Revelation
6:16, 17 They called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide
us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. 17For
the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
We saw
from previous verses that everybody would witness the rolling back of the sky
and the removal of the mountains and islands. It is such a frightful sight that
they call out to the mountains and the rocks to fall on them. They see the
terrible judgment that is about to be executed. Their cry is not a cry of
repentance, but a cry to escape the wrath of the One sitting on the throne.
They admit that the great day of God’s wrath has come; they admit that they
cannot stand against that wrath.
It is a
classic example of the unrepentant heart of the reprobate, that even in the
face of their destruction, they would not plead for mercy, but rather call for
the mountains to fall on them.
It is a
battle cry of the charismatic movements that all men received the merits of
Christ, if they should just choose to receive it. But here we see their
unrepentant hearts: while they see their destiny face-to-face they cannot
repent. These images that John witnessed parallel with what Jesus said in
Matthew 25:41-46
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who
are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For
I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me
nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I
needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did
not look after me.
44They
also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or
needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45He
will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least
of these, you did not do for me.’ 46Then they will go away to
eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
It is
interesting to note their reply in verse 44. It’s not ‘We are sorry, Lord.
Forgive us.’ It’s ‘when did we do what you accuse us of?’ or ‘why are you
accusing us falsely?’ ‘Why, Lord, are you lying to everybody?’ We know this
because they respond to Jesus’ charges: where did we ‘not help you?’ They know Jesus is the Almighty God,
incapable of lying; yet they show no regard.
Jesus responds with ‘I tell you the truth…’ confirming what we deduce
from their denial, that they accuse Jesus of falsely charging them.
Now, if
the reprobate are incapable of repentance when they face the Lord Almighty,
when they are inches from their destruction, and they have but a mere moment to
petition one last plight, why do they not repent? Isn’t it, then, crystal clear
why Jesus wouldn’t intercede for them in his high priestly prayer? If He
wouldn’t intercede for them in prayer, why would we assume that He spilt his
blood for them? Why would we believe that Jesus died for all men and the
application of his precious sacrifice was left to the fickle heart of men?
No, Jesus
died for those whom he knew and loved from before creation. He loved them
because they were his brothers and sisters. The others he held back from the
tree of life with parables and a flaming sword.
John sees
the same thing here where they cry out to the mountains and rocks “Fall on us
and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath
of the Lamb.” Truly a fulfillment of what Jesus said in Matthew 25.
The
reprobate find it more acceptable to be killed by the mountains and the falling
rocks than to face the One on the throne.
Hosea 10:8 The high places of wickedness will be destroyed--it is
the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills,
"Fall on us!”
Psalm 2:9 – 12 You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will
dash them to pieces like pottery. 10Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth. 11Serve the LORD with fear and
rejoice with trembling. 12Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be
destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all
who take refuge in him.
Psalm 14:5 There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is
present in the company of the righteous.
Psalm 21:9 -12 At the time of your appearing you will make them
like a fiery furnace. In his wrath the LORD will swallow them up, and his fire
will consume them. 10You will destroy their descendants from the
earth, their posterity from mankind. 11Though they plot evil against
you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed. 12For you will
make them turn their backs when you aim at them with drawn bow.
Psalm 110:5, 6 The Lord is at your right hand; he will crush kings
on the day of his wrath. 6He will judge the nations, heaping up the
dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
Jeremiah 8:3 Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this
evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the LORD Almighty.
Matthew 26:64 "Yes,
it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the
future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One
and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Luke 23:30 Then 'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on
us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!"'
II Thessalonians 1:8, 9 He will punish those who do not know God
and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and
from the majesty of his power.
In verse
16 the reprobate admit that the wrath of the Lamb is at hand, which means that
they recognize Jesus as the One who made the sacrifice and they have no part in
the merits thereof. One cannot testify that Jesus is the Lamb without also
admitting that He was slain; and one cannot admit that he is the slain One
without also admitting that his slaughter has produced the merits proclaimed in
the gospel. So, they knew not only who Jesus was, as the demon loudly
proclaimed in
Matthew 8:29 "What do you want with us, Son of God?"
they shouted. "Have you come here to torture us before the appointed
time?”
