The Great Congregation-The 144 Thousand
In Psalm 22 the title of this message is
first written in the book of Psalms. It appears four times in the Psalms and as
should be expected it refers to a great multitude gathered to hear God’s Word.
However, the appearance in Psalm 22:25 holds prophetic implications as it looks
forward to the day when the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ appears on Mt. Zion
.
In that day He will be accompanied by The
144 Thousand Servants of Our God, The Sons of Israel who will be called out to
serve their God during the most trying and troublesome time after the end of
this age of grace during the Day of the LORD when God will intervene taking
control of His planet earth with mighty, unmistakable judgments from heaven.
These judgments have been prophesied by
numerous O.T. and N.T. prophets alike. Every historical N.T. book except the
Gospel of John including the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ refers to
the sign which precedes the Day of the LORD. God will darken the sun, the moon
will be turned to blood, and the stars shall fall from heaven in that day!
It is during this time of judgment that
the LORD will appear on Mt. Zion with The Great Congregation at the end of the 70th
Week of Daniel during the celebration which occurs after His appearance to
redeem all Israel which is referred to in Isaiah 59:19, 20; and Romans 11:25-27
when He redeems those Jews who repent and turn unto God! It is at this point in
time that the Seventh Angel sounds and “The kingdoms of the world are become the
kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever.”
(Revelation 11:15)
God’s Word records the appearance of the
Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb and with Him are The 144 Thousand (Revelation
14:1-5). This passage appears in response to the record of the Antichrist and
his false prophet’s actions which occur in Revelation 13. Although the power of
the Antichrist will be somewhat limited during the Day of the LORD he will
continue his attacks against those saints who remain on earth after the Rapture
during the Day of the LORD.
The Two Witnesses, The 144 Thousand and
those who will be saved during this time of devastating judgment will be the
focus of his unrelenting warfare against the saints. Even though the church
saints will be home in heaven, and the faithful Jews in the land of Israel will
be protected by fleeing into the wilderness (Matthew 24:16ff; Revelation 12:6,
14), but these remaining Jews, the 144 Thousand and the Two Witnesses
(Revelation 11:3-17) will continue on earth (Revelation 9:4, 17:14) to perform
their most necessary ministry during this great time of devastating judgment.
The 144 Thousand young Hebrew men called
out from the twelve tribes of Israel (Revelation 7:1-8) make up the earthly
part of “The Great Congregation” which is the subject of the message at
hand. However, the heavenly harpers spoken of in Revelation 14:2, 3 far
outnumber the 144,000 who are singing from Mt. Zion on earth.
The heavenly congregation is truly a very
large gathering, indeed, for we believe these are the saints of the ages, the
great multitude of Revelation 7:9 “Which no
man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues”. “These are they which came out of [the] great
tribulation” (Revelation 7:14). The raptured and resurrected saints of the
ages make up this great host of heavenly harpers in Revelation 14:2, 3. Therefore,
this great multitude in heaven plus the 144 Thousand on earth become “The
Great Congregation” spoken of in the multiple Messianic passages of the
Psalms.
In Psalm 22:30, 31 the 144 Thousand are
described: “A seed shall serve Him; it
shall accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come, and shall
declare His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that He has done
this.” Unlike the many generations of Israelites who constantly and
consistently rebelled against the Lord, the latest of which is this present
generation of Jews who reject their Messiah as have all those since He suffered
and died to pay the penalty for their sins when He gave His life for the sin of
entire human race 2,000 years ago on the Cross of Calvary!
However, there is a generation coming who
will be “A seed” who are a part of “the rest of her [the woman’s] seed”
(Revelation 12:17) and will “declare His
righteousness”, they will preach and present the Gospel of Jesus Christ to
a “people that shall be born” those
who will be saved during the Day of the Lord and then at the end of the 70th Week of
Daniel when the “Redeemer comes to Zion”
(Isaiah 59:20) the “nation will be born at once” (Isaiah 66:8)
who then will live on earth to be part of the great gathering (Micah 5:3) who
will populate the promised land during the Millennium (Revelation 20:4-6) when
the Lord Jesus Christ will rule and “sit
on His father David’s throne” (Luke 1:32) in Jerusalem!
The next occurrence of “The Great
Congregation” in the book of Psalms is in Psalm 35:18 “I will give Thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise Thee
among much people.” This Psalm has a
number of similarities to Psalm 22 which is the well recognized “Psalm of the
Cross” as it vividly portrays the suffering of the Lord Jesus on the Cross.
In addition to (Psalm 35:18) which is
similar to (Psalm 22:22, 25) which mention this same congregation, Psalm 35:15-
17 also has Messianic tones reflected in text: “But in Mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together;
yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against Me, and I knew it not;
the did tear me, and ceased not: With hypocritical mockers in feasts, they
gnashed upon me with their teeth. Lord, how long wilt Thou look on? Rescue my
soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions.”
Lewis de Grenada who commented along with Charles
Haddon Spurgeon in his condensed version of the ‘Treasury of David’ saying that
portions of these verses definitely apply to the Lord’s suffering on the Cross
of Calvary which underscores the Messianic character of this short passage including
“The Great Congregation” in (v.18).
And, although we cannot be dogmatic as to
who “The Great Congregation”
is, there will be a great gathering of Jews during the end-times at the end of
the 70th Week of Daniel as recorded in Micah 5:3 “Therefore He will give them up [the Jews]
until the time that she which travails [Israel at the end of the 70th
Week] has brought forth: then the remnant [144 Thousand & the Woman of
Revelation 12] of His brethren shall return unto the children of Israel.”
And, there will be a great gathering of
God’s people as mentioned above in Revelation 14:1-5 both in heaven and on
earth which could well be what is referred to in these Great Congregation
passages. There is one more passage in the Psalms that is Messianic mentioning
The Great Congregation: “I have preached
righteousness in the great congregation, lo, I have not refrained My lips, O
LORD, Thou know. I have not hid Thy righteousness within My heart; I have
declared Thy faithfulness and Thy salvation: I have not concealed Thy
loving-kindness and Thy truth from the great congregation.” (Psalm 40:9-11)
The difference in this passage is the
verbs are all past tense which means that the actions have been completed. If
these refer to the Lord Jesus Christ
then it is describing things which He has already accomplished in His first coming.
And, He definitely preached righteousness in the great congregation: To the
thousands assembled at the miraculous event when He fed multiple thousands and
the great congregation gathered “In the
last day that great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried out saying If any
man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that believes on Me as the
Scripture has said, out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.” (John
7:37ff)
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