124 REVELATION 7 been about 42,000, but at least 1/3 of this number are wives with household responsibilities. If we include international missionaries from the Third World, the number rises to just over 100,000, with 30,000 wives included. Nothing has ever compared to a 144,000 army of single servants of their Messiah.) These Jewish servants are described in Rev 14:1-5 as “…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. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.” These were the first ones who accepted Jesus as their Messiah at sometime in the first 3 ½ years of the Tribulation. During the catastrophes of the first half of the Tribulation these men are proven and found to be faithful. The mark on their forehead is to protect them from the judgments to follow the seventh seal. The only indication of their objective is seen in their title as “servants of our God” (7:3) and the phrase they “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (14:4), thus they become a “Christ follower” or disciple. Do these descriptions indicate that they are missionary evangelists who will preach the gospel to every people group? How were they saved? How did they gain their Bible knowledge especially the NT? How are they different from the early Jewish evangelists of the NT who took nearly 20 years before they were interested in evangelizing the Gentiles? (See Acts 11:19). How could they travel over the globe after the disasters of the 5th Seal? How could they learn the two to four thousand languages that are yet unreached in so short a time, under horrendous conditions of the second half of the Tribulation? The author sees this group as a powerful ministry to the Jewish people in Israel or wherever they are located that may well result in the Jewish people understanding of the Messiah so that when they see Him come again the nation is born in a day! (Rom 11:26). Reflection: Does this text indicate that these 144,000 are the key to world evangelism? If they are not, who will finish this task then? B. THE 144,000 ISRAELITES IDENTIFIED
7:4-9
“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