They also
knew his mission and purpose: that He is the Lamb to be slain for the elect.
The elect are those who repented, not a single one was plucked out of His hand.
They all repented and the reprobate witnessed the repentance of the elect even
during their lives on earth; and they did nothing. They witnessed them going to
the places of assembly and celebrate the sacraments; and they did nothing. They
witnessed the elect overcoming the most heinous of sins and devastating
afflictions yet retaining and growing in their faith; and they did nothing. It
is no wonder that they did nothing on earth where things were given to all as
through a dark mirror because even in the light of the Lord, face-to-face, they
did not get it.
It is
Jesus who had the authority and power to open the seals containing the will of
the Father and execute that will to the letter according to the good pleasure
of the Father. Just as Jesus Christ created everything that has ever been
created, so does He continue to perfectly execute the will of the Father. And
these seals contain the fulfillment of the wrath that God was patiently
delaying so that all of the elect can repent and be saved. Jesus created
everything; He is also the Judge over everything in this final court drama at
the end of time. “The great day of
their wrath has come.”
Matthew 26:64 "Yes,
it is as you say," Jesus replied. "But I say to all of you: In the
future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One
and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Acts 17:29 - 31 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we
should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an
image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked
such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31for
he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has
appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the
dead."
II Peter 3:9, 10 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as
some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish,
but everyone to come to repentance. 10But the day of the Lord will
come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be
destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Isaiah 2:12 The LORD Almighty has a day in store for all the proud
and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled).
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth
beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a
garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever,
my righteousness will never fail.
Joel 1:15 Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it
will come like destruction from the Almighty.
Joel 2:1 Blow the trumpet
in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill. Let all who live in the land tremble,
for the day of the LORD is coming. It is close at hand.
Amos 9:5 The Lord, the LORD Almighty, he who touches the earth and
it melts, and all who live in it mourn--the whole land rises like the Nile,
then sinks like the river of Egypt.
Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before him and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at his presence, the world and all who live in it.
Revelation
7:1 After this I saw four angels
standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the
earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any
tree.
After the
visions seen in the six seals, revealing the unfolding will of God for the
whole earth for all times, these same events are now seen in more detail. That
is why the seventh seal leads us into the seven trumpets and the seventh
trumpet leads us into the seven scales.
Before we get
to the seventh seal, we are shown the ekklesia of Christ, his body, the
elect. We see that they are safe and are free to worship God at his throne;
they are free to glorify the Father as He intended for them to do from before
creation, which is why the Father wrote their names into the book of life,
never to blot them out or add to them.
This is the testimony that the elect have been safely brought forth from
the cesspool of death, in which all of mankind fell because of our First
Parents’ sin in the Garden. This is the testimony that the covenant of grace,
given to Adam and Eve when they were driven from Eden, was fulfilled and that
not a single one was lost.
[1]Now that we are between the sixth
and seventh seals John receives a double vision of the protected and triumphant
followers of Christ. This interlude, like the visions that separate the sixth
trumpet from the seventh in Revelation 10 and 11, serves two purposes. First,
the interlude visions reassure the church that the woes inflicted by the
wrath of the Lamb on rebellious humanity cannot sever us from his protective
care. Second, the interludes dramatize the delay of final judgment,
which evoked the martyrs’ lament in Revelation 6:10. Those who hear Revelation read aloud experience delay and suspense
in the unfolding of the drama.
In the
first of the twin visions that interrupt the seal cycle, John sees four angels
at the earth’s four corners.
Isaiah 11:12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the
exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four
quarters of the earth.
Ezekiel 7:2, 3 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD
says to the land of Israel: The end! The end has come upon the four corners of
the land. 3The end is now upon you and I will unleash my anger
against you. I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all
your detestable practices.
These
angels restrain and control the four winds from wreaking destruction on earth,
sea, and trees, until another angel marks each of God’s servants as his
property with his seal upon their foreheads.
Each angel
has control over a wind, just as there is an angel that has power over fire “another
angel, who had charge of the fire” (Rev 14:18), and another over the waters
“Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say” (Rev 16:5), and
another over the abyss, “They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss”
(Rev 9:11).
