In our last article, we looked at the 144,000, which will be 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel.
In the following verses, John describes a great multitude of people standing before the throne of God and the Lamb.
Let’s take a look.
v.9, “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands”:
· “after these things” introduces John’s second vision in chapter 7.
· The phrase, “I looked and behold,” gets your attention.
· “a great multitude which no one could count” means untold millions of people!
o In 7:1-8, the number of people is definite, but here it is indefinite.
o In the last article, the 144,000 are from the 12 tribes of Israel, but here, they’re from every nation.
o In the first vision, the people are prepared for upcoming danger and wrath. But here they are victorious and secure.
o The first vision was exclusively Jews. This one is not.
o The first group was facing a period of wrath. This one has come out of it.
· “from every nation” means people from every nation will believe and receive Christ during the Great Tribulation.
· “and all tribes, peoples and tongues” means Jews and Gentiles:
o Salvation, during the time of the Tribulation, just as it is now, remains a free gift from God, based solely upon believing and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior.
o No one’s excluded due to race, color, or heritage.
o Never let anyone tell you otherwise!
o God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and He has said that the just shall live by faith! (“For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘but the righteous man shall live by faith’” Romans 1:17).
o This huge crowd represents Gentile and Jewish believers who have died, either a natural or a violent death during the period of the first six seals and they come out of the Great Tribulation.
· They are “standing before the throne and before the Lamb”:
o This scene is in heaven, before the throne of God and the Lamb.
o The presence of the elders and the living beings verifies that this is still the heavenly throne room that we read about in chapters 4 and 5, not an earthly setting.
o This great multitude is in the presence of the Father and, notice, “and before the Lamb.” They are in heaven!
· They were “clothed in white robes”:
o In John’s day, white robes were symbolic of rejoicing associated with victory.
o The robes symbolize victory and righteousness obtained through the death of Christ.
o They’ve been washed clean of their sin, and that’s the reason they’re rejoicing, as all believers should!
· “Palm branches were in their hands.” Why palm branches?
o The palms carried in their hands verify the victory.
o According to oriental thought, a palm was a perfect tree because it embodied everything a tree should have:
Ø Shade, dates for food, and an oasis where water was located.
o Palm branches were regarded as proper at any season of joy and triumph, such as the triumphal entry of Christ in John 12:13.
o They were important at the Feast of Tabernacle’s, being used to construct the shelters on the housetops.
o The Greeks and Romans used palm branches with the same symbolism: triumph and joy.
o This multitude is celebrating its victory and these palm branches are a part of their celebration.
v.10, “and they [the multitude] cry out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb’”:
· “and they cry out” in the Greek means that they keep on crying out:
o They never stop; their voices are never quieted. They cry out with a “loud voice.”
· This very strong expression shows the depth of gratitude of the multitude and their resolve to give credit where credit is due, to God and to the Lamb:
o They realize that this salvation is not of their own achievement, but that of God and the Lamb.
· The words “salvation to our God who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb” recognizes that the victory belongs to Father and the Son.
v.11, “And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God”:
· The angels respond to the cry of the multitude by falling down in worship of God.
· Angels don’t experience salvation in the way humans do:
o But they still rejoice over every repentant sinner and long to know more about the salvation that is available to mankind (1 Peter 1:12).
· At this point, the angels fall before the throne upon their faces much in the same manner as the 24 elders did in chapter 4:
o Falling on one’s face is a proper position to worship God.
Notice what the angels are saying in v.12.
v.12, , “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen”:
· The first “amen” is their confirmation of the tribute of the multitude to God because of the victory He has brought.
· What comes next is their angelic tribute in the form of a sevenfold doxology, like we saw from angelic beings in 5:12.
· They use the word “blessing” because this is what is due to God on behalf of the saved ones.
· Then, the word “glory” which refers to the honor earned from earning a good reputation:
o This glory is the radiance of God.
o In this case, because of His work of deliverance of humans from eternal death through faith in the Lamb, Jesus Christ.
· Next is the word “wisdom” which describes the Divine knowledge of God as revealed in His plan of salvation.
· Then, we see the word “thanksgiving.” This is the thanksgiving of the believers, which is inevitable, when we consider all of God's blessings and accomplishment on our behalf.
