9. The Tribulation People
The One hundred Forty-four Thousand
In this study we are looking at that group of Tribulation people called ‘The One hundred, forty-four Thousand’.
It seems the more I research and study this, the less I know for sure. But I am not alone in this. As I investigate what noted bible scholars have said about this group of people, I discover that there is a broad range of interpretation as to who this group is or represents.
It is good to always start with the literal meaning. That part is simple, God will seal 144,000 Jews in order to protect them from the earth-shaking catastrophes that He will be using to judge the earth.
Let’s read the first few verses that describe this event.
Rev 7:1 ¶ And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea,nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Let’s take these verses apart, a phrase at a time and make sure we are seeing and understanding each of the elements.
- First of all we notice that God is going to be doing something pretty severe on this earth.
We go back to the last part of chapter 6 and there we read about the unfolding of the tribulation. It included deception by a would-be world leader. It included peace taken from the earth. It talked about famine-like conditions over the earth. But in each of these events, we do not particularly attribute these to what God is doing or about to do.
Even when reading about the events that follow the opening of the fifth seal, we do not attribute this to what God is doing, Rather we understand that the intense anger of the antichrist is what results in the many ‘souls’ suddenly appearing under the altar of God in heaven.
But when we read about the opening of the sixth seal, it becomes very clear that it is the upcoming wrath of God that men are fearing. Not only are they in great terror regarding the wrath of God, but we read that they refer to it as The great day of His wrath … In other words, they are not looking toward and fearing an extended time of suffering … they are fearing the end of life as they know it.
Here is a simple chart to review what we have seen so far and a few things we have not looked at yet. (in the mobile app the chart will appear at the wrong place. Sorry.)
In chapter seven we see quite a change as John writes about the 144,000. Seal six brought us right to the end of the tribulation period. But chapter seven goes back to cover the tribulation period again. So we have to ‘rewind’ and make note of a heavenly scene that is taking place mid-trib, just before the coming 1260 days.
-Four angels seem to be in charge of what events will take place at the instructions of God.
-They are told to hold off until the ‘sealing’ is done.
- They are holding on to the ‘four winds’.
This would be a good time to read chapter 7:1-17.
1 ¶ After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
5 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
13 ¶ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
16 “They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;
17 “for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
So how much is symbolic here and how much is literal? -Probably the four angels are real.
- The four winds are not necessarily wind forces, but likely represent potential damage of any kind.
- The ‘four corners’ of the earth are not meant to teach us that the world is flat, but literally means the whole earth and all the parts of it, no matter how remote.
- A fifth angel shows up and tells the others to wait until the servants of God have been sealed, that is, marked for protection from the damage that the four angels are going to do to the earth. The Seal of God… is most likely Invisible.
- We further learn that the 144,000 are servants of God.
- We are given a list of the twelve tribes.
-The 144,000 are said to be virgins. That is, they have never committed spiritual adultery.
But what are some of the various views concerning who these people actually are?
These are:
For example,
At this point in time, I am taking it literally, just because I am not convinced of any of the other views. I have to reconcile the problems as follows: Just because the Jews may not know what their tribe is, God would still know.
How will the selection happen and would will do the selecting? I have no idea, but I assume it will happen.
Are the 144,000 the only believers protected from God’s judgments? What about the huge crowd of tribulation martyrs? Did they experience God’s judgments? I don’t have an answer for that one. This, to me, is the greatest reason that I would say that the tribes are symbolic, and that actually they are one and the same with the innumerable group for all nations, not just Israel. But as I said earlier, I am not there yet. I still hold that they are literal Jews, and the huge Gentile crowd of martyrs in heaven were also sealed from God’s judgments.
Perhaps I should look at it like this: All believers are presently sealed.
Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
No believers are appointed to receive the judgments/wrath of God upon the earth …this includes the tribulation believers. Therefore none of the martyrs had felt or been hurt by any of the trumpet judgments.
The only ones that were NOT sealed by God would be the unbelievers who WERE NOT YET CHRISTIANS, but who had not taken the mark of the beast either. This includes the 144,000 who also were not yet believers, but WILL become believers just before the tribulation through some kind of an awakening. At that point they too will have the seal of God over them, just like any other believers will have the seal of God.
To me this makes the most sense.
There is one other view and that is that the 144,000 are a part of the fleeing remnant, (the woman), who is protected for 1260 days. But in this case they certainly would not be evangelists. And according to other scripture, the remnant (the woman) does not get ‘saved’ or born again, until Jesus returns at the very end. They would not get their ‘seal’ until then. So I doubt this view as well.
The 144,000 as a group are mentioned in Revelation 14 as well.
1 ¶ Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps.
3 They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.
4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
5 And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Here is a wonderful scene of the 144,000 in heaven, standing with Jesus, in front of the Throne of God, they begin to sing.
