Dear Aebi: "A relative thinks the 144,000
in the book of Revelation are the only ones who will go to heaven.
What do you think? Is this number literal or symbolic?" Dear Aebi: "A relative thinks the 144,000
in the book of Revelation are the only ones who will go to heaven.
What do you think? Is this number literal or symbolic?"
The number 144,000 appears in Revelation chapters
7 and 14, and it is a multiple of 12x12x10x10x10 (twelve times
twelve times ten times ten times ten). Seven, ten, and twelve
are all considered perfect or complete numbers and are found in
many places in Scripture. Here are a few examples. There were
seven days of creation, as there are seven days in a week; the
sevens in the book of Revelation; the seven years in Genesis 29,
41, Leviticus 25, 2 Kings 8:1, and other places; the seven times
and seventy times seven in Matthew 18:21-22; and other sevens.
Twelve is seen in the number of months in the year, the sons of
Jacob, and the twelve apostles, to name a few. Ten is often used
the ten commandments, the ten plagues on Egypt, ten lepers in
Luke 17, ten virgins in Matthew 25, ten horns on the dragon in
Revelation 12 and 13, and other tens. So it seems likely that
the 144,000, being multiples of seven, ten, and twelve, symbolizes
the complete number of persons being described.
The 144,000 in Revelation 7 are said to be the
servants of God who are sealed 12,000 out of each of the twelve
tribes of Israel, but notice that the twelve tribes named in 7:5-8
are not the same as the twelve sons of Jacob, nor are they identical
to the twelve landed tribes of Israel. Dan is omitted here, and
Dan was both a landed tribe and a son of Jacob. Manasseh is named
here, and it was a landed tribe, but Manasseh was the son of Joseph
rather than of Jacob. It may be argued that Jacob adopted Manasseh
and Ephraim (Joseph's sons), but then why were both Joseph and
Manasseh named in Revelation 7? Why was Ephraim left out when
it was often the most prominent of the northern tribes (so much
so that the whole northern kingdom of Israel is referred to sometimes
as "Ephraim")?
The names given in Revelation 7 seem to make it
incapable of a literal application, since they cannot refer to
either the sons of Jacob or to the landed tribes. When Dan and
Ephraim are omitted and Joseph is counted twice (once as "Manasseh"),
we conclude that the number is symbolic, applying to the complete
number sealed. Besides that, there is an innumerable multitude
standing before the throne of God and the Lamb serving Him night
and day (7:9-17); they seem to be every bit as much in heaven
as the 144,000 previously named. Some believe that this description
does not refer to heaven at all, but to the church; in any case,
they are not just 144,000.
In Revelation 14:1-5, the 144,000 are with the
Lamb on Mount Zion singing a new song that no one else could learn.
These are said to be the ones redeemed from the earth (14:3-4),
but they are also said to be truthful, virgin men "ones who
were not defiled with women" (14:4-5). If these 144,000 are
the only ones going to heaven, there will be no women there, and
it has been our experience that women are at least as faithful
in the service of God as men, and often more so. Surely, this
number has to be symbolic, both in Revelation 7 and 14.
Isn't it interesting that this symbolic number
appears in chapters divisible by seven, itself a symbolic number
that appears over and over in Revelation (seven churches, seven
trumpets, seven bowls of wrath, etc.)? 2660 Layman Road, Vincent
OH cjandi@juno.com