Revelation 7:2-8 - Then I heard the number of those who were sealed

7:2,3

John then sees another angel, and this angel has the seal of God. This means that he has been given authority by God to execute certain actions. This angel calls out in a loud voice to the other four angels. “Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of God”. God’s people are not at the mercy of random events. We may experience terrible times, as many Christians have done, and still do today, but these happen at God’s decree. So the people of God are to be sealed. We should note that a similar thing happened in Ezekiel 9:4. We should also note that marks on foreheads are not just the preserve of the antiChrist! Nor should we get het up by microchips etc. God never forgets His people.

7:4-8

We now come to the numbers, which always spark off debate. Very roughly there are those who seek to apply a more or less literal interpretation, and then there are those who take a more or less symbolic approach. I tend towards the matter. Also, here we have the issue of whether this is applying to physical Israel or to the church more generally. Again I favour the latter. The way things go under this approach is as follows. The 144 000 represents completeness and Israel. 12 is the number of Israel, and 144 is twelve squared, and 1000 is the cube of ten, ten being the number of completeness. God’s plan was always that all humanity would be blessed (see Gen 12:3). Israel is a kind of microcosm of humanity. So  the full number of Israel will be saved. There are some quirks in the list of tribes. One is that the tribe of Dan is missing. It is generally assumed that this is because of the association of Dan with idol worship. Dan’s place is taken by Manasseh, though Manasseh was only a half tribe.