REVELATION: Multitudes upon Multitudes

As we go through Revelation 7, let’s spend our time focusing on Text. As Western readers, understanding the importance of cultural context comes more easily, but realizing the prevalence and significance of the Textual remezes is much more difficult.

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. 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: “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.” Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
from the tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
from the tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.

One quick, unavoidable note about the numbers in John’s reference here: If you’ve been following along, you might remember us talking about the significance of numbers and their qualitative, symbolic properties for Jewish readers. In that discussion we noted 12 is always the number of God’s people (in reference to the 12 tribes of Israel). So, when each tribe in this passage has 12,000 people, you see the statement that there is all of the community of each tribe there (12 x 1000, or God’s people multiplied by absolute, complete community) — not one is missing. This group of 144,000 is the exact number John can use to demonstrate that each and every one of God’s people is present; no one is missing and no one is left out. More could be said here, but I want to move on to Text as I mentioned above.

But where is John getting his material? In order to cinch this up tight, you would have to jump to the end of Revelation, as well, but you can begin to see what John is building toward by reading Ezekiel 45 — another apocalyptic vision of a world restored. Ezekiel uses communal numbers (multiples of 1000) and speaks of each and every tribe getting their land. He also speaks of a temple, just as John will later, but we’ll spend more time on this when we come to it at the end of our study.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”

Not only did John just hearken to the conclusion of the vision of Ezekiel, but to speak of a great multitude holding palm branches would also bring a fitting conclusion to mind. One of the few places where a multitude gathers with palm branches in the Hebrew Scriptures is at the celebration of Sukkoth (the Festival of Tabernacles). If one reads the last chapter of Zechariah, his apocalyptic vision concludes with the picture of all the nations streaming toward Jerusalem to celebrate the great Festival of Tabernacles together. If Zechariah’s vision found its fulfillment, you would have a large multitude holding palm branches and singing Psalms to God.

All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying:

“Amen!
Praise and glory
and wisdom and thanks and honor
and power and strength
be to our God for ever and ever.
Amen!”

Then one of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”

I answered, “Sir, you know.”

And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore,

“they are before the throne of God
    and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne
    will shelter them with his presence.
‘Never again will they hunger;
    never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’
    nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne
    will be their shepherd;
‘he will lead them to springs of living water.’
    ‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ”

The picture of God wiping away every tear is not a new one to Scripture — not even close (to my own surprise many years ago). The picture is put forth in the prophets time and time again. This picture, as well as the picture of the ransomed people of God gathering for songs of deliverance, can be seen all throughout Isaiah, in chapters 25, 35, 51, and 65, for example (not to mention other prophets). These are all pre-painted pictures, centuries old, that serve as the foundation John builds his writing on. When the original hearers heard his words, they would have immediately had an understanding to start building his teaching on.

They would have started with their history and gone backwards to remember the things they had learned in the past. In this, they would have found hope and progress, even in their extremely hard circumstances. Ironically, we read Revelation and look forward into the future and find anxiety, false pride, and self-righteousness.

I don’t want to be a broken record, but I don’t feel like the horse is truly dead yet (sorry for mixing the metaphors there). I just don’t think we grasp the significance of our Bibles putting Text to context. I fear that if we don’t truly appreciate this fact, we continue to misread, misunderstand, and — most importantly — misapply what the writings of our God-breathed, authoritative pages try to inspire in us.