Revelation 7:1–8

1AFTER THIS I SAW four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3“Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

5From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,

from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,

from the tribe of Gad 12,000,

6from the tribe of Asher 12,000,

from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,

from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,

7from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,

from the tribe of Levi 12,000,

from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,

8from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,

from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,

from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

Original Meaning

Sealing the Tribes (7:1–3)

GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY OVER the winds (7:1) is a standard feature of Jewish apocalyptic and astronomical lore; whereas pagans worshiped a variety of deities and even had deities (like Boreas) over specific winds, God controls the winds and delegates them to angels who perform only his bidding.10 God could send some winds for blessing and some for judgment (1 En. 36:2–3; 76:4). Some believed that the winds supported the dome of heaven (1 En. 18:2–5); other ancients noted that if unchecked, the winds would blow away earth, sea, and heaven (Virgil, Aen. 1.56–59). In one tradition, God checked the rampaging winds after the Flood of Noah’s day, signaling the dawn of another era (Sib. Or. 1.195; cf. Gen. 8:1).

The four winds correspond to the “four corners of the earth” (also a judgment image in Jer. 49:36), a common phrase that simply means the four directions.11 Here they serve to show God’s sovereignty over the furthest reaches of the earth, like Zechariah’s four horsemen, who were the four spirits of heaven going patrolling in four directions (Zech. 6:1–5). The Greek version of Zechariah acceptably renders the prophet’s Hebrew as “four winds” (6:5). The blowing of four winds could also serve as the harbinger of the evil world empire (Dan. 7:2–3). Here God prevents the winds from blowing in judgment (Rev. 7:1; cf. 6:13) until he has provided protection for his servants (7:3).

The angel rising “from the east” (7:2) may recall God’s glory returning to his house (Ezek. 43:2) or the eastern orientation of the eschatological temple (46:1, 12; 47:1), or it may imply God’s judgment from the east (Rev. 16:12). But most likely the image points to the rising of the sun (which the Greek here literally says, though it was a common way of saying, “from the east”).12 Greeks and Romans worshiped the sun god, and their myths warned of the scorching or freezing of the earth if he veered from his appointed course; Jews regarded him as merely a powerful angel.13 An angel “from the rising of the sun” might be as powerful as the sun angel, but here his task is simply to pass on a message from God (cf. 19:17). God is sovereign over the sun (cf. 6:12; 7:16; 8:12; 9:2; 16:8; 21:23) as he is over the winds (7:1).

The angel’s “seal” probably implies a signet ring, by which a king could authorize an agent to carry out an activity on his behalf. In this context, it may imply that the angel was one of God’s agents of judgment who initially attested the plagues just mentioned (6:1–7; on those seals, see comment on 5:1–2). Scholars have proposed a variety of interpretations for the image of the sealing of the righteous here. Some cite the marking of soldiers or others on the hand, forehead, or neck; this could relate to the probable image of the 144,000 as God’s army in 14:1–5. The hand and forehead were also the location for the phylacteries, by which God’s servants showed their fidelity to his law.14 Many relate the sealing here to the branding of animals and slaves (cf. Ex. 21:6); this would explain their identity as God’s “servants” (Rev. 7:3; cf. 22:3–4) and the contrast with servants of the world (13:16–18). This view has much to commend it, though only a minority of slaves were branded.15 Because Christians are a kingdom and priests (1:6), John may have thought also of the engraving “like a seal” on the high priest’s forehead, “HOLY TO THE LORD” (Ex. 28:36–38), a fitting contrast to Babylon, whose forehead identifies her as a prostitute (Rev. 17:5), or to servants of the beast (13:16).

The word “seal” (sphragizo) itself can imply a special stamp of ownership or approval, as 4 Ezra declares for the righteous (4 Ezra 6:5) and for Zion (10:23).16 Some use Jewish traditions concerning the tav mark mentioned in Ezekiel 9:4 to suggest the mark of the cross here, but surely John would have been more explicit had he been able to cite this; rather, John envisions the mark as the name of God and the Lamb (Rev. 14:1), the opposite of the name of the beast (13:17–18).17

