Marked for Mercy

What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

Photo by Elena Theodoridou on Unsplash

Today’s Reading: Revelation 7:1-8

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In Revelation 7, we come to our first interlude, or pause between two great periods, which reveals and further explains the distinction God makes between “earth-dwellers” (unbelievers) and the saints (believers). Similar to the later plagues that God sent upon Egypt, the judgment of the seals, trumpets, and bowls of Revelation come only upon unredeemed sinners.

In the previous chapter, specifically verses 12-17, we read that there was a great earthquake, and that the sun became black as sackcloth as the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth. In response, the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, cry out to God, asking, “Who can stand against the wrath of the Lamb?”

Revelation 7 gives us the answer: those who have been “sealed” on their foreheads. John sees four angels tasked with holding back the dreadful and destructive winds of judgment until all of God’s servants have received this seal, which is “the Lamb’s name and His father’s name” (Revelation 14:1). The ESV Study Bible notes that it is “antithetical to the mark of the beast and symbolizes God’s ownership and protection of His people” (more on this antithesis later). Circumcision symbolized such a seal in the Old Covenant, just as New Testament believers are sealed and identified as His property by His Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). Matthew Henry says, “Seals were used to mark for each person his own possessions. This mark is the witness of the Holy Ghost, printed in the hearts of believers.”

Harm is withheld from the earth only until the servants of God have received their seal. John “hears the number of the sealed, 144,000 from every tribe of the sons of Israel.”

The Number 144,000

The church throughout history has generally agreed that this number is symbolic and not literal, though its exact interpretation is a matter of debate. Consider that in the second half of this chapter, John sees “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and the Lamb…” It seems there is more in view here than just ethnic Israel and its literal twelve tribes.

It’s likely that the use of “Israel” here refers to the church, or the “new covenant people of God,” and that the 144,000 includes believers from every nation (including ethnic Israel) who enjoy special protection from the wrath of the Lamb, but who are also exposed to other evils and persecution from their enemies. In other words, the sealed 144,000 represent the “spiritual Israel.”

We as believers should find great joy in this passage, for it tells us that no matter what happens, those who bear God’s seal are eternally safe.

Matthew Henry writes:

God has a particular care and concern for his own servants in times of temptation and corruption, and he has a way to secure them from the common infection. He first establishes them, and then he tries them; he has the timing of their trials in his own hand. How were they distinguished? The seal of God was set upon their foreheads, a seal known to him, and as plain as if it appeared in their foreheads; by this mark they were set apart for mercy and safety in the worst of times.

Read that again:

We are set apart for mercy and safety in the worst of times.

Men often drive themselves mad in times of great uncertainty as they scramble to secure guarantees for themselves and their families. They build bunkers, stockpile ammo, purchase gold, and gather stores of food and water so that if civilization collapses, they’ll be okay, at least for a time. As useful as these things can be, there is no guarantee more certain than that which comes from God in Revelation 7, that He will seal and safeguard His people from all destruction.

The most important question you can ask yourself is this: am I sealed?