The events that marked the opening of the sixth seal at the end of chapter 6 prepare the reader for the climactic conclusion of God’s plan. However, before the seventh seal can be opened, two visions interrupt the revelation of present calamities and future judgment.
These two visions nourishes the hope of John’s Christian readers. These visions depict God’s faithful people before and after their trials.
In the first vision (7:1–8) - God acts to protect his people in advance of the distress they are about to experience or are experiencing.
The second vision (7:9–17) is a preview of what awaits God’s people on the other side of the great tribulation of this life. God shelters his people in his presence while the Lamb shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving water.
It is our earliest and most beautiful picture of the life in heaven that awaits faithful believers after death.
1 Sealing on earth of 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel (7:1–8)
(a) Preparation for sealing (7:1–3)
(b) Enumeration of those sealed from all the tribes of Israel (7:4–8)
2. Worship in heaven from an innumerable multitude of tribulation martyrs (7:9–17)
(a) A multinational assembly joins the heavenly worship of God (7:9–12)
(b) Heavenly identification and protection of these martyrs (7:13–17)
7:1–3
In the Bible, the four corners - four points of the compass - represent the whole earth. The angels are holding back the four winds (see Zech 6:5).
The powerful angels responsible for unleashing the warning judgments are addressed by another angel whose extraordinary importance is signaled by the fact that he holds the seal of the living God.
A seal is a device for impressing an emblem or other identifying mark onto something to indicate ownership. Sheep, cattle, and sometime slaves were branded with their owner’s emblem or name. A seal of ownership indicated the owner’s rights to what belonged to him and protection of what belonged to him.
When soldiers enlisted in the Roman army, they were often sealed by having the name of their commanding general tattooed on their hand or forearm.
The angel with the seal commands the four angels in a loud voice to wait before before bringing judgment on the inhabited world.
This angel comes from “the rising of the sun” - the deliverance comes from the east (see Ezek 43:1–5).
The trees are probably included here because of their importance for sustaining life in the ancient Mediterranean world.
“Do not harm the trees” (7:1–3; 8:7).
In ancient eastern Mediterranean culture, trees played important role for sustaining life. Most oil for cooking and for light after dark came from olive trees. Any house having a large room had wooden beams.
In summer, the shade of trees brought relief from the sun’s heat. In the cold of winter, the primary source of heat was wood fuel. In addition, tools and furniture were made of wood.
Ancient warfare depended on trees for spears, bows and arrows, and siege engines.
Finally, trees were direct sources of food, furnishing olives, nuts, dates, and various other fruits.
So important were fruit trees to the sustenance of life that the law of Moses governing warfare forbade cutting them down (Deut 20:19–20).
Before harm is inflicted on the world, God’s servants must be marked with his seal.
The seal on the foreheads recalls another vision in the book of Ezekiel. The prophet heard God command an angel in the likeness of a scribe to mark the Greek letter tau, shaped like a cross, on the forehead of all the righteous Israelites so that, when God’s angels brought judgment on Jerusalem, those who disapproved of the evil done in the city would be spared (Ezek 9:3–6).
Note
We cannot find “Tau” in a contemporary translations of the Bible, but we find it being referred to in the writings of the Fathers of the Church and in St. Jerome Vulgate.
Example:
“Ezekiel spake: ”The Lord said unto me, Go through the gate, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set the mark Tau upon the foreheads of the men.“ Now the Greek letter Tau and our own letter T is the very form of the cross, which He predicted would be the sign on our foreheads in the true Catholic Jerusalem” (Tertullian, Five Books Against Marcion, Book III).
Later in Revelation, John indicates that God’s servants have the name of God (the name of the Lamb and his Father) inscribed on their foreheads (14:1; 22:4), probably a reference to the seal of God mentioned here.
In contrast, the followers of “the beast” will bear the mark of the beast on their hands and foreheads (13:16; 14:9; 20:4).
