The Tribes (Part 1) – The 144,000
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1. Introduction 2. The Sealing of The 144,000 3. The Numbering of Names 4. The Nature of “Israel” |
Introduction
What I would like to do in this meeting is to give our people a comprehensive review of the matter of the Tribes of Israel. As such, I don’t expect there will be any startling revelations, but I hope to give a good summary of what we know so far, and perhaps stimulate a renewed interest in prayer and study... because, as I will demonstrate, this is an important issue that goes right along with the sealing message.
The specific issues we’ll be touching on are these: the 144,000 as described in Revelation, the nature of “Israel” as it’s used in the Bible, the prophecies regarding the tribes, our theories about how to identify these familial distinctions, and finally I will conclude with what we know for certain about this matter. That, I think, will provide a strong foundation for future revelations, and hopefully inspire some discussion about this most current subject.
I should say that, upon writing this study, I found it to be more convenient to present this as two parts, because it is quite long. While I do not like to split a study on New Moons, because it is an entire month before we will meet again, the passages we must discuss describing the various tribes are lengthy, and I do not want to abbreviate them at all. As such, this first section will largely be a review of the foundational material about the tribes of Israel, and I call it “The Tribes (Part 1) – The 144,000.” This information, just by itself, has taken me a couple pages more than many of our New Moon studies previous to this one.
When we conclude next month we will go over the specific qualities of Jacob’s sons from three sources: the history provided in Genesis, the prophecy of Jacob about his children, and the prophecy of Moses about the tribes after they have already been established.
Are there any initial questions about the chosen topic?
The Sealing of The 144,000
“And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God; and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, ‘Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.’
“And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.”
This specialized group, the 144,000, is the “showcase” of Heaven, set apart as those who perfectly follow the Lamb. They are a blessed group, identified by number among a great multitude that cannot be numbered by man.
They are people of the very last days, because the angel that seals them has to call for the destroying angels that bring the last calamities to pause while he does his work. The sealing of the 144,000, then, must be identified as the last act of salvation, the final work of divine mercy before the outpouring of wrath upon a rebellious and condemned planet.
And where does this group fit into the Gospel work as taught by Christ and His apostles? It fits in thus, as we have said before in other studies: each individual that is saved is saved AS an individual, by a personal born-again experience and an abiding in Christ. But these individuals are then grouped, classified, into twelve divisions, and these groups, as a whole, represent Israel, all the redeemed. It is when they are organized in these social groups called “tribes,” and only then, that the sealing takes place. Thus we find it is impossible to realize our Father’s ideal for us without an identity within one of these twelve categories.
In this way, we find the Bible describing salvation as both an individual and a shared experience. We enter everlasting life just as we entered this one: alone (and through water). But immediately we are received into that world, into a family, and into the community of the saints, where we mature and become full members of sacred society. And, I will say this: just as a child who is born alone and then abandoned – remaining alone – has little chance of survival, so those who consider salvation to be a strictly solitary experience will have great and unnecessary (and virtually impossible) challenges to overcome. But we know that Yah does not abandon His people. He has given Himself to us, and then, He has given us to one another. Thus the covenant hangs on the two principles of love for the Father in Heaven, and for one’s neighbor.
And as far as Yahshua goes, not only is He the one who revealed these things to John on Patmos, (Rev 1:1-5) but He also referenced the tribes in discourse with His followers, saying to His elected twelve, “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Mat 19:28)
We will return to that specific verse later on, but for now it serves to effectively point out that the concept of the Tribes of Israel was not something absent from the mind of the Messiah. Some Christians have come to believe that Yahshua’s presence and death meant a complete alteration of Yahweh’s dealings with human beings… that the instructions to Israel (including the 10 Commandments), the covenant with Abraham, and all the various principles of the Old Testament were nullified.
But Yahshua Himself taught no such thing. From His own words and doctrine you can easily see that He intended His disciples to follow along in the things that Moses wrote, (John 5:46, Acts 15:21) ceasing only from those things for which type had met antitype (like sacrifices) and expanding the meaning of Israel’s covenant to include all of humanity.
