Revelation 14:4, commentary and pictures

The 144,000 are redeemed from among the living and set apart as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb, standing with Him on Mount Zion with the Father's name in their foreheads. To follow the Lamb wherever He goes means to go with Him in company wherever He leads, first by trustful, loving obedience on earth and then with Him in heaven. To be undefiled virgins means to come out of the fallen churches so as not to share their sins and plagues, keeping God's commandments and refusing the false sabbath and its idolatry. They are overcomers with no guile and without fault before God, pure in speech, thought and life, formed in holiness through communion with Christ. They pass through the final time of trouble without an intercessor and are translated alive, triumphing over the beast and its image to stand on the sea of glass singing the new song of their own deliverance that no other company can learn.

Words and Symbols Explained

The word follow in the verse means going with the Lamb in company, not merely coming after him in time. It means going with him in company wherever he goes.

The women are churches, and to be undefiled is to come out of the fallen church so as not to share in her sins and receive her plagues. Those plagues are poured out after Jesus leaves the sanctuary as the wrath of God and of the Lamb, bringing destruction and death upon the wicked.

The Lamb is Christ, who takes away the sin of the world.

Identity of the 144,000

They are the hundred forty and four thousand redeemed from the earth, redeemed from among men and set apart as firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. They are overcomers whose character is that of God's people in the last days, remaining undefiled and spiritually pure. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes and wherever He leads.

They stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Father's name in their foreheads. They stand there girt for holy service, clothed in white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, professing to be children of God. Their following the Lamb in heaven rests on having first followed Him on earth in trustful, loving, willing obedience, confidently and truthfully as the flock follows the shepherd, not fretfully or capriciously, with minds consecrated to God in intellect and heart to serve Him in this world.

Their victory over the beast and its image and standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion mark the complete redemption that concludes the connected chain of events in Revelation 13 and Revelation 14:1-5. They represent the church's final victory and deliverance after conflict with the beast and its image, bearing the Father's name rather than the beast's mark and remaining with the Lamb.

They are a distinct company of the redeemed who alone enter the temple on Mount Zion. Their names are engraved in gold on tables of stone, and they are with Jesus and follow Him through the heavenly country.

They have no guile in their mouth and stand without fault before the throne of God. Their speech is guileless and without deceit, cleansed and accepted, with honest speech secure from the tempter. They stand without deception before God.

They sing a new song before the throne with harps that no one else can learn. It is the song of their own deliverance and experience which no other company has shared. It is known only to them because no other company has shared that experience.

The company includes sealed believers who die before the end. They rest in the grave 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 suffering and results in good, so there is no need to mourn for them except for the living loss of their company.

The meaning of the account of the hundred and forty-four thousand in Revelation 14:1-5 and who will be included in that number are mysteries God has not revealed. Seeking new and strange doctrines about it and working the imagination upon it must be left alone, with feet planted upon the Word of the living God. The mystery must be left with God until the kingdom of heaven is reached, where its meaning and membership will be known and understood, when Christ leads beside the river of life and opens the truths of His Word and unfolds what cannot now be grasped in the higher education of the school above.

It has been held that the 144,000 will be Jews who acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, as their Messiah.

Prophetic Setting and Message

The verse belongs to the last message of mercy entrusted to Christ's servants when He entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing work of atonement, which is 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. Together with the everlasting gospel and the threefold message, it belongs to truths that distinguish Christ's church at the time of His appearing. Its chapter gives the everlasting gospel by which the world is to be tested and which is to be proclaimed everywhere, preparing a people to stand in the great day of God. It belongs to the messages of the first, second, and third angels by which God has separated His church from the churches and from the world to bring them into sacred nearness to Himself, and those who accept the light go forth as His agents to sound the warning throughout the earth as depositaries of His law and of the great truths of prophecy for this time committed to them as a sacred trust to be communicated to the world.

The chapter is to be studied closely in its setting of warning against worshiping the beast and his image and receiving his mark, a warning entrusted to those who keep God's commandments and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14 presents a special movement whose relation to past and future events includes Christ's closing work in heaven and His people's work on earth, affirming past work and giving instruction and warnings needed to guard against deception. The first and second angels' messages were proclaimed in years past and the third angel's message is now being given to the fallen churches as a solemn warning to those who never heard present truth, the third including the other two and making prominent the Sabbath of the fourth commandment instituted in Eden as a perpetual sign between God and His covenant-keeping people. The threefold message brings forth a class who keep God's commandments, and its call to worship the Creator connects to keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as loyalty to the true God and a memorial of creation.