God’s seal on his servants before the judgments begin indicates that they belong to God and are under his protection. The seal will protect them from the onslaught of judgment that will soon be released against the wider world (see Ezek 9:1–11 - 9:4,6; Rev 9:4; 14:1–5; 22:4).
7:4–8
12x12x1000 -a symbolic number.
In Revelation both twelves that symbolize God’s people — the twelve tribes of the old covenant and the twelve apostles of the new — are important (see 21:12, 14).
The figure one thousand, besides symbolizing a large number, was also the largest military unit under a single commander in biblical Israel’s army (e.g., Num 31:14, 48, 52, 54).
The repeated phrase “from the tribe of …” echoes the census of men of fighting age found in Num 1:20–45. In the Old Testament, listing numbers from a tribe usually has to do with counting the people for military purposes. In the Torah, when the Israelites went to war at God’s command, God went with them and fought for them.
So, who are those people?
One possibility is that it refers to Jewish Christians. In this case, it would be the fulfilment of the prophecies about the re-gathering of all the tribes of Israel in the end-times from their exile among the nations (Deut 30:1–5; Is 11:10–16; Sir 36:10).
Another possibility is that it refers to the entire Church, where Church is understood as the “new Israel”.
The symbolic numbering of God’s people as a holy army introduces an important theme of Revelation: the Church’s call to bear witness is warfare. However, God himself will fight for his people just as he did against Egypt (Exod 12:12; 14:14), against Jericho and other Canaanite cities in the conquest (Josh 6), and against the armies of Assyria in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:20–37).
In Revelation, however, there is no mention of physical warfare on the part of God’s people, but rather a summons for Christians to be victors (2:7, 11, 17; 21:7; etc.) in a battle against idolatry, immorality, materialism, pressures to conform, deception, and persecution at the hands of Satan’s agents.
Two irregularities in the listing of the twelve tribes in this passage deserve comment. Instead of Reuben - Jacob’s firstborn - being listed first, that place is given to the tribe of Judah. This is because Christ the Lamb, a descendant of David, belongs to the tribe of Judah.
The other peculiarity is that the tribes of Ephraim and Dan does not appear but Manasseh - the brother of Ephraim and Joseph, the father of both do appear. Perhaps this occurs because in the Old Testament the tribes of Ephraim and Dan were frequently associated with idolatry (Judg 18; 1 Kings 12:28–30; Hosea 2:10; 4:17), the very evil that Revelation warns so strenuously against.
What kind of protection does “the seal of the living God” afford God’s servants?
The message given in 6:11 about more martyrs to come and the visions of persecution in the rest of the book (e.g., 12:11; 13:10) indicate that the seal’s protection is spiritual rather than physical.
This vision offers a paradoxical reassurance, comparable to Jesus’ promise in Luke 21:16–18: “They will put some of you to death, . . . but not a hair on your head will be destroyed.” In the final analysis, we are completely safe. Because of Christ’s promise of eternal life, Christians need not fear those who can kill the body but cannot harm the soul (Matt 10:28; Luke 12:4).
St. Paul teaches that the Holy Spirit himself is the seal that marks Christians (2 Cor 1:22). Eph 1:13 refers to the Holy Spirit as a seal with whom Christians are “sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30; see 2 Cor 1:22). The Holy Spirit himself marks Christians as God’s sons and daughters (Gal 4:6), bearing his “name” (Rev 14:1; 22:4). The Spirit, as the “guarantee” or “first installment” of our eternal inheritance (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5; Eph 1:13–14), safeguards Christians, although we must continue to choose to “live by the Spirit” (Gal 5:16–23; see Rom 8:1–14).
The second century Church Fathers referred to baptism, the sacrament that conveys the Spirit, as the seal. It is an indelible seal—like a brand, a tattoo, or circumcision (although invisible)— and therefore not to be repeated. It signifies belonging fully to Christ and enlistment in his spiritual army.