In any case, the seal does function to attest ownership (Isa. 44:5), and its title contrasts with what is merely a “mark” (Rev. 13:16–17). The most important source for the image is Ezekiel 9, where God marks the righteous remnant to protect them from his judgments.18 God will also set a sign among the surviving remnant of his people and make them witnesses for his glory among the nations (Isa. 66:19). Early Jewish texts also envisioned God’s placing a “sign” on the righteous to protect them from harm in famine and war, whereas the wicked were marked with a “sign” for destruction (Ps. Sol. 15:6–9). As in the plagues of Exodus, to which many of Revelation’s plagues allude, God draws a line of demarcation between his people and the world (Ex. 8:28; 9:4; 11:7).19

Judah may be listed first (7:5–8) as the military leader (cf. 5:5), with most of the others following birth order or pairing with the appropriate brothers.20 Scholars debate why Dan in particular is chosen for omission, since it clearly was not omitted in the biblical prophets (Ezek. 48:1–2). Many point out its associations with idolatry (Judg. 18:30; 1 Kings 12:29), further negative rabbinic traditions about Dan, Dan’s association with Satan in Testament of Dan 5:6, and Irenaeus’ suspicion (possibly based on this passage in Revelation) that the Antichrist would come from Dan.21

But these explanations do not fully satisfy; texts say hard things about Dan, but also about many of the other tribes (e.g., Gen. 49:3–7); Jewish thought normally expected Dan’s repentance (Test. Dan 5:9). Others suggest that the omission was random; one tribe had to be omitted in order to include Levi, Manasseh, and Ephraim separately, yet end up with twelve.22 Perhaps if some tribe had to be omitted, one with more negative associations (see above) than others would be chosen first. The informed reader might think of Dan’s association with a serpent (Gen. 49:16–17; cf. Jer. 8:16–17), which he or she might then link with the serpent of Eden (Gen. 3:1–15), who represents the devil in Revelation 12:9.

Bridging Contexts

READING THE COSMOLOGY of Revelation. How do we read the cosmology of Revelation? Some take parts of it literally (although they cannot maintain this same pattern of interpretation consistently throughout the book). Hal Lindsey, for example, relates God’s stopping the wind in 7:1 to global weather changes now occurring.23 While weather changes do seem to be occurring, it is tenuous to relate such changes to this verse.24 If the winds literally stopped, we would face immediate, terrible environmental consequences, not least of which would presumably be the rapid settling of tons of toxic waste now held in the upper atmosphere, which would suffocate human life from the planet.

One could therefore argue that those who do not expect to be raptured before the Tribulation ought to either start an atmospheric purification program or buy gas masks, but such an approach misses the text’s point. Just as John wrote in the language we call Koine Greek, he communicated in images familiar in his day. Because we speak a different language or use different images today does not change the point his graphic images sought to depict: God rules the cosmos and can protect his people from the consequences of judgments he sends to get the world’s attention.

The 144,000. What is the point of the 144,000 today? Jehovah’s Witnesses, of course, supply one well-known answer, but their method of interpretation here is astonishingly arbitrary. They take the number literally, but the other details (e.g., male Jewish virgins [14:4]) symbolically.25 Given the plethora of symbolic numbers in this book, if any element is more symbolic than the others, it must be the number (cf. comment on 21:16–17)!26

But Jehovah’s Witnesses are not alone in reading their theology into the text. For example, one modern writer contends that the 144,000 cannot represent “the church” because the church is not God’s “servants” (citing John 15:15).27 Yet one wonders what he does with other uses of “servant” in Revelation that plainly refer to Christians (e.g., 1:1; 22:3). Lindsey argues that these are Jewish evangelists converted after the Rapture of the church.28 His view that they are evangelists could be both right and wrong: wrong in that he reads into the text a calling not specified there, but right in that all true believers in Revelation are God’s servants invested with the spirit of prophecy to witness for Christ (19:10).

Some have challenged the view that the 144,000 represent all believers by pointing out that the literal interpretation is not impossible.29 This objection, to be sure, is true, but it does not establish the likelihood of one position over another. The symbolic interpretation is also not impossible, and on the whole probably better fits the nature of Revelation, which revels in insightful symbolism and reinterpreting traditional Jewish end-time symbols.

