Revelation 7 Study Notes

7:5-8 The tribe of Judah is mentioned first because it was the royal tribe of Israel (Gn 49:9-10) into which Jesus was born (Rv 5:5). Reuben is next because he was Jacob’s firstborn (Gn 49:3). The tribes of Dan and Ephraim are omitted from the listing, perhaps because of their instances of gross idolatry (Jdg 17-18). They are replaced by Joseph and Levi, neither of which was included in the military encampment of tribes in Nm 2.

7:9-12 In 5:9, the Lamb’s worthiness to open the scroll is based on the shedding of his redemptive blood for “every tribe and language and people and nation.” In 7:9, this group arrives in heaven. Since every nation is listed first, this scene is at least a partial fulfillment of the Great Commission—where Christ’s disciples are commanded to reach “all nations” with the gospel by “the end of the age” (Mt 28:19-20). The vast multitude wearing white robes links them to the martyrs (6:11) and, in the only other context in Revelation where the phrase “vast multitude” is found (19:1,6), to the bride and the armies of the Lamb (19:8,14). Some interpreters understand the “vast multitude” to be all martyrs, who arrive in heaven over a period of time. Others see this as the time when the church is raptured, with some who are dead and some who are still alive all arriving at the same time (1Th 4:14-17).

7:13-14 The robes of the vast multitude (v. 9) being made white in the blood of the Lamb likely refers to the redemptive work of Christ (1:5; 5:9). If so, the multitude coming out of the great tribulation (Dn 12:1; Mt 24:21; and “the hour of testing” in Rv 3:10) may refer to the rapture of the church before the great tribulation, if that period does not begin until the events in the scroll are released by the lifting of the seventh seal (8:1). However 3:10 is understood, 7:14 should be taken the same way since both have the Gk preposition ek (“from, out from”) and a time period (i.e., “the hour of testing” in 3:10 and “the great tribulation” in 7:14).

7:15-17 The vast multitude’s priestly service in heaven is a partial fulfillment of the promises in 1:6 and 5:10. The mention of the sanctuary looks ahead to the equating of the vast multitude with the “heaven dwellers” in 12:12 and 13:6.