Receiving God's Mark—The Book of Revelation
Rick Joyner
We will cover Revelation 14:1-5, and the antithesis to the beast and his mark,
which also reveals how we keep from worshiping the beast or taking its mark.
Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion,
and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Name and the Name
of His Father written on their foreheads.
And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters
and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the
sound of harpists playing on their harps.
And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four
living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one
hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.
These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for
they have kept themselves chaste. These are the ones who follow the Lamb
wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as first fruits to
God and to the Lamb.
And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
This group may be the most speculated about from the Book of Revelation, second
only to the mark of the beast. John begins this part of the text with “then I
looked….” So this is what he saw immediately after viewing the beast
and the mark of the beast. What
stands out about this group is that they do not have the mark of the beast;
instead they have the Name of the Lord and the Father written on their
foreheads. This states that the way not to worship the beast is to worship the
Lord and have His Name written on our foreheads.
Is it that simple? Yes. Deception often comes through complications resulting
from speculations. If we truly worship
the Lord, keeping Him first in our affections and devotion, we will not worship
the things of this earth, the beast that comes up out of the earth, or anything
else. If we have taken God’s mark, the devil will not be able to put his mark
on us. If we have taken God’s mark then we know Him as our Source—we will
not have to depend on “buying, selling, or trading” in the ways of this beast.
There is also much speculation about whether this 144,000 is a literal number.
There are persuasive arguments that this is the case, as well as arguments that
consider this number to be symbolic. I always take Scripture literally unless
there is compelling evidence that it is intended to be symbolic, which I do not
see here. However, if it is a literal number, this does not mean that these are
all who are redeemed at the end of the age. As we see in Revelation 7, there is
a “great company” too big to count that came out of “the great tribulation”
worshipping God. So this is a unique
group within the redeemed, but the redeemed number is much larger.
Establishing who I think this 144,000 is would take many weeks to cover in this
format, but it seems obvious that this group is set apart in a unique way and
has a unique purpose. Personally, I think they are the “messengers of power” that Enoch prophesied would come at the end
of the age. Regardless, we can take the principle established here about
worshiping the Lord and taking His Name on our foreheads. The great trial at the end
called the “great tribulation” is about whom we really worship—God or the
things of this world.
The biggest point being made
here is for each of us to settle who we will serve, because we cannot serve God
and another god. For that reason, we must understand the nature of the
beast so that we do not serve it by living according to its ways, and that we
keep God first in our affections and in our trust. A false god is not just
something we have affection for that eclipses our affection for God—it is also
what we put our trust in more than God. We should apply this test to everything
that has our affection or that we put our trust in.