Revelation 14:3, commentary and pictures

The 144,000 redeemed from the earth sing a new song before the throne and before the living creatures and the elders, with a voice from heaven like many waters and great thunder and harpers harping with their harps. No one else can learn that song because it is the song of their own experience, such as no other company has ever had. That experience is deliverance through the final time of trouble such as never was, coming out of great tribulation and standing without an intercessor through God's final judgments after gaining victory over the beast and its image and mark. They stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, clothed in white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, as undefiled virgins who follow the Lamb wherever He goes and keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. That song of triumph must first be learned on earth while strength remains, by having Jesus abiding in the heart and training the mind to love heavenly things, for only those fitted with pure sympathies can unite in praise to God and the Lamb.

Setting and Wording

The singing is by the hundred and forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth, singing as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts or living creatures and the elders. They stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion having His Father's name written in their foreheads, as undefiled virgins who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes as firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, with no guile in their mouth and without fault before the throne of God. Only those redeemed from the earth can learn the song, marking their distinctive experience as the redeemed.

What John heard was a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of great thunder and like harpers harping with their harps, with accompaniment by harpers having the harps of God. The music before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders is as the sound of many waters and great thunder and of harpers harping.

The verse belongs to the connected sequence in Revelation 14:1-5, which runs through past, present, and future events to the complete redemption of the 144,000. These are the ones who have gained victory over the beast and its image and stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, the company to whom a living connection with Jesus Christ and His salvation is desired. They are not Jews who will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah, for teaching that they are is out of harmony with fundamental points and is a point that must be changed or modified.

The chapter presents the everlasting gospel and the threefold message as truths that distinguish Christ's church at His appearing, identifying God's people as those who keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus. It is the last message of mercy to the world, the warning of the third angel, and immediately after its proclamation the Son of man is seen coming in glory to reap the harvest of the earth. That message was committed to Christ's servants when Christ entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of the atonement, so its relation to past and future connects Christ's closing work in heaven with His people's work on earth. Given as present truth after the disappointment, together with light on the sanctuary question and the Sabbath truth, it was carried as the third angel's message from city to city and from town to town as light on the pathway concerning the near advent of the Lord.

The chapter presents the testimony of Jesus as the spirit of prophecy.

Identity of 144,000

They are the hundred and forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth, redeemed from among men and translated from among the living as firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. They alone can learn the new song before the throne because it is the song of their own distinctive experience as the redeemed. They stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion on the crystal sea of glass mingled with fire before the throne, having the harps of God. In that setting they stand apart from those who dishonor God's law and oppress His faithful servants.

They stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion having His Father's name written in their foreheads. They are children of God girt for holy service and clothed in white linen which is the righteousness of the saints. He places His Father's name in their foreheads because in this world they had minds consecrated to God and served Him with intellect and heart. They are singled out because they stand for great truth before the world and face opposition, with Christ's image formed in them and the hope of eternal glory before them. They shall reign forever and ever, not going in and out as those who beg a place, but welcomed as His children to enter into the joy of their Lord and inherit the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.

They are undefiled virgins who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes, with no guile in their mouth and without fault before the throne of God. They are the loyal and true who do not bow to decrees of earthly rulers set against the authority of the King of heaven, keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Following the Lamb with Him in heaven requires having first followed Him on earth in trustful, loving, willing obedience, confidently and truthfully as the flock follows the shepherd, not fretfully and capriciously. Those who bruise and imprison and humiliate their fellow men to compel worship of an idol sabbath without one text of Scripture for its authority, grieving and oppressing while professing to follow Christ, are not following the Lamb but are following another leader expelled from heaven and Eden as a falsifier of God, developing the attributes of Satan and showing guile in their mouths.

They have gained victory over the beast and its image and mark, bearing the Father's name rather than the beast's mark. They overcame through conflict and stood through suffering and God's judgments to gain the final victory. Their song belongs to those who have passed through this conflict, and it runs through the connected sequence of Revelation 14:1-5 from past and present to their complete redemption. They are the living righteous at Christ's second advent who will be translated from the earth before its destruction by fire. Like Enoch they must attain holy character through close communion with God, purity of heart, conformity to His will, and reflecting the likeness of Christ amid prevailing iniquity as in the world before the Flood. Like Enoch they warn the world of the Lord's second coming and coming judgments and condemn the sins of the ungodly by holy life and example, and as Enoch was translated to heaven before the destruction of the world by water, so they will be translated before its destruction by fire.

