After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried, with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen. Revelation 7: 9-12, KJV.
Our Father and our God, we come before You this morning willing to hear what You have to say to us; so speak LORD, for we are listening. In the name of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.
I had not made plans to continue this study, at least not now; but how thankful I am that the Holy Spirit directs our paths. There are some aspects of importance that we overlooked, while studying some of the characteristics of the one hundred and forty-four thousand yesterday, that we will talk about today and tomorrow. Just a reminder that this series is a comparative study between the numberless multitude and the one hundred and forty-four thousand. This is not study being conducted on the one hundred and forty-four thousand.
We find the redeemed prostrate before the throne. That is the position that I will assume, when, by His wonderful grace, I see Jesus at last! I plan to fall on my face, and worship Him! I will wave my palm in honor of His victory on my behalf! I will shout, “So let it be! [All] “Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, be unto our God for ever and ever. So let it be!” After all, it is by His grace, that we are saved, through faith! So give Him all the glory and praise!
The aspects of the one hundred and forty-four thousand that we did not mention yesterday are the following: “These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God” (Revelation 14: 4, 5). Let us look at these texts in two parts:
“These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.”In Deuteronomy 26 we discover some very interesting details about the firstfruits and their presentation. God had instructed the Israelites that when they came to their inheritance, to the land that He had given them, before eating of the harvest of their land, they were to present to God the first fruits, in acknowledgement of Him as the Source of their harvest. It was He who had brought them to the promised land and had made a harvest possible. The priest would then take the fruits from the farmer and would repeat the story of how God had delivered them out of Egyptian bondage. Two aspects of the narrative of deliverance that caught my attention were: They began as just a few and then became a “nation, great, mighty and populous,” (5), just like the numberless multitude. The amount of the mixed multitude has been estimated at, “six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children . . . [a]nd a mixed multitude went up also with them” (Exodus 12: 37b, 38a). But the redeemed of the Lord are numberless, incalculable!
When they were oppressed, they cried out to God, and He delivered them with a mighty and stretched out arm! Does that sound familiar to anyone? Were we oppressed by the adversary when we were slaves of sin? Did we cry out to the LORD for deliverance? Did God hear our cry and come to our rescue? He sure did! Praise God! Now Jesus, our Deliverer and Priest, will present us as the first fruits before the Father, in the land to which He has brought us, the earth made new! Notice the similitude between the words in Deuteronomy, “[A]nd now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O LORD have given me (10, emphasis provided), with Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work which You have given me to do . . . . While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom You gave me I have kept” (John 17: 4, 12a, emphasis provided). He will keep us here on earth, and then present us to His Father, in glory! Hallelujah!
We will continue tomorrow.