Paul, of course, says exactly these things to the Ephesians. He writes to Gentile believers, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Yahshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph 2:11-13)
Likewise the Sabbath was described thus to Israel by the Creator: “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” (Exo 31:16) “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Yahweh that sanctify them.” (Ezek 20:12)
Some have looked at those verses and concluded that this was a blessing (or curse, depending on who you ask) for the physical nation of Israel only. But in the New Testament Yahshua said clearly that, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) With that one statement the Savior both identified the benefit of this divine wisdom for all humanity, and struck away the oppressive requirements that the religious authorities of His day had attached to it. Unfortunately, many continue to think of the Sabbath primarily in terms of its restrictions – many of them unscriptural – rather than the freedom that it promotes. But from these verses I get something else entirely: all mankind is desired by Yah to be a part of “Israel.”
Do you see what I mean by that?
So then, through Christ, we are all called to be “Israel,” those who receive the Sabbath as a sign of unity with the Father and Son.
The Numbering of Names
Well first, whatever else it may be, the number is clearly symbolic. The fact that numbers like seven and twelve are repeated so many times reveals that they are significant, and in the 144,000 we have definite numbers provided to John (12,000 from each tribe) for a purpose.
We have explained these numbers in at least three ways that demonstrate the character of the individuals identified. We have come to understand “12” as a number that represents organizational perfection. There were twelve original tribes, twelve apostles, twelve foundations of New Jerusalem, twelve gates of the city, twelve kinds of fruit on the Tree of life. In nature there are twelve months, twelve hours of daylight, and twelve hours of darkness. All these things speak of structure, of organization, of deliberate composition.
The fact that there are exactly 12,000 in each tribe shows that there is a perfect governance of these “firstfruits.” They are governed, not from external pressures (although the apostles are set over them as tribal judges) but from within, from the changed heart that they have experienced since the new birth.
Second, we find in the Book of Numbers that the tribes received their inheritance based upon “the number of their names;” (Num 1:2, 26:12-52) those with greater numbers receiving larger portions of land. But the spiritual inheritance is to be equally distributed, as we read from the parable in the Gospels: “So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, ‘Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.’ And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.” (Mat 20:8-10)
In just this way, each “tribe” of the 144,000 receives exactly the same inheritance, because the “number of their names” is precisely the same.
Staying right with that Matthew 20 passage, we find the third symbolic teaching of the 144,000. We have seen that there are various sets of laborers that are hired by the master, these being early morning, third hour, sixth, ninth and then finally a unique set. Why unique? The 11th hour workers are the only ones not hired at a “third” of the day. Instead, they should have been hired at the 12th hour of the day, which would have been just before sunset at 6pm when labor must cease, since “the night cometh, when no man can work.” (John 9:4)
But instead, the master sees that the night approaches and the harvest is not complete, so he seeks out a final set of individuals to complete the work before the darkness falls, and they are hired in the 11th hour of the day, an hour before the end.
If you ask an average human being today, “How many hours are there in a work week,” you may get a variety of answers. Some may say that in most companies we work from 8am until 5pm for five days, and thus we have 8 hours (subtracting one for lunch) a day from Monday to Friday, or 40 hours.
Others may say that if we work every day from sunrise to sunset, that may be as much as 12 hours, and so 12 x 7 is 84.
But both these are looking at the concept of “work” from a strictly human perspective. If we use Yah’s point of view, we will add in two factors. First, we find that the work of Yahweh is a global one, and so while “sunrise to sunset” is closer to the truth than 8 or 9 to 5 so far as the Gospel goes, it is always daylight somewhere, and therefore Yahweh’s work must go on for 24 hours of any given day.
Second, of those 24 hour days during which the Gospel is being done, there is one day that labor is forbidden, and that is the Sabbath. But you might say, “The Gospel does not constitute secular labor, and therefore is not restricted on that day.” And yes, that is very true, yet we are talking about the parable in Matthew 20. The work the harvesters is doing is represented by laboring in a vineyard, you see. It is being allegorically referenced as secular work… and here we see one of the pitfalls of trying to extract doctrine from a parable.