The company includes sealed believers who die before the end, who rest in death through the time of trouble and at the voice of God are raised to stand upon the earth with the 144,000. Their death spares them and results in good, so there is no need to mourn for them except for the living loss of their company. They were not those raised at Christ's resurrection, and that identification is an error. They are not Jews who will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and teaching that they are is out of harmony with fundamental points and is a point that must be changed or modified before a man can be sent out to present the truth to others.

The number remains a mystery God has not revealed, whose meaning and membership cannot now be grasped and must not be made a subject for imagination or for seeking new and strange doctrines. Believers are to plant their feet on the plain Word of the living God and leave what they cannot comprehend with God until heaven unfolds it. When the redeemed reach heaven they will know and understand who is included, for Christ will lead them beside the river of life, open their minds to the truths of His Word, and unfold mysteries in the higher education of the school above. They are a distinct company who triumph after the saints are delivered during Jacob's trouble, with faces shining with the glory of God.

Meaning of New Song

No one can learn the song except the 144,000 because it is the song of their own experience, an experience such as no other company has ever had. They are those redeemed from the earth and from among men, translated from among the living as firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb, standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion with the Father's name in their foreheads. Having washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, with no guile in their mouths and without fault before God, they stand together on the sea of glass, receive crowns and harps, and enter the city after standing stiffly for the truth. Their singing of it follows their step-by-step following of the Lamb in response to heaven's message, through the sanctuary to redemption, calling those who would join them to pure hearts and sanctified speech.

That experience is deliverance through the final time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, the anguish of Jacob's trouble, coming out of great tribulation. It is standing without an intercessor through the final outpouring of God's judgments, having overcome the beast and its image and mark and having stood through suffering, and being delivered because the robes were washed white in the blood of the Lamb. The song is therefore the song of Moses and the Lamb, a song of deliverance and redemption and triumph. It belongs to those who have passed through that conflict and gained the final victory, who followed the Lamb whithersoever He goes.

Its themes are God's providence and Christ's grace and redemption, with the cross at its center. It joins the legal, prophetic, and gospel dispensations and the church's history on earth with the redeemed church in heaven, and it is new because it has never before been sung in heaven. The song belongs to the redeemed among the heavenly company, sung with harps before God, and its grateful music fills heaven. It is the music of heaven to be heard in the saints' eternal home after the King comes in glory, when they leave this dark and dreary groaning earth for a joyous and bright home to walk under life's fair tree forever near the Saviour, shared in visions of saints and angels singing with harps in the holy land.

Prophetic End-Time Context

Revelation 14 presents the first, second, and third angels' messages as the everlasting gospel entrusted to be proclaimed everywhere to test the world and prepare a people to stand in the great day of God. By these messages the truth separates a people from the churches and from the world to bring them into sacred nearness to God, making them the depositaries of His law and committing to them the great truths of prophecy for this time as a sacred trust to be communicated to the world. The three angels represent the people who accept the light of the messages and go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the length and breadth of the earth, and every soul that accepts Jesus is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, letting nothing hinder the work because it is the all-important work for time and far-reaching as eternity. Their character and witness accompany the clear proclamation and practice of the everlasting gospel and the third angel's message throughout the world, actuated by the love Jesus manifested for souls in His sacrifice for their redemption, and their prophetic meaning has been explained through God's chosen servants and is not a call for inexperienced interpreters to devise a new exposition.

The first and second messages have been proclaimed in past years, and the third is now being given as present truth to fallen churches and to those who have never heard it. It includes the other two messages, makes prominent the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and is a solemn message entrusted to God's watchmen and light-bearers for saving souls whose progress nothing should hinder. It stands in the three angels' messages given after the disappointment, together with light on the sanctuary question and the Sabbath truth, carried as the third angel's message from city to city and from town to town as light on the pathway concerning the near advent of the Lord, which some received gladly while others turned from it and lost their hold on God and His truth. It is now to be proclaimed not only in lands far off but in neglected places close by where multitudes dwell unwarned and unsaved, with work in the cities regarded as of special importance, done by carefully selected workers laboring two and two in harmony with the counsel of experienced leaders and under the direction and commission of Jesus Christ.

The call to worship the Creator is especially connected with the fourth commandment, which identifies God as Creator and makes the Sabbath a sign and memorial of creation and of loyalty to Him, bringing as a result of the threefold message a class of people to keep God's commandments. The hundred and forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth are those sealed by God because they keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment sanctified by God as the memorial of the creation of the world. In contrast, professed Christians who are idolaters are not sealed by God but subvert the Christian faith into idolatry by giving to a man-made institution, a spurious sabbath instituted by Satan to destroy the memorial and bring worldwide apostasy against God's law, the glory and honor that God requires for His Sabbath day, and by compelling others to worship this idol. In this setting the 144,000 stand apart as the only ones able to learn the new song before the throne, distinct from those who dishonor God's law and oppress His faithful servants. Those who remain unsealed in this idolatry will surely be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy upon unrepentant despisers of His law.

