Revelation 14:1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Do you remember the challenge you might have had as a kid to fold a piece of paper onto itself more than seven times? At least I think it was seven times. But Britney Gallivan, of Pomona, California used a 4,000 foot roll of tissue paper to fold it on itself twelve times, now holding the Guinness World Record. It took her eight hours to do the folding. Do you have eight hours to devote to this?
But there is an important concept at work as she folded the paper. Folding exponentially increase the thickness of the stack to be folded. If you could fold a stack twenty six times, it would be higher than Mount Everest! That is a large stack of folded paper. I think I had better start increasing my strength.
The section of Scripture that we are reading today has many folds to it. There are repeated images and words throughout this section. It can get confusing to read because of the many various repeating images.
I like to think about this folding of the apocalyptic narrative like this. The story is folded in such a way that all the similar phrases and words end up stacked on top of each other. If you could put a nail through the narratives folded like this, then each nail would pass through all the similar sections.
To be honest, I have not tried to write out the passage and fold it in just this way. But this is the way I imagine unwrapping the connections. So it takes some patience to read and understand, as best we can, this section of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
So as we read about this gathering of people in our text, we must listen to 7:4-8 and 7:9. In 7:4-8 we read about the twelve tribes of twelve thousand each. This is what the apostle heard the angel speak. The math works.
But then we find out what John sees. John sees a great multitude that no one could count. This is the multi-ethnic, universal church that spans the globe and time itself. These who are seen have made it through the great tribulation (7:14).They have remained faithful to Jesus despite the worst that this world has to throw at them. What John hears and what he sees are very different.
And they have a mark on their foreheads. I thought only the Beast had a mark? Nope, the LORD will mark His own. That mark provides protection from the coming wrath that will be poured out on the Earth. This mark is the Lamb’s name and the Father’s name. It brings freedom, unlike the Beast’s mark that brings restriction and devastation.
In the recent past there have been suggestions that people be marked with all sorts of identifying information, from vaccination status to credit card information. My belief is that there is nothing wrong with either one of these things in and of itself. But these types of markings can certainly be used by despotic leaders to impose their view of reality on others.
The mark that the LORD will place on us is more of a spiritual mark than a physical mark. We will be identified as His, and as a result, protection will come our direction. There is only blessing when we allow Him to mark us.
The Arnold Journey 