Revelation: A Census

 Revelation: Justification by Faith

A Census

In Revelation 7 we find the 144,000 and a census is taken. We see 12,000 people from 12 tribes: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. This, of course, describes the children of Jacob, or Israel. With the number 12 we also think of the 12 tribes and the 12 disciples—the people of God.

But why this census? What does it represent?

The only other place where we see a census like this is in Numbers.
What happened there?
They were about to enter Canaan, the promised land.
The first time they took a census of the people was just before entering the land, in Numbers chapters 1 to 4. But then they were afraid of the people in Canaan and did not believe God would fight for them. Therefore, they had to wander in the wilderness longer until a new generation arose, when another census was taken in Numbers 26.

The Levites were not counted then for this reason:

Numbers 26:62

The total number of Levites counted was twenty-three thousand, all males one month old and upward. These were not included among the Israelites because they did not receive a hereditary portion among the Israelites.

The census was mainly for the distribution of possession, or the promised land.
Now we see a census again in Revelation. But in the New Testament, it is not an earthly land we go to, but a heavenly one.
The 144,000 is the generation just before we go to our heavenly homeland.
It is written:

Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16

8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.
10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.
15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.
16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

The 144,000 are thus the people living when Jesus returns. Paul speaks about this:

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17

15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.
17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Still, not everyone was counted in the census of Numbers. Only men 20 years old and above were counted according to Numbers 1.
The reasoning behind this was that God had promised Abraham that He would make his descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven and the sand of the sea. It was considered shameful to count all Israelites as if doubting God’s word.
When David took a census, for example:

1 Chronicles 27:23

David did not count those under twenty years of age, because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars of heaven.

God had promised Abraham that His children would be countless.
Hosea adds something to this. When Israel had greatly sinned, Hosea said:

Hosea 1:10

Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” they will be called “children of the living God.”

Abraham’s natural children can fall away. But those who were not originally called God’s people will be called children of the living God.
Paul rightly interprets this as the fact that Israel is not made up only of Abraham’s natural children. Abraham’s natural children can fall away like branches of an olive tree. But Gentiles, non-Jews, can also be included.
He says:

Romans 9:24-25

24 Even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?
25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
“Those who were not my people
I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved
I will call ‘beloved.’”

Romans 2:28-29

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.
29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.

After John hears this census in Revelation of 12 tribes of Israel, which reminds us of entering Canaan, he sees a multitude that cannot be counted, like the stars of heaven, from all nations:

Revelation 7:9

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.

So the 144,000 are the spiritual Israel from all peoples, described in the form of a census to show their role as the last generation before the great judgment.
In Revelation 6 we saw the question: "Who will stand?"
Here we find the answer.