Zechariah 6:5 The angel answered me, "These are the four
spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the
whole world."
These
winds are winds of destruction and these angels restrain them to prevent
destruction on earth so that a calm came over the earth.
Jeremiah 49:36 I will bring against Elam the four winds from the
four quarters of the heavens; I will scatter them to the four winds, and there
will not be a nation where Elam's exiles do not go.
Daniel 7:2 Daniel said:
"In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds
of heaven churning up the great sea.”
The scene
takes us back to a time prior to the events of the sixth seal, which showed the
destruction of the universe through earthquakes and falling stars. No harm will
come to earth, sea or trees until after God’s servants are sealed. Note that
the order of the visions does not reflect the chronology of the events that
they symbolize.
Revelation
7:2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of
the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm the land and the sea.
This angel
comes from the east because the rising sun is expected from there, which
symbolizes the Christ and the imagery depicts it as the approaching light as at
dawn.
It also
symbolizes the destination of the elect, namely, the Garden of Eden, which was
founded in the ‘east’.
Genesis 2:8 Now the LORD
God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had
formed.
It is also
on the east side, the salvation side, of the Garden where God placed cherubim
with a flaming sword guarding the way to the tree of life.
Genesis 3:24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east
side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth
to guard the way to the tree of life.
Rising in
the east is the light of life, Jesus Christ.
John 8:12 When Jesus spoke
again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever
follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Psalm 97:11 Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the
upright in heart.
Isaiah 9:2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Isaiah 49:6 He says: "It is too small a thing for you to be
my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have
kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my
salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 60:1 "Arise,
shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.”
Hosea 6:3 Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to
acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us
like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.
Malachi 4:2 But for you who revere my name, the sun of
righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. And you will go out and leap
like calves released from the stall.
Matthew 4:16 The people living in darkness have seen a great
light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Luke 1:78, 79 Because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the
rising sun will come to us from heaven 79to shine on those living in
darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.
Luke 2:32 A light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to
your people Israel.
John 1:4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
John 9:5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
John 12:35, 46 Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the
light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before
darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is
going. 46I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who
believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Acts 26:23 That the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise
from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.
Revelation
7:2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the
living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm the land and the sea.
This angel
has the seal of the living God, making this the seal of the Father and the
Lamb. The elect receive a seal from God marking them as His, to be placed on
their foreheads, as we shall see later. By receiving this seal they are not
protected from calamity and affliction, but they receive eternal protection
from God and the comfort that they are forever safe in the right hand of the
Father.
Song of Solomon 8:6 Place me like a seal over your heart, like a
seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as
the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
Ephesians 1:13, 14 And you also were included in Christ when you
heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you
were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. 14Who is a
deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are
God's possession--to the praise of his glory.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom
you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a
slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,
"Abba, Father.”
II Corinthians 1:22 Set his seal of ownership on us, and put his
Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
II Corinthians 5:5 Now it is God who has made us for this very
purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come
II Timothy 2:19 Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm,
sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"
and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from
wickedness."
God is
often referred to as the ‘living’ God.
Matthew 16:15, 16
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?” 16Simon
Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Matthew 26:63, 64 But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said
to him, "I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the
Christ, the Son of God.” 64"Yes, it is as you say," Jesus
replied. "But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of
heaven.”
Romans 9:26 And, "It will happen that in the very place where
it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the
living God.'”
Hebrews 3:12 See to it,
brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from
the living God.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our
consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.
Hebrews 10:31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God.
Hebrews 12:22 - 24 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the
heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon
thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23to the church of the
firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge
of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24to Jesus
the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better
word than the blood of Abel.
Revelation
7:2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the
living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been
given power to harm the land and the sea.
The angels
restraining the four winds of destruction are under the command of angel from
the east carrying the seventh seal of God and in verse 3 we will see that they
are ordered to keep the winds from harming anything.
Revelation
7:3 "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on
the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
The
original text rather suggests that the angel instructs the four angels not to
commence harming the earth. The seal on
the servants of God will set them apart from others so that when the winds of
destruction are let loose they will not be harmed.
