Revelations Chapter 7

When we finished up Chapter 6, we saw the inhabitants who were left on the earth saying, "Ooops".  The sky had opened up and they saw into heaven.  They saw Jesus preparing to come to execute His wrath and they knew it.  For they cried out saying to the mountains and rocks,

              " Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from
                the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"

What we will find herein Chapter 7 are two distinct groups of people.


First, it is going to refer to 144,000 people from the 12 tribes of Israel that will receive a seal from God that will allow them to go through the great tribulation and wrath of God without being harmed.

Second, it will refer to all those who received the truth of Jesus as to be saved, standing before the throne of God.  These are the believers whose sins have been washed in the blood of the Lamb.  They are also the ones who participated in the first resurrection and were caught up to meet Jesus in the air.

John saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind should blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree.  And John saw another angel asending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying,

               "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants
                of our God on their foreheads."

And John heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel.  Now the sons of Israel, means the sons of Jacob.  Jacobs name was changed to Israel.  Jacob had twelve sons, Judah, through which was the lineage Jesus came into the world through Mary, Reuben, Gad , Asher, Naphtali, Mannasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.
Now each of the sons families ( Desendents) are referred to as a tribe.  Now from these desendents it has been granted that 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes will recieve the seal of God that will protect them from the wrath to come.  Therefore we have 144,000 total sealed.

After this scene, John looked and saw a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes, and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes. 

We saw part of this group in Chapter 6, when the 5th seal was broken.  They were waiting for their fellow servants, who were to be killed as some of them had been, to be complete.  When we saw some of this group they were under the altar and now we see them before the throne and the Lamb.  This is the completed Church (Body)(Bride), however you want to refer to it.  The resurrection has taken place and the dead and those who where alive when Jesus returned for them, are now before the throne in their new resurrected glorified bodies.  They were all crying out with a loud voice, saying;

           "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."

And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their facesbefore the throne and worshiped God, saying;

            "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might,
             be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

The angels are quite amazed at these New Creations that they are looking at.  They now see the final product and what their God was doing by going to the earth and dying on a cross.  They really had no clue until they saw them complete.  These New Creations are a higher being than the angels.

One of the elders asked John,

            "These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?"

John replied, My lord you know.  Then the elder said;

              "These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed
               their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  For this reason, they
               are before the throne of God; and they srve Him day and night in His temple;
               and He who sits on the throne shall spred His tabernacle over them."

These are the New Creation that are created at the first resurrection.  This is what Jesus was talking about when He said in John's Gospel, in the 14th Chapter, verses 2 and 3,
            
                " In my Father's house (God's dwelling place has always been referred to as His
                  tabernacle) are many dwelling places: if it were not so then I would have told you;
                  For I go to prepare a place for you.  And if he go and prepare a place for you,
                  I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also."

The elder completes the Chapter by saying this,

                  " They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun beat down
                   on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the throne (Notice that Jesus is
                   on the center of the throne of God) shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to
                   springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes."

If you would like learn more about these New Creations, please read my previous blogs. Peace to you.