"And l saw, and behold, the Lamb
standing on the mount Zion, and with him a hundred and
forty and four thousand, having his name, and the name of
his Father, written on their foreheads. And I heard a
voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as
the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard
was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and
they sing as it were a new song before the throne, and
before the four living creatures and the elders: and no
man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and
four thousand, even they that had been purchased out of
the earth. These are they that were not defiled with
women; for they are virgins. THESE ARE THEY THAT FOLLOW
THE LAMB WHITHERSOEVER HE GOETH. These were purchased
from among men, to be the firstfruits unto God and unto
the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no lie: they are
without blemish" (Rev. 14:1-5).
This
passage goes to the very heart of all the divine purpose.
There is a sense in which it is the key to everything in
the history of God’s thoughts and ways concerning
man. If we understood this passage very many of our
problems would be solved and our deep questions answered.
So vital is the issue that is centred here, that unusual
conflict has arisen about it — and not only
spiritual conflict, but unspiritual controversy also. We
shall not get far until we have our ground clear, and for
that is required real honesty, faithfulness, and courage.
There
is a phrase here which conveys a very great deal in that
realm of conflict and controversy. It is a phrase which
is gravely suspect even among evangelical Christians,
and, were it not in the Word of God, I, for one, would
avoid it for that reason; but we cannot invest the
apostle John with the suspicions which have arisen from a
phrase which he has used. We must honestly seek to
understand what he meant when he used such phrases. I
refer to the phrase “firstfruits”. “These
were purchased… to be the firstfruits… unto the
Lamb”.
Perhaps
the most helpful and profitable way of coming to
an understanding of this phrase would be to seek to
identify the hundred and forty-four thousand to whom it
refers. Before we do that, however, that is, before we
seek to identify this company, it might be as well if we
tackled this adverse attitude, for there may be some
justification for it. There is always justification for
an adverse attitude when a particular ASPECT of
truth is so enlarged that it becomes regarded as the WHOLE
truth, and in this matter that has certainly happened
in certain circles. Again, when such an exaggerated
emphasis is allowed to divide the Lord’s people and
to result in an exclusiveness and superiority of mind,
then there is justification for suspecting it and taking
an opposite attitude, or at least an attitude of
opposition. Further, when the emphasis is laid upon the
wrong point, resulting inevitably in an unbalanced state,
then the matter may rightly be open to question and in
this particular matter that is exactly what has happened.
Terms have been coined which at once betray emphasis upon
the wrong point, such as the term “rapture” and
with it that other word “selective”. That is
certainly placing the emphasis at the wrong point. When a
phrase like that is used, we are off the mark. The
conclusion drawn by those who have created it and who use
it is that it represents schism in the Body. When the
Lord has taken anyone into His presence in the joy and
victory of His grace — and He is doing that almost
every moment of our lives — we never charge Him with
creating schism in the Body. If we did but know it, at
this very moment from numerous places all over the world
children of God are being called gloriously into His
presence — a whole group is going up at once, so to
speak. We never think of the Lord creating schism in the
Body by leaving the rest a little longer. The emphasis
has been put upon the wrong point. Let us get this thing
straightened out, because that is a false premise
altogether.
I have
no intention at all of seeking to give a specific
interpretation to this Scripture or to propagate any
particular teaching which would have any of these
results. I do really want to get to the heart of this
matter, because it is borne in upon me that it is of
tremendous account to God and to His people at this time
— which is the time of the end. Sometimes it is
necessary to suspect suspicions. Some of the most vital
things in the interests of the Lord have at times been
most suspect, and that is itself suspicious; that betrays
something else. There is something there, or there may be
something there that the enemy is very particularly
against. There may be something there of such consequence
as to stir up the depths of the human heart, perhaps in
fear, or unwillingness, or even resentment, and that sort
of thing can easily be passed on under a label, or it may
represent the attempt to get out of something of great
account to God because of what is involved in it. So I
say, sometimes it is necessary to suspect our suspicions,
to question our questionings, to sift our reactions. Let
us remind ourselves that the popular is not necessarily
the true. History is full of that. Lord Lister was very
unpopular and had to fight a terribly lonely battle over
his “theory” of antiseptics. He has been
universally proved true. It has taken time. Florence
Nightingale fought a desperate battle with all those in
high places. She has been vindicated up to the hilt,
although she was practically alone. The popular is not
necessarily the true and the right, and these are things
which we must remember when we are facing a matter like
this, which as I say has become beclouded by suspicion
and opposition.
