Revelation 7:4

And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

Who are these 144,000? They are the saved of earth, servants of God just mentioned by the angel, particularly the Christians of all ages until the end of time. This meaning alone could have had any comfort at all for the suffering saints who first received this prophecy. The idea that John here comforted the Christians who were in the throes of a great tribulation brought upon them by the fleshly Jews who had murdered the Messiah and hindered the truth all over the world, with a vision of such a vast company of saved and redeemed Jews (literally) is absolutely preposterous. See chapter introduction, above, under (1).

Theories which would read these 144,000 as, "the total number of the martyrs that must be completed before the prayers of those in heaven (Revelation 6:11) could be answered,"[30] are equally preposterous and are founded upon an inadequate conception of God who simply cannot be properly viewed as approving any specified number of martyrs. It is not martyrs that God desires, but Christians. Furthermore, the sealed here are not called martyrs.

The theory that these 144,000 are literal Jews from racial Israel is attractive to some, and was ably advocated by Seiss:

When God says "children of Israel," I do not understand him to mean any but people of Jewish blood, be they Christians or not. And when he speaks of the twelve sons of Jacob, and gives the names of the tribes, it is impossible for me to believe that he means Gentiles in any sense or degree, whether they be believers or not.[31]

The blindness of this view is identical with that of the Pharisees who claimed to be sons of Abraham (and, literally, they were); but Jesus said, "If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham" (John 8:39). John's .calling the church the twelve tribes of Israel came directly from the lips of Jesus (Matthew 19:28); and therefore "fleshly Israel," called by Jesus himself "the children of the devil" (John 8:44), simply cannot fit into this passage in any way. That our interpretation entails come difficulty is freely admitted. Smith called this, "a passage of unusual difficulty";[32] but the difficulty of trying to make the tribes of literal Israel fit the meaning here is far more difficult.

The 144,000 ... This is a number made up of 12 10:12 10:1,000. Earlier in Revelation we had a number made up of 12 + 12, that of the "four and twenty elders" (Revelation 4:4); but here the "twelve" is multiplied by itself, and then again by a thousand, indicating completeness and perfection in the ultimate degree. What is meant? "That not one of those who are worthy shall be overlooked or forgotten."[33] It also carries the thought that the natural universe, the powers of evil, and the ravages of time shall not interfere with God's plans until all are accomplished. Therefore, the 144,000 are a symbol of the total number of the redeemed, a definite number, unknown to us, but surely known by God. It is the same as "the innumerable company" of Revelation 7:9.

Twelve tribes ... Why are they listed? First, the number "twelve" is a sacred number. There were twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles, twelve foundations of the eternal city, twelve gates, twelve angels at the gates, twelve manner of fruits on the tree of life, twelve seasons in the year when the fruits were yielded, and twelve stars in the crown of the glorious woman arrayed with the sun! Are these literally the twelve sons of Jacob? How could they be? The ten northern tribes had already been lost for centuries when John wrote. Dan is not mentioned here, nor is Ephraim; but Joseph which includes both Ephraim and Manasseh is listed. As Beckwith said, "Nineteen different arrangements of these names are found in the Old Testament, with none of which does this list agree."[34] If these are understood as literal tribes, it would mean that exactly the same number would be saved from each one; and what kind of a straitjacket is that? It would also have to mean that none will be saved from the tribe of Dan. Thus we are driven to the conclusion reached by Roberts: "The 144,000 must represent the whole church of the New Testament as spiritual Israel."[35] No satisfactory explanation of this irregular list has ever been offered, unless it is this, "John intends to say that the twelve tribes of Israel are not literal Israel, but the true spiritual Israel, which is the church."[36] Foy E. Wallace, Jr., also agreed that, "They signify the whole faithful church, the total number of the redeemed."[37] Regarding the question of why, then, should John have broken the 144,000 into twelve tribes, Bruce thought he did so in order, "to emphasize that the church is the true Israel of God, and that the number represents the sum total of the faithful."[38] "The reference to the twelve tribes is therefore accommodative, as in James 1:1."[39] Besides all this, to bring racial considerations into the interpretation of this prophecy "seriously complicates the book of Revelation by bringing in racial considerations that no longer exist."[40]

Bruce, Caird, and others apply the sealing of the 144,000 to martyrs only, but there is no way we could agree with this. (See discussion in the chapter introduction.) The placement of Judah at the head of the list of twelve tribes was thought by McDowell to be due to the fact that Christ was of the tribe of Judah;[41] but since all Christians, being "in Christ" would thus belong to that tribe, it would have to imply that only twelve thousand could be saved from the tribe of Judah, including all the Christians who ever lived! These, and many other considerations, demand a spiritual interpretation of these twelve tribes.

Still another question regards the purpose of the sealing, whether it was to exempt the sealed from tribulation, or to preserve the saved safely through tribulation. Since there is not a line in the New Testament, nor in the experience of any Christian through out history, of any exemption of the Lord's people from tribulation, the conclusion is mandatory that the safety of the soul through tribulation is meant. See more on this in the chapter introduction under (3). As McGuiggan said:

Does this sealing assure saints of physical preservation? No! In the Old Testament vision of Ezekiel 9, we read of others who were sealed, but many of them died. Both Lindsay and Walvoord say that this means the 144,000 are physically preserved; but it did not mean that in Ezekiel; then why should it mean that here? Where is the proof?[42]

[30] Martin Rist, op. cit., p. 419.

[31] J. A. Seiss, The Apocalypse Lectures on the Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1900), pp. 405,406.

[32] Wilbur M. Smith, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1070.

[33] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 207.

[34] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 542.

[35] J. W. Roberts, op. cit., p. 71.

[36] George Eldon Ladd, op. cit., p. 114.

[37] Foy E. Wallace, Jr. The Book of Revelation (Nashville: Foy E. Wallace, Jr., Publications, 1966), p. 100.

[38] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969), p. 645.

[39] E. M. Zerr, Bible Commentary, Vol. 6 (Marion, Indiana: Cogdill Foundation, 1954), p. 311.

[40] Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), p. 168.

[41] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 97.

[42] Jim McGuiggan, op. cit., p. 112.