Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of those sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
512,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
12,000 from the tribe of Gad,
6 12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,
7 12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
12,000 from the tribe of Levi,
12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,
8 12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.
The identity of the faithful continues to be explained. This passage gives a symbolic number of God’s people who will receive God’s seal. Interpreters have debated who this group is. Some have taken this number literally but then choose to make the tribes symbolic. This inconsistent method of interpretation only makes the interpreters their own authority. Rather than trying to figure out a specific application for this group of people, it may be more spiritually fruitful to consider this as part of the completion of God’s plan. The bigger theme behind this list is that God protects and keeps those who are his own. These people may experience hardship, but in the end, they will triumph. God’s people will learn the new song of the Lamb in chapter 14. They have not compromised their faith and have remained pure through the trials of the end times.
A couple of notes can be made about the list. Then number 12 corresponds to the tribes of Israel. It represents completeness, represented in 12 times 12. In the list of tribes, Judah is given first and not Reuben, the eldest of Jacob’s son. This may be because Jesus Christ was from tribe of Judah. Benjamin, the youngest and favored, comes last. Another oddity is that both Manasseh and Joseph, son and father, are included. Manasseh and Ephraim were Joseph’s sons, but Ephraim is not included in the list here as in some Old Testament lists. Ephraim usually took the place of the tribe of Levi in such lists, but here, Levi is returned. Dan is excluded, possibly because that tribe was connected early with idolatry (Judges 18:30; noted by Irenaeus of Lyons in the second century). There was a Jewish tradition that the Antichrist would come from the tribe of Dan. This oddity of this list is not unusual because the Old Testament gives eighteen different lists of the tribes, and this list does not match any of those.
It is impossible to know the intended meaning of the unique list of names or the symbolic numbering. These special people representing the church, the new Israel (Matthew 19:28; Romans 2:29; Galatians 6:16; James 1:1; 1 Peter 2:9), are about to go through difficult times. The simple message is clear: God will be with those who commit themselves to him. This has been true since the beginning of time. The Bible is full of stories that encourage us as we face our own difficult trials. We must have a far-looking perspective, see the end of God’s plan, and not be diverted from the mission before us. We need words of encouragement like this occasionally as we do our best with God’s help to live out his will in our lives.