But
let us get closer. Surely all of us are prepared to
believe, firstly, that to “follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth” is something of great and
solemn importance, and secondly, that it is not everyone
who will do it. Does that not settle the whole matter? It
is of primary account to God and to us that this should
be true: “These are they that follow the Lamb
whithersoever he goeth”; and that is something
not to be suspected nor spurned.
The Heavenly Zion
But
you see this is said to be true of a particular company.
They are distinguished from others by this very
characterization. Look at them, identify them, a company
purchased out of the earth, not just from the earth or in
the earth; it is out of the earth. Purchased to be
firstfruits unto the Lamb, standing with the Lamb on
Mount Zion, and you note the position is before the
commencement of judgment. This company is in heaven,
there is no mistaking that, and therefore it means that
this is not the earthly but the heavenly Zion, this Zion
is in heaven. This is the Zion of Hebrews 12 — “Ye
are come unto mount Zion… the heavenly
Jerusalem”. That is the Zion here. It is
necessary to say that because there is another Zion in
the book of the Revelation with another company out of
the tribes of Israel. That is in chapter 7 and it is not
this company. This is a heavenly company and they are
singing in heaven before the throne. Heavenliness in
signal degree is the character of these people. More than
all others and before all others, these embody
heavenliness.
Overcomers
Notice
— and this is a point of tremendous effect —
that the promises to overcomers in the early chapters of
this book are found fulfilled in this company. The Lord
had said concerning certain who would overcome that He
would write upon them the name of His God and His own new
name (Rev. 3:12). Here it is: “Having his name,
and the name of his Father, written on their
foreheads”. These are the people who have
overcome, and they are distinguished from the rest, even
in the churches.
Government in Fullness
And
then they are mentioned as a specific number, a
particular company — one hundred and forty-four
thousand. This surely is not to be taken any more
literally than is the word “Lamb”. It is a
number which carries with it a definition. Twelve
multiplied by twelve. It is government, the number of
government, and government carried to fullness. But you
see again, it distinguishes them. We shall later come on
a great multitude which no man can number, but these are
numbered. They are a distinct and particular company.
A Virgin People
Notice
some other particulars about them. “Purchased out
of the earth… not defiled with women; for they are
virgins”. In that statement we must not read the
literal meaning. It cannot mean that at all. It is in
keeping with the whole of that particular meaning
throughout the Old Testament and the New where God’s
elect people are regarded as a virgin people. Fornication
in Israel was that of having spiritual relationship with
other nations, the peoples of this world, and this is
what is meant — that there has been created and
preserved an absolute separateness from that spiritual
system which lies behind this world; there must be no
link with it at all. That issue is a very live issue
today. Go to China and you will see whether it is a live
issue, whether you are going to surrender to the great
fornication, the great red dragon. It is a life and death
issue now, and these are they who have not surrendered,
they have kept pure, have not been defiled. They “follow
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth”. That is in the
present participle, which means they are following the
Lamb because they always have been. It has become a
habit, it is a disposition which has been born in them,
created in them. They did it on the earth and they go on
doing it, people who are not spasmodic in following the
Lamb, who are not of those who go on one day and go back
the next. They are continuously following the Lamb. It is
an utterness of devotion to the Lord Jesus. They are the
firstfruits unto the Lamb. Note the way it is put —
“Firstfruits… unto the LAMB”. The
Lamb has in them the first maturity of His Lamb character
and work; in them He first sees of the travail of His
soul and is satisfied. It is unto the Lamb, His
satisfaction.