Revelation
7:4 – 8 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the
tribes of Israel. 5From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from
the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000; 6From the
tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of
Manasseh 12,000; 7From the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of
Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000 8From the tribe of
Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin
12,000.
Jesus
promised in Revelation 3:12 to write his name on the victors, which happens
now. The 144,000 is a symbolic number indicating all of the elect, a complete
number of all those who receive the seal.
Who are
these 144,000 who receive God’s seal, whose safety from wrath is secured by the
name of the Lamb and his Father? Since
they are described as belonging to the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel,
twelve thousand from each tribe, it is widely believed that this group
represents a Jewish remnant, converted to faith in Jesus the Messiah by the
rapture of the church prior to the tribulation. According to this view Gentile
believers in Jesus will not go through this tribulation and consequently only
these faithful Israelites need God’s protective seal. As appealing as this view
may be to those who do not relish suffering for the faith, it faces all sorts
of difficulties from the text of Scripture.
1.
The
list of the twelve tribes corresponds to none of the ways that the twelve
tribes were reckoned in the Old Testament. If we think of the twelve sons of
Jacob, interesting to note the presence of Manasseh, Jacob’s grandson, and the
absence of Dan. If we think of the twelve tribes who inherited the land, we
cannot explain why Joseph appears along with his son Manasseh, but not Ephraim
and why Levi appears, since his tribe did not receive an apportioned territory
– the Lord was Levi’s inheritance. Also, if the tribes were listed according to
land inheritance, it would be slightly irregular for Joseph to replace his son
Ephraim, as appears to be the case.
2.
The
sealing of this 144,000 is identical to the promise that Jesus made to all
overcomers from every race in the letter to Philadelphia in
Revelation 3:12 Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the
temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of
my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming
down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name.
3.
In
John’s later vision of the Lamb’s army on Zion the 144,000 are identified as
those ‘purchased’ from the earth, as first fruits to God and to the Lamb. And
by his blood the Lamb ‘purchased’ for God individuals from every tribe and
tongue and people and nation.
This is the ethnic composition of the innumerable multitude that
John will see immediately after hearing the census of the tribes of God’s
sealed servants. Perhaps their being called the first fruits suggests that
these 144,000 are the first installment of a larger harvest, when angels are
sent forth to harvest the earth. In
that case the 144,000 symbolize not belated believers from a single ethnic
group (the Jews) but the faithful martyrs from all the peoples who through
their death are gathered first into God’s presence.
4.
The
144,000 are later portrayed as a holy army composed exclusively of men ‘who
have not been defiled with women’. This is symbolic of the church’s spiritual
purity, in no way implying that only single, celibate male servants of God
receive his seal of protection.
The number
144,000 is composed of components of the number 12, which is 3 x 4: three being
the number of the Trinity, and four being the number of the world referring to
the four wind directions. We also see the four angels of the seventh seal
restraining the four winds on the four corners of the earth. The number 7 is
also composed of 3 and 4 indicating a complete number.
The
144,000 can be 12 x 12 x 1,000 or 12 x 12,000.
Number 10 expresses the completeness of God’s actions, such as the ten
Commandments, the ten plagues, the ten virgins in the parable, and so on. So,
103 = 1,000 and 104 = 10,000. Coincidence? No, it’s by
design that these numbers show forth the symbolic, complete number of the elect
because God does not want the elect to be unsure about who they are or doubt
their salvation. Seeking a physical connection between these symbols and what
we, as finite beings, know, is to seek an idol to which we can cling instead of
having childlike trust in the Word of God.
These
144,000 victors represent the complete number of the elect, each one carefully
named and recorded in the book of life for this moment where each one of them
will receive an eternal name and the name of Christ. This is not just a mass of
people, or a nameless crowd. They have been carefully selected before God
created the world, destined throughout history to be here at this exact moment:
not a single one absent and no one here that does not belong here.
Israel was
the name of the blessing that Jacob received and the children of Israel, the
blessing, became participants in that blessing.
Genesis 32:28, 29 Then the
man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have
struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” 29Jacob said,
"Please tell me your name." But he replied, "Why do you ask my
name?" Then he blessed him there.
