Revelation 7
“Of those whom Thou hast given Me I lost not one” (John 18:9).
7:1-8. In 6:12-17, John in his vision saw a scene of judgment coming upon the godless without remedy. Now he sees the first of two symbolic pictures showing what happens to God’s elect during this time. This first scene shows their ingathering from the earth.
7:1-3. Were it not for the sake of the elect, destruction would come upon the world of the ungodly immediately. As it is, it (repeatedly) begins to come, and then is held in check. We see this in the fall of Jerusalem, that great type of the last judgment (Mt. 24:22; also cf. 2 Pet. 3:7-9, 15).
The angel that ascends from the rising of the sun (2) is sent to seal those who serve the Lord by the Sun of Righteousness who rises with healing in his wings (Mal. 4:2; cf. Luke 1:78, 79).
The seal on the foreheads; those who belong to God and the Lamb carry his mark. Their mindset is different from the world, and it marks them out in a way that is visible to all. This is the Holy Spirit changing the heart, and sealing us in Christ (cf. Ezek. 9:4; Ro. 8:5-7; 1 Cor. 2:16; Gal. 6:17; Eph. 1:13, 14; 4:30).
7:4-8. The number of the sealed is a symbol for the entire multitude of God’s elect. This is not Israel after the flesh, but the Israel of God, i.e., all the true sons of Abraham by faith (Ro. 2:28, 29; Gal. 3:7, 6:16). It includes all the saved of both OT and NT dispensations. The formula of the symbol is thus 12 x 12 x 1000 = 144,000.
One oddity here that I speculate may merely point to this not being Israel after the flesh, but spiritual Israel, is the way the “Tribes” are listed. Judah is listed first, being the tribe of the church’s King. Normally, after coming out of Egypt, Levi is not listed, because they received their inheritance scattered among the other twelve tribes. The number twelve was maintained by Joseph receiving the double portion for his two heirs, Ephraim and Manasseh. Here, Manasseh is named, Joseph replaces Ephraim’s name, Levi receives his own share, and Dan is excluded. Perhaps Levi now receives his share in the same way as the others because the typical priesthood Levi once held has been replaced by the once for all work of our great high priest (Heb. 7:12, 21; 9:11; 10:9, 10). As for the meaning of the exclusion of Dan, we remember that one apostle was also excluded and replaced. What this means, I don’t know, but it should remind the “elect” not to be presumptuous. “Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?” (John 6:70).
7:9-12. In this second symbolic picture, the scene shifts from earth to heaven, and now the redeemed are seen not as a symbolic number, but as an innumerable multitude made up of men of every kind. As Thomas Boston once said, Christ died “for all sorts of men, not for all of every sort.” Any can be saved, but not all are. This great multitude is not everybody, but everybody who bears the brand marks of the Lamb, and who are clothed in robes washed white in his blood (7:14; cf. 3:4, 5). (Palm branches; Feast of ingathering or booths; cf. Lev. 23:39, 40; John 12:13). A traveler in these dry and thirsty lands knows what palm trees in the distance mean. It would literally be a tree of life growing by the waters of life (cf. 2:7; 22:1, 2). In v.10, the multitude gives glory to God and the Lamb for the salvation God has brought. All the angels gathered around, and the elders and the four living creatures who have seen what God’s salvation has accomplished, fall down and worship, saying amen to it, and giving sevenfold praise to God (11-12).
7:13-17. The elder here explains the meaning of this vision to John. These redeemed have come out of the great tribulation of life in a fallen world that is under judgment. As the six seals were broken, they suffered along with the world, and from the persecutions of the world, but now the Lamb in the center of the throne is their shepherd, and every tear is wiped from their eyes. Nothing shall ever harm them again. (See 8:1 for the breaking of the seventh seal.)