Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 7:4

"And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:" — Revelation 7:4 (ASV)

And I heard the number of them . . . The passage can be translated: And I heard the number of the sealed: there were a hundred and forty and four thousand sealed out of every tribe of the sons of Israel.

These verses suggest two or three questions. What are we to understand by the number twelve thousand from each tribe? Who are these who are drawn from the tribes of Israel? Why is there a change in the order and names of the tribes?

It may help us to achieve clearer thoughts if we take the second of these questions first.

1. Who are these one hundred and forty-four thousand? An answer to this has been partly anticipated in our previous comments, but perhaps a fuller consideration is needed. Some have thought that the sealed ones must be Jewish Christians; that is, they are disposed to take the twelve tribes literally.

   The scope of the previous verses seems decisive against this view. The time of judgment and trial is drawing near; we have seen the tokens of the coming storm in the opening of the sixth seal. Our wish is to know the lot of the saints of God; this chapter answers this wish: they are safe, having the seal of God. Now, to limit the answer to Israelite Christians is to break in abruptly upon the general flow of thought with a bold literalism. The sealed ones are explained to be the servants of God; the description that follows proclaims them to be the Israel of God.

   It would be a strange leap away from the subject to introduce a sudden limitation of thought. Nor is there any necessity for doing so. Israelite and Jewish names are freely adopted by the sacred writers and used in a spiritual sense without any explanation of such usage. The Apostle most emphatically laid down the principle that he is not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter (Romans 2:28–29); and he applies this principle by affirming that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek (Galatians 3:28).

   The Christian Church absorbs the Jewish Church, inherits her privileges, and adopts, with wider and nobler meaning, her phraseology. She has her Jerusalem, but it is a heavenly Jerusalem (Hebrews 12:22), a Jerusalem from above (Galatians 4:26), a new Jerusalem (Revelation 21:2). To that Jerusalem of God, the true Israel of God—the chosen generation and royal priesthood of every age—turns the eye of faith.

   It is needless to say that this view does not rob the Jew of God’s promises, as has been asserted. It only intensifies those promises by showing the growth of that Church in which the Jew may yet find the truest consummation of his holiest and highest hopes, and into which God is yet able to graft them in again (Romans 11:23, 25-26), and in which he may yet play a part loftier than people dream of.

2. How are we to understand the numbers? Since we cannot adopt the literal interpretation of the tribes of Israel, still less can we admit a literal interpretation of the numbers mentioned here. However, they are not on this ground to be looked upon as meaningless; there is an appropriate symbolism in the numbers of the Apocalypse.

   Twelve is used as the number of those who in every age have been called out to witness for some truth that the world needed. Thus, the twelve tribes of Israel were the appointed witnesses of a pure theology and a pure morality in the days of idolatry and license; and later, the twelve Apostles became the inheritors of a similar, though higher, spiritual work in the world.

   The number twelve, then, stands for a world-witness of divine truth. The fruit of this world-witness is a wide and sustained success: the twelve multiplied by twelve, a thousand-fold—“the native and not degenerate progeny of the Apostles apostolically multiplied” (Mede, quoted by Dr. Currey). The skeleton organization is twelve, the college of the Apostles; the one hundred and forty-four thousand represent the growth into full numbers of the choice ones of God.

3. Does the change in the order and names of the tribes symbolize anything? The alterations are not without significance.

   They are briefly these: The tribe of Dan is omitted, and the name of Ephraim does not appear. However, the number is made up to twelve by two representatives of Joseph: Manasseh, who stands sixth in order, and Joseph (superseding the name but representing the tribe of Ephraim), who is placed eleventh on the list.

   The number twelve is maintained to show that in all changes God’s purposes stand.

   The omission of one tribe and the changed name of another are designed to show that in the Church, as in Israel, the most splendid opportunities may be lost.

   Dan, once a tribe—and not an insignificant one—which had reared its heroes, gradually lapsed into idolatry and immorality, dwindled in numbers and importance, and eventually disappeared, becoming extinct as a tribe. Its omission in this list is a silent but emphatic comment on the sacred warnings: Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. And, Begin not to say we have Abraham to our father: God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

   Similarly, Ephraim, as has been suggested by a thoughtful writer, who exalted himself in Israel, is now lost in the greater name of Joseph (Hosea 10:11; Luke 18:14).

   The order of the names is altered. Reuben no longer stands first: Judah has taken the firstborn’s place. Levi, though named, does not occupy the third, the place of his birthright, but the eighth place. Here, again, the changes have their teachings.

   The unstable Reuben, with all his splendid advantages—the firstborn, the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power—failed to hold his own among his brethren. The fatal instability of his character accompanied his history and weakened his otherwise pre-eminent powers. Yet weak and erring, the type of the brilliant and vacillating, he is not an outcast altogether but finds a place, and a high place, among the servants of God.

   Judah, lion-like, resolute, and strong, wins the foremost place. From him springs the true Ruler, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, to unfold the counsels of God and to rule the world with a righteous sceptre.

   Levi’s subordinate position is thought to be due to the fact that the Mosaic ritual and Levitical priesthood are at an end. This may be so.

   The changes are the result of the actual history of the tribes and illustrate how in the Christian Church, as in the Jewish, privileges may be lost, opportunities seized or cast away, and offices and functions used for a time and then laid aside when their work is accomplished. But in all and through all changes, God’s unchanging purpose runs onward to its certain close.

The grouping of the tribes is, as has been pointed out, in the order of closest kinship: “We find not one violent separation of those who are naturally united, where both are truly members of the Israel of God” (Rev. C. H. Waller, Names on Gates of Pearl).