“Unto the Lamb”
It
means this, that their conception of salvation was not
one governed by personal interest, that they would be
saved in order to be saved and enjoy salvation for
themselves; but their conception was that it was all unto
the Lord, it was for Him. That is a higher level
altogether, and I beg to suggest that this is a
discriminating thing. There are multitudes of people,
Christians, who are glad to be saved in order to be
saved, because it is a good thing to be saved for
themselves; it secures a lot for them and it means heaven
and glory; but the primary concern of these others is the
glory of the LAMB. “Unto the LAMB”.
They follow wherever HE goes.
“The Fellowship of His
Sufferings”
Naturally,
it might be easier to follow the KING whithersoever
He goeth. There were many in the days of His flesh who
pursued Him wherever He went. You would always find them
there. Oh, He said, “loaves and fishes”; to see
His mighty works. But these follow the Lamb, and that
means that they have a disposition to respond to the
“fellowship of his sufferings”, like the
apostle who first used that phrase. For him it was not
something to be shunned: “that l may know him and
the fellowship of his sufferings” (Phil. 3:10); there
was a disposition to share the sufferings of the Lamb.
That issues in a specific kind of people, a particular
company; and if we look at it in that way surely our
suspicions and our fears are dismissed. Identify these
people and the other ground gives way.
What
all this means becomes clear as we look at it in its
relation to all that is said about the Lamb. That is, you
have got to comprehend the whole Word of God in
connection with the Lamb in order to understand who and
what these people are, for undoubtedly they are the
people who have embraced, entered into, and become the
embodiment of all that that phrase means — the Lamb,
His life, His character, His work.
What
is here is this: firstly, a company marked out and
distinguished by a peculiar fellowship with Christ as the
Lamb. Underline the word Lamb, the name Lamb, with all
that that means, and then see here a people who are in a
peculiar relationship with Christ as the Lamb, and with
what He means as being the Lamb. There is little doubt
that there is a special honour given to this company.
They are mentioned here with peculiar honour; their
position is one of peculiar honour. The very tone in
which they are mentioned is that of a people of very
sacred and precious meaning to the Lord.
A Song Learned Through Suffering
They
possess an exclusive secret. They sing a song, and no one
could learn that song save the hundred and forty-four
thousand. No one else had the faculty. How do they
possess this exclusive secret? Oh, the answer goes to the
heart of so much in our experience. You know that it is a
true principle that you learn secrets through suffering
that you learn in no other way. It is in suffering that
we learn those things that no one else knows. We cannot
explain them, we cannot teach them, or make others
understand. We can only say, “When you have been
through what I have been through you will understand, you
will know; until you have, it is all closed to you”.
These people have been a way in which capacity for
something has been created.
“Firstfruits”
Again,
that goes to the heart of things. They are a people with
a capacity, which means something very great for the
Lord. That is surely explained or contained in the phrase
“firstfruits”. A first thing is always a
determinative thing, and it is a principle in the Word of
God that the first mention of a thing in the Bible always
has in it intrinsically all that comes out afterwards
concerning that thing. These people, this company, have
the intrinsic value; the capacity for giving has been
created. The figure changes in this book of the
Revelation at the end. There is the city, and right out
from the throne there goes that which is for the health
of the nations. The nations derive their values from what
is at the very heart of things. The intrinsic values are
capable of reproduction over and over again to the
advantage of many more who have their centre in the
“city”. Firstfruits — oh yes, they are not
the only ones but they have the value in the first place,
and they have it for the others. It is the power of
impartation through capacity created in suffering.
Is
that not true to principle? You know it surely, most of
you, in your own experience, that if you have been able
to help anybody, it is because you have gone through
something to create in you the capacity for helping them.