The probable identity of the 144,000 calls us as believers in Jesus to remember our heritage in God’s dealings with the patriarchs and prophets, our spiritual ancestors, and to recognize our destiny as heirs of the promises given through the prophets to God’s people. It also reminds us of something John probably would have been amazed to discover that the church has since forgotten: the church’s Jewish heritage. Technically, Gentile Christians have not “replaced” Israel or made Israel obsolete (a common sentiment among those who take the 144,000 as symbolic for all Christians), but have been grafted into Israel’s heritage alongside Jewish Christians (cf. Rom. 11).

Contemporary Significance

SEVERAL PRINCIPLES ARE most conspicuous when we read this passage in its context. (1) God views us as his army, yet we triumph through sharing the Lamb’s suffering (Rom. 8:17; 2 Tim. 2:11–13). (2) Nevertheless, we have nothing to fear; God, who is sovereign over his creation, can protect us from plagues. Certainly he shields us from experiencing any troubles as acts of his anger. (3) Finally, God also views us as his people. Ethnic Gentiles, once considered outsiders, are now welcomed (along with Jewish believers) as full converts to Israel’s true faith, hence part of Israel’s promised inheritance (Isa. 56:3–7; Eph. 2:11–13). In sealing us, God proudly marks us as his own.

God as sovereign over history. In this passage we also learn that God is sovereign over the events of history in two ways. (1) He is sovereign in sending his judgments on nature, including the earth, the sea, and the trees (7:1). Traditional religions usually personify trees, rivers, and so forth as containing spirits; this leaves people seeking to propitiate such spirits, fearing offending them.30 Modern secularism, by contrast, denies any power greater and more directed than nature and thus leaves people fearing the random destruction of West Coast earthquakes, Midwest tornadoes, Gulf Coast hurricanes, and so forth. But the Bible assures us that God rules nature.

(2) God can exempt people selectively from his judgments (7:2–3). He did not, as the Deists thought, merely wind up the universe like a clock and let it tick down. He is intimately concerned for his own servants and arranges their protection. One missionary told me of heavy shelling in Brazzaville that ruined most of the large stores and hotels. Many of the Christians and their church’s neighbors crowded into the large church building, and though everything around the church was destroyed, the church remained undamaged.31 Others can tell stories of tornadoes that unexpectedly ripped through their rooms, destroying everything but leaving the Christian family inside unharmed.32

On the level of application, however, this raises the question: What happens when the righteous are not protected?33 For example, a pregnant woman in the Philippines and the child she carried both miraculously survived several shots in her torso from a high-powered weapon at close range—but the other seventeen victims gunned down with her died.34 Emma Moss, daughter of Salvation Army founders William and Catherine Booth, was serving with her husband in the United States when, at a relatively young age, she was the only person to die in a train accident.35 Many of us lamented the loss of Christian musician Keith Green, his pilot, and a missionary family in what appeared to be a senseless plane crash.36 Likewise, three days after I assured Spencer Perkins that I believed God would keep him around for a long time because of his strategic role in the U.S. racial reconciliation movement, he died of a heart attack at the age of forty-three; many of us felt devastated.37 Revelation leads us to expect that many Christians must die martyrs’ deaths, but what about train accidents, plane crashes, and heart attacks?

Sometimes we may face death because we have ignored a proper warning (2 Chron. 35:21–24), sometimes because we failed to discern true from false warnings (1 Kings 13:21–22), sometimes because we disrespect other believers (1 Cor. 11:29–30), but sometimes also because God simply wills to take us home (Deut. 34:4; 1 Kings 2:1). God is also at work in ways we only understand much later. William Wilberforce lost his father at age nine, and his aunt and uncle were childless; but through the combination of these two tragic events, Wilberforce was exposed to the evangelical preaching of abolitionist John Newton.38 Wilberforce ultimately became the leading champion of abolitionism in England until, on his deathbed, slavery was abolished in the British empire. What is most important for us to remember is that not a hair of our head falls to the ground without our Father’s knowledge (Matt. 10:29–31).39 Often in Scripture God healed the infirm; but even when he did not (e.g., 1 Kings 1:1; 14:4; 2 Kings 13:14; Gal. 4:13; 1 Tim. 5:23; 2 Tim. 4:20), believers could trust that he was always faithful and loving.