We often encounter individuals who believe that Luke 16, for example, constitutes an accurate picture of the afterlife, but it is a parable. Not all the specifics match true principles, but are designed to carry with them moral and spiritual lessons. Likewise, in Matthew 20 we find spiritual labor being represented by secular labor, so we must take the principle there when trying to examine the spiritual significance of the numbers.
It takes prayer and guidance from the Spirit not to err in these delicate matters. It also takes the Spirit to understand them. And do you understand the numbers thus far?
You see what I mean by that? In Heaven, for example, there are 24 elders around the Throne. But in Heaven, there is no “type and antitype,” it is all eternal reality. So we do not even get into the issue of literal or symbolic, it is true on all levels. But the 144,000 follow the lamb while here on earth. And if you are dealing with human beings (as I do go into later) then the symbolic and the literal do not match up... almost never, really.
I can go into other details as we go along, but do you get the idea of what I mean?
That’s sort of a stand-alone question of itself, but it would lead into whether that set would be the ones the inheritance was divided based on number by as well.
If you read the Book of Numbers that I quoted, and read the whole thing... inheritance is not given by the number of people in the tribe... exactly. It is given by the number of names that head up the families.
All right, now we can go further. We are speaking about the care needed to draw numerical information for doctrine from a parable. If we wish to teach something like that drawn from a parable, we must find another “witness” for purposes of certainty and clarity. In this case, we can already demonstrate from the historical and doctrinal passages that inheritance is portioned out by the numbering of a tribe, and that there is an equal inheritance for all, so the meaning we draw from these passages seems, so far, to be correct.
And then, looking at the nature of “labor” in the parable of Matthew 20, we find that if the “vineyard” represents the world, (as Christ says the “field” does in a parallel teaching found in Mat 13:38) and the work is represented as common labor, then the work week actually consists of six days, with 24 hours of potential work in each.
This gives us, of course 6 x 24 = 144.
Some of us have seen this already, others may not have seen the number derived this way, so are there any questions at this point?
It is the “thousands” of the tribe that represent the princely divisions of the tribes, and this is a new teaching, one that we have not seen before in our studies. I have mentioned Exodus 18. Here is a second witness: “And if they blow but with one trumpet, then the princes, which are heads of the thousands of Israel, shall gather themselves unto thee.” (Num 10:4) A man who is the head of 5 or 10 men (which means, all their families, so it’s more than just 10 people) could not rightly be called a “prince.” Similarly, one who is the head of 100 families may be seen as a governor or some other minor official. But it is at the “thousand” level that the Scriptures call these divisions royal. Now they are headed by a “prince.”
And here is a third, and I think, most significant passage: “And Moses spake unto the people, saying, ‘Arm some of yourselves unto the war, and let them go against the Midianites, and avenge Yahweh of Midian. Of every tribe a thousand, throughout all the tribes of Israel, shall ye send to the war.’ So there were delivered out of the thousands of Israel, a thousand of every tribe, twelve thousand armed for war.” (Num 31:3-5)
The word Midian, by the way, means “Strife,” and the Midianites were a trouble to Israel during the Exodus, with the notable exceptions of Moses’ own wife and father in law.
But here we see Israel going out to war against Midian, and taking with them a thousand from each tribe. The designation into thousands was both a governmental and martial arrangement, and we find that in this final war, such an arrangement is being made again.
So then the twelve tribes of Israel, for the purpose of royal government, and for the purpose of military work, are arranged by thousands. The “thousand” is the unit of order, organization, royalty and war. In the last days there are 12 “thousands” from each of the 12 tribes. In other words, the final group of saints in the 144th hour are the 144 thousand, the thousand of the 144. Do you see what I mean there? They are the royal units of the 144th hour.
To be honest, for a while I was not sure why the number 144,000 was used, even after seeing the spiritual significance of 12 from each of 12 tribes. I thought, “Why thousand?” Why not just call them the 144? Why not just call them the 14400?
It is because “thousand” also means something in the Bible. And this “thousand” this organized, royal group, is that group called for labor at the final (144th) hour of the work week.
