We call attention here to the seventh chapter of Revelation. In this
chapter we read of the sealing of one hundred and forty-four thousand.
How much confusion might have been avoided if expositors and Christians
had not lost sight of two facts in connection with this sealed company.
First, this sealed company cannot be called now, nor are they in
connection with the Church of God, because the Church according to the
scope of the Book of Revelation is no longer on the earth when this
takes place; and secondly, the Word states clearly that these sealed
ones are "of all the tribes of the children of Israel." This sealed
company therefore is of Israel, and will be called after the Church has
been removed to her heavenly destination.
In the second half of this chapter in Revelation we read of another
company. John writes, "After this I beheld, and lo, a great multitude,
which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds, and people, and
tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with
white robes and palms in their hands." When one of the elders had
asked, "Who are these which are arrayed in white robes, and whence came
they?" He told John, "These are they which came out of the Great
Tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb." We learn that this multitude of all nations comes
out of the Great Tribulation. It is not the Church, for the Church is
not in the Great Tribulation. This great multitude represents the
Gentile nations who heard the final testimony and who believed, They
turned in repentance to God and were then washed in the Blood of the
Lamb. This great company does not stand before a heavenly throne, but
it is the millennial throne which is in view here, and their
blessedness throughout the millennial kingdom, after having suffered in
the Great Tribulation, is described. They are the nations which the
King calls blessed, and which will inherit the Kingdom. They are the
fruits of the faithful witness of the elect Jewish remnant heralding
the Kingdom before the Lord comes.
"These My Brethren"
When our Lord addresses from His throne these converted nations He
says, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Who are His brethren? He means by
this term His brethren according to the flesh, from whom as concerning
the flesh He came (Rom. ix:4-5). The nations who listened to their
testimony when they appeared with the Gospel of the Kingdom, and who
believed that message, manifested their belief by treating the
messengers with kindness, giving them to eat and to drink, and clothing
them. They did what the Gentile Rahab did to the Jewish spies, the
advanceguard of the victorious host of Israel. And the other nations
who despised the final offer of God's mercy in the preaching of the
Gospel of the Kingdom showed no kindness to the Jewish messengers; and
these nations which spurned the last offer will pass away from the
earth.