Yes,
yes, my heading is a play on words. I have simply reached the point in my
journey through Revelation that the symbols are like cymbals adding the most
beautiful of percussion to the divine symphony of this amazing book. Here is
the way this built up my heart in worship and praise to our Father in heaven.
“And I heard the number of the
sealed, 144,000,”[1]
Whenever we come to a number in the book of Revelation we
must consider it the same way we have treated all the other numbers. We have no
authority to go back-and-forth between literal and symbolic. They are one or
the other all the way through the book.
All the Revelation’s numbers mean something specific, and something
very concrete in history. However, because God has made it very clear that, “It is not for you to know times or seasons
that the Father has fixed by his own authority”,[2] the numbers we are given in Revelation give us
meanings to hold on to, not measurements to line up with.
That is the delightful thought that came clear to me this
morning: the numbers in the book of Revelation are “meanings”, not “measurements”.
The numbers mean something; they do not measure something.
Yes, from God’s viewpoint, the numbers tell us that they do
contain a measure that will fulfill everything he has planned for the times and
seasons. In other words, from God’s viewpoint, they satisfy what he has set by
his own authority as the times and seasons. However, for us, it is not a
measurement we can lay against some historical time-line and say that these
numbers mean that we are at “this” particular point in history before the
coming of Christ, and Jesus couldn’t come now because such-and-such hasn’t
happened yet.
It is impossible to take the numbers of Revelation and put
them into times or seasons. They tell us that God himself has the times and
seasons all set in his own authority, but there is never an indication that we
are given numbers that can add up to an equation that tells us that certain
things must still happen before Jesus comes; or that a certain group, or
activity, or event, is the exact fulfillment of one of the numbers, and as soon
as that happens Jesus will come; or because something has already happened we might
as well quit our jobs and go sit on the Mount of Olives because Jesus is coming
now.
We have already seen that the numbers in the book of
Revelation give us a meaning, not a measurement. From the seven churches in
chapters 2 and 3, to the seven spirits before the throne of God, to the seven
seals on the scroll, to the Lamb of God with seven horns and seven eyes, to the
seven angels, the seven trumpets, the seven thunders, the seven plagues, the
seven bowls of wrath, to the wicked enemies of God with seven heads and ten
horns, the number seven gives us a meaning about all those things that is the
same in every instance.
Imagine the book of Revelation like a paint-by-number
picture. When we first read it through, all we see is a white background woven
through with black lines. As we look closer, we discover that all over the
background, in the different spaces between collections of lines, there are
numbers.
Then we notice that the picture comes with a collection of
paints that carry the same numbers as are printed on the background. We conclude
that the numbered paints match the numbered sections of the picture. When we
take one of the colors, we simply paint every space with that number in the
same color. When we paint each number on the board with the right color from
the paint collection, a picture begins to form that is much bigger than any one
number, or any one color.
The numbers in the book of Revelation give us meanings,
pictures, a way of looking at things, that are to fill our minds with the beauty
and wonder of the divine revelation. Instead of seeing only a measurement, that
there are only seven churches for example, we are to see that the number seven
speaks of completeness from God’s viewpoint. The seven letters to the seven
churches means God’s complete word to his complete church through the
completion of time.
When we measure our own particular church by those seven letters,
we realize that God has given us a complete measure, telling us the kinds of
things he approves, and the kinds of things he disapproves, so that we can grow
in the things he commends, and repent of the things he condemns. Every church
from every place through every period of history can use the letters to the
seven churches to identify the distinctive things God would affirm or rebuke,
and respond accordingly.
When we see that there are seven torches before the throne
of God, and that these represent the seven spirits of God, and that the Lamb of
God is represented as having seven eyes, which also refer to the seven spirits,
we are not, for the first time in Scripture, being told that the one Holy Spirit
we have grown to love, and appreciate, and know through the rest of God’s word
is suddenly identified as seven Holy Spirits.
Rather, instead of the number seven giving us a measurement,
causing us to think that there really are seven spirits of God, every reference
to the Spirit with the number seven gives us a meaning, that everything to do
with the Holy Spirit is complete. The seven of the church, the completeness of
the church, is matched by the seven of the Spirit, the completeness of the Holy
Spirit of the living God. The seven torches that represent the Holy Spirit tell
us that his light to the church is complete. He will lead us through the last
hour so that the whole will of God is accomplished and fulfilled to the
smallest letter, even when the one thing we know is that on that day, the word
of God, the Sword of the Spirit, is lighting our path only one day’s step ahead.
When the Holy Spirit is represented by the Lamb’s seven
eyes, it is to tell us that the completeness of the Holy Spirit is connected to
what the Lamb of God sees on the earth. The church is to understand that Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, looking as though slain, yet the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the
only one who can open the seven seals on the scroll of God, sees the
completeness of everything the church is going through because the completeness
of the Holy Spirit is his eyes. He has given us of his Spirit, and so we are to
keep in mind this meaning, that Jesus sees everything through his Spirit. He
knows about the Christian village burned down by religious extremists. He knows
about every teenage girl abducted by the servants of the beast. He knows about
a young mother sentenced to death by hanging because she refuses to renounce
her faith in Jesus Christ.
By the Holy Spirit, Jesus sees what you are going through,
what your church family is going through. He sees your church the way he saw
the seven churches he wrote to in the first century. He has given us his
Spirit, and so the Spirit is in constant intercession for us, telling the
Father and the Lamb all that is going on with us, and, as the seven torches, bringing
the light of the Father’s will to every church, every believer, through the
completeness of the last hour, no matter how long in earth-time it takes for
midnight to arrive.
My main point is that we cannot switch back-and-forth
between the numbers. Once we know that Jesus’ seven horns refers to his
complete authority as given to him by his Father (“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me”[3]), we accept
that he has authority over whatever the world the flesh and the devil are doing
around us, and all these enemies of God will meet their end as he has promised.
He has authority over his church, and so calls his church to go out and make
disciples of all nations until the clock strikes midnight.
When we come
to seven years of tribulation,[4] it means the
completeness of whatever tribulation God has allowed, permitted, ordained, or
whatever other way we see his determination of how much tribulation will take
place. In the end, it will not be how much the red dragon wishes to do, or how
much the beast wishes to carry out, or how much the wicked prostitute seeks to
inflict. It will be only as much as God determines is the complete amount, an
amount he refuses to let us measure.
So, the 144,000? Well, in classic soap opera style, stay
tuned for what the Lord teaches me as I meditate on that tomorrow! I have had
such an uplifting time with what I just shared that I still haven’t meditated
directly on the meaning of this number.[5] What I know for certain is that it is a number
with a meaning, not a measurement. I also know that it has a meaning that will
minister to the seven churches, the complete church through the completion of
time.
This morning I am like a little child with a smile on my face
because my Father in heaven has the wisdom and knowledge to draw the
intricately complex lines on the white background of history, numbering every
space in such a way that everything we go through has some kind of meaning, handing
us a collection of numbered paints that match what he has drawn, and telling us
how blessed we are as we take brush in hand and match the paints to the
numbers.
From my childish understanding of these things, there is
still a lot of white background showing around the little I have painted in. However,
this is one of the most fascinating and uplifting and joy-building and
Christ-exalting experiences of my life! (Sigh… and now the day begins).
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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