A Deeper Dive Into the Book of Revelation - Part 17
How Revelation Comes to Us
When God’s Spirit breathes on a passage of Scripture that you may have read 1,000 times, then it comes alive to you and it becomes, not just the *written *word anymore but it transcends the written text to become the *living *word to you.
Paul describes how this happens in 1 Corinthians 2:13:
“These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (NKJV)
So, if you want more revelation, which is another word for wisdom, fill your mind and heart with Scripture. That will give the Holy Spirit more to work with. Then, as you are reading a Scripture, or thinking about something that seems unrelated, the Spirit will bring another Scripture to your mind—or a truth based on Scripture—and when those two things are *compared *in your thoughts, revelation is born like an explosion in your spirit.
Let’s do that now in trying to discover who these 144,000 believers are in the first part of Revelation chapter 14. To discover who these people are, we will compare the clues that God gives us in this passage to other Scriptural truths that we already know. As we do this, revelation will come. Wisdom will come.
That is assuming that your commitment to the Lord is complete. If your commitment to the Lord is lacking, it won’t do you any good to study the book of Revelation because Jesus told us in the first verse of the book that it is only written to those with a bond-servant level of commitment to Him. Without that, you are wasting your time trying to understand the book of Revelation.
An important principle in discovering who any of the characters or symbols represent in the book of Revelation is to look at the specific words that God uses to describe them, and then to match those clues with other Scriptures in which those terms are explained—“comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”
In other words, God gives us clues in the book of Revelation. We may need to look elsewhere in Scripture to discover the meanings of those clues.
Who Are the 144,000 on Mount Zion?
The 144,000 in Revelation 14 seem to escape the Great Tribulation, arriving in Heaven before people are warned about the Antichrist a few verses later. But who are they?
Let’s look at the clues that Jesus gives us and start putting these puzzle pieces together.
We know that they cannot be the entire Church, because another group of believers is caught up to Heaven later in Revelation 14:16, and we see them standing on the sea of glass in the next chapter. (We are told in Revelation 4:6 that this sea of glass is in front of the throne of God in Heaven.)
We must always keep in mind that there are three groups of believers, not just one. Jesus established this for us in the parable of the Sower, and it holds true all through Scripture. There are symbols representing these three groups throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
One of the most important representations of these three groups is the Tabernacle of Moses. The three groups are seen in the three main areas of the Tabernacle: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.
These three groups are significant throughout Scripture, but their ultimate destiny is seen in the end-time events detailed in the book of Revelation.
Which group of believers does this group of 144,000 represent?
This group of 144,000 is seen standing with the Lamb of God on Mount Zion. This is our first clue. Mount Zion itself represents the Holy of Holies group of believers. This represents the believers whose hearts received the seed of the Sower on good ground that bore fruit.
So, the good ground believers (the Holy of Holies) are represented in Scripture by Mount Zion.
The thorny ground believers (the Holy Place) are represented in Scripture by Jerusalem.
The stony ground believers (the Outer Court) are represented in Scripture by Israel.
This group is described as “a hundred and forty-four thousand,” but I don’t believe that is a literal number. As my mentor, Dan Cummins of Capitol Worship taught me, that word “thousand” is often translated as plural. It is the same word used in the plural form in Revelation 5:11:
“And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands”
So, the number “a hundred and forty-four thousand” does not limit this group. It describes this group.
This verse might best be read as “thousands of the 144.”
What does the number 144 mean? 144 = 12 x 12. Throughout Scripture, the number 12 represents governmental authority. Since this group is marked by the number 144, which is 12 times 12, it could indicate that the governmental authority of this group is established and confirmed. This may be the group that will rule and reign with Christ in His Kingdom. Every believer will not be worthy of that privilege. (Remember the parable of the talents.)
But let’s keep going.
In Revelation 14:1, this group is described as having “His name and His Father’s name inscribed on their foreheads” (AMP).
That promise is found in Revelation 3:12:
“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.”
This is only promised to “he who overcomes.” It is never promised to the entire Church.
In Revelation chapters 2 and 3, Jesus dictated letters to seven churches in Asia. Near the end of each letter, He gave a special promise to “he who overcomes.”
These “Overcomers” correspond to the “Holy of Holies” group of believers. These are the bond servants of Jesus Christ. This is the group of believers in the parable of the Sower who receive the Word of God into “good soil” that bore fruit.
“These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.”—Revelation 14:4 (NKJV)
These Overcomers are virgins, but which virgins? Are they the *wise *or the *foolish *virgins that Jesus describes in Matthew 25?
These are the *wise *virgins of Matthew 25. They are brought inside while the foolish virgins remain outside the door. (See Revelation 4:1.)
“These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God.”—Revelation 14:4-5 (NKJV)
These verses give further evidence that these believers are the Overcomers that Jesus wrote to in Revelation chapter 2 and 3. No deceit was found in their mouths, and we know from James that “those who don’t make mistakes with their words have reached full maturity.” (James 3:2 CEB).
But there is one last clue here that gives us insight, not only into this group, but gives us insight into the entire end-time harvest.
“These were redeemed from among men, being **firstfruits **to God and to the Lamb.”—Revelation 14:4 (NKJV)
“Firstfruits” is an agricultural term used to describe a part of the harvest. This term opens up a whole new area of valuable insights for us.
In the next article, we will look at the three parts of the harvest that correspond to the three groups of believers. This will give us even more insight into the timing of the resurrection and the rapture of the Church.
