"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 shouldnot blow on the earth, nor on the sea, not on any tree. 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, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea, not the trees, till we shall have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heared the number of them which were sealed, . . . an hundred and forty and four thousand, of all the tribes of the children of Israel" (Revelation 7:1-4).
I never thought that I would ever have anything to say about the 144,000 for two reasons. First, already to much confusion ligers about the topic. Second, it didn't seem to offer an encouragement, and I had enough to worry about without wondering how I could be among the 144,000. Thus I, like many others, dismissed it as a mystery, a subject to leave alone. Then one day, as I seriously considered the closing events of the controversy, two questions came to me. First, what did God have in mind? Up to then I had felt that we should stay away from the topic. Now it occured to me that God must have wanted to tell us something. If we ignore it, we obviously would not recieve His message. Second, I thought, could it be that Satan doesn't want us to understand the subject? I concluded that there must be something that we need to knowas we face the final showdown between God and Satan. With that in mind, let us consider first the distinctive features of the message about the 144,000, and then, the nature of the message itself.
We must understand two particular aspects about the passage under consideration before we can appreciate the message's nature. The first distinctive feature is that the tribes of Israel referred to are not after the flesh but the spirit. Revelaiton 7 does not refer to literal or physical Israel, but to spiritual Israel as is apparen from three considerations:
The first stems from the language itself. In verse 4 the word tranlated "children," "children of Israel," refers not only to physical lineage but also to spiritual dignity. So from the language itself we find that the tribes of Israel need not be physical but can be spiritual.
The second line of evidence comes from other passage of Scripture. We read in Romans 2:28,29: "He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, . . . in the spirit, and not in the letter." Romans 9:6-8 states, "They are not Israel, which are of Israel; neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children. . . . That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed."
The third type of supoort for a spiritual Israel comes from Ellen G. White. "That which God proposed to do for the world through Israel, the chosen nation," she writes, " He will finally accomplish through His church on earth today. He has 'let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen,' even to His covenant-keeping people, who faithfully 'render Him the fruits in their seasons.' Never has the Lord been without true representatives on this earth who have made His interests their own. These witnesses for God are numbered among the spiritual Israel, and to them will be fulfilled all the covenant promises made by Jehovah to His ancient people" (PK 713,714).
"We are numbered with Israel," she states elsewhere. "All the instruction given the Israelites of old concerning the education and training of their children, all the promises of blessing through obedience, are for us" (MH 405).
Three lines of evidence suggest that the tribes of Israel referred to are not physical but spiritual.
A second distinctive feature which we must keep in mind before we can discover the message of the 144,000 is that the number itself is not literal but symbolic. Consider four main avenues of evidence.
The first is perhaps the weakest, yet it immediately catches our attention. It is the evidence from logic. I would not use it as the main support for a symbolic interpretation, but I think our Lord wants us to make sense out of Scripture. And when we see something on the surface which seems incongruous with the nature of reality, it makes us pause and ask, "Just what does God have in mind?" The exat number of 144,000 sounds unrealistice. Twelve thousand from tribes which no longer exist? Life just doesn't fit into such precise molds. While it is not the most powerful argument, if you reflect on it for a moment, it does sound as though the literal number doesn't quite fit.
The second indication comes from the purposes of God as revealed in Scripture. Related and pertinent to the problem are two paramount facts from Holy Writ. The first is that we have free choice. Many Bibilical references offer options to man: "Whosoever will," "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve," etc. A second paramount fact is that salvation is open. God does not close it with any arbitrary decisions on His part. So it does not seem that a literal number which from logic sounds almost arbitrary would fit into God's intentions.
An interesting incident in 1 Kings 19:14, 18 suggests the fallacy of attempting to place a specific number on the people of God. We hear Elijah talking, "I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts; because the children of Israel have foresaken thy convenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left." "There's only one and that's me," Elijah said.
And God replied, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unti Baal."
It seems as if an attempt to limit God's people to a specific number clashes witht eh Lord's overall purposes, which include free choice and an open salvation. To have a closed number would appear to abridge our freedom and open salvation.
The third line of evidence that would suggest the number 144,000 is not literal but symbolic comes from the nature of the passage itself. We get some spacific views in verses 1 and 3: 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, . . . saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the tress, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Now, if you press it into a literal mold, you destroy its message. The language itself implies more than just a literal interpretation. Comparing verse 4 with verse 9 gives us another clue. In verse 4 John said he heard the number144,000, but in verse 9 when he observed the group he said, "Behold, . . a great multitude, which no man could number."
Symbolism in numbers occurs quite frequently in Scripture. For instance, consider the number of angels. Daniel 7:10 tells that "thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him," If you take that literally you will come out with some kind of a figure with a lot of zeros. But now look at revelation 5:11 regarding the same scene of angels about the throne of God: "And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels, round about the throne: . . . and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands." John doesn't say how many thousands. It almost sound like he is reaching for something a little bit beyond him. And when we read in Hebrews 12:22 about "an innumerable company of angels," we have our clue. The Bible writers were not trying to label the angels in terms of specific nymbers, but in a general sense they emphasized the fact that there were so many of the beings that pne just couldn't count them. And yet to suggest this they used numbers. They employed language appropriate for finite understanding.
Hear what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:19: "Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue." Do the numbers five or ten thousand have anything sacred about them? Is that the essence of the message, or are we to see a figurative contrast? What about the message of forgiveness discussed in Matthew 18:21, 22? Peter asked our Lord, "When a brother sins against me, is it enough to forgive him seven time?"