In Christ
the blessing is not restricted to the physical descendents of Jacob, but it is
promised to the spiritual descendents of the blessing, namely, Israel.
Therefore, the mention of the tribes of Israel here is a sure sign that the
blessing has been poured out on the elect among all nations, and not on the
physical descendents of Jacob.
Galatians 3:14 – 16 He redeemed us in order that the blessing
given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by
faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. 15Brothers, let me
take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a
human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. 16The promises were spoken to
Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds,"
meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who
is Christ.
Isaiah 41:8, 9 "But you, O Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I
have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my friend. 9I took you from
the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said, 'You are
my servant'; I have chosen you and have not rejected you.
Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams
on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing
on your descendants.
Isaiah 49:6 He says: "It is too small a thing for you to be
my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have
kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my
salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Ezekiel 36:26, 27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of
flesh, 27and I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my
decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Acts 2:39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who
are far off--for all whom the Lord our God will call.
Romans 10:10 – 13 For it is with your heart that you believe and
are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As
the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”
12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile--the same Lord
is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. 13For,
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The
Israelites shown here to John is the body of Christ, his church, which he has
gathered from the four corners of the earth, through the gospel.
Romans 2:28, 29 A man is
not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and
physical. 29No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and
circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written
code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.
Galatians 3:26 - 29 You
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus 27for all of you
who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There
is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one
in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's
seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 6:15, 16 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means
anything; what counts is a new creation. 16Peace and mercy to all
who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.
Philippians 3:3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who
worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no
confidence in the flesh.
We may
note the following about the tribes mentioned in the group of 144,000. Here are
some comments about some of the tribes.
Judah |
Judah is
mentioned first, because of the promise that the Messiah would come forth
from the tribe of Judah. Genesis
49:10, 11 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from
between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the
nations is his. 11He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to
the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the
blood of grapes. This
indicates that Judah’s position as first on the list of tribes has to do with
the salvation of the elect. |
Manasseh |
Manasseh
was put second by the blessing of Jacob but now he has been restored again. Genesis
48:17 - 20 When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's
head he was displeased; so he took hold of his father's hand to move it from
Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. 18Joseph said to him, "No,
my father, this one is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head.” 19But
his father refused and said, "I know, my son, I know. He too will become
a people, and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother
will be greater than he, and his descendants will become a group of nations.”
20He blessed them that day and said, "In your name will
Israel pronounce this blessing: 'May God make you like Ephraim and
Manasseh.'" So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. |
Joseph |
Joseph
takes the place of his son Ephraim because of Ephraim rose up against the
house of David. Psalm
78:9, 10, 67 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows, turned back on the
day of battle. 10They did not keep God's covenant and refused to
live by his law. 67Then he rejected the tents of Joseph, he did
not choose the tribe of Ephraim. |
Levi |
Levi’s
tribe, who had the privilege of the priestly duties, enjoyed no preference
indicating that in God’s mercy and grace there is no preference and one
cannot claim preference from God based upon things outside the scope of
Christ’s merits. |
Benjamin |
Benjamin
was, together with Judah, loyal to God and is mentioned last as if the two of
them are posted at the beginning and end of the rest of the ‘ten lost tribes’
so that they too may enjoy the blessings that the first and the last
received. |
The name of Dan is absent because of his idolatry.
Judges 18:30, 31 There the Danites set up for themselves the
idols, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests
for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. 31They
continued to use the idols Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in
Shiloh.
I Kings 12:28 - 30 After seeking advice, the king made two golden
calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to
Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29One
he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30And this thing became a
sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there.
Out of all
the tribes, that is, all of mankind, God gathered for himself a people,
selected for himself an ekklesia to worship and glorify him. He wrote
their names in the book of life before He created the earth and purposed it so
that they would be standing here before him clothed in the blood and glory of
the Lamb, his Son Jesus Christ.
Luke 12:32 - 40 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your
Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your
possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not
wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes
near and no moth destroys. 34For where your treasure is, there your
heart will be also.”
35"Be
dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning 36like men
waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he
comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. 37It
will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes.
I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at
the table and will come and wait on them. 38It will be good for
those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or
third watch of the night. 40You also must be ready, because the Son
of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”