Revelation 7:4 Commentary and Bible Study

‘There were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.’ Is that a literal figure? No; like all numbers in this book, it is a symbolic figure. That is clear because in verse 9 it is expressed differently: ‘After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number.’ This is the same crowd of people as are mentioned in verse 4. These are not two unconnected crowds. The second crowd, now seen in heaven, is there as a result of the sealing in verse 4. Verse 4 views them in a symbolic way, and verse 9 treats them more literally. They are ‘a great multitude, which no man could number’, in other words, you can’t count up this high. The number of them is vastly greater than a literal hundred and forty-four thousand. But there is another difference between those sealed here, and the great multitude found in heaven which results. Some assume that because the one hundred and forty-four thousand are of the ‘tribes of the children of Israel’, while the great multitude in heaven are ‘of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues’, that these are two distinct groups, but that is a mistake. It ought to obvious from the context and the flow of thought that these are the same people viewed in two different ways. However, if that is in doubt, we are told in Revelation 14:3 that the one hundred and forty-four thousand sing a new song, and that ‘no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth’ (Revelation 14:3). These are all ‘of the children of Israel’ according to Revelation 7:4. And yet in Revelation 5:9 we find that the twenty-four elders sang ‘a new song [the same new song], saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.’ How could they sing it if they were not ‘of the children of Israel’ ethnically? They can do so because the twenty-four elders represent the true people of God in Old and New Testaments who all know what it is to be redeemed. The only way these statements can be reconciled is to see that Israel is here being used in a figurative sense. This is the Israel of God, the true Israel, those who belong to the nation of Israel and those who belong to the Gentile nations, who are circumcised not in the flesh but in the heart (Romans 2:26,28). The seed of Abraham includes the believing Gentiles also (Galatians 3:29). What avails, says Paul, is not circumcision, but a new creature, and then he adds, ‘And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God’ (Galatians 6:16). What counts is not circumcision – which would have to count if he was talking about ethnic Israel – but a new creation (Romans 4:12; Galatians 3:7-9; Philippians 3:3; 1 Peter 2:9-10). This applies to the Israel of God – elect Jews and elect Gentiles – for the middle wall of partition between them has been broken down (Ephesians 2:14). It is in this sense that ‘the tribes of the children of Israel’ are referred to here. Where does the number one hundred and forty-four come from? It is a large number. It is the twelve patriarchs or tribes of the Old Testament multiplied by the twelve apostles of the New Testament and then multiplied by a thousand because it includes all believers in all ages and all lands.