There are two occasions in the Old Testament where people escaped God’s judgement because of a mark that identified them as belonging to God:
Exodus 12:7, 12, 13: ‘Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs …I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn …and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you …’
Ezekiel 9:3-6: ‘Then the LORD called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.” As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion …but do not touch anyone who has the mark.”’
Those who were thus marked, survived.
In the New Testament we also find that God has put his mark on those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ:
‘And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession …’ Ephesians 1:13, 14.
This concept of being ‘marked’ or ‘sealed’ by God is stated in:
2Corinthians 1:21, 22: ‘Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.’
2Corinthians 5:5: ‘Now it is God who has … given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.’
Ephesians 4:30: ‘And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.’
God has put his mark on all who believe in his Son; that mark guarantees their final salvation. That mark, that seal, is his Spirit.
When we come to Revelation, we again find reference to a ‘seal’, and again, those who are ‘sealed’, those who have God’s mark upon them, survive the coming judgement.
Revelation 7:2-3 (see also 9:4) speaks of ‘the servants of God’ being sealed with ‘the seal of the living God’. This ‘seal’ protects them from the day of wrath just described in 6:12-17. When we read verses 4-8 those who are ‘sealed’ are described as ‘144,000 from all the tribes of Israel’ and listed according to certain tribal names. On the surface this appears to limit the ‘sealed’ to a specific number and a specific race. However, when we look at the tribal names listed it is not a complete list of the tribes of Israel, either according to their territorial allocations, or according to the twelve sons of Jacob. And when we look at the number, 144,000, we realize that this number is 12 x 12 x 10 x 10 x 10.
This is an intensely symbolic number:
Ten symbolizes completion, and here we have the cube of ten – total completion, nothing missing.
Twelve – the number of the tribes of Israel, and the number of Christ’s apostles.
The ‘sealed’ are comprised of the complete number of God’s people, all true believers, from both the Old and New Testament eras, and both Jews and Gentiles. Not one is missing. Not one can be missing.
This broad, multi-national identity of ‘the sealed’ is confirmed in 7:9:
What John ‘heard’ was that the number of the sealed was ‘144,000 from all the tribes of Israel’ [verse 4].
What John saw when he ‘looked’ [verse 9], was not 144,000 Jews he expected but ‘a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb’.
When one of the elders asked John who this great multitude were, John didn’t know what to answer. So many of them. From every nation. All in white robes. All praising the Lamb.
Then the elder explained: These are those who … have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Sealed. Secure. Safe from the coming wrath. With the name of the Lamb and of the Father on their foreheads (see Revelation 14:1).
© Rosemary Bardsley 2026