144,000, Who Are They?
“And I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” – REV 7:4. NASB
One of the most fascinating puzzles in the Book of Revelation is what to do with the eye-catching number 144,000. What or who does this group represent and what difference might that make to those of us who read this text today?
The most obvious thing in the text, perhaps, is that the number is derived by multiplying 12x 12x 1000. The 12s represent the 12 tribes of Old Testament Israel, 12,000 coming from each tribe, thus reaching a total of 144,000.
The context of the number is symbols and so the number should be understood to be the same. 12 is the kingdom number. In V:4 John hears a number and in V9 he looks and sees a great multitude that could not be numbered.
A point of interest is the names: the list is out of order. In the four lists given in the Old Testament Reuben, the oldest son is always first. Here also Dan (the idolater) is missed out and one of the sons of Joseph (Manasseh) is put in his place. Hebrew names all have meanings. Judah means ‘praise’ Reuben means ‘behold a son’, Gad means ‘fortune’, Asher means ‘happy’, Naphttali means ‘wrestling’, Manasseh means ‘causing forgetfulness’, Simeon means ‘hearing’, Levi means ‘joined’, Issachar means ‘reward’, Zebulun means ‘dwelling’, Joseph means ‘increaser’, and Benjamin means ‘son of the right hand.’ If you place the Hebrew names in the order presented Revelation 7 (from right to left as Hewbrew was read,) you get a sentence that reads something like this: “Praise. Behold a group of sons, a blessed company who are happy after wresting with (sin or God), forgetting the past and now hearing God’s word, being joined to him and about to receive the reward of dwelling in God’s presence with added joys as sons of His right hand.”
So the 144,000 represents the people of God as a whole. In the Book of Revelation Israel is expanded to include those who are disciples of the Lamb in their allegiance to the Messiah. In the New Jerusalem (see Revelation 21) each gate represents one of the twelve tribes of Israel and each foundation represents one of the twelve apostles (see Matt 19:28). So the 144,000 is not some elite group that leaves most of us out. It is a symbol of everyone who has ever been faithful to the God of Israel, no matter when or where (Revelation 7:9).
Thankyou so much for your explanations of Revelation. Debbie.
Thank you for enjoying the series Debbie.
My Pleasure Debbie
Morning Ross, we appreciate the time you take each day to go through Revelation. My question is how do you arrive at the 144000 and the great multitude being one and the same. What do you do with the fact that the 14400 don’t see death and are alive when Jesus comes as Rev 14:3 says they are redeemed from the earth, you don’t redeem something that has died. They sing a song that the rest ( the great multitude can’t sing) they are able to live without a mediator (a special group).There is much more I could say and happy to discuss with you my friend. On a mathematical point though, I find it very interesting that there are literally 7 churches
literally 4 horses ,literally 3 angels messages ,literally 7 plagues. All the numbers actually mean the number it says and I find it so out of character that one number in all of Revaluation doesn’t mean it’s actually a real number. What’s important is the message attached to the number. Actually it is a very believable number as there were only 8 people on the boat. God’s blessings cheers Garry
Thank you Gary. This subject will come up again in Revelation 14, but I offer you the following explanations here. Firstly the 7’s (churches etc) are all symbolic of periods of time (and other things I explained in the series), the 7 plagues are talking about literal things in a symbolic way etc. If we take the number literally (combining information from Revelation 14) then we have 12,000 male virgin Jews from every tribe of Israel. That would exclude you and I. In v4 John ‘heard,’ in v9 he ‘saw.’ The great multitude have come out of the great tribulation v14-17 and are now standing before the throne. The 4 horses are symbolic,(coming from Zechariah’s vision) the 3 angels are symbolic of 3 messages, in fact in Bible numerology every number between 12 and 13 has a symbolic meaning. The number 144,000 is surrounded with symbolism, especially the number 12 squared. Thank you for your question.
Ross for taking the time to explain Revelation to us in a way that it makes it easier to understand God bless you 🙏 doing this for us 🙏 Robyn
Thanks Robyn