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§7 Interlude: Reminder of God’s Faithfulness to God’s People (Rev. 7:1–17)

In concluding the horrific judgment brought about by the opening of the sixth seal, John interposes an eschatological interlude that responds to the two questions evoked by the experience of human suffering. Whether they concern the suffering of Christian martyrs, lamented at the opening of the scroll’s fifth seal, or of their persecutors, initiated by the sixth, the cries for vindication and of lamentation envision a common recognition that the social order and its ruling elite are opposed to the well-being of God’s creation. Even the structures of a fallen world must be reversed and transformed before the good intentions of their creator are realized. Of course, it should be said at this point that human sinfulness is more than rebellion against the creator; human sin is also the irrational rejection of those things that the creator intended for our good.

The good news is that through the exalted Lamb God has announced the availability of that transforming power necessary to redeem all humanity and to restore all creation. This gospel interprets the present passage as a word of hope for suffering believers who cry out for vindication and also for suffering unbelievers whose plea seeks a path that leads them to shalom. The ultimate purpose of divine wrath is redemption; God’s anger is always subordinate to and qualified by God’s mercy. God’s “Yes!” is the concluding word of history.

At first glance, this interlude in John’s vision of divine wrath depicts the future day of God’s vindication. Two groups of believers, one of 144,000 and another of a countless number, represent God’s covenant community from a different period of Israel’s history, and each is preserved for God’s salvation at the end of the age. Upon closer analysis, however, the same interlude takes measure of those “who can stand” before the throne of God (cf. 6:17; 7:9) and who are led by God’s Lamb “to the springs of living water,” where God wipes away the tears of their earthly suffering (7:17). In this way, this eschatological portrait responds to the martyrs who lamented their difficult situation during this present evil age; and it also establishes the criteria by which the unbeliever can join the great multitude belonging to God and to the Lamb (cf. 14:1–5).

7:1–4 / The identity of the 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel has been debated for centuries. Most agree that 144,000 is symbolic of a remnant of “true” believers. Both Jewish and Christian interpreters link the history of God’s salvation to the history of a covenant community that numbers twelve (e.g., twelve tribes of Israel; twelve apostles of the church), or multiples of twelve, as here. The contested issue is whether to take the phrase all the tribes of Israel as a literal reference to historical Israel or as a symbol of eschatological Israel (cf. Rev. 21:12). If one assumes that the phrase refers to a spiritual Israel as elsewhere in the NT (e.g., James 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1; cf. Rom. 9–11) including Revelation (14:1), then the 144,000 could refer to an “extra special” remnant within the church, perhaps to its martyrs who exemplify fearless devotion to God of the sort John encourages. While there is no indication in the text that the 144,000 enumerate the remnant of martyrs, it does make sense of the immediate context to identify this group with those who earlier cry out for vindication (6:10). This first part of the visionary interlude, then, responds directly to the martyrs’ earlier question, “How long?” (6:10).

If we are to take the phrase more literally as referring to the saints of “old” Israel, then the 144,000 would form a “cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1; cf. Heb. 11:4–38) whose faithfulness to God established the first stage of Israel’s exodus from sin (Heb. 11:39–40) and movement toward their eventual destination (cf. Heb. 11:13–16), the new Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22–27). Their pilgrimage to promise is suggested by the exodus symbolism that lies behind the act of sealing the 144,000, which prepares for and awaits the coronation of the eschatological Israel as depicted in the second half of this interlude.

Some might object that this only confuses the symbolic with the historical. However, John often combines historical description with symbolic meaning (e.g., the messages to the seven churches). It is not difficult, then, to imagine that the symbolic meaning of the 144,000 might refer to a historical Israel. In this regard, it is striking that there is no reference to the Lamb in this first part of the vision; not until John envisions the “great multitude” does John also see the Lamb. This may well indicate a continuity between the Israel of God prior to and then after the Christ event as comprising the two essential and interconnected dispensations of salvation’s history.