Other Church Fathers understood tracing the sign of the cross on the foreheads of catechumens as sealing them—marking them as belonging to Christ and protecting them from the devil. Still other Church Fathers regarded the anointing with oil that follows baptism as the seal that conveys the Spirit.
“Christ himself declared that he was marked with his Father’s seal (see John 6:27). Christians are also marked with a seal: “It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has commissioned us; he has put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (2 Cor 1:21–22; see Eph 1:13; 4:30).
This seal of the Holy Spirit marks our total belonging to Christ, our enrollment in his service for ever, as well as the promise of divine protection in the great eschatological trial (Rev 7:2–3; 9:4; Ezek 9:4–6)”. (Catechism 1296)
7:9–17
While the previous vision (7:1–8) reassures readers indicating that God has placed his seal of protection on his people before their trials begin, this vision reassures readers by showing what awaits God’s people after death.
While the sealing of twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes symbolizes the assembly of the Church militant, this vision of a great multitude rejoicing depicts the Church triumphant.
They “have survived the time of great distress,” or “the great tribulation” (7:14), and are gathered around God’s throne with the Lamb. The picture in verses 15–17 reveals the situation of Christ’s faithful who have endured trial and washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb—namely, the blessedness of eternal life with God.
7:9
“From every nation, race, people, and tongue” - indicate the universal character of God’s people, anticipated in God’s promise to Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen 12:3 NRSV). The innumerable multitude recalls God’s other divine promises to Abraham to multiply his offspring and to make him “the father of a multitude of nations” (Gen 17:4; 22:17).
White is the color of victory, of redemption and of resurrection.
They hold palm branches, a symbol of victory and of the Feast of Tabernacles.
The Feast of Tabernacles was the fall harvest festival that recalled God’s provision during Israel’s wilderness sojourn. Jewish tradition understood it as foreshadowing the end of history and the coming of God’s kingdom.
7:10–12 - Rev 5:9–13
The multitude acknowledges that “salvation,” their deliverance from all evil including victory over powerful enemies, is due to God and to the Lamb.
Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, / honor, power, and might. These seven attributes symbolise perfection. The one to whom they are ascribed here is “our God”.
This affirmation is preceded and followed by “Amen”. It seems that the first “Amen” is a confirmation of what was said in verse 10; while the second “Amen” reinforces what the angels said in verse 12.
7:13–14 - Rev 5:5
One of the elders asks the question which is on the mind of John and his readers: Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?
“These are the ones [coming out] of the great tribulation”, suggesting that John is watching as the martyrs and faithful Christians of all ages emerge from their struggle and enter into their heavenly rest.
This vision, like a few others (6:9–11; 15:2–4; 20:4), provides a glimpse of the salvation that awaits Jesus’ disciples after the sufferings of this world and after death. However, it does not depict the ultimate future of God’s people promised in the ancient prophecy (Dan 7:27), when “they will reign on earth” (Rev 5:10).
In contrast to this vision of heaven, the last two chapters of Revelation (21–22) show the people of God living in a new creation, in the new Jerusalem that has descended from heaven to earth.
They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. This echoes Dan 12:10, which says that when the time of distress comes, “Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white”.
According to the law of Moses, the blood of certain sacrifices functions as a kind of ritual cleanser serving to purify people and things (Lev 8:15; 14:14, 52). These purification rites are fulfilled by Jesus’ blood, his sacrifice on the cross (Heb 9:11–14; 1 John 1:7).
Although salvation comes entirely from God (7:10), human freedom plays a necessary role. Verse 14 focuses on the action of God’s people: “[They] have washed their robes and made them white”. How? By believing in the Gospel and by being baptised.
They survive “the great distress/tribulation” by persevering in faith, repentance, and the grace of their baptism.
“The great distress” of 7:14 alludes to a prophecy in the book of Daniel about “a time unsurpassed in distress” (12:1) that will precede the end of history.
According to Daniel, an adversary of God’s people will arise and persecute the faithful because of their loyalty to the covenant (see 11:30–39, 44; 12:10).