The verse belongs to the prophecies in Revelation chapters 12 to 18, which are being fulfilled. It stands within the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given. Those who hear this warning message for this time are called to show genuine faith and spirituality in their lives and to remain distinct from the world. These special messages of warning have called God's people out from the world and must not be treated as secondary to medical missionary work, but those who have heard them are called to come to their senses and make their lives an expression of genuine faith and spirituality. Their experience is to be very different from that of the Jewish nation who rejected the Bible prophecies of Christ's coming and chose their own way.

The 144,000, redeemed from the earth and standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion, sing the new song before God's throne that no one else can learn. They are singled out because they stand for a great truth before the world and face opposition. Christ's image is formed in them, and they keep the hope of eternal glory before them.

Heavenly Reward and Glory

On Mount Zion stands a glorious holy temple surrounded by seven other mountains bearing roses and lilies and beautified by box, pine, fir, oil, myrtle, pomegranate and fig trees. By Jesus' own voice only the 144,000 enter this temple, and their entrance is met with shouts of Alleluia. They are distinct in this privilege from the martyrs slain for Him, who wear brilliant crowns and pure white robes with red as a border, and from the innumerable company of little ones with them who also have red on their garments.

Only they enter the temple on Mount Zion and have special access there as those who have the seal of the living God. Their names are engraved in gold letters on tables of stone inside the temple. That temple is supported by seven pillars of transparent gold set with glorious pearls.

They stand with the Lamb upon Mount Zion on the crystal sea of glass mingled with fire before the throne, having the harps of God. After seven days ascending in the cloud they stand in a perfect square on the sea of glass, clothed in glorious white mantles from shoulders to feet and in white linen. Jesus Himself places crowns on their heads with His own right hand and gives them harps of gold and palms of victory. The crowns differ, some very bright and heavy with stars and others less bright with few stars, yet all are perfectly satisfied with their crowns.

Having washed their robes in Christ's blood and stood stiffly for His truth, they march over the sea of glass to the city gate with angels surrounding them. Jesus opens the pearly gate for them and admits them because they have washed their robes in His blood and stood faithfully for the truth, giving them a perfect right in the city to see the throne of God. Therefore they are before the throne serving God day and night in His temple with Him dwelling among them.

After seeing the earth wasted with famine and pestilence and scorching heat and after themselves enduring suffering, hunger and thirst, they shall hunger no more nor thirst nor be struck by sun and heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more trial or affliction or pain or death, where overcomers receive the crown and the harp of gold and live from everlasting to everlasting singing praise to the Lamb who loved them and washed them in His own blood.

They sing praise to God and the Lamb as those made partakers of Christ's nature through His sacrifice and given an immortal inheritance. Entering the golden gates of the New Jerusalem with every harp tuned, they touch the golden harps and fill all heaven with sweetest music, casting their crowns at Jesus' feet. God will place crowns upon the heads of the humble and obedient redeemed and make heaven's arches ring with songs of redeeming love, and their happiness includes seeing there the souls saved through their influence who come one after another to thank those who helped them.

If faithful they will have the privilege of visiting all the worlds and viewing God's handiworks. Having come through great tribulation and suffered for Jesus, they will join Him in the marriage supper. Children brought up in faith are among those whom parents can present before the Lord in that redeemed company.

Heavenly music belongs to God's worship in the courts above, where heavenly choirs sing in harmony before the throne. The song before God's throne is not confused or discordant, but is performed with understanding and precise coordination, bringing glory to God. Their victory after severe spiritual conflict brings deep gratitude and holy joy.

The future praise of those who reach immortal life is a new song of praise and deliverance on the other shore. It is the song of the redeemed heard in the kingdom of glory, tied to receiving eternal life and being washed in Christ's blood.

Learning Song Today

The song of triumph and redemption heard in the kingdom of God must first be learned on earth in this life while strength remains, for its moments are golden and too precious to be squandered. To learn it is to have Jesus abiding in the heart, to become acquainted with the Redeemer and secure the soul's salvation in the unfailing promise of God. It is to talk of Him and reveal Him in life and character, to speak of His power and make melody to God in the heart, cherishing meekness, crucifying self, and developing purity and holiness of character without being beguiled or diverted by associates or other reading.

