Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
How can a person indicate perfection, something squared, or an infinite number of something in the Bible? Such a person would probably do what we would do if we could not think of the right word: talk around it. The Israelites could square numbers: 12, for the tribes of Israel, squared is 144. If they wanted to indicate a vast number, something like infinity, they would add a few zeroes after 144. How many were standing on Mount Zion? There were a whole lot of people, more than I could count; it must have been thousands of millions.
John saw all these people enjoying the presence of God. They were being strengthened to profess their faith in God and Christ in a time of persecution. Our great challenge is not in living under a new President who has some definite ideas about how to lead us. Rather our challenge is in following God and the Lamb wholeheartedly.
External forces are not our challenges. Our challenges are internal, from our own greeds, desires, lusts and desires. We want what we should not want. We are selfish. External forces can show us our failings and enable us to hear better what the Word of God has to say to us, but our real challenges are from within ourselves.
Through our belief in God and Christ, we have been ransomed as the first fruits of Christ’s saving work. We have been saved; now we must claim it. If we are enduring persecution, then we are being cleansed, much as a pot-scraper cleanses a pot.
How vast a number did John see? Pi is more than 62.5 trillion digits. More than that many is represented by the 144,000. There is no limit on the number of people God can save.
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