There seem to be a lot of significant symbols about that number, different layers that I am sure we have not seen yet. And I am not suggesting we try to come up with a system of numerology to get too far into it. But we can at least understand why those figures are used.
But some might say, “Well, I see the spiritual significance of those numbers, but that does not mean it can’t also be literal.”
Well, the best answer we can give to that is that we have no doctrine concerning a literal number from the Book of Revelation, and this gets into what Jody was asking before. It may be that the number would be literal, but I think it unlikely, considering that the grace of Yahweh is open to all men, and that as many as choose will be among that number from the last days, and from the going-forth of the Three Angels’ Message.
And you may say, “Yes, but Yahweh is perfect, therefore the number of people saved may be exactly 144,000, because He is the one that planned salvation,” or something to that effect. And yes, it is true that Yahweh is perfect, but Yah also does not use force on human beings. Accepting that precisely 144,000 will attain the perfect spirit of Christ speaks to me of artificiality and a kind of predestination that the Scriptures just don’t teach.
Some people, of course, DO believe in predestination, and would have an easier time accepting that Yah chose exactly 144,000 for the purpose of them being perfected, but the New Testament gives a different picture than that. Grace has appeared to all men, as Paul says to his young evangelist. (Titus 2:11) As many as call upon the name of Yahshua will be saved, the Apostles taught. (Acts 2:21) It is very true that Christ had exactly 12 apostles – for a time – but this is because He called 12, and after the departure of Judas, the apostles restored exactly that number, leaving one potential candidate out. (Acts 1:23-26) There were others, qualified, for the job – Paul calls himself an apostle, even though there were already twelve. (2Cor 1:1) This shows that even those twelve that Christ called to do administrative work was not to represent a hard-and-fast number, but depended upon human choices, human responses to His Gospel, and was not something rigidly planned out to the inclusion of some souls and the exclusion of others.
We might rightly ask, “Who, then will be the 12 that judge Israel?” Will Paul be included, or only the original 12 after Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit fell? What will Paul do in Heaven? Will he have a special place? All these things, I am fully certain, will surprise us in the beauty of Yah’s solutions, but even when contemplating these divine appointments we see that the numbers are not so exact as others have tried to do with the number of those sealed. I believe, therefore, that while all things are certainly possible with Yah, it is more in tune with the principles of the Bible, and more useful to us as the final set of laborers, to understand the symbols of that number, and be hesitant to take it any further than we can conclusively demonstrate from Scripture.
Are there any questions about that?
The Nature of “Israel”
The name of the nation, just like the name of our Church, was given by Yahweh Himself. And that name means “Overcomer with God.” Now I don’t know how many of you have thought about this, but that name – like all the names Yahweh has given to His people – represents the victory over sin.
How do I mean that? Well, consider the first name taken by the worshippers of Yahweh: “Sons of God” in the early chapters of Genesis. If they are sons of Elohim, then they are His Seed, and His Seed (like Christ, His firstborn) are a pure and perfect, uncorrupt offspring. (1Pet 1:23) You cannot be a “son of God” after the manner of Christ without Victory over sin.
After that, they were given this name “Israel,” which means, those that overcome with El, or God. And what is the victory? It is the Gospel of overcoming, of overcoming sin and self, and thus being set down in the very Throne that Yahshua receives from His Father. (Rev 3:21) The other names also mean Victory over Sin, if you think about them for a little while, but we are focusing on Israel for now.
The Victory doctrine we teach actually tells us, “You are Israel.” And why, because receiving the victory means you “Overcome with El.” You Isra-El in the Victory… literally, and therefore any question about who “Israel” in the last days are should be simple and plain.
Who is Israel? The nation of those who overcome. Who is it that is overcoming? I do not mean politically, or nationally. I do not mean in terms of numbers of converts or the amount of money that a ministry controls. I do not mean how many companies the Church owns, and how many buildings, and how important the location of its central headquarters is. No… the only thing a man is called upon to overcome is sin.