Victory by proper defense and offense. The picture of the 144,000 as God’s martyr army also challenges us deeply. We usually want to achieve power and overcome by power; God summons us to overcome by weakness. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had long been trying to resist his captors in the Soviet gulag, trying to achieve some semblance of control over his schedule, his food, or other matters. When he became a Christian, he relinquished such attempts at control, hence “became free of even his captors’ power.”40 Likewise, a Hezbollah leader was shocked when Brother Andrew offered his life in exchange for that of a prisoner; the Muslim leader became Brother Andrew’s friend. But observing the lack of commitment among most Christians, he later protested, “Andrew, you Christians … are not following the life of Jesus anymore…. You must go back to the book, the New Testament.” Brother Andrew adds that the teaching of Jesus we must reclaim includes loving our enemies.41 What a radical witness to much of the Islamic world nonviolent martyr Christians could be!

Contemporary North American sermons, Christian music, and personal exhortations regularly encourage Christians to “stand firm” when facing personal needs and trials. While that is a legitimate emphasis, our balance is often wrong. We are God’s army, and this war is not merely a personal matter. A purely defensive strategy can never win a battle or a game; it can at best delay the inevitable. Jesus Christ has not called us merely to stand our ground (Eph. 6:11–14), but also to advance with our feet shod with the gospel (Eph. 6:15). Although Roman soldiers carried two offensive weapons, the pilum or lance and the short sword, Paul lists only one offensive weapon, the one used for close combat: the “word of God” (Eph. 6:17; cf. 1:13). In Paul’s writings this phrase usually means the gospel.

Thus, Christ has called us not to simply preach in our churches, waiting for the lost to come in or the fruits of past revivals to finish dying off; he has challenged us to take the news of our King outside the walls of our churches, to strike offensively as well as stand defensively. “Who wants to enroll in the King’s army?” we proclaim. “Who is prepared to die in hope of eternal life?”

Our spiritual heritage. If our interpretation of the 144,000 is correct, then all God’s servants, Jewish or Gentile, are also viewed through the prism of Israel. That is, Gentile Christians as well as Jewish Christians should recognize their spiritual heritage in the patriarchs and prophets of ancient Israel. This does not mean that God “replaced” Israel with Gentile Christianity; it means that Gentile Christians have been grafted into the heritage of Israel and can speak of Abraham as “our father.” They recognize a spiritual heritage in the history of God’s people that runs deeper than any ethnic heritage to which we might otherwise claim allegiance (Rom. 2:26–29; Gal. 3:29; see also comments on Rev. 20). The omission of Dan may be incidental; but if not, it provides a warning that even those who seem certain to be saved may not appear in the final number if they fail to persevere (Mark 13:22; John 6:70–71).42

Original Meaning

The Identity of the 144,000 (7:4–8)

BUT WHO ARE the 144,000? The matter is open to question, but the form of the text may suggest a census, usually used in the Hebrew Bible to assess military preparation (Num. 1:3, 18, 20; 26:2, 4; 1 Chron. 27:23); this also explains the specification of adult males in 14:4. It further makes sense of why a given number is listed from each tribe (cf. Num. 1:20–47); in a real war one might draft twelve equal contingents from different tribes or regions (Num. 31:4–6; 1 Chron. 27:1–15).2 Battalions of one thousand were also fairly standard units, suggesting “that each tribe supplies twelve battalions of a thousand men each.”3

This vision may thus represent an end-time army, prepared for a spiritual battle (cf. 12:7–9). If so, it may be the army that returns with Jesus in 19:14, clothed with the righteous acts of the saints. The only other time in Revelation where John hears a “number,” it is the number of the world’s army, two hundred million strong (9:16). God’s earthly army may be overwhelmingly outnumbered by the world’s army (9:16; cf. 20:8; but cf. 5:11), but they will surely overcome.

Yet this fact does not solve the question: Who constitutes this army? One view takes them literally as Jewish Christians from each of the twelve tribes, although not usually taking the people all as recruits for the messianic army.4 This view is far more plausible than most of its opponents are willing to grant and has some factors in its favor, most notably the fact that if one speaks of the end-time Jewish remnant, it is difficult to think of a more explicit way to make this clear than to enumerate the tribes. Other images in Revelation may be consonant with this one, especially if the woman in Revelation 12 represents Israel (see 12:6, 17). There is also sufficient biblical precedent for speaking of a massive turning of Jewish people to faith in Christ in the end time (e.g., Rom. 11:25–27; probably Matt. 23:39; cf. Isa. 61:1–9; Jer. 31:15–40; Ezek. 36:8–38; Hos. 2:14–23; 11:8–11; 14:4–7; Amos 9:11–12), and there is no reason to doubt that John as a Jewish Christian would emphasize this view (cf. Rev. 11:8, 13).

