NOTES for Rev 7:2-4

By the end of time the process of forming the people of God is also completed. The 144 thousand chosen symbolize it. This number is symbolic: 12 thousand people from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Israel here evidently means the people of God as a whole, but the people in its history, just as Israel itself exists within world history.

Since the expression 'thousands of Israel,' among other things, in biblical language means the fullness of Israel as the people of God, the 144 thousand of the Book of Revelation, where there are twelve of these 'thousands' from each tribe, signify a kind of 'fullness of fullness,' the absolute fullness of the people including all its generations throughout earthly history. This is not surprising: the issue is the history of the world that has already come into contact with the Kingdom, or more precisely, the history of the Kingdom entering the world, where no one disappears, goes into the world of shadows, or is lost.

The fullness of the people of God is the fullness not only of all historical spaces, but also of all historical times. That is why the 144 thousand include representatives not only of the Jewish people, not only descendants of Abraham by blood, but also his descendants by spirit, seekers of God and the Kingdom from all times and peoples. Of course, with a person's spiritual life and spiritual path, not everything is so simple.

Even regarding those who belong to the people of God in its history, nothing can be said with certainty. The apostle is shown the picture of the end of time, the completion of history, when everyone has already finished his path and therefore has spiritually determined himself. He does not see how many people, perhaps formally belonging to those who in history were called chosen, finally did not enter the number of the chosen. John sees those who reached the end, but does not see those who did not reach the end. And the 144 thousand revealed to him were determined and formed only there where he sees them, at the threshold of the Kingdom. There, where everything is decided and everything is determined.

These words are usually interpreted as an indication of the martyr's death of the people mentioned in the book. But the apostle's words can also be understood more broadly: all Christians in general can be called those washed in the blood of Christ, if only they have walked their path to the end and finally been freed from the power of evil and sin weighing over the fallen world. The white robes of these people clearly recall the white robes of the Savior Himself, in which He appears both to John in the vision and earlier to the apostles on the Mount of Transfiguration. People in white robes are people who have become like Christ, who have become as He is, living the same fullness of the life of the Kingdom that He bears, each in his own measure, of course.

Now at last they will see what they desired all their lives: the triumph of the Kingdom in all its fullness, the final transfiguration of the world and its deliverance from every power of evil. Strictly speaking, the opening of the seventh seal marks the beginning of this final transfiguration of creation. For the world, transfiguration is inseparable from shocks and cataclysms on a universal scale, not because God wants seriously and finally to punish His creation, but because the evil in which the fallen world lies will not simply let it go.

The connection between the transfiguration of the world and the coming cataclysms is shown to the apostle with complete clarity. He sees that the prayers of the saints, rising before the Throne of glory as fragrant incense, turn for the world into sacrificial fire that brings catastrophes and disasters. What is sanctification for God and for God's people is death and destruction for the world lying in evil. Of course, there is no fault of God here: the issue is only the incompatibility of evil and God's presence, of sin and sanctification, which was well known even before the coming of Christ. Already in those times believing Yahwists knew: such a combination can lead only to defilement, and defilement to destruction and death.

Something similar now happens on a universal scale: the Kingdom at last opens to the world in all fullness, sanctifying it, while the world, not fully cleansed from the sin in which it remains, defiles the holy thing that is the Kingdom and is destroyed, perishing in its former quality. Of course, God did not plan or desire this destruction; He wants the world to be transfigured without any catastrophes or cataclysms. But for the world such calm and organic transfiguration proves impossible because by the moment history ends it has not been completely cleansed.

And judging by the fact that God puts the final point before its complete cleansing, one has to think that, sadly, complete cleansing is impossible for the fallen world at all; otherwise God would have done everything for that possibility to be realized. He does not want the sinful world to perish; He wants the world to be saved and become His Kingdom. But the freedom given by God to the human being, and therefore in part to the world, has another side, which leads to the tragedy of the end of history so vividly described by John.

Speaking of those who came "out of the great tribulation," the elder addressing the apostle confirms that everyone who has partaken of the Kingdom, even directly on the day of Judgment, receives it in the same fullness as anyone else. They are given the same life, they see the same Throne, and they serve together with those who found themselves in the Kingdom much earlier than they did (Rev. 7:15-17). Only now, when the Church has finally reached its fullness, does the Judgment begin. But when viewed from the Kingdom, the Judgment is no longer simply a natural cataclysm putting an end to the former order of things; it turns out to be what it truly is, a spiritual act, a determination of God concerning all humanity as a whole and each person individually. It is not accidental that heaven and earth fall silent: they too await this determination, which will change their nature and their fate (Rev. 8:1). Meanwhile, for the world the Kingdom itself becomes judgment, its breath, which at the Throne merges into one with the prayers of its inhabitants belonging to the heavenly Church, who here, as in other books of the New Testament, are called "saints." It is not accidental that the censer with aromatic herbs, "incense," like the one used for censing in the Tabernacle and the Temple, is filled with the fire that falls upon the earth (Rev. 8:3-5): already in antiquity it was believed that aromatic smoke rising to heaven from the censer carries with it the prayers of those standing at the altar and those performing the sacrifice, not only the priests but all who take part in the sacred action.