From this we must identify several things.
- These are portrayed as being male virgins. This seems to be inferring that being a male virgin is a very good thing; that it may be better in fact, than being a female virgin? That it may be better than being a married Christian? I do not believe for a second that this is referring to their physical status. Biblically, for a male to be married to a female is not ‘defiling oneself with women’. We read, Heb 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
- These ‘men’ are virgins in the sense that they have not given in to the allure of selfishness in the world. They have not followed other attractions, but have devoted themselves to the Lord.
- The group was on earth, now they are in heaven.
Jesus will be coming down from heaven soon, and it is doubtful that he would leave the 144,000 in heaven for a thousand years. So, we are correct to assume that He will bring them with Him to earth. Therefore the time period is near the end of the tribulation, but just before Jesus descends to earth. If we want to get more specific, this would be after the 1260 days, but before the next 30 days expire. During this exciting time, with all the tribulation saints in heaven, either through martyrdom or through the ‘gathering to the judgment’ at the seventh trumpet call, with all the 144,000 present in heaven, also either by martyrdom or by having been taken up at the trumpet call, … during this exciting time the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven.
- The 144,000 are called the ‘firstfruits’. In what sense, we are not told. We are told that Christ is actually ‘the firstfruits’.
1Co 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
So once again, we have to resort to a bit of guessing. At Jesus’ resurrection a number of old testament ‘saints’ were raised at the same time as He was raised. As far as we know, they ascended with Him up to heaven. I would call these ‘firstfruits’
But the 144,000 are living and serving specifically in the tribulation period. Therefore they must be firstfruits out of the tribulation. But why all the other gentile tribulation saints are not also firstfruits … I don’t know.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
How wonderful, how marvelous is that statement. While it is true of this group of servants … It is also true of all our loved ones who have gone to be with Jesus. When we leave this earth, we leave our earthly track record behind. Our loved ones are in his presence, holy and without blemish.
There will be differences as far as what we have done with our time while we served down here. Some will receive a full reward, and some not. But it will still be true, at that point we will be without deceit, and without fault before the throne of God.
It seems the more I research and study this, the less I know for sure. But I am not alone in this. As I investigate what noted bible scholars have said about this group of people, I discover that there is a broad range of interpretation as to who this group is or represents.
It is good to always start with the literal meaning. That part is simple, God will seal 144,000 Jews in order to protect them from the earth-shaking catastrophes that He will be using to judge the earth.
Let’s read the first few verses that describe this event.
Rev 7:1 ¶ And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea,nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Let’s take these verses apart, a phrase at a time and make sure we are seeing and understanding each of the elements.
- First of all we notice that God is going to be doing something pretty severe on this earth.
We go back to the last part of chapter 6 and there we read about the unfolding of the tribulation. It included deception by a would-be world leader. It included peace taken from the earth. It talked about famine-like conditions over the earth. But in each of these events, we do not particularly attribute these to what God is doing or about to do.
Even when reading about the events that follow the opening of the fifth seal, we do not attribute this to what God is doing, Rather we understand that the intense anger of the antichrist is what results in the many ‘souls’ suddenly appearing under the altar of God in heaven.
But when we read about the opening of the sixth seal, it becomes very clear that it is the upcoming wrath of God that men are fearing. Not only are they in great terror regarding the wrath of God, but we read that they refer to it as The great day of His wrath … In other words, they are not looking toward and fearing an extended time of suffering … they are fearing the end of life as they know it.
Here is a simple chart to review what we have seen so far and a few things we have not looked at yet. (in the mobile app the chart will appear at the wrong place. Sorry.)
In chapter seven we see quite a change as John writes about the 144,000. Seal six brought us right to the end of the tribulation period. But chapter seven goes back to cover the tribulation period again. So we have to ‘rewind’ and make note of a heavenly scene that is taking place mid-trib, just before the coming 1260 days.
-Four angels seem to be in charge of what events will take place at the instructions of God.
-They are told to hold off until the ‘sealing’ is done.
- They are holding on to the ‘four winds’.
This would be a good time to read chapter 7:1-17.
1 ¶ After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:
5 of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
6 of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
7 of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
8 of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed; of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands,
10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11 All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
12 saying: “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, Thanksgiving and honor and power and might, Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
13 ¶ Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them.
16 “They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat;
17 “for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
So how much is symbolic here and how much is literal? -Probably the four angels are real.
- The four winds are not necessarily wind forces, but likely represent potential damage of any kind.
- The ‘four corners’ of the earth are not meant to teach us that the world is flat, but literally means the whole earth and all the parts of it, no matter how remote.
- A fifth angel shows up and tells the others to wait until the servants of God have been sealed, that is, marked for protection from the damage that the four angels are going to do to the earth. The Seal of God… is most likely Invisible.
- We further learn that the 144,000 are servants of God.
