Bird's-eye view
Chapter 7 of Revelation serves as a divine parenthesis, a pause in the action between the breaking of the sixth and seventh seals. The sixth seal unleashed cosmic upheaval, causing the kings of the earth to cry for the mountains to fall on them. Before the final seal is opened and the trumpet judgments begin, God gives John, and the church, a profound reassurance. This reassurance comes in two visions. The first, in our text, is the sealing of the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel. The second, which follows, is the vision of a great multitude that no one could number.
The central point of this passage is God's meticulous care and sovereign preservation of His people in the midst of cataclysmic judgment. The world is about to be rocked by divine wrath, but before the winds of judgment are allowed to blow, God sends His angel to place a seal of ownership and protection upon the foreheads of His slaves. This is not a secret rapture out of trouble, but a divine sealing for preservation through trouble. The number 144,000 and the specific listing of the tribes are highly symbolic, representing the entire covenant community, the true Israel of God, in its perfect completeness. This is the church militant, on earth, being prepared to stand firm in the great tribulation that was about to befall Jerusalem in AD 70.
Outline
- 1. The Great Interlude (Rev 7:1-8)
- a. The Restraining of Judgment (Rev 7:1)
- b. The Angel with the Seal (Rev 7:2)
- c. The Purpose of the Sealing: Protection (Rev 7:3)
- d. The Number of the Sealed: The Church Militant (Rev 7:4)
- e. The Roster of the Sealed: The New Israel (Rev 7:5-8)
Context In Revelation
This chapter is strategically placed. The first six seals have been opened in chapter 6, culminating in a terrifying vision of the Day of the Lord, where the sky rolls up like a scroll and everyone, from king to slave, hides from the wrath of the Lamb. The great question is posed at the end of that chapter: "who is able to stand?" (Rev. 6:17). Chapter 7 is God's direct answer to that question. Who can stand? God's sealed people can stand. This interlude assures the original audience, facing the imminent destruction of the temple and the old covenant world, that God knows His own and will preserve them. This passage is parallel in function to Ezekiel 9, where a man with an inkhorn goes through Jerusalem to mark the foreheads of the faithful before a divine slaughter commences. The sealing here precedes the final seal and the subsequent trumpet judgments, which detail the covenantal lawsuit against apostate Israel.
Key Issues
- The Symbolic Nature of Numbers in Revelation
- The Identity of the 144,000
- The Relationship Between the 144,000 and the Great Multitude
- The Meaning of the Seal of God
- The Significance of the Tribal List
- The Preterist Fulfillment in AD 70
The Church in Formation
When John hears the number 144,000, he is hearing the roll call of God's perfect army. This is not a literal number, any more than the four corners of the earth are literal corners. The book of Revelation is steeped in Old Testament imagery and symbolic numbers, and we do it a great disservice when we read it like a newspaper. The number is a military census of the people of God, prepared for holy war.
The number itself is a symphony of biblical symbolism. It is 12 times 12 times 1000. Twelve is the number of God's people, representing the 12 tribes of the Old Covenant and the 12 apostles of the New. Squaring it (12x12) gives you 144, a number of intensified completeness. Multiplying it by 1000, a number of vastness and totality, gives you 144,000. This is the whole church, the Israel of God, the complete number of the elect, viewed from the perspective of their earthly struggle. John hears the number of the church militant, organized and sealed for battle. Then, in the very next section, he will turn and see the church triumphant, a multitude no man can number. It is the same group, viewed from two different angles.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.
John sees a vision of immense, restrained power. The "four corners of the earth" is a standard biblical expression for the entirety of the world, from every direction. The "four winds" represent destructive, chaotic power, the full force of God's judgment. Think of the destructive wind in Jeremiah 49:36. These angels are holding this power in check. The image is one of a world on the brink of catastrophe. God's judgment is ready, the angels have their orders, but they are told to wait. The entire created order, earth, sea, and trees, is poised for a storm of divine wrath, but God has a preliminary task to accomplish. He will not allow judgment to be unleashed indiscriminately.
2-3 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out 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 or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the slaves of our God on their foreheads.”
A fifth angel appears, this one coming from the east, the direction of the sunrise, which is often associated with salvation and the coming of Christ. This angel has a crucial role; he carries the "seal of the living God." A seal in the ancient world was a mark of ownership and authenticity. A king would press his signet ring into wax to validate a document. Here, God is placing His personal, unbreakable mark of ownership on His people. The angel with the seal has higher authority than the angels of destruction. He commands them with a loud voice to halt their work. The reason is explicit: God's slaves must be marked, identified, and secured before the judgment falls. This is not a promise of removal from the trial, but of preservation through it. God is marking His people so that the coming harm will pass over them, not in the sense that they won't suffer, but that they won't be destroyed by it.
4 And I heard the number of those having been sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
Here we come to the famous number. Notice the pattern: John hears the number. Later, in verse 9, he will turn and look and see a great multitude. This "hear/see" pattern is common in Revelation and indicates that the two descriptions refer to the same reality from different perspectives. He hears the symbolic, theological number of the complete church on earth, organized as the new Israel. The number is precise and ordered, signifying God's perfect knowledge and sovereign arrangement of His people. This is the Israel of God, the covenant community which includes both Jew and Gentile who have been grafted in by faith in Jesus Christ. The church is the true Israel.
5-8 from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 having been sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 having been sealed.
John then provides the breakdown of the 144,000. That this is a symbolic, not a literal, ethnic list is obvious for several reasons. First, the tribe of Dan is conspicuously missing, likely because of its historic association with idolatry. Second, the tribe of Ephraim is also missing, but is represented under the name of his father, Joseph. Third, Levi, the priestly tribe which had no land inheritance, is included in the census. Fourth, the order of the tribes is unusual. Judah, the tribe of the Messiah, is listed first, not Reuben the firstborn. This is a redeemed and reordered Israel, constituted around the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who is the Lamb. The point is not to give a literal genealogy, which was impossible even in the first century. The point is to show that the church is the fulfillment of God's promises to Israel. The number 12,000 from each tribe emphasizes the perfect symmetry and equality of all parts of God's new covenant people before Him. This is the full roster of God's army, sealed and ready to face the tribulation.
Application
This passage is a profound comfort to the people of God in any age of turmoil. We live in a world that constantly seems to be on the brink of coming apart at the seams. We see the winds of judgment gathering, whether in cultural decay, political instability, or open hostility to the faith. The temptation is to fear, to believe that the church will be overwhelmed and swept away by the chaos.
But Revelation 7 tells us a different story. It tells us that before any wind of judgment is allowed to blow, God has already identified and sealed His people. The seal on our foreheads is the Holy Spirit, who marks us as belonging to Christ. This seal is not a brand of cowardice, but a badge of ownership. It does not mean we will be spared from all harm, but it does mean we cannot be snatched from our Father's hand. Our ultimate security does not rest in our ability to hold on, but in His sovereign grip on us.
Therefore, we are not to be like the kings of the earth who cry for the rocks to hide them. We are the sealed army of the living God. We are to stand firm, knowing that the judgments that fall on the world are not for us. Our task is to be faithful in the midst of the storm, to bear witness to the Lamb whose wrath the world fears, but whose seal we bear. We are part of that great and numbered and ordered people, the Israel of God, and not one of us will be lost.