The sacred space surrounding the altar became a prototype of the Kingdom, and now it was opened to John that this idea, despite its naivete in some cases, was deeply true at its foundation. But what for the residents of the Kingdom is the breath of life, without which not only prayer but existence itself is unthinkable here, becomes for the world, still not freed from the power of sin, a fire whose burning touch becomes judgment for those who oppose Christ and the Kingdom.

The picture of Judgment is revealed to the apostle from different points of view. Until now he has seen Judgment as the world will have to see and experience it; now God shows him His Church and how Judgment is revealed to her. The four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds (v. 1), apparently personify the power of God by which the world, despite its damage from sin, does not turn into chaos. In this way God fulfills the promise given long ago to Noah, and in him to all the righteous of all times and peoples, that the flood which destroyed the world and wiped out humanity would never again be repeated (Gen. 9:8-11). But now, at the end of time, everything changes: the world awaits transformation, and the old order of things comes to an end. Those who remain in the world see only the sky rolling up like a scroll and the earth slipping away from under their feet (Rev. 6:12-14); but those to whom spiritual reality is open, the reality of the Kingdom, see, like John, the Church prepared to meet the Savior returning in glory.

Her members receive a special sign, God's seal, which binds them to the One they await (vv. 2-3). The twelve tribes of which the people of God consist symbolically indicate here the fullness of the Church, as does the number 144,000, which implies 12,000 people from each of the twelve tribes (vv. 4-8). Here, of course, we are dealing with numerical symbolism: a thousand people was considered a full representation; if a tribe could field a thousand fighting men for war, it was regarded as independent and, in a certain sense, self-sufficient. By the time world history is completed, the Church, as the new people of God, represents exactly such fullness. There is nothing surprising in this: her history began on the day of Pentecost, and every century of Christianity added new members to the heavenly Church; and now, on the day of Judgment, the return of the Savior and the triumph of the Kingdom, she is ready to stand before her Head in all fullness.

But there are also others, those who came on the very day of Judgment, according to the word of one of the elders standing at the Throne, "out of the great tribulation" (v. 14). Before this, they may not have thought at all about God or the Kingdom; but when the decisive day came, the day of the final choice, their choice proved right, and now they sing the song of renewal together with the whole Church and await the One whom perhaps they had not known before, but now will surely know (vv. 9-12).

In speaking about the end of the world, the apostle John uses the same words as the great prophets and teachers of the Old Testament. The seven angels described in the book of Tobit stand before the throne of God and serve the One; the seven plagues make us remember the plagues of Egypt.

But in the midst of horror and catastrophes, the prayers of the saints rise like incense, and as a refrain to the book of the prophet Isaiah the apostle speaks about what the world looks like when it has been freed from the power of death and sin. No evil can any longer touch those who come to the Lamb. No suffering will have power over them, no darkness will be able to swallow them, because the One who has conquered death will be near, and the One who is Light, in whom there is no darkness at all.

The picture of Judgment is revealed to the apostle from different points of view. Until now he has seen Judgment as the world will have to see and experience it; now God shows him His Church and how Judgment is revealed to her. The four angels at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds (v. 1), apparently personify the power of God by which the world, despite its damage from sin, does not turn into chaos. In this way God fulfills the promise given long ago to Noah, and in him to all the righteous of all times and peoples, that the flood which destroyed the world and wiped out humanity would never again be repeated (Gen. 9:8-11). But now, at the end of time, everything changes: the world awaits transformation, and the old order of things comes to an end. Those who remain in the world see only the sky rolling up like a scroll and the earth slipping away from under their feet (Rev. 6:12-14); but those to whom spiritual reality is open, the reality of the Kingdom, see, like John, the Church prepared to meet the Savior returning in glory.

Her members receive a special sign, God's seal, which binds them to the One they await (vv. 2-3). The twelve tribes of which the people of God consist symbolically indicate here the fullness of the Church, as does the number 144,000, which implies 12,000 people from each of the twelve tribes (vv. 4-8). Here, of course, we are dealing with numerical symbolism: a thousand people was considered a full representation; if a tribe could field a thousand fighting men for war, it was regarded as independent and, in a certain sense, self-sufficient. By the time world history is completed, the Church, as the new people of God, represents exactly such fullness. There is nothing surprising in this: her history began on the day of Pentecost, and every century of Christianity added new members to the heavenly Church; and now, on the day of Judgment, the return of the Savior and the triumph of the Kingdom, she is ready to stand before her Head in all fullness.

But there are also others, those who came on the very day of Judgment, according to the word of one of the elders standing at the Throne, "out of the great tribulation" (v. 14). Before this, they may not have thought at all about God or the Kingdom; but when the decisive day came, the day of the final choice, their choice proved right, and now they sing the song of renewal together with the whole Church and await the One whom perhaps they had not known before, but now will surely know (vv. 9-12).