Next to the number 666, the number 144,000 is the most
discussed and debated number in the Book of Revelation. Interpretations range from that of The
Watchtower Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who claim that the 144,000 sealed
servants of God refer to members of their organization, to Classic
Dispensationalists who see those thousands as Jews in the last days who are
chosen witnesses during the Great Tribulation[i],
to the growing number of commentators who see the number as symbolic of the
whole company of believers in Christ.
Those in the last category can be divided into two camps: Those who see
the 144,000 as believers from all epochs of redemptive history,[ii] Old
and New Covenants up to the present and on to the culmination of this age; and
those who believe it applies to martyrs during the end-time tribulation and
judgments of God. [iii]
Both of these latter views see the number as symbolic, not
literal. There are good reasons for viewing
this number as symbolic. First, while
the first mention of 144,000 sealed believers lists twelve tribes of Israel
(Rev. 7:4-8), the verses following describe “a
great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes
and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with
a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to
the Lamb!" (Rev. 7:9-10 ESV)
Then in Chapter 14 the 144,000 appear again:
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. (Rev 14:1-3)
It would certainly seem that those who bear the name of
Jesus (“the Lamb”) and God the Father, and who sing the new song are all the
redeemed of God, regardless of ethnic background. Verse 3 also states that they “have been
redeemed from the earth.” Mounce, a
pre-millennialist, states: “The number is obviously symbolic. Twelve (the number of the tribes) is both
squared and multiplied by a thousand – a two-fold way of emphasizing completeness.”[iv] While Mounce limits this “completeness” to “that
generation of faithful believers about to enter the final turbulent period that
will mark the end of human history,” Beale, an amillennarian idealist, sees the
12 x 12 x 1000 as the whole number of believers from Old Testament times
through to the very end. He relates the
number to “the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2 ESV).[v] John consistently uses the title “bride” to refer to the
Church, those for whom He shed his blood on the Cross (John 3:29;[vi]
Rev. 19:7; 21:2, 9; 22:17).
I agree with Beale.
The Holy City described in Revelation 22 clinches it for me. The angel clearly identifies the “city” as “the
Bride, the wife of the Lamb" (Rev. 21:9).
Then he goes on to describe this Bride in richly symbolic terms:
Then
came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last
plagues and spoke to me, saying, "Come, I will show you the Bride, the
wife of the Lamb." And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high
mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a
jasper, clear as crystal. It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at
the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the
sons of Israel were inscribed—on the east three gates, on the north three
gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of
the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the
twelve apostles of the Lamb. And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod
of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. The city lies foursquare,
its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000
stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. He also measured its wall,
144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. (Rev
21:9-17 ESV)
Look at the twelves in that passage! Twelve gates have the names of the twelve
tribes of Israel – a reference to Old Testament believers. The twelve foundations of the wall of the
city bear the names of the twelve apostles – a reference to New Testament
believers. And the wall is 144 cubits –
12 x 12. Multiply 144 by 1,000
(indicating an innumerable company) and you get 144,000, the totality of the
redeemed people of God. And that “city?” Are those measurements literal?
The
city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the
city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. (Rev.
21:16 ESV)
The measurement “stadium” is equal to a furlong, or about 1/8
of a mile.[vii] The
city described would be a cube of 1,500 miles!
Symbolic, don’t you think?
I find great blessing in the grand and glorious plan of God
and its culmination in the glorification of all God’s redeemed children, united
in the presence of God Himself! “Amen. Come,
Lord Jesus!” (Rev. 22:20)
[i]
Walvoord, John F. The Revelation of Jesus
Christ. Chicago: Moody Press, 1971.
[ii]
Hendriksen, William. (1967) More Than
Conquerors. Grand Rapids, Michigan:
Baker Book House, 1967; Beale, G. K. The
Book of Revelation. Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U. K.: William B.
Eermans Publishing Company, 1999.
[iii]
Mounce, Robert H. The Book of Revelation.
Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U. K.: William B. Eardmans Publishing
Company, 1977.
[iv]
Ibid. p. 158.
[v]
Beale, pp. 1076-77
[vi]
This statement of John the Baptist might seem to imply that only the New
Testament Church is the Bride, and that John does not include himself in that
number. The “Bride” is a corporate
designation, not individual. Each believer is not personally “married” to
Christ; each believer is a part of that corporate body that makes up the
Bride. John was simply saying that
Jesus, not John himself, was the Bridegroom.
This does not exclude Old Testament believers from the body that makes
up the “Bride of the Lamb.”
[vii]
American Heritage Dictionary
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