Who are the
144,000?
After this I saw four angels standing at the
four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent
any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. 2 Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having
the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels
who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: 3 “Do not
harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of
the servants of our God.” 4 Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000
from all the tribes of Israel.5 From the
tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed,
from the tribe of Reuben 12,000,
from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
6 from the
tribe of Asher 12,000,
from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000,
from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
7 from the
tribe of Simeon 12,000,
from the tribe of Levi 12,000,
from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
8 from the
tribe of Zebulun 12,000,
from the tribe of Joseph 12,000,
from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.
They are Jews who are saved and
sealed because they believed in Christ.
Two possible formulas for the number.
12 tribes (OT
lineage) x 12 (itself for emphasis) x 1,000 (lots) = 144,000.
This formula is a formula of
emphasis. "There are lots of Jews
who were saved from each tribe."
12 tribes (OT
heritage) x 12 apostles (NT belief) x 1,000 (lots) = 144,000.
The 144,000 could be all Jewish
believers (Messianic) who are saved and later will be in heaven. It’s a perfect number of completion.