We are inclined toward the first of these two options, primarily because we prefer to understand the significance of this particular interlude as a response to the two seminal questions that emerge from the chaos of the first six seal judgments. The opening phrase, After this I saw (7:1), intends to convey the “theo-logical” (rather than “chrono-logical”) connection between the seal judgments and eschatological salvation; the same phrase is used later in the interlude (7:9) to tie together the two discrete subgroups that make up eschatological Israel. In this sense, the two parts of the interlude refer back to the two questions: the first half (i.e., the vision of the 144,000) responds to the martyrs’ question, “How long?” while the second half (i.e., the vision of the great multitude) responds to fallen humanity’s lament, “Who can stand?” By combining both concerns into a single passage, John suggests that both questions are appropriate responses to the reign of God that has triumphed through the slain Lamb.

The sealing of the 144,000 is prefaced by an exchange between four angels standing at the four corners of the earth and another angel … having the seal of … God. The four angels are roughly equivalent to the four horsemen in that they are given charge over a destructive force of nature—in this case the four winds of the earth which have power to harm the land and the sea (cf. 6:13). John’s purpose is not to present a retrospective of the previous seal judgments or to suggest that a remnant within the church will escape humanity’s suffering; rather, he intends that the interlude takes note of God’s terrifying wrath in order to understand its eschatological significance both for the Christian martyrs-to-be and for wretched humanity.

In this light, the other angel comes from the east in expectation of the creator’s good portion (cf. Gen. 2:8) or in expression of God’s reigning glory (Ezek. 43:2). And it carries the seal of the living God to place on the foreheads of the servants of our God, whom we have already identified as a remnant of Christian martyrs, even though their description is true of all believers (cf. 5:10).Surely the seal symbolizes divine approval, even as it symbolized political legitimacy in the ancient world. More to the point, however, is the act of sealing which marks them as a people for God’s redemption (cf. Eph. 1:13–14). The purpose of this moratorium from wrath, then, is to assure those servants of God, who cry out for God’s vindication, that they have already been sealed for the day of their vindication.

7:5–8 / The significance of the list enumerating the remnant of a true Israel has been long debated. The best suggestions begin by recognizing that biblical genealogies serve theological purposes and that John has shaped this one to reflect the messianic hope specific to his composition. The list accordingly begins with Messiah’s tribe of Judah (Rev. 5:5) rather than Reuben, who heads most OT genealogies as Jacob’s eldest son (cf. Gen. 35:23). Second, the list replaces the tribe of Dan with Manasseh, who was actually Joseph’s son (Gen. 48). Contrary to Jacob’s aspirations for Dan (Gen. 49:16–17), Dan became a champion of pagan idolatry and a symbol of Israel’s religious corruption (cf. Judg. 18:30–31; 1 Kings 12:25–33). Rabbis taught that Dan actually belonged to Satan’s tribe (cf. T. Dan 5:6; Jer. 8:16–17), and early Christian teachers such as Irenaeus tied Dan’s tribe to the Anti-christ (cf. Against Heresies 5.30.2).

By editing the list in this way, John envisions not only the climactic conflict of salvation’s history, which pits Christ against Anti-christ, but also its outcome: the tribe of Anti-christ is not sealed and is unprotected from the destruction of God’s wrath. Indeed, not only will the martyrs be vindicated, but those who took their blood will be destroyed.

7:9–12 / The second group of believers, who also receive the salvation of God, should be distinguished from the first in two critical ways. In the interlude’s first scene of the 144,000, John addresses a particular concern of his readers about the status of martyred believers (cf. 1 Thess. 4:13–18). In his subsequent vision of a great multitude, John shifts his pastoral concern to the situation of the unbelieving world, which seeks to know how to survive the eschatological wrath of God. In responding to their question, “Who can stand?” (6:17), he describes the qualifications of those standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. Second, there is a distinction in timing. The sealing of the remnant of Christian martyrs takes place during a pause in “the great tribulation,” presumably to preserve them for the future day of their vindication. It is this very day that John envisions, now that “the great tribulation” has concluded (7:13–14) and the martyrs join the “rest of Israel” to celebrate their entrance into the promised salvation of God.