It is not that you are passing on information. It has
come out of something that God has deeply done in you
through experience, and, moreover, painful experience.
That is the way in which these first govern. They govern
by capacity and ability to give, to impart. They have an
exclusive secret, which no one but these can learn. The
implication here is that they have gone a very utter way
and are in a very utter position to serve the Lord.
God’s Satisfaction First
We are
not told here what they fully represent as to God’s
purpose, but we are left to view them in the light of His
fuller revelation. When we take up the fuller revelation
of the meaning of the Lamb, then we shall begin to
understand what this Lamb company is, these who follow
the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. We may do something of
that later, but here we may mention one or two things.
These people, in the first place, represent God’s
satisfaction in a peculiar way — God’s
satisfaction first. They have given God the inheritance
that He seeks in the saints, they have answered to God,
and that is something. It is no small thing that He
should have that upon which His heart has been strongly
set. God finding His own satisfaction — surely they
represent that.
But
here is a remarkable thing. They sing — and note how
their singing is described. “As the voice of many
waters, and as the voice of a great thunder”. What
a volume! “The voice which I heard was as the
voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sing
as it were a new song before the throne”. What
is there remarkable about that? These are people who have
known suffering in no ordinary way. These are people who
have gone with the Lamb — always meaning suffering
and sacrifice — and they are singing their very
heart out in such volume, such impressiveness, that the
apostle finds it difficult to discover words to convey
this singing. What does it mean? Oh, they have come to
see that all the suffering was infinitely worthwhile.
They have come to see that after all the Lord was not
against them as they were tempted to think. After all, it
was not this and that and the other thing which the enemy
tried to make out to be the meaning of their sufferings.
No, there was something in this of unspeakable value and
significance. I know there are some people who sing to
keep their courage up; there are some people who sing,
well, perhaps, without any specific purpose — but
these people here are not singing without meaning and
purpose. They sing now because they are wholly gratified
with the ways of the Lord. It must mean that. They follow
the Lamb, they have gone the way of the Cross in a very
deep way, and the people who have gone most deeply into
the Cross and the sufferings of Christ are the people who
sing loudest in eternity. They have discovered the love
of God through suffering, in a very full way. They sing
before the throne. We have often been before the throne
complaining, murmuring, despairing, perhaps in bitterness
and rebellion. At the end — for those who will
follow THE LAMB whithersoever He goeth — is a
song which is unique, something altogether beyond the
knowledge and understanding of others.
After
all, there is no room for suspecting this. It is
something very precious to the Lord. As we said at the
beginning, it would solve so many problems. One of the
problems besetting many of us is why it is that the Lord
takes us such a peculiarly difficult way. The Lord does
not seem to take other Christians that way, and they seem
to have an easy time, comparatively. Why should we have
such a difficult time? That is one of our problems.
Others can do all sorts of things and still be Christians
and be saved, but the Lord will not allow that with us.
Others can get away with quite a lot and remain happy
Christians, but somehow or other the Lord does not allow
that with us. He is leading in a very hard way indeed.
Here is the explanation. It lies right at the heart of
these verses in Rev. 14, something that the Lord’s
heart is set upon. If only we could by grace find the
right attitude to take toward the peculiar, the unusual
dealings and ways of God with us, and the sufferings
through which the Lord leads us. If we could take the
right attitude, that attitude would be this — the
Lord is after something of peculiar value to Himself, we
should then see some new meaning in Paul’s word
— “To you it hath been GRANTED in the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to
suffer in his behalf”. “It has been given to
you to suffer”. Perhaps it is a trust with which the
Lord cannot trust many. It is doubtful whether the Lord
could trust many of His own children with suffering
beyond a certain measure.
We
must leave it there for the moment. If what has been said
is true, if the Lord has something of peculiar value
represented in these people, will that not explain all
the prejudice, all the distortion, all the fear? May that
not be the reason? May the Lord give us grace to accept
nothing less than that which will most fully satisfy Him.