On one level this prophecy refers to the chaotic period recounted in the books of Maccabees between 168 and 164 BC, when the pagan ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes defiled the temple in Jerusalem and persecuted faithful Jews (1 Macc 9:27).
However, it was later on viewed as a type of a future trial at the hands of an eschatological adversary. That future trial constitutes the birth pangs that would precede the coming of God’s kingdom and the eternal reign of the Messiah and the saints.
“Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh” (CCC 675);
“The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection. The kingdom will be fulfilled, then, not by a historic triumph of the Church through a progressive ascendancy, but only by God’s victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven. God’s triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world” (CCC 677).
Revelation identifies Daniel’s three-and-a-half-year period of trial (Dan 7:25; 12:7), both with the entire span of the Church’s earthly pilgrimage (Rev 12:6) and with the final period of the beast’s ascendancy (Rev 13:5–7).
7:15–17 - see Is 25:8; 49:10; Ps 23:1–3;Jer 2:13; Ezek 34:24.
This picture will be continued and expanded at the end of the book in the new Jerusalem (21:4, 6; 22:1, 3). It has three elements: worship in God’s presence, a complete end to suffering, and the tender care of God and the Lamb for the redeemed.
Because they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb—the redeemed are privileged to stand before God’s throne, and worship him day and night. This adoration is continuous, unlike the worship in the Jerusalem temple, which normally ceased between the evening and morning sacrifice.
The problem that some commentators raise is the presence of the temple. The heavenly “temple” of God is often referred to in Revelation (11:19; 14:15, 17; 15:5, 8; 16:1, 17), but 21:22 specifically records the absence of a temple in the eternal conditions of the New Jerusalem.
Could it indicate then that John sees them in an intermediate stage, enjoying the blessings of God in heaven but not yet in their resurrected state?
The Greek for “shelter” here means “to spread one’s tent”; God himself “spreads his tent” over his multinational people, to dwell with and protect them. God shelters them from every kind of suffering: no hunger or thirst, . . ., nor . . . the sun or any heat shall afflict them.
Although they may have suffered these evils on earth (see Luke 6:21; 1 Cor 4:11; 2 Cor 11:27), now they are forever free of them (as Is 49:10 promises in similar words).
For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them.
Numerous Old Testament texts speak of the Lord God as Israel’s shepherd (e.g., Gen 48:15; Pss 23; 80), and Ezek 34:23 foretells a descendent of David who will shepherd Israel and make them one flock. Jesus identifies himself as the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14).
In Rev 7:17, the shepherd-Lamb will lead his flock to springs of life-giving water, a rich biblical symbol that refers both to the Holy Spirit and to the eternal life that the Spirit communicates (John 7:38–39; Rom 8:11; see alsoJohn 4:14).
God, fulfilling a fatherly role, will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Not only will all physical suffering be removed, but every emotional and spiritual wound—above all, the sorrow brought by death—will be comforted and healed.
The image of “the Lord GOD” wiping away “the tears from all faces” comes from Isa 25:8, where God promises to “destroy death forever.”
These images of God wiping away every tear, of no more death, and of life-giving water are repeated later in the vision of the new Jerusalem that descends from heaven (21:4–6), indicating continuity between the life after death of those coming out of the great tribulation and the ultimate reward of God’s people.
Nevertheless, the two situations of God’s people must be distinguished: The “great multitude” of 7:9–17 worships in God’s temple in heaven.
The new Jerusalem comes “down out of heaven from God” (21:10) to a new earth (21:1). In contrast to this vision of celebration in the heavenly temple and several other references to God’s temple in heaven, John sees “no temple” in the new Jerusalem, since the presence of God with his people makes the new Jerusalem itself the holy of holies of a new temple (21:16, 22).
Thus, this vision then refers to the state of believers between death and the future resurrection. Because the heavenly Jerusalem has not yet come down to earth as Revelation 21–22 portrays it.