The Book of Revelation

Word Study

"seal," Greek sphragis (σφραγίς). A seal was the mark pressed by a signet, stamping something as owned, authenticated, and protected; a sealed document could not be tampered with, and a sealed possession was under the owner's guard. God places His own mark, "the seal of the living God," upon His servants before the storm of judgment breaks. The mark is "in their foreheads," open and unashamed, a stark contrast to the mark of the beast that will appear later (13:16). So sphragis assures the believer: those who are the Lord's are stamped with His Spirit, owned and protected, and no storm can claim them, for they bear the seal of the living God.

"sealed," sphragizo (σφραγίζω). The verb is the pressing home of that sphragis: "Till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." The sealing means two things: they belong to Him ("ye are... his," 2 Timothy 2:19), and they are kept by Him through what is coming. This is exactly the New Testament teaching of the believer's sealing: "after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise" (Ephesians 1:13); "grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). The seal of the living God upon His people is His own Spirit, the Holy Ghost, marking them as His possession and guarding them to the day of redemption. Judgment cannot touch what God has sealed until His purpose is complete, for the servants who have been sealed are no longer their own but His.

Explanation

Between the sixth and seventh seals comes a pause of grace: before judgment falls, God's servants are sealed on their foreheads -- marked as His own and secured. The 144,000 from the tribes of Israel signify the completeness of God's protected people; not one whom God seals is lost in the storm. The sealing answers the terrified cry of 6:17, "who shall be able to stand?" -- those sealed by God shall stand. In the midst of wrath, God knows and keeps His own, restraining the winds of judgment until every servant bears His mark.

Gospel Focus

Chapter 7 opens with mercy interrupting judgment. Four angels hold "the four winds of the earth" so that harm is restrained, and another angel, "having the seal of the living God," commands, "Hurt not the earth... till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads." Before God lets loose what must come, He secures His people. This is the pattern of grace throughout Scripture: God marked the doorposts before the destroyer passed through Egypt (Exodus 12), and marked the mourners in Jerusalem before judgment fell (Ezekiel 9:4-6). Now He seals His servants. The number is "an hundred and forty and four thousand... of all the tribes of the children of Israel," twelve thousand from each of twelve tribes. The number is symbolic of completeness and order: twelve (the tribes) multiplied by twelve (fullness) and by a thousand, a picture of the whole people of God, none lost, perfectly counted, none missing. God knows His own by name and by tribe; not one of the sealed is overlooked. Whether we read the 144,000 as a remnant of Israel or as a symbol of the complete, organized company of God's redeemed, the message is the same: the Lord numbers and seals every one of His servants. The winds of a shaking world are held back by His hand until the last of His people is safely marked. Judgment waits on mercy; the storm waits on the sealing. God will not lose a single one who is His.

Word Study

"washed," Greek pluno (πλύνω). The word means to wash cloth clean, to launder a garment until it is spotless. Here it forms one of the most striking paradoxes in all of Scripture: "have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Blood stains; it does not whiten. Yet the blood of the Lamb does what no other cleansing can: it makes filthy robes pure white. This is the heart of the Gospel. We cannot wash our own robes clean by any effort or merit; "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). But the blood of Jesus, shed at Calvary, cleanses completely: "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). The great multitude did not earn their white robes; they washed them in the blood of the Lamb, in the atoning sacrifice of God manifest in flesh. Note carefully whose blood it is: it is the Lamb's, that is, Christ's own blood, and yet Scripture calls it the blood by which God "purchased" the church "with his own blood" (Acts 20:28), for the Lamb is God our Saviour. The redeemed of every nation stand before the throne clean, not by their tribulation, however great, but by the blood. So pluno proclaims the only way robes are made white: not by our suffering or our striving, but by being washed in the precious blood of the Lamb.

Explanation

The scene opens onto "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations," standing before the throne in white robes, crying "Salvation to our God... and unto the Lamb." These are they who "came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes... in the blood of the Lamb" -- redeemed not by their own endurance but by Christ's blood. Their future is pure comfort: God shall wipe away all tears, and the Lamb shall be their Shepherd, leading them to "living fountains of waters." The book of judgment pauses to show the end of the redeemed -- a countless, blood-washed throng, forever safe, forever satisfied in the presence of God.

Gospel Focus

Now John sees the full harvest: "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues." The sealed servants of Israel give way to a countless throng from every people on earth, the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. They stand "before the throne, and before the Lamb," robed in white and waving palms of victory, and their cry unites God and the Lamb in one salvation: "Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Again the Lamb receives the worship of God, for the Lamb is God our Saviour. All the angels fall on their faces and worship God with a sevenfold ascription of praise. Then the elder asks the identity of the white-robed throng and answers his own question: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They passed through suffering, but their purity came from the blood, not the suffering. And their reward is intimacy with God forever: they "serve him day and night in his temple," and "he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them", God Himself tabernacling with His people. Every ache of this life is answered: "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more," no scorching sun, no burning heat. And the final tenderness gathers up the whole vision: "the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them," literally shall shepherd them, the Lamb who is the Shepherd (Psalm 23; John 10), leading them "unto living fountains of waters." And "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." The Lamb on the throne shepherds His flock, and the God who saves stoops to wipe every tear with His own hand. This is the end of the story for all who are washed in His blood.