1After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth, or on the sea, or on any tree. 2I saw another angel ascend from the sunrise, having the seal of the living God. He cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to harm the earth and the sea, 3saying, “Don’t harm the earth, the sea, or the trees, until we have sealed the bondservants of our God on their foreheads!” 4I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:
5of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed,
of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,
6of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,
7of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,
8of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,
of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, and
of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.
9After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no man could count, out of every nation and of all tribes, peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. 10They cried with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation be to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
11All the angels were standing around the throne, the elders, and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before his throne, and worshiped God, 12saying, “Amen! Blessing, glory, wisdom, thanksgiving, honor, power, and might, be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
13One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and where did they come from?”
14I told him, “My lord, you know.”
He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering. They washed their robes and made them white in the Lamb’s blood. 15Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. 16They will never be hungry or thirsty any more. The sun won’t beat on them, nor any heat; 17for the Lamb who is in the middle of the throne shepherds them and leads them to springs of life-giving waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
The “mouth speaking great things” points back to Daniel 7:25. The forty-two months looks at the second half of the Tribulation and connect back to Daniel’s prophecies. Also, his verbal attacks on God and heaven match the actions of the “horn” in Daniel’s vision. This indicates that the “beast out of the sea,” the Antichrist, will be a fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy and will rail against God as he seeks to kill any who follow Jesus.
The authority to rule every nation and people group is given to him by Satan. Some interpreters see God giving him this dominion. However, Satan will hold the nations in his hands till Jesus returns. The four-fold listing is parallel to the similar list in 7:9, intending to communicate the completeness of his control as well as his attempt to replace Jesus with himself.
John clarifies that, though the four-fold list of peoples indicates universal rule by the beast, only those earth-dwellers whose names are not recorded in the Lamb’s book of life will worship him. This distinction between those destined for heaven and the “earth dwellers” will be developed in the following chapters.
As in the letters to the seven churches, the call to heed is given again, “If anyone has an ear, let him hear.” Though the reference to the Spirit is dropped from this statement, it is still a warning. It is followed by going into captivity and being killed by the sword (dying a violent death). The Greek grammar is not clear. However, the warning seems to be that there is no escape from the power of the Antichrist for those living through the Tribulation. The promise of God’s vengeance was that those who led the saints captive or to death would meet the same destiny. Similarly, the “endurance” and “faith” of the saints indicate that they will face this fate at the hands of the beast, but will be victorious.