Wednesday, February 6
Read Revelation 14:1-5. What are the three chief characteristics of the 144,000 saints? How are these characteristics related to the description of the end-time saints in Revelation 14:12?
Revelation 14:4-5 is a description of the 144,000 that aligns with God’s last day people who “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12). Although they experienced the fullness of Satan’s wrath in the final crisis, they have remained firm because of their close relationship with Jesus.
In light of Revelation 17:5, in what sense have the 144,000 not been defiled with women? How is the purity of their character related to the fact that they are redeemed from the earth as the “firstfruits to God” (Revelation 14:4-NKJV)?
Sexual immorality is a symbol of unfaithfulness to God. Revelation 17:5 talks about the end-time harlot Babylon and her daughters, with whom all the people of the world will commit fornication (see also Revelation 18:3).
However, the 144,000 will remain loyal to Christ and resist the defiling relationships with Babylon and the apostate churches. The 144,000 “follow the Lamb wherever He goes” (Revelation 14:4, NKJV).
The 144,000 are further described as the ones who have been “redeemed from among men” as “firstfruits to God and to the Lamb” (Revelation 14:4, NKJV). In ancient Israel, the firstfruits were the best fruits of the harvest offered to God (Numbers 18:12). The word “firstfruits” can refer to saved people as distinct from those in the world (James 1:18), but in Revelation the 144,000 are clearly a special group because they will be translated without seeing death (1 Corinthians 15:50-52). Thus, they are the firstfruits of the larger harvest of the saved through all the ages (Revelation 14:14-16).
What are ways we can, even unknowingly, be in danger of committing spiritual fornication? Why do we delude ourselves if we think we are not in such danger?