· Next, the word “honor” which describes the respect given in recognition of God's provision of salvation:
o They, and we, have done nothing on our own to earn salvation.
o It’s purely a work of the Father and His Son, Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb.
· The next word is “power” which describes God's omnipotence, His ability to act effectively against any and all opposition:
o He has delivered this multitude from some of the most terrifying judgments ever seen by human beings.
· Lastly, they use the word “might,” meaning strength. It refers to a quality that one possesses, whether he exerts that strength or not:
o In this case, God has shown His strength by delivering this multitude of people from the clutches of the enemy.
· These attributes of God are “forever and ever.”
· The second “amen” means “so be it” or “let it be so.”
v.13, “And one of the elders answered, saying to me, ‘These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?’”
· Here’s a conversation between one of the 24 elders and John:
o This conversation identifies the multitude more clearly.
· We see God using a dialogue to explain John’s visions:
o Visions were not given for the purpose of spectacular displays.
o They are given to reveal new things from God, things that, as of yet, were unknown, in this case, future events.
o The details of these revelations were not, and should not, be ignored, dismissed or trivialized.
· Here, as in 5:5, an elder interprets the vision for John:
o He anticipates the question that John was getting ready to ask.
· The elder directs John’s attention to the multitude dressed in white robes:
o The white robes are the focal point, not their number.
· He asked two questions:
o "who are they?" and "from where have they come?"
Notice John’s response in v.14
v.14 “And I said to him, ‘My lord, you know.’ And he said to me, ‘These are the ones who come out of the Great Tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”:
· John shows respect by addressing the elder as “My lord.”
· John also tells the elder “you know,” meaning that the elder knows the truth about this multitude.
· The elder answers John, "these are the ones who come out of Great Tribulation."
· The key to identifying who this multitude is lies in the words "those who are coming out of the great tribulation”:
o This is a vision of the future.
o The elder describes those who will be coming out of the Great Tribulation.
o The persecution of the saints will be a long process, which, from John’s standpoint, was partly past because he had seen the first six seals. And partly future, as the trumpet and bowl judgments are still to come.
o It’s interesting to note from the saints perspective, they enter into heaven immediately after physical death.
o But the resurrection of their bodies must wait until the personal return of Christ to the earth in Revelation 20:4.
o So, John sees this multitude coming out from persecution on the earth, from a point just before the persecution of the saints becomes even worse under the leadership of the beast of the sea in Revelation 13:7.
· The elder continues with his description by saying, “and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”:
o In Isaiah 64:6 and Zech. 3:3, dirty clothes symbolize sinfulness.
o This illustration of cleansing and whiteness comes from Psalm 51:7 and Isaiah 1:18.
· In modern times, making anything white by washing it in blood is unheard of, but it was not so with John and those with an Old Testament background:
o To them, such washing stood for spiritual purity.
o But not just any blood would achieve this cleansing, however. The martyrs’ blood would not do it.
o It had to be the blood of the Christ to produce the whiteness, the purity, and the cleanness before God.
· The verb in the Greek looks back to the time when the cleansing occurred in the life of each member of the crowd, and that was while they were still on earth:
o Through faith alone, they obtained the promise of cleansing through the Lamb’s atoning sacrifice.
· The washing and the whitening are one act of God, not two separate acts:
o Washing and whitening happens at the moment of salvation, at the moment of saving faith.
o God washes away the sin which then cleanses the soul.
o Using figurative language we are, “white,” we are pure; we are sinless because of the atoning work of Christ on the cross. It is His blood that washing away all our sin at the moment of saving faith in Jesus.
· We are saved by virtue of receiving God's forgiveness and being given Christ’s righteousness, again, by faith alone.
· The Lamb's blood, Jesus’ blood spilled at Calvary, on the cross, makes it possible.
v.15, “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His temple; and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them”:
· “for this reason" - the white robes and the cleansing they symbolize are the reason for the position of this multitude before the throne.
· Their purity is derived from their faith in the Lamb and in His sacrificial work:
o It has prepared them to be in the presence of God and given them the privilege to stand before His throne.
· In this case, standing before God's throne does not mean idleness:
o Each one has been assigned a task, which they fulfill willingly: "they serve Him day and night in His temple."
o And they do so continuously, “day and night.”
· Their service is connected with a "temple" in this verse, and that shows that priestly service is in view here:
o Of course this is not the service of external rites and rituals.
o This is spiritual worship. This is praise to, and adoration of, God.
o The same service of worship is referred to in Rev. 22:3.
