The Church Should Look Like That

Imagine the multicultural chorus of saints from all ages—ancient Israel’s Levite psalmists, clapping African saints with joyful praises, European Reformers with their majestic hymns, monks with their Gregorian and Ethiopian Coptic chants, Latin American Pentecostals with shouts of triumph, messianic Jews dancing the horah, and a generation of North American street evangelists doing gospel rap!

7:9 great multitude that no one could count. This multitude (in contrast to vv. 4–8) may echo the promise to the patriarchs (Ge 13:16; 15:5; 32:12). By the end of the first century, Christians likely numbered fewer than 144,000, much less an uncountable multitude (which must be no smaller than the numbers in 5:11). John’s vision offered a promise well beyond merely human expectation! every nation, tribe, people and language. See note on 5:9. white robes. Many commentators relate the white robes to those of martyrs (6:9–11). palm branches. Often used to hail victors in a military triumph; if vv. 4–8 envision an end-time army (see note on vv. 4–8), this “army” hails the true victor, the Lamb.

In exactly the same way, John hears (7:4) about the redeemed who come from the twelve tribes, which recalls Old Testament promises concerning God’s preservation of Israel; but when he actually sees (7:9) the realization of the promise, he encounters a countless multitude coming from every tribe and nation (Bauckham, Theology, 76–77).

Just as references to the Lion and the Lamb enable readers to consider the same person (Christ) from two different perspectives, the references to the 144,000 and to the great multitude allow readers to see the same community (Christ’s followers) from two different perspectives. The community of faith encompasses people from many tribes, nations, and languages (7:9–17), yet this same community represents the fulfillment of God’s promises concerning the preservation of Israel (7:4–8). If the promises concerning “the Lion of Judah” are not negated but fulfilled through the blood of the Lamb (5:5–6), the promises concerning “the tribe of Judah” (7:5) and the other tribes are not negated but fulfilled through the multitudes that are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb (7:14).

Bauckham asserts that Rev. 7:9 alludes precisely to the form of the patriarchal promise occurring in Gen. 17:4–6; 35:11; and 48:19, where the patriarchs are referred to as progenitors of a multitude “of nations.” He mentions in particular Gen. 17:4, whose “a multitude of nations” (πλήθους ἐθνῶν) he sees reflected in John’s “a great multitude … from all nations” (ὄχλος πολύς … ἐκ παντὸς ἔθνους). This allusion is, he says, signposted by the placing of “nations” (ἔθνους) first, which is unique among the fourfold formulas elsewhere in the Apocalypse (see on 5:9), and by the grammatical awkwardness of “nations” being set apart from the rest of the members of the formula. He concludes that the significance of this is that “7:9 as a reinterpretation of 7:4–8 indicates not so much the replacement of the national people of God as the abolition of its national limits,” which is consistent with 21:12, 24–26, where the gates of the new Jerusalem have “the names of the twelve tribes” and remain open for the nations to enter.154

As true Israelites, the white-robed people celebrate an eschatological feast of tabernacles in heaven to commemorate joyfully their end-time salvation, which is attributed to “God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”