We’ve seen that Revelation 12 and 13 together give us a kind of heaven’s-eye view of what the people of God face, it is nothing less than the wrath of Satan himself worked out in historical manifestations of opposition and deception.

In chapter 14, we have a division that drives the reader to choice. In verses 1 to 5, the Lamb and the 144,000 (that is, the people of God who stand against the evil that has been described), are the ones who are already described in chapter 12 as those who overcome Satan “… by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They don’t love their lives even unto death.” They’re described in various apocalyptic ways.

In the rest of the chapter, from verses 6 to 20, there is a portrait of horrible judgment that comes upon the rest of humankind. The burden of the chapter as a whole is.… Which group do you belong to? Because you sure belong to one of them.

This has to be the darkest chapter in the entire book of Revelation

Who are the 144,000?

From the horrific vision of chapters 12 and 13, John turns to this dramatic new theme.

What he sees is the Lamb, the Lamb of God, God’s own agent, who emerges from the throne and brings all of God’s purposes to pass for both blessing and judgment.

Who are these 144,000?

 There are basically two views.

One view says they are a subset of all the redeemed, a subset of all Christians, a subset of the people of God. Now which subset is then disputed. Some say they are martyred Jews during the great tribulation or some specially sanctified group of believers. Super-saints, perhaps? Desert monks? There have been various views that have been suggested with time.

The reason for suggesting they are a subset of the whole is bound up with a certain interpretation of verses 4 and 5. Who are these, for example, who have not had sexual experience? Are they celibates? A monkish class, perhaps? After all, doesn’t verse 5 speak of them as the firstfruits to God and of the Lamb? So perhaps they’re the first ones through, as it were? Or the elite of the elect, maybe? That has been a common interpretation of this passage across history.

Many others think these 144,000 are the redeemed from every age.

After all, numbers are just typical in the book of Revelation. They are symbol-laden everywhere.

So 144,000 is 12 times 12. That is, the old covenant believers bound up with the Twelve Tribes, and the new covenant believers bound up with the twelve apostles: 12 times 12. That gets you 144, times 10 times 10 times 10; that is, 10 raised to the third power. The author is doing things with numbers all the time in apocalyptic.

They sing a new song which only the redeemed can sing.

That calls back to mind what has been said back in chapter 5. What is this new song? It’s the song of redemption, the song of those who have been purchased to God by the Lamb. Now if they and they alone can sing the song of the redeemed, they have to be those who are Christians who have been bought by the blood of Christ.

Even the 144,000 who are mentioned in Revelation 7, likewise, is another way of referring to the great multitude of the redeemed. They are the full complement of the redeemed, bought by Christ, and not one of them is lost. That’s the point here. Over against those who in chapter 13 have the mark of the Beast, these as we’ve seen, have the name of the Lamb, the name of the Father, written on their foreheads. That’s another way of saying they are owned by God. They’re possessed by God.

You either face the fury of the Beast or the fury of God himself. That is what this chapter is providing, an absolute antithesis.

They’re the redeemed from every tongue and tribe and people and nation, from the old covenant and the new, all those who have been bought by Christ.

Where are the 144,000?

We’re told they’re standing on Mount Zion with the Lamb. There are some who are of more literalistic persuasion who think somehow all of the elect are going to get on Mount Zion in the last day and actually park there. I think it fails to understand how Mount Zion, another word for Jerusalem, works through Scripture. The old covenant people of God are located in the Promised Land, and the capital city is Jerusalem. It’s Mount Zion.

Zion stands for the capital of the people of God under the old covenant again and again, but because of that, then, it begins to stand in promise for the new covenant people of God. Their Mount Zion is not earthly Jerusalem.

Thus already, according to the prophecies of Joel 2:32, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said.” Then, ultimately, the entire scene of praise is in heaven, and we belong to this heavenly Zion, this heavenly Jerusalem. “Jerusalem coming down out of heaven,” you see in Revelation 21.

it’s not earthly Jerusalem that is our ultimate home. Just as the temple pointed to Christ, just as the tabernacle pointed to Christ, just as the priest pointed to Christ, just as the sacrifice pointed to Christ, just as the Davidic line pointed to Christ, just as Jerusalem pointed to Christ, so also we belong to the fulfillment of all of these kinds of things, not in a certain geographical matrix in the Middle East but in the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven,

A new vision of what the people of God should be, now not tied to one people group, the Jews, but Jews and Gentiles alike, men and women from every tongue and tribe and people and nation.

As Hebrews puts it, we’re gathered to the heavenly Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem

What are the 144,000 singing?

According to verses 2 and 3, they sing a new song.  Here is another mixed metaphor. There’s no way you can put these things together into one sound no matter how clever your synthesizer is. “I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps.” Try and put that together.

You can still take a boat called the Maid of the Mist right up to the bottom of the Falls and watch this thundering cataract come down just a few yards away.

The feeling, therefore, is of the most amazing raw power

if you have only that kind of vision of what the voice of God is like, then it’s only power. It’s only raw. Then to change the metaphor, it’s like a glorious harp concert. Don’t forget, the harps now are banjos or whatever the equivalent of a happy instrument is. This is a foot-stomping, good time sort of music, as well as powerful.

You’ve got it welded all together with a mixed metaphor. That’s what they’re singing. No one could learn the song except those who had been redeemed.

They sang it before the throne, before the angels, before the elders, which shows the elders can’t here be amongst the redeemed.

The question is, are we one of those who will be singing the song of redemption?