144,000

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea,  saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”  And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed, 12,000 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 were sealed. Revelation 7:1-8

After “this”—the opening of the sixth seal, letting loose widespread disaster on the earth—John saw that four angels were holding back the four winds of judgment, to keep a period of calm while God’s servants were sealed on their foreheads. This is not the same as the Holy Spirit sealing of the saints during the Church Age, mentioned in Ephesians 4:20. Each believer was sealed at the moment of salvation, and placed permanently IN CHRIST. The elect angels are doing this sealing, as the great tribulation begins, to protect these believing Jews through the distresses to come, for they will be the evangelists of the tribulation. God’s grace is always available to mankind, even when life on earth seems hopeless.

How did these Jews come to believe? We are not told specifically, but think about it: at the rapture of the Church, all the millions of believers in the world will have suddenly and completely disappeared. We all have unbelieving friends and family to whom we have witnessed in life. We all have Bibles, books, tapes, videos, personal writings in our homes and elsewhere. The local Church buildings will be left standing as monuments to our faith in Jesus Christ. They will remember what we told them. They will know that now, what we anticipated has happened. Some of them—I think many of them--will understand and believe. Now the Church is gone and they are living in the final years of the Age of Israel, in the time of Jacob’s trouble. The angels of the Lord will come for them and seal them as His Own servants, to tell the lost and dying world the truth about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. There are 12,000 from each Jewish tribe, except for the tribe of Dan. Manasseh was one of Joseph’s sons, and has perhaps replaced Dan in this final recovery. Dan had a history of indulging in idolatry (Leviticus 24:11, Judges 18,I Kings 12:28-29), and in Jacob’s blessings on his sons in Genesis 49:16-17, he seemed to indicate that Dan was a traitor to his people. This detail has given rise to the popular belief that the false prophet of Israel during the great tribulation, who will be a shill for the world dictator Antichrist, is a Jew from the tribe of Dan. We can only speculate about that. We will be in heaven during that time, but details such as that will be pertinent to the Jews the angels are sealing.

Because of the dispersion and assimilation of millions of Jews throughout history, they don't all know their tribal heritage, but God does. He'll have no problem identifying and sealing 12,000 from each tribe.

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,  and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs 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 faces before 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.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”  I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Revelation 7:9-14

After the numbering and sealing of the 144,000 out of Israel, there appeared “a great multitude that no one could number,” standing before the throne and the Lamb in their white robes of righteousness and waving palm branches in their praise to God and the Lamb. An elder of the Church told John these had been redeemed from every people group on earth, out of the great tribulation.

Chapter 7 is a powerful testimony to the grace of our God. It’s not over ‘til it’s over, brethren. Just because someone we know and love may be left behind at the rapture, that does not mean they have no more opportunity to be saved. God will harvest every soul that will ever be positive to His plan of salvation, even if it takes world-wide devastation and abject fear to awaken them to His Truth. We will be witnesses to their redemption, from our vantage point in the throne room of God. Revelation 7:15-17:

“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.
They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.

For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

This mixed multitude will have paid their dues, humanly speaking, by coming to faith in the time of great tribulation on the earth—a time when people of faith in Christ will be under extreme pressure of every kind. They will have been redeemed by God's grace out of their sins, their poverty and persecution to live forever in the presence of their shepherd, the Lamb of God, who provides springs of living water and wipes away every tear from their eyes.