John challenges the pessimism that wonders whether the church will survive its pagan surrounding and those sociopolitical forces that seek to corrupt and defeat the church’s service to God. The immediate response to the question, “Who can stand?” is to indicate the twofold success of those standing before the throne in celebration. If numbers are a measurement of success (cf. Acts 2:47b), then the believing community’s description as a great multitude that no one could count is a formula for its ultimate success. Further, if the pluralism of the community’s constituency measures the broad appeal of its gospel, then its membership, drawn from every nation, tribe, people and language (cf. 5:9), is yet another formula of success, even during “the great tribulation.” Their eventual victory is indicated by what they wear—white robes (symbolic of a right relationship with God)—by what they hold—palm branches (in recognition of Jesus’ kingship; cf. John 12:12–13)—and by what they cried out in triumph—Salvation belongs to … God … and to the Lamb. Although such a doxology could acknowledge God’s triumph over evil (cf. Rev. 12:10; 19:1), here it refers to the victorious community of saints, who are ultimately delivered from the day of God’s wrath. This point has significance if the interpreter understands the present passage as a response to the question posed by the suffering lost: the vision identifies those left standing in victory rather than in defeat; it is eschatological Israel’s participation in the future vindication of God’s reign that all the angels … elders and the four living creatures confirm with their Amen! and again they said Amen!

7:13–14 / Once again, John actually participates in the vision (cf. 5:5–6). As before, his conversation is with one of the elders who calls attention to a decisive paradox which interprets everything else in the vision. The seer’s previous conversation with the heavenly elder concerned the identity of the worthy Lamb. That conversation is continued here. But now it concerns a question, relevant for this particular vision: where did they (in the white robes) come from? John plays the interlocutor to the elder, who answers his own question: these are they who have come out of the great tribulation. The definite article used with the singular great tribulation envisions a particular period of salvation history rather than human history per se. In that the history of God’s salvation is worked out within the history of God’s people, the “great tribulation” corresponds to the entire history of the church—past, present, and future. The issue, then, is not whether believers escape the suffering every person must endure in a fallen world; the real issue is whether all believers are saved from God’s eschatological wrath. Clearly they are, according to the evidence provided by this visionary interlude.

The present tense of the participle, “have come,” looks back over this period of history as the continual gathering together of the great multitude for the salvation of God. All believers from every generation have met the single criterion that allows them to stand before God’s throne and in front of the Lamb in their white robes: they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The elder knows well the redemptive paradox: robes are whitened by the Lamb’s blood; wrath is exchanged for wrath, so that life may be purchased through death. This is what lost humanity must know in order to “stand” before the throne of a merciful God.

7:15–17 / The vision’s concluding hymn celebrates a true Israel’s return from its worldly exile and into the promised land of eternal life, when God will wipe away every tear from their eyes (cf. 21:4) and when the Lamb … will be their shepherd. Then he will lead them into God’s shalom where never again will they thirst, because the Lamb will lead them to springs of living water (cf. 22:1–2). God will spread his tent over them, so that the sun will not beat upon them, nor any scorching heat. And in that future day of consummation, eschatological Israel will realize the slain Lamb’s work that transformed them into priests to serve God (cf. 5:10)—to serve him day and night in his temple. On that future day, the worship of God will not take place in an actual building—a literal temple—but in a relationship with the “Lord God Almighty and the Lamb” (cf. 21:22).

The hymn resounds with biblical themes, especially of the “promised land” that appears especially good to returning exiles (Mounce, Revelation, p. 175). It is a doxology of promise fulfilled, the concerns of theodicy are answered. Believers suffer in a fallen world, perhaps even more so now that the world has been judged by God through the slain Lamb. Suffering believers have a certain confidence in an exalted Lamb, however, that God’s justice will prevail in the end, when their living conditions will be reversed for the good.