It belongs to the last message of warning all are to hear, contained in the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 which are being fulfilled now. Those described are those who preach the everlasting gospel and practice it in true missionary work after God's wisdom, carrying the third angel's message to the whole world in clear straight lines in its distinctive features as revealed to John, a message increasing in force and importance to the close of God's work. It calls for the third angel's message now to be proclaimed not only in lands far off but in neglected places close by where multitudes dwell unwarned and unsaved, especially in the cities as work of special importance, by carefully selected workers laboring two and two in harmony with experienced leaders under the direction and commission of Jesus Christ.

Its warning calls God's people out from the world to show genuine faith and spirituality in life, to remain separate from worldly practices and not assimilate or unite in walking contrary to God's plain word. It must not be treated as secondary to medical missionary work, and those who heard it must gain an experience very different from the Jewish nation who rejected Bible prophecy of Christ's coming and chose their own way according to natural preferences, but must come to their senses. Those who follow whithersoever He goes are the pure in heart who shall see God, and they will receive power from the angel having great power so that the whole earth is lightened with God's glory as the first message of the second advent and the second message of Babylon's fall are repeated, catching the first light of His second appearing while the world is in darkness and there is light in every dwelling of the saints.

Character of the Followers

They are overcomers with a living connection with Jesus Christ, clothed with his salvation. Those redeemed from among humanity at the Lord's second coming will have holiness of character like Enoch's, formed through communion with God. Such communion and holiness are required for those redeemed at the second coming.

They remain undefiled and spiritually pure as virgins in the last days, following the Lamb wherever he leads as firstfruits redeemed from among humanity to God and to the Lamb. Becoming an overcomer is the path to standing among them with the Lamb on Mount Zion.

They are those sealed by God who keep the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and refuse Satan's spurious sabbath. They are not defiled with the idolatry of professed Christians who give God's glory and honor to a man-made institution and compel others to worship it, but remain pure virgins who follow the Lamb. The unsealed idolaters and unrepentant despisers of his law will be visited with God's retributive judgments poured out without mixture of mercy.

They are faithful and loyal subjects of God's kingdom who keep God's law, in contrast to the Protestant churches that worship the false sabbath. Those churches are split from God and naked, without a text of Scripture to sustain Sunday, trampling the Sabbath of the fourth commandment and dishonoring God by following Satan's falsehood as Adam and Eve in Eden listened to Satan, led blindfolded by the sophistry of Satan who was expelled from heaven. While having the plain Word of God they show determined contempt for the laws of Jehovah by reining up the faithful, depriving them of liberty of conscience, bringing them before magistrates and judges, pronouncing sentence against them, delivering them into prison, putting them into the chain gang, and condemning them to death.

They present God's commandments to the world in loyalty to him, and following the Lamb whithersoever he goes means being loyal to those commandments. Especially they hold as sacred the Sabbath day he sanctified and blessed as commemorative of his work of creation, set as a sign between God and his people through all generations forever. Those who reject God's law and exalt human laws will oppose them, repeating the earlier persecution of Christ.

Their lack of guile and fault before God is shown in lives free from defiling words and thoughts, following step by step from embracing heaven's message to entering the sanctuary and standing redeemed with the Lamb on Mount Zion. Following means seeking sanctified speech, clean hands, and pure hearts. Through continued reform and forsaking wrong they will stand before God without fault.

Following the Lamb whithersoever he goes means first following him on earth in trustful, loving, willing obedience, confidently and truthfully as the flock follows the shepherd, not fretfully and capriciously, in order to follow him in heaven as the 144,000 standing on Mount Zion, girt for holy service, clothed in white linen which is the righteousness of the saints. It means doing the work Christ did, restoring the moral power of men, breaking the power of oppression, and releasing those in bondage to Satan. Those who bruise, imprison, humiliate, grieve and oppress their fellow men, who by oppression try to compel worship of an idol sabbath without one text of Scripture for its authority, who execute cruel actions and cause suffering to body and mind and try to compel God's chosen ones to be untrue to God and to transgress his holy law, have guile in their mouths and are not following the Lamb whithersoever he goes but are following another leader, Satan who was expelled from heaven and Eden as a falsifier of God, developing his attributes and working as his participators and co-workers.

