Daily Inspiration- Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
In his vision of heaven, John the Beloved sees a huge multitude of saints holding palm branches and worshipping the Lamb who was slain for their sins. We are told there were 144,000 of them. Some have thought this was an actual number. However, in the Book of Revelation, numbers have a symbolic, not literal, meaning. The number 12 relates to the 12 tribes of Israel and also the 12 Apostles. So, 144, being 12 x 12, means the totality of the people of God. On this special feast, we honor all the hidden saints who are now in heaven, glorified and worshipping the Lamb.
Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14
2 I. John, saw another angel come up from the East, holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, 3 “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.” 4 I heard the number of those who had been marked with the seal, one hundred and forty-four thousand marked from every tribe of the children of Israel: 9 After this I had a vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue. They stood before the throne and before the Lamb, wearing white robes and holding palm branches in their hands. 10 They cried out in a loud voice: Salvation comes from our God, who is seated on the throne, and from the Lamb.” 11 All the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They prostrated themselves before the throne, worshipped God, 12 and exclaimed: “Amen. Blessing and glory, wisdom and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me, “Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?” 14 I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.” He said to me, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
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