- We are given a list of the twelve tribes.
-The 144,000 are said to be virgins. That is, they have never committed spiritual adultery.
But what are some of the various views concerning who these people actually are?
These are:
- Believing Jews from the 12 tribes
- The church during the tribulation
- The true believers from the beginning of time
- Equivalent to the innumerable crowd from every tribe.
For example,
- The list of tribes is unique from any other list of tribes in the bible, so it is concluded that this account is symbolic and not literal. (The tribe of Dan is omitted from the list of tribes. Likely because the tribe was associated with idolatry/spiritual adultery.)
- Jews don’t know which tribe they are from, so how would they know which group of 12 to join?
- How could the number be so exact, and who supervises and organizes the selection of ‘virgins’?
At this point in time, I am taking it literally, just because I am not convinced of any of the other views. I have to reconcile the problems as follows: Just because the Jews may not know what their tribe is, God would still know.
How will the selection happen and would will do the selecting? I have no idea, but I assume it will happen.
Are the 144,000 the only believers protected from God’s judgments? What about the huge crowd of tribulation martyrs? Did they experience God’s judgments? I don’t have an answer for that one. This, to me, is the greatest reason that I would say that the tribes are symbolic, and that actually they are one and the same with the innumerable group for all nations, not just Israel. But as I said earlier, I am not there yet. I still hold that they are literal Jews, and the huge Gentile crowd of martyrs in heaven were also sealed from God’s judgments.
Perhaps I should look at it like this: All believers are presently sealed.
Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Eph 1:14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Eph 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
No believers are appointed to receive the judgments/wrath of God upon the earth …this includes the tribulation believers. Therefore none of the martyrs had felt or been hurt by any of the trumpet judgments.
The only ones that were NOT sealed by God would be the unbelievers who WERE NOT YET CHRISTIANS, but who had not taken the mark of the beast either. This includes the 144,000 who also were not yet believers, but WILL become believers just before the tribulation through some kind of an awakening. At that point they too will have the seal of God over them, just like any other believers will have the seal of God.
To me this makes the most sense.
There is one other view and that is that the 144,000 are a part of the fleeing remnant, (the woman), who is protected for 1260 days. But in this case they certainly would not be evangelists. And according to other scripture, the remnant (the woman) does not get ‘saved’ or born again, until Jesus returns at the very end. They would not get their ‘seal’ until then. So I doubt this view as well.
The 144,000 as a group are mentioned in Revelation 14 as well.
1 ¶ Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads.
2 And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps.
3 They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.
4 These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
5 And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
Here is a wonderful scene of the 144,000 in heaven, standing with Jesus, in front of the Throne of God, they begin to sing.
From this we must identify several things.
- These are portrayed as being male virgins. This seems to be inferring that being a male virgin is a very good thing; that it may be better in fact, than being a female virgin? That it may be better than being a married Christian? I do not believe for a second that this is referring to their physical status. Biblically, for a male to be married to a female is not ‘defiling oneself with women’. We read, Heb 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.
- These ‘men’ are virgins in the sense that they have not given in to the allure of selfishness in the world. They have not followed other attractions, but have devoted themselves to the Lord.
- The group was on earth, now they are in heaven.
Jesus will be coming down from heaven soon, and it is doubtful that he would leave the 144,000 in heaven for a thousand years. So, we are correct to assume that He will bring them with Him to earth. Therefore the time period is near the end of the tribulation, but just before Jesus descends to earth. If we want to get more specific, this would be after the 1260 days, but before the next 30 days expire. During this exciting time, with all the tribulation saints in heaven, either through martyrdom or through the ‘gathering to the judgment’ at the seventh trumpet call, with all the 144,000 present in heaven, also either by martyrdom or by having been taken up at the trumpet call, … during this exciting time the marriage supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven.
- The 144,000 are called the ‘firstfruits’. In what sense, we are not told. We are told that Christ is actually ‘the firstfruits’.
1Co 15:20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
1Co 15:23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.
So once again, we have to resort to a bit of guessing. At Jesus’ resurrection a number of old testament ‘saints’ were raised at the same time as He was raised. As far as we know, they ascended with Him up to heaven. I would call these ‘firstfruits’
But the 144,000 are living and serving specifically in the tribulation period. Therefore they must be firstfruits out of the tribulation. But why all the other gentile tribulation saints are not also firstfruits … I don’t know.
Rev 14:5 And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.
How wonderful, how marvelous is that statement. While it is true of this group of servants … It is also true of all our loved ones who have gone to be with Jesus. When we leave this earth, we leave our earthly track record behind. Our loved ones are in his presence, holy and without blemish.
There will be differences as far as what we have done with our time while we served down here. Some will receive a full reward, and some not. But it will still be true, at that point we will be without deceit, and without fault before the throne of God.