A Covenant Army

A Covenant Army

When we talk about the book of the Revelation, we tend to think of a book of just future prophecy that doesn’t apply to the daily life of the believer. However, it is clear from the author (the apostle John) and the Revelator, God, that this Revelation is to apply to their immediate audience (first century Christians) and their future audience (Christians in the future years). One of these applications is to see the church as the New Covenant army.

The Groundwork

In the introduction, it is clear the viewpoint I have of the book of the Revelation. It is the basic, partial-preterist, mid-tribulation, postmillennial, view of the book. The Revelation was written prior to the destruction of Herod’s temple, it is the clearest way to view the entire book and, many parts within the book suggests this idea (I will not attempt to prove this here because I don’t have the time). I’m pulling this idea of the New Covenant army from chapter seven of the book however, this section cannot be explained without going into chapters four through six.

The Lamb Upon the Throne

In chapter four, the apostle John is transported to the center of the heavenly temple (see Hebrews 8:5), this is where his view of the events will take place throughout the rest of this Revelation. In heaven we see different sections that give the idea of a heavenly temple. The throne of God the Father with Him sitting on the throne (representing the Ark of the Covenant), the elders (representing the shewbread/choir of the temple), the lampstand, and the four creatures (most-likely representing the world not the temple). Then the Father presents a scroll (the New Testament) and the “worthy” Lamb ascends to take the scroll (see Daniel 7:13-14) and opens the seals of the New Testament. Chapter six starts with opening of the seals of the scroll, and the angel begins to show the apostle what the ratifying of the New Covenant means by showing the destruction of Jerusalem [the city the “Lord was crucified” (Rev.11)]. This is the setting of chapter seven.

The Census of the 144,000

The chapter starts out with a sudden rest period in judgement, represented by the angels holding back the four winds of judgement. It seems to describe the period where faithful Christians heeded the words of Jesus when he said, “when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies then you know destruction is at hand” (Luke 21:20). In which those who escaped were given “the seal” (Rev 7:1) of Christ on their foreheads. Then we transition to a multitude of believers. We have to remember in exegesis, the genre of the book determines how literal we take the book, in historical, we take it literally, in apocalyptic, we take it more symbolically (we believe they see the vision but it’s more symbolic). The 144,000 is clearly a symbolic number meant to refer to the number twelve (the number of completeness) multiplied by the number 1,000 (which is the number of military strength) which is, 12,000, then you multiply itself again. What you get is a complete which is the complete Christian race in the 144,000, not just the Jewish Christians leaving but the new Israel; made by a new and better covenant. If I seem to be making up things out of thin air, the text vindicates me as God calls out a census just like he commanded Moses to do in the book of Numbers. What is the identity of this army commanded by God? Believers of every “tribe, people and tongue” (Rev. 7:9) who will have their “tears” (vv.17) by God. This is the army. What are her marching orders? “To make disciples,” (Matthew 28:19) not only evangelize them but to ground them in the scriptures.

Closing Thoughts

Dear believer, did you think you were just going to waltz into the Kingdom? Did you think that this earth is your resort? It is not! You are a soldier in the New Covenant army. Strain to build the kingdom up, “stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, do not hold back!” (Isaiah 54:2) You have nothing to fear on this terrestrial plane since you are “sealed” with the mark of the Spirit. You will outlive the ones who tortured you, you will look back on the “corpses of men” (Isaiah 66:24) who formerly persecuted you. You are God’s, so feel free to “spread abroad from the right to the left.” (Isaiah 54:3) Then your reward will encompass you as you “hunger” and “thirst” (Rev. 7:16) no more.

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