Following the Lamb Daily

Following in heaven first requires following on earth in trustful, loving, willing obedience, confidently and truthfully as the flock follows the shepherd, not fretfully or capriciously, with mind consecrated to God in intellect and heart. God has a people on earth who have not bowed to Baal and who will stand with Him on Mount Zion, and their future following with the undefiled is prepared by following now with unwavering loyalty. This present following brings the will into harmony with the will of the Captain, keeps His perfect obedience and purity and self-sacrifice ever before the mind to be changed into His image by beholding, copies His daily example and keeps His commandments, and is chosen deliberately to stand steady through suffering with unshaken trust even unto death. Before standing on Zion they must stand on earth fully armed for active service, joining angels in seeking lost sheep and saving those ready to perish, learning now to say Be Thou my Pattern and beholding Him now by faith as a living Saviour for strength, so that as eye and heart witnesses they will then bear testimony to His majesty as those who have been with Him in the holy mount.

Those who follow Christ faithfully in this life will follow the Lamb wherever He goes, will be received by Him, and will share in His kingdom. Following Him means serving faithfully and wholeheartedly while He is absent and while waiting for His return, denying self and taking up the cross, and He will receive His servants into the kingdom and honor them with a lasting crown and a new name. Following means walking in Jesus' footsteps wherever He leads step by step, choosing no other path toward heaven, for the way to heaven is the way marked by His example. True followers appreciate the great salvation He wrought and follow wherever He leads, counting it a privilege to bear whatever burdens He lays upon them. Christ and Him crucified becomes the theme of their thoughts and stirs the deepest emotions of the soul, for through the cross alone the worth of the soul is estimated, a worth so great that the Father was satisfied with the infinite price of His own Son to die for man's redemption in full wisdom, mercy, and love, known only by going to Calvary and the mystery of the cross.

All must be careful to follow the Lord wherever He goes, taking guidance from Him instead of looking to men for guidance, which is the way to best serve God and His cause. Those whose names are in the Lamb's book of life are those who follow wherever He goes, and only they will have their names registered there. Following means giving up erroneous ideas and objectionable traits of character and being clothed with Christ's righteousness, with faith and love working by love to purify the soul. This readiness is urgent because the end is near and Christ is about to rise from His throne to put on the garments of vengeance. Following means taking Christ as Priest and Advocate who alone can represent fallen humanity to the Father and receive and pardon transgressions, and taking Him as King by enlisting in His service, seeking to know and do His will and believing on Jesus in all His completeness as subjects of His kingdom and true Christians belonging to Him.

Following is a step-by-step course from embracing heaven's message to entering the sanctuary and standing redeemed with the Lamb on Mount Zion, whose new song is unlike any other because they have been redeemed, and whose lack of guile and fault before God is shown in lives free from defiling words and thoughts through sanctified speech, clean hands, and pure hearts. They are members of God's kingdom who do His will as His chosen holy people called out of darkness to show His praises and as Christ's partners to be living examples leading others to heaven, having righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost as sons of God, a chosen generation, a peculiar people, a holy nation, the salt of the earth, the light of the world, living stones, a royal priesthood. Following is the pattern for life: receiving His Spirit moment by moment and reflecting His character as Jesus reflected the Father, learning in His school, studying His life daily, becoming one with Him, and representing Him to the world in perfect obedience reflecting the virtues of His character and the perfection of Father and Son, which few do in practice. Following means making every worldly interest subordinate to the one purpose of receiving Christ and His righteousness, for God gave all and cannot accept a divided heart, so His service must be placed above every earthly and selfish consideration, and His guidance and companionship must be valued above earthly friends and family, even father, mother, son, or daughter, for all time, since a heart absorbed in earthly affections cannot be given to God.

