Before Jerusalem Fell

The Looming Jewtih War 233
ofJudaea, once the inheritance of and partitioned among these twelve
tribes. It was a destruction that was to overtake Judaea; therefore
Jewish Christians are alone selected.2
Clearly the reference to the Twelve Tribes is to Christians (as noted
previously), for: (1) God intervenes to protect them, and (2) they are
called “bond-servants of our God.” Just as certainly may we understand
that these are Christians of Jewish extraction, for: ( 1 ) they are
in “the land” (w. 1, 2), and (2) they are contrasted with the “great
multitude” from “every nation” who praise God (v. 9). The designation
“Twelve Tribes” is another common means by which to refer to
“the tribes of the land” (cp. Rev. 1:7). Here, however, it is not the
entirety of the Twelve Tribes that is protected (the whole race of
Israel, as such), but only 144,000 of them, i.e., “the cream of the
crop,” a perfect number, 3
those who have converted to Christ. Stuart
presents a very logical question: “Why were these 144,000 designated
by Jewish tribes?” His answer is most reasonable: it was because the
pending destruction was threatened againstJudea; “ifnot, why should
Jewish Christians alone be here mentioned and selected?”4
The fact that an angel intervenes before they are destroyed in the
land surely indicates the era prior to the final and total devastation
of the land in A.D. 70. 5
Were “the land” already destroyed (as it was
in A.D. 70), such a protection would have been embarrassingly
anachronistic. While speaking in the Olivet Discourse of the destruction
of the very Temple to which the disciples could physically point
(i.e., “Herod’s Temple,” Matt. 24:1-2), Jesus warned His followers
that they should flee Judea (24: 16) when it was time for these things
to come to pass (which occurred in A.D. 70). He added further that
they should accept His promise that these horrendous events would
be cut short (24:22), and that he who endured to the end would be
2. James M. Macdonald, 2% Lzj2 and Writings of St John (London: Hodder &
Stoughton, 1877), p. 157.
3. The number is the product of quantitative fullness ( 10) trebled (i.e., 10x 10x 10)
from each tribe, and is multiplied by the number of tribes squared (12 x 12). On the
number 10 see Steven Barabas, “Numbers,” in Merrill C. Tenney, cd., Zondemzn Pictorial
Bible Dictiorzmy (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1967), p. 590.
4. Moses Stuart, Commenta~ on tb Apocu~pse, 2 vols. (Andove~ Allen, Merrill, and
Wardwell, 1845) 1:274.
5. It must be remembered, as noted earlier, that the expectation of the book was of
the soon occurrence of the events; Rev. 1:1, 3, 19; 3:10; 6:9; 22:7-12.