· This service will be rendered "day and night":
o It must be presumed that day and night does not exist in heaven.
o Day and night implies “time” and God is not bound by time:
Ø He transcends time.
o It means the service of worship by the multitude continues without interruption.
· This worship happens "in the temple":
o This is a picture of all of heaven as a sanctuary in which God's people are priests.
o Remember, this is a view of the saints after death, not after the final judgment of all men.
o They are not yet in their final state of glory, but in the presence of God awaiting the completion of His wrath against mankind.
o While they wait, they worship and praise God for saving them eternally.
· “and He who sits on the throne shall spread His tabernacle over them”:
o The Greek word for "tabernacle" has the idea of tent camping.
o Here it reflects what was symbolized in the Old Testament by the Shekinah, or the immediate presence of God, above the mercy seat, in the tabernacle in the wilderness, and in the cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
o The immediate presence of God shelters and protects them from all harm.
o It also corresponds to the Old Testament promise that God will dwell in midst of His people.
v.16, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat”;
· Here we see two provisions for the heavenly multitude.
· In the natural world, the first has to do with bodily nourishment, "they will not hunger anymore or thirst anymore":
o This promise would have been particularly attractive in an ancient land were both hunger and thirst were constant threats.
o But the deeper meaning is the satisfaction of spiritual hunger and quenching of spiritual thirst.
o Remember, they don’t have glorified bodies yet.
· The words would be all the more meaningful to those early readers who may have been experiencing severe persecution.
· Another aspect of this figurative language is that the tormenting conditions on earth will have ended for them.
· In another sense, spiritual hunger and thirst for God will never cease:
o They will just begin to see God as He truly is and long to know more about Him.
o That’s true of us as well.
o God’s people will always thirst for Him and that thirst will always be satisfied.
· The other provision stated in verse 16 is, "neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat”:
o No matter where someone lives, the sun plays a huge factor in his or her lives.
o Under the fourth bowl judgment of God's wrath (yet to be described), the heat of the sun will become more oppressive than ever before.
o This multitude will not be subjected to that judgment.
· How God will provide for these things is found in verse 17.
v.17, “for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes”:
· The Lamb, who is at the center of the throne, will shepherd them and lead them to the springs of the water of life.
· God will wipe away every tear from their eyes:
o The Father and the Son will bring the benefits promised.
· Jesus’ function as a shepherd comes into view with the words "shall be their shepherd."
· The idea of Jesus as shepherd is well-known in the rest of the New Testament:
o But the idea of a Lamb shepherding a flock is quite different.
o Usually it’s the lambs that follow the shepherd.
o Here, the Lamb of God will shepherd His followers.
· The four gospels show Christ's shepherding in relation to present life on earth, but here in Revelation, we see this multitude as God's flock in heaven:
o Jesus will patiently care for the sheep, guarding them from any further persecution.
o Jesus will "guide them to springs of the waters of life."
· Besides protecting the sheep, the Shepherd is responsible to provide for their refreshment:
o "he shall guide" continues the picture of Jesus leading His flock to the eternal blessedness that awaits all who belong to God.
· The Shepherd is leading them "to springs of the water of life":
o God the Father, who is the source of all life, is the One to whom the Lamb will lead His sheep.
· Notice that God, Himself, will remove all their sorrow, "and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes":
- Tears in the eyes denote the sorrow of God's people because of the pressures of life on earth.
- The Old Testament source of this promise to remove any lingering effect of that sorrow is Isaiah 20:5-8. In Revelation 20:1-3, the promise is restated in practically identical wording.
Lessons from John’s Visions
· The number of believers is innumerable: “from every tribe, tongue and nation.” That’s why missions are so important.
· God’s revelations are important to us. We’re not just to read them and walk away.
· The message will still be the same at the end of the earth as it has been all along: it’s the blood of the Lamb that washes us clean from our sin and guilt.
· When we get to heaven, we will:
- Be in God’s immediate presence.
- We will see His glory, the same glory that ancient Israel saw.
- Our spiritual hunger and thirst will be quenched.
- God will wipe away all sorrow, sadness, and tears. We can hardly wait!!!
May the Lord bless you as you continue to growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.
By His Grace,
Gary T. Dromi, Ph.D., D.Min.