No one can learn the song sung before the throne unless the mind has been trained on earth to love and delight in heavenly things, learning now the language of heaven. That learning comes through devotion and meditation upon God and heaven and the mystery of godliness, and through engaging in the spiritual exercises and services of heaven. Those who cultivate worldly propensities, active and eloquent about worldly matters but weak as babes and hardly audible about spiritual things, remain unacquainted with heavenly things and cannot discern spiritual things with world-loving eyes. Because the lower faculties have grown by constant use while the higher, nobler powers have not been strengthened by use, such worldly Christians have no special delight in what is spiritual, pure, and holy, and cannot delight in it or take part in it at the gates of the New Jerusalem where the atmosphere is purity itself.

The song of the redeemed in heaven can be learned and sung only by those fitted for heaven, whose sympathies are pure and whose minds and powers are trained for heaven. Those whose sympathies are corrupt and debased cannot learn or sing it. They would be unhappy in heaven and would not feel at home in the society of the pure and holy, for with darkened minds and untrained powers they are out of harmony with the heavenly host and cannot unite with them in ascribing praise to God and to the Lamb.

Choosing to place the will on God's side prepares even the young to join the new song and blend with heaven's harmonies. Reaching the blessed reward in the kingdom of God, where there will be no more trial or affliction or pain or death and where overcomers receive the crown and the harp of gold and live from everlasting to everlasting singing praise to the Lamb who loved them and washed them in His own blood, is won by giving the heart unreservedly to God, repenting and being forgiven again and again until brought off more than conquerors. It requires a sanctified life that measures with the life of Christ, because no sinner will be there, heaven having once had a sinner in Satan until war arose and Satan and his followers were overcome, so that no other sinner dare enter. It requires striving now for an eternal inheritance, living by faith where we are, taking the principles of Bible truth point by point without waiting for feeling, increasing in knowledge and heavenly kindness to honor the Redeemer, and following the example of Christ in temperance and kindness.

The song of redeeming love above can be sung only by those who were interested in Christ's cause on earth and in God's work of saving people. Those who have this world's goods and count it a great thing to help the cause of salvation, yet will not sell possessions or hand over God's money to save fainting starving souls while Jesus pleads His blood and sufferings and death before the Father and while messengers wait to carry the saving truth to seal souls with the seal of the living God, cannot enter heaven and can never sing that song. Those uninterested in God's saving work on earth who refuse to help bring the truth to perishing souls cannot sing it, for sacrificial giving to speed the quick work now being cut short in righteousness and concern for the cause of salvation decide who will sing with the redeemed from the earth.

Following the Lamb with Him in heaven requires having first followed Him on earth, as the flock follows the shepherd. That following is in trustful, loving, willing obedience, confidently and truthfully rather than fretfully or capriciously, by those who in this world had minds consecrated to God and served Him with intellect and heart. Those who bruise and imprison and humiliate their fellow men, binding and condemning them and causing suffering of body and mind to compel worship of an idol sabbath without one text of Scripture for its authority, who grieve and oppress and execute cruel actions while professing to be children of God and followers of Christ, are not following the Lamb but are following another leader who was expelled from heaven and Eden as a falsifier of God, developing the attributes of Satan and showing guile in their mouths.

Deep consecration and unity belong to the preparation of the one hundred and forty-four thousand, for united labor for one purpose binds God's people together and causes differences to be forgotten and removed. The new song itself is the message of present truth and the light of the third angel's message, to be put into the mouths of those who receive it. Those who receive it are then to go forth to impart it to others now in darkness, carrying it to the neglected people in the cities still in darkness.

The hope of standing with the redeemed on Mount Zion and singing praise with harp and crown applies to the woman and her husband, to families remaining unbroken, and to converted souls who give themselves wholly to the Lord. The redeemed from the earth standing before God and singing praise to God and the Lamb are those made partakers of Christ's nature through His sacrifice and given an immortal inheritance, including children brought up in faith whom their parents can present before the Lord. Learning that song of praise and thanksgiving means having the blessing of God in the heart now, taking hold of Jesus Christ by faith, keeping the truth so as to enter in when the gates of the city are swung back upon their glittering hinges, and bringing children to Christ so families receive a rejoicing welcome into the city where harps of gold placed in their hands fill all heaven with rich music. It is won by striving for an eternal inheritance through living faith, Bible truth point by point, and Christlike temperance and kindness, until the gates are thrown open and the redeemed receive a harp in the hand and a crown on the brow and send songs forth to God in the heavenly courts where there is no tempting devil and no wrong thought arises in the mind.