Following means searching His Word to become acquainted with His life and works, receiving His words as bread for the soul, following His footprints left in every sphere where people are placed, cherishing the Spirit by which He spoke, presenting truth as it is in Jesus, and following especially in heart-purity and in love with self hid with Christ in God, so that when Christ who is their life appears they will appear with Him in glory. It gives the description of a true Christian corresponding to the Holy Spirit's work on heart and life: depth and breadth of experience found only in self-denial and self-sacrifice through the narrow gate into the Lord's broad pastures, with inward evidence of being born of God, Christ precious to the believer, and perfect agreement of the Spirit moving on mind and heart with what is written in the Word. Following means being a person of faith, principle, and sterling integrity, holding Jesus as all and in all through evil report and good report, revealing faith in action, building for time and eternity in connection with God as a noble, serviceable, firm, unbribed servant at duty's post whose convictions are firm and whose knowledge of truth is assurance. Following means walking where He leads by mastering the live, disordered self instead of letting self master, for those determined to serve self will never so follow and Christians who live for self dishonor their Redeemer, and even apparent activity in the Lord's service fails when self is woven into all that is done, since sowing selfishness reaps corruption and cannot produce eternal life unless the mistake is seen and all is surrendered to God.

Following means daily preparation without delay, nourished day by day by the Holy Spirit with faith and love and patience, refusing worldly conformity in careless inattention, keeping an abundant supply of the oil of Christ's grace with the lamp burning brightly rather than flickering out, shining as lights in the world, daily loving God and loving truth for its own sake, bringing truth into heart and mind, learning more and more of Jesus with conversation in heaven while looking for Him and talking much of His coming and constantly receiving grace from above, so as to be approved and prepared to go in to the marriage supper. Following means cultivating devotion with love for religious things prominent, living by faith and overcoming the world, attending public worship, letting the voice be heard in prayer and social meeting, establishing the family altar and gathering children morning and evening to present their cases to God and instructing them how to become followers, for parents connected with the sacred cause whose children are careless, irreverent, and without love for religious meetings or sacred truth testify to neglect, and such a family exerts influence against Christ, for he that is not with Him is against Him. The call to follow is applied to a life of faithful service until death and held out as a pattern for others. Following means having truly begun faith by giving self wholly to the Lord to mold and fashion according to His purpose as a vessel unto honor, consulting Scripture first when in doubt, having earnest desire to be pliable in His hands, and cooperating by working out salvation with fear and trembling while trusting Him to work out His designs. Genuine faith trusts and submits to Christ, willingly following wherever He leads.

Following calls for a personal well-grounded hope gained by earnestly searching the Word and explaining it to the confused, learning from Christ daily and living earnest useful lives. Following means denying self and taking up the cross in self-denial and self-sacrifice after Christ's humiliation in appreciation of His love in dying for men while enemies and rebels, and those who will not so follow for His sake will never be overcomers. All who follow wherever He goes have light that drives away darkness, and cherishing that light brings still more light until the Word is hidden in the heart as strength against sin and temptation. Following means advancing in the light God gives by learning the true bearing of the Word on all daily movements, yielding cherished misconceived opinions and principles, hungering to eat and digest truth, and closely searching as for hidden treasure, for holding fast mistaken opinions and refusing to learn prevents further advance and loses what might have been obtained, while those who search advance in the light as He is in the light and discern the brightness and value of important truths of which only shadows are now seen. Following Christ means walking with Him in character and faithfulness among the redeemed He wants to welcome into heaven.

God's people follow wherever He goes and do not follow unsanctified imaginings or anti-Christian principles. Following means doing the work Christ did, restoring men's moral power, breaking oppression, and releasing Satan's bondage, not bruising, imprisoning, humiliating, grieving, or cruelly oppressing fellow men, binding and condemning them and causing suffering to body and mind to compel them to be untrue to God, transgress His holy law, and worship an idol sabbath without one text of Scripture for its authority. Those who do such work are not following the Lamb but another leader, developing Satan's attributes as falsifier of God expelled from heaven and Eden and showing themselves his participators and co-workers. Following wherever He goes means keeping the words written in Revelation, keeping every lesson in mind, practicing truth and working it out in character without forgetting a jot or tittle, receiving every word of His lessons as testimony and conclusive, and giving earnest heed and guarding against slipping and failure to keep the solemn warning for present and eternal good because the time is at hand when the symbols will be fulfilled.

Following means taking the Saviour as pattern, living for God, humbling the heart, and asking at every step whether this is the Lord's way, including teaching the family to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, entering the narrow self-denying path marked out for men, women, children, youth, middle-aged, and aged, and pressing on through obstacles with moral courage, firmness, perseverance, and faith with heavenly companions, so that hope is not risked on possibility but calling and election are made sure. Following means following Jesus in thoughts, words, and deeds, becoming like Him and walking in the way He leads as the best path. Following means being meek, little, humble, and low because Jesus the Saviour was abundantly so. Following means following without delay and without halting between opinions, turning back to the God-given mission and seeking purity and holiness to sanctify it, serving the Lord as God rather than Baal, hiding the brief vapor-like life in God with the name registered in heaven unto immortality, and leaving footprints in holiness that others may safely follow.

