—and I want to go back to his quote—he says, “the mention of the 12 tribes of Israel is likewise a refutation of the idea that the tribes of Israel are lost.” 

The common term about the 10 tribes that formed the northern nation of Israel that were taken captive by the Assyrians is that they were lost to history. The “10 lost tribes of Israel,” that’s a common phrase. And Walvoord says that if you look at Revelation 7—and he believes that it’s physical—it is a refutation of that. That’s interesting. Whether or not it is, I do believe that they weren’t lost, that God knows where they are, even to this day.

And we tell that story in what we have. Interestingly, Walvoord goes on to say, it’s also a refutation of the theory that all tribes are perpetuated in the English-speaking people of the world. I don’t get that second part of his quote, because he refutes our teaching, and yet he affirms the teaching, the first part of his quote, that they are not lost, that they are still around. I don’t try to reconcile that. There’s a great deal of bias among theologians and historians to the idea that the English-speaking nations of the world today have inherited those promises to Abraham.

But we’ll talk about that at another time. And so, again, our teaching is that both groups—chapter 7 and chapter 14—are one and the church.

Now, let’s go on, because there’s another grouping of people here.

“After these things I looked, and behold, 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, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Revelation 7:9–10)

“And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying: ‘Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.’” (Revelation 7:11–12)

Now, here’s another group of people. They are distinct from the 144,000. Look at verse 9—it’s a great multitude. We typically call this the innumerable multitude, but a great multitude could not be numbered. And they’re from all nations, so it transcends Israel: all the Gentiles, all nations, peoples, and tongues.

They stand before the throne and before the Lamb. They’re clothed with robes and palm branches, crying with a loud voice about salvation. And going on, it’s going down to verse 13: “Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?’ And I said to him, ‘Sir, you know.’ So he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation’ (Revelation 7:13–14). You want to underline that. That tells you that this group of people come out of the great tribulation.

“And they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes” (Revelation 7:14–17).

All right, this completes the chapter and the description here, but we need to unpack this to understand it.

This group is in contrast to the 144,000. As I said, they’re made up of people from all nations and languages. They come out of the tribulation. It would seem that they are converted during, perhaps, the first two and a half years of the great tribulation and are spared the worst of the last year of the Day of the Lord. They have the promise of eternal life. They are sheltered. Verse 15 in the New Revised Standard Version says, “the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.” So God will protect them.

Now, this is a distinct group from the church or physical Israel, if that would be the explanation. They’re an innumerable multitude and they’re sheltered. They come out of the tribulation. They worship God. It would appear that this is a group of people not specifically sealed with the Holy Spirit, but sheltered. Therefore, they would not be firstfruits, we could conclude.

And it would appear that this group lives through the tribulation, through the second coming of Christ. They are not part of the first resurrection, which occurs at Christ’s coming, but are alive afterwards into what we would call the Millennium, the beginning of the thousand-year period.

All right. Now, how might we conclude that? Well, let’s turn back to Isaiah 49, where a lot of the language here of Revelation 7 comes from.

We’re in a messianic passage here, meaning that we’re into the future and the timing of the coming of Christ. And let’s go to verse 8: “Thus says the Lord: ‘In an acceptable time I have heard You, and in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You as a covenant to the people, to restore the earth, to cause them to inherit the desolate heritages’” (Isaiah 49:8).

What’s desolate? Well, the earth—to restore the earth that has been ravaged during the tribulation.

This grouping of people, this promise is going to some who will act as a covenant or as a binding relationship signifying divine favor. Their purpose is to restore the earth, to inherit desolate heritages.

Verse 9: “That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ They shall feed along the roads, and their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. They shall neither hunger nor thirst; neither heat nor sun shall strike them” (Isaiah 49:9–10).

This is where we get back to Revelation 7:16. John is inspired to use Isaiah 49 here beginning at verse 10: “They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat” (Revelation 7:16). Right out of Isaiah.

Go back to Isaiah 49:11: “I will make each of My mountains a road, and My highways shall be elevated. Surely these shall come from afar; look! Those from the north and the west, and these from the land of Sinim” (Isaiah 49:11–12).

So this is, in Isaiah, a messianic passage that is taken and applied to the innumerable multitude of Revelation 7. And so, what is being described here in Revelation 7 could very well be a grouping of people who are sheltered and who live into the Millennium as physical beings and form a part of a group that will repopulate, rebuild, under Israel in the Millennium after Christ’s return.

So these people, we could say, turn to the message of the gospel during this tribulation, this time of great trouble. All right, who’s going to be preaching during the tribulation?

It won’t be the church. The church as we know it and the preaching of the gospel as we know it will not be able to be done during that time. We haven’t yet studied chapter 11 of Revelation—the two witnesses who are God’s witnesses, who stand as witness to the beast and who preach during that period of time, and their message goes to the world.

There’s also an angel that flies through the midst of the earth with the everlasting gospel that is mentioned as well in Revelation. So during that time of tribulation, the Word of God or the gospel is not going to be hidden, sequestered, or subverted. God will raise up His two witnesses to carry that out.

Could it be then that this innumerable multitude are people who respond to that and are sheltered by God? It could even be that those people, this innumerable multitude, are people who prior to the tribulation heard the message of the church but didn’t do anything with it—knew about it, but didn’t respond.

Times of trouble come, a whole different change. They hear the two witnesses, they see the miracles they do, and they realize, Whoa, I remember hearing that. I remember hearing about the kingdom of God and the true message of Christ. I think it's time to do something about it. 

So it could be that this is among those who will make up this grouping of people sheltered during this particular time, which comes back to us.

You know, we preach the gospel today. We always have. We see that as the mission of the church. We use the internet quite effectively, and it gives us a reach into the world far beyond our numbers and our size. We utilize video. We utilize print. But the internet—and who knows what else will come, what will be developed?

Sometimes people say, Well, the church isn't growing very much. Not a lot of people are coming in. Why are we preaching the gospel? Why do we do this? 

Well, good question. But the reason we do it is because God tells us to do it. Number one: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). That’s our mission. Our mission comes right out of Christ’s instruction to His church. And many other scriptures tell us, Look, they’re not going to listen to you. You read Ezekiel—he’s told, You’re going to be a prophet to the nations, but nobody’s going to listen to you. Oh, well, good. What an encouraging job application.

But that’s the reality. People today, they want to go to Disney World. They want to go wherever else. They don’t want to sacrifice and live a sacrificial life—keeping the Sabbath, tithing, all these things. But we still have to teach God’s truth, and we do, and we will.

And it may be—and I think it will be—that the seed we sow in people’s lives will bear fruit. Some in this grouping of people here in Revelation 7, the innumerable multitude, and certainly even others later in the time of the Great White Throne, when they come up, what has been sown will then finally bear fruit to eternal life.

So that’s why we continue to do it. And this is a pretty good impetus for us to be a part of what God is doing, because as we’ll see later in Revelation, the gospel continues to be preached despite any and all opposition.

So this takes us through chapter 7. We’re ready to look at the seventh seal, and we’ll do that in the next class. And that is the seven trumpets. So hold on to your Rubik’s Cube. Keep that. We’ll get into that in chapter 8 next week, next class. Period.