Nevertheless, other factors in the text of Revelation itself suggest that John is probably adapting this pattern of a Jewish end-time remnant to portray instead all believers.5 Although he undoubtedly expects an end-time turning of Jewish people as many other early Christian writers did, that need not be his point here; for John all believers have become part of the “lampstands” (see comment on 1:20), part of the “kingdom and priests” (1:6), in contrast to those who falsely claim to be Jews (2:9; 3:9). For John, faith in Jesus and obedience to God’s commandments stand together (cf. 12:17; 14:12); nothing is more in keeping with his Jewish, biblical heritage than affirming Jesus, and nothing more incompatible with that heritage than denying him. Hence for John, Gentiles who believe in Jesus become part of the Jewish movement of faith in Jesus. Two thousand years later, a history of Gentile “Christian” anti-Semitism has made it harder for us to hear about Gentiles being grafted into Israel and about Gentile Christians recognizing the Jewishness of their faith; but John wrote before all those tragic events.

What are the cues in the text that incline us toward the view, shared by most contemporary commentators, that the 144,000 represent all believers? (1) Most important, those to be protected from God’s judgments are his “servants” without qualification (7:3), who everywhere else in Revelation represent all believers or witnesses (1:1; 2:20; 6:11; 10:7; 11:18; 19:2, 5, 10; 22:3, 6, 9). If one takes their ethnicity literally, then one should also take the numbers and other details literally. But if we do that, and if “servants” represents all believers, then the total number of the genuinely saved through history (or, on other readings, through the Tribulation) are limited to 12,000 male Jewish virgins from each tribe (though the passage that specifies 144,000 male virgins does not specify their ethnicity [14:1–5]). If one takes “servants” here in a narrower sense than it usually appears in Revelation (by identifying “prophets” with a special group of believers in 10:7; 22:9), then God affords his special protection only to a group within the church based on their ethnicity, gender, and marital status; all Gentile, female, and married believers must suffer from the plagues (9:4).

(2) The seal on their foreheads (7:3; 14:1) also connects them with all believers (3:12; 22:4; cf. 2 Cor. 1:22; Eph. 1:13; 4:30) and contrasts them with all followers of the beast (Rev. 13:16–17; 14:9, 11; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4).

(3) The 144,000 do not fit the description of literal Israel. Already by John’s day most tribes were “missing,” and while many Jews expected them to be restored, it has since become impossible to genuinely reconstruct from which tribes most Jewish people are descended.6 More important, one of the tribes is missing—in fact, the first who was supposed to receive his inheritance, Dan (7:4–8; cf. Ezek. 48:1).

(4) Revelation emphasizes the Jewishness of all believers (cf. comments on 1:20; 2:9).

(5) The rest of Revelation leads us to expect that the numbers are probably symbolic (twelve, the number of God’s people, squared, times ten cubed). The numbers 12,000 and 144 elsewhere appear for the holy community (21:16–17); the new Jerusalem is laid out as a square and shaped as a cube (21:16). Thus, the 144,000 represent all those destined for the new Jerusalem. Even cumulatively, while these arguments might not prove absolutely decisive, they do weight the case significantly in favor of the 144,000 standing for all true believers in Jesus.7

Given these arguments, it seems simplest to read the second vision here (7:9–17) as another interpretation of the first (7:1–8), as second visions sometimes were (Gen. 41:17–32; Dan. 7:9–22; 4 Ezra 9:38–10:28; 10:38–59). The second vision (see comments on 7:9–17) involves a decisive reinterpretation of a standard Jewish end-time image about the remnant of God’s people, and this resembles the way Revelation teaches elsewhere. John hears about a conquering Lion from the tribe of Judah (5:5), but turns to see instead a slaughtered Lamb (5:6); here John “hears” the number of God’s servants (7:4) but “sees” a countless multitude (7:9). As the conquering Lion turns out to be a slaughtered Lamb, the end-time army of Israel turns out to be the host of martyrs from among the nations.8 Our “holy war” is our faithful, nonviolent witness to the death.9

Bridging Contexts

Contemporary Significance