God the Judge owns the names of the followers, and being among them means taking Christ as pattern, transcribing His divine love and meekness and bearing more of His gracious image, learning how to work and walk circumspectly as laborers together with God with wisdom and understanding of the Lord's will, and depending more entirely on Christ and asking in faith for His restoring power in tact, skill, and wisdom, doing all according to His Word. To follow is to be a humble child yoked with Christ learning His meekness and lowliness, cleansed from all defilement by His blood, converted and no longer carrying out one's own way, and this present decision fixes one's place in the perilous stormy future either as a follower of the Lamb or under the black banner of darkness. Following means giving up selfishness, one's own ways and ambitious projects, falling upon the Rock and being broken rather than ground to powder, letting God's ways become one's choice, believing in Jesus as complete Saviour and laying hold of His righteousness, changing to God's way and choosing the new narrow path of holiness and following on to know the Lord, which leads to the broad road of perfect freedom in Christ. Following means following on to know the Lord rather than seeking easy places or the majority, standing in the last time prepared for manifold temptations, meeting darkness as Christ met it and enduring His temptations with providential power for highest-value experience, for trial of faith is more precious than perishing gold tried with fire, and partakers in His sufferings will share His glory at His appearing.

Following wherever He leads means lifting the cross, denying self, giving up own ideas and unsanctified judgment, and hearing His voice and heeding His messages into harmony with His mind, while insisting on one's own ways and judgment refuses this following even when regarded as responsible, and to the sinner and evildoer who so refuses it will not be well, for God's curse rests upon him. To follow is to be a doer of His word, learning His meekness and lowliness and giving a true representation of God's character without vindictiveness toward those who dishonor truth or treat Christ with discourtesy, sharing His restoring work with a heart touched by woe, respecting every person as formed in God's image and the Lord's property by creation and redemption, refusing oppression, disrespect, and abuse of position or power, knowing harm to others is registered as done to Christ who identifies with the suffering, hungry, naked, and imprisoned and paid man's ransom with His blood, for all must give account to God. Unity and consecration characterize them, and united labor for one purpose binds God's people, overcomes differences, and prepares for deeper unity.

Deliverance and Final Reward

Their song is the song of their own deliverance and experience, which no other company has shared, for they have been translated from among the living after passing through the final time of trouble and enduring suffering, hunger and thirst, and they are delivered and stand before God. They stand with Jesus on Mount Zion and on the sea of glass mingled with fire before God's throne with harps, having triumphed over the beast and his image and his mark and the number of his name, and they go with Jesus everywhere he goes. They are rescued from among people, taken alive from among the living on earth, and set apart as first ones given to God and to Jesus. Only they can learn the new song sung before the throne, because it is the song of Moses and the Lamb, the song of deliverance from what they alone lived through, an experience no other company ever had.

They come out of great distress, passing through the time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, enduring the anguish of Jacob's time and standing loyal without anyone pleading for them while God's final punishments fall, but they are delivered because their robes are washed white by Jesus' sacrificial death. They remain before God's throne serving day and night in His temple with Him dwelling among them, having seen the earth wasted by famine and pestilence and scorching heat and having themselves suffered hunger and thirst, but they shall never hunger or thirst or suffer heat again because Jesus in the center of the throne feeds them and leads them to living fountains of water while God wipes every tear from their eyes. They are the saints delivered and triumphing during Jacob's trouble, with faces shining with the glory of God.

They follow the Lamb together all the way into the city of God, entering the cloud together and ascending seven days to the sea of glass where they stand together in a perfect square. Jesus Himself places crowns on their heads with His own right hand and gives them harps of gold and palms of victory, and they are all clothed in glorious white mantles from shoulders to feet, their crowns differing in brightness and in stars, some very bright and heavy with stars and others with few, yet all perfectly satisfied. Angels surround them as they march over the sea of glass to the gate of the city, and Jesus opens the pearly gate to them because they have washed their robes in His blood and stood stiffly for His truth, and they enter with a perfect right to the city, to the throne of God, the pure river of water, and the tree of life on either side of the river. If faithful, they will be privileged to visit all the worlds and see God's handiwork and works.