Who Are the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation?
Oratorio Society of Queens in Concert, Spring 2010; image from Wikimedia Commons
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We first met the 144,000 in Revelation 7. Who are they? The twelve sons of Jacob, the Patriarchs, each multiplied to become a great tribe, which together formed a nation of least two million by the time of Moses. Revelation invites us to multiply the twelve-tribe nation by twelve, giving 144 tribes. And then to multiply the entirety by a thousand, which signifies a very large but definite number.
Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. (Rev. 14:1-5)
The 144,000 are a magnificent picture of the church.
144,000 symbolizes the church, the complete and very great number of the saved. Instead of bearing the mark of the beast, they belong to the Father and have his name on their foreheads. In heaven we will see that the saved, the descendants of Abraham, will indeed be more numerous than the stars of the Milky Way and the grains of sand on all the world’s white beaches.
From this tremendous sight we turn to an overwhelming sound—the deafening roar and thunder of…harps. When I think of loud, I think of a large symphony orchestra, like that which Berlioz scored for his Requiem: massed winds, a hundred strings, four—yes, four—brass bands, sixteen timpani, ten pairs of cymbals, and a two-hundred voice choir. Berlioz explained, “If the locale permits, the vocal mass may be doubled or tripled, and the instrumental choirs increased accordingly.”
The heavenly choir is accompanied by harps, the most delicate of instruments. It is the sheer number that makes the thunder.
The redeemed sing a new song because a new song was needed.
What a beautiful picture of those “redeemed from the earth” by the blood of the Lamb assembled before the heavenly throne, the four living creatures, and the twenty-four elders. They praise the Lamb wholeheartedly, like David who leapt and danced before the Lord “with all his might.”
The redeemed sing a new song because a new song was needed to celebrate the “new thing” that Christ had done. The Psalms are God-breathed and timeless, yet the psalmists looked forward to Christ in the mist of types and shadows. We look back to see the crystalline fulfillment. A new song of praise breaks out.
They are those “who did not defile themselves with women.” They did not, like those in Revelation 14:8, forsake God and succumb to the seductions of evil Babylon. They “follow the lamb wherever he goes,” a fascinating image reversal. The people follow the Lamb, for the Lamb is the shepherd. Jesus obeyed the Father, suffered for him, and was glorified by him. So will be his disciples, who “share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17 NIV).
Just as Israel offered the firstfruits of their crops and herds as a thank offering to God, so Jesus offers us as a thank offering to his Father, the firstfruits of his labor, who “in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless” (Rev. 14:5). This is not what we were by nature, but what the Lamb has made us to be:
…having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:26-27)
