Revelation 7

While we wait for the Lord of glory to open the seventh seal, we are given more of the story of the church during the New Testament era. It is not only about those who die for their faith. The whole number of the church is being gathered and built up above.

Heaven is in charge of the progress of the Lord's kingdom upon the earth. The agents of destruction are not allowed to go beyond their orders. They are held back until all of the redeemed are marked as those who belong to Him.

The servants of the God of heaven receive a mark on the forehead, a symbol for John's eyes of the invisible seal that we need more than any other mark that man can give to us. We must have the circumcision of the heart, the sealing of the Holy Spirit, which is the possession of all who truly belong to the Lord.

The number of the sealed is first presented to us as the fullness of Israel. The number 12, like the number 7, is used in this book as a number of completeness. Here we have a very large number that comprises the whole of the Israel of God: 12 times 12,000, which is 144,000. The number of a full military unit, 1,000 is now filled out to the perfection of 12,000 for each of the 12 tribes. The symbol of the fullness of the number is paramount, even if God must adjust details of the 12 tribes in order to get there. The tribe of Dan is not included and Joseph is split into two tribes (Joseph and Manasseh) in order to achieve the correct result.

The tribal structures of the Israelites have not been maintained in any purity or with any true historic awareness down to our present generation, but that is not the point at all. The importance of these numbers is to assure us that there will be no one missing from the Israel of God in the fullness of His heavenly kingdom.

The same story of the fullness of the church is then told a second time in the verses that follow, but with a different vision. Now John sees a great multitude beyond our ability to number. They come from every nation, every tribal heritage, every people group, and they speak every language. They are all in heaven before the throne of God and before Jesus, the Lamb of God, who has taken away the sins of the world. They all have the white robes of heavenly purity and beauty. They live in a realm of perfect peace, and they know and proclaim that God is the Author of their salvation.

This is the fullness of the church. Both of these symbolic pictures tell us the same story. God has a plan that includes all of His chosen people. Not one of them will be lost. Yes, the martyrs have their own special mention in the prior chapter, but all who belong to Christ will praise Him in the heights of heaven.

The number of those who are to be the inhabitants of heaven is not a small number. It will include many men and angels, and they are gathering there even now as they await the fulfillment of the Lord's purposes. Then all of the temple of the Holy Spirit will come to earth with our great King. Until that day, the number of the citizens of heaven continues to grow, and all the Lord's servants are worshiping Him together in a place that is not lacking for rest and joy.

Here below we know that there will be war, famine, pestilence, death, and the grave. Here there are enemies of Jesus and His church. Here new martyrs are being added to the number through the hatred and cruelty of those who bring grief and trouble to so many through their murderous threats and schemes. But there is, even now, the rest of the story, a better story, where faithful servants are brought to a place of glorious worship. There they reign with the Lamb, aware of the continued warfare on earth, but overcome with the greatness of the Majesty on high.

On earth now we have one kind of church that has a habit of one posture before God, and another set of true worshipers, perhaps in another country, with another culture, and they won't have anything of that first posture, or that kind of song, or religious ritual. But in heaven it is a different story. There they have angels, elders, living creatures, and expectant holy ones, and they all fall on their faces before the throne of God, ascribing salvation to God and to the Lamb. And they are saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Where did all of these people come from? They came from the tribulation of the New Testament era. They suffered for the Name of Jesus, but now their trials are over. They have been purified through the blood of the Lamb. The death of Christ has taken away their guilt. Every stain of uncleanness that they once had is now gone.

They came from places like Ephesus and Sardis, from Thyatira and Philidelphia, but now they are with Jesus where He lives and reigns. And they are happy in Him. No one can harm them there; no war, no hunger, no disease, no natural disaster, no enemy, and not even any of their own faithlessness or sinful confusion. They are with the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd of the full number of Israel, “and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

This too is a part of the story of the church, and it is part of the message that John sees when Jesus opens the sixth seal. Seeing the heavenly church through John's vision is a great help to us as we seek to be faithful on earth now in a time when suffering and mourning are still a part of our common experience.