After the vision of the sixth seal, John saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow on the earth, sea, or upon any tree (7:1). For human beings, holding the wind is an expression of vanity. For God, however, He is the master of the winds (Job 38:24). These angels are given the power of holding back the winds in any direction. When Jesus predicts the destruction of Jerusalem in Matthew 24, he says, “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other” (Matthew 24:30-31). The trees are the elect and the fruitful green trees are not to be hurt (cf. 9:4; Luke 23:31, Matthew 3:10). The angels are given this temporary restraint of the winds upon the earth and sea because God has chosen to preserve the elect (saints) and keep them from being hurt.
Another angel was seen ascending from the east (“sunrise”) with the seal of the Living God to place a seal upon the foreheads of the elect (“servants of our God,” v. 3) before the four angels unleash the destructive winds upon the earth and sea. This gathering or harvest of the elect from the house of Israel continued until the coming of the Son of Man (cf. Matthew 10:23). This priority of the Jews was repeated several times (Rom. 1:16, Acts 13:46, Rom. 2:10). In keeping with this priority of the gospel and judgment coming to the Jews first, God had also promised to redeem a righteous remnant from among Israel to be the first fruits of His new people.
Consider the prophecy of Isaiah, through whom God had promised through that the Israelites were destined to the sword, and will bow down to the slaughter because they forsook the Lord, forgot His holy mountain, sat a table for Fortune, and filled cups of mixed wine for Destiny. Lest we misinterpret what it means to forsake the Lord, God explains, “…when I called, you did not answer; when I spoke, you did not listen, but you did what was evil in my eyes and chose what I did not delight in” (Isa. 65:11-12). Paul wrote, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality (Romans 2:5-11). Similarly, Isaiah writes, “Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, my servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; my servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; my servants shall rejoice, but you shall be put to shame; my servants shall sing for gladness of heart, but you shall cry out for pain of heart and shall wail for breaking of spirit. You shall leave your name to my chosen for a curse, and the Lord God will put you to death, but his servants he will call by another name so that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes” (Isa. 65:13-16). Now, John sees the angel with the seal of God to seal the elect from every tribe of the sons of Israel (7:4) from being destroyed. The number of the sealed was 144,000. They have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb for they follow the Lamb wherever he goes (Rev. 14:4).
The first fruits were consecrated to God (Ex. 13:1,2; 23:19). When God chose the Levites to be the priestly tribe, he promised that under the New Covenant, His priests would come out of Israel (Isa. 66:21). Therefore, the Israelites would supply the first fruits of the New Covenant. Though different contexts, the first fruits implied a second of whatever is meant in the context. The Jewish elect was the assembly of firstborn ones who are enrolled in heaven (Heb. 12:23). Their names are written in the Lambs book of life (Rev. 21:27, cf. 20:12-15, 3:5). In Revelation 20:4-6, we are told that they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. I encourage you to think of this as having already been fulfilled, instead of something off in the distant future (We will have much more to discuss regarding this, later).
The order of the list of the twelve tribes is revealing. The order of birth was Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Here, the order is Judah for the Anointed would come through his line. Reuben had defiled his father’s couch and comes in second. While we might expect Simeon and Levi next, the rage of killing the men of Shechem, cost them their position (Gen. 34:1-31; 49:5-7). They do appear but not in the order of birth. The only one who is excluded from the list is Dan. While this makes room for the two sons of Joseph, Dan is not arbitrarily excluded.
Joshua’s speech shows that all the tribes had been given their land by lot (Joshua 23:4-5). The tribe of Dan had not inherited all their land (Judges 18:1). The Danites had a territory assigned to them as well as the other tribes and Judges 18:11 shows the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol were under their control. They were seeking more, but whether they had lost land to neighboring nations (cf. Joshua 19:47) like the Philistines or had not possessed it due to their negligence is uncertain. It is interesting to note that the tribe of Dan is also left out of the genealogies of I Chronicles 1-9 and probably for the same reason they are excluded in Revelation 7. It seems that the tribe of Dan is known to be idolatrous until the day of their captivity (Judges 18:30). If idolatry was so affixed to their identity, we are not surprised that no mention of their name is listed among the 144,000. Finally, the number twelve thousand from each tribe is not just a number of completion, it is representative of an equal number from each tribe. The fact that the order may account for the failures of these men, their sin in no way means that their descendants receive less than anyone else. Jacob, the earthy father of the tribes may have shown favoritism, but not the heavenly Father. No tribe receives a double portion in this inheritance as genealogy has no bearing on the opportunity to be saved.