In order to understand who the 144,000 are in the beginning of Revelation chapter 14, we’re going to take a trip back in time to Zechariah 13:8-9 and to Revelation chapter 7. The 144,000 men and women have been chosen from the twelve tribes of Israel to be brought through the fire, so to speak. This group of people have the name of the Father on their foreheads, which corresponds to the seal that was placed upon their foreheads back in chapter 7:3. They will be the purest of the pure, the firstfruits of God. An amazing group of people in this day and age, they are virgins who have never lied, stolen or cheated anyone. They follow Jesus even to death.
They are so pleasing to the Lord that they will sing a new song before the throne of God that they alone will learn. Even the elders and the four creatures will be hearing this new song. We can see from chapter seven that only the tribe of Dan is missing.
The Lamb of God is ever present with this group and He leads them wherever they go. They will preach the living Gospel and I believe that they will be the group who will be directly responsible for bringing the Jewish remnant that is mentioned in Zechariah 13 to repentance.
In verses 6 and 7, John sees an angel flying about the world proclaiming the everlasting gospel and warning people to fear God, not man. There is another angel to follow who will pronounce judgment upon Babylon; however, this angel won’t be seen or heard until later, just before the war in Armageddon— we’ll get to that later.
Finally, a third angel is introduced. This one gives the inhabitants of the world a stern warning not to worship the beast or his image or get the mark of the beast and in verses 9 through 11, he paints a very clear portrait of the punishment that those who follow after the antichrist will receive.
A reminder for the saints to remain patient, to keep the commandments of God, and to remain faithful to Jesus follows. Just hang on a little more and you’ll be rewarded, this angel tells the tribulation saints.
We can compare verses 14 through 19 with Matthew 13:30. Nearly all of Matthew 13 is devoted to repentance and the kingdom of heaven. Several times, Jesus repeats what will happen to the unrepentant or unbelievers and then in verse 30, He gives those who will not repent a warning: “At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
Now we’ve come to the crux of the tribulation where God will separate the wheat from the chaff, call all who will to repentance, and to sift through Israel and separate the remnant, those who will become purified, from the rest of the Jews.
The last half of verse 19 and all of verse 20 are in reference to the battle of Armageddon. At the end of that battle, 180 miles of land will be covered with so much blood that it will reach up to the horse’s bridles.