So who is it that overcomes in this last generation? It is ONLY those who live and teach victory over sin. There can be NO other “Israel” but those who overcome sin, and they do so “Isra-El.” They overcome with El, with Yahweh, with His help, by His power, and by the blood of His Son.
Does everyone understand that?
Some say, “The 144,000 are from Israel, and therefore will be latter day Jews who accept Christ.” The Bible says different. We read, as we saw above, “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Yahshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Eph 2:11-13)
But that is not all Paul writes about the subject. In Romans, he says this, “I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.” (Rom 11:1) Some have looked at this, and similar passages, and said, “See, Israel will return to faith.”
But they do not understand what Paul is talking about when he says, “Israel.” We read on: “For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” (verses 16, 17)
Ok, now this is very significant indeed. For Paul, being Israel is not a matter of birth or bloodline, because you can be “broken off” and you can be “graffed in.” The Gentiles, he writes, are “graffed in” and therefore of true Israel. Some of those who had claims to the name because of their genetic similarity with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he writes, were “broken off.” Christ Himself confirms this in vision to John, when He says, “I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not; but are the synagogue of Satan.” (Rev 2:9)
John the Baptist told the crowds, “And think not to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham to our father,’ for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.” (Mat 3:9)
Yahweh is not compelled by blood. For Christ, the opposite of being a “Jew” is being of the “synagogue of Satan.” Just like the Seal of Yah and the Mark of The Beast, these are spiritual conditions. Yahweh is not restricted to “Israel” as defined by men. His apostles have told us that Israel depends upon the Root, which is Christ, and men may be broken off or grafted in according to their connection with that Root Itself. In other words, you may not be an Israelite, but if you accept Christ you are in Israel. Conversely, you may have been born a Jew and, like Paul, have knowledge of your family’s genetic history… but if you are not connected to the Root, you are a broken-off branch, and not in the Israel of the New Testament. You may say you are an Israelite, but you are not.
Thus, we agree fully that the 144,000 are “Israel” in every sense of the word that it is used in the New Testament… a people who descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but from among whom some were broken off, and some were grafted in. It is the fact of the matter that in this generation, most of the branches are the grafted kind, and this because they are the ones connected to the Root.
What we call modern Israel, after the flesh, is NOT connected to the Root, and therefore, according to Paul, they are the “broken off” branches, and not true Israel. They say they are Jews, but are not. But we are not, therefore, to boast against the branches, as Paul also writes in Romans 11. We are, indeed, to bring them back to Israel. Yes, we are to bring Israelites back to Israel, “for God is able to graff them in again.” (Rom 11:23) But “again” implies that until they are again reconnected to the Root, they are NOT a part of what is called Israel.
We say that the 144,000 are “Spiritual Israel.” In so doing, we mean that they are Israel because of their spiritual connection to the Root, Christ. They are not Israel (necessarily, and only due to circumstances) by what was originally, genetically called Israel. But this is not to give the impression that it is “less” Israel because it is spirit rather than flesh. In fact, we know that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (2Cor 4:18)
It is the Spirit that is true… it is the spirit that is recognized by Yahweh, and therefore we would say that we are “Israel indeed,” even while reaching out to the other Jews (literal – of Judaism, and spiritual – of Seventh-day Adventist) and the Gentiles of other faiths and nations.
All may be grafted into Israel. All may be of those twelve Tribes. The idea that they are a bloodline returned to the faith is unscriptural, contradictory to Paul’s doctrine, contradictory to Christ’s teaching that the vineyard has been given to new dressers, (Mat 21:43) and denies the teaching of Romans 11 entirely and specifically – that all may be Israel if only they are connected to the Root of Israel, who is Christ Yahshua.
Are there any questions before we close the first half of this study?
Thank you for bringing us together for this study. May we find some “saving grace” from what we have covered here. We pray for the missing ones…and they are many. Our prayer is that they will have access to be with us when they can.
Cleanse us thoroughly, and may New Moon be a tool in your hand for this purpose. For we pray in the Holy name of YAHshua, AMEN.
And next month we will go into the details of the tribal characteristics.
