Isaiah 40:1-11: “‘Comfort, yes, comfort My people!’ Says your God. 2 ‘Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand Double for all her sins.’

3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the Way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be exalted And every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight And the rough places smooth; 5 The glory of the LORD shall be revealed, And all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.’

6 The voice said, ‘Cry out!’ And he said, ‘What shall I cry?’

‘All flesh is grass, And all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7 The grass withers, the flower fades, Because the breath of the LORD blows upon it; Surely the people are grass. 8 The grass withers, the flower fades, But the Word of our God stands forever.’

9 O Zion, You who bring Good Tidings, Get up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, You who bring Good Tidings, Lift up your voice with strength, Lift it up, be not afraid; Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’

10 Behold, the Lord GOD shall come with a strong hand, And His arm shall rule for Him; Behold, His reward is with Him, And His work before Him. 11 He will feed His flock like a shepherd; He will gather the lambs with His arm, And carry them in His bosom, And gently lead those who are with young.”

So, what we have in view here in Revelation 14:1 is not the literal city of Jerusalem. I don’t believe that John is seeing a literal city, just like he is not seeing a literal Lamb when he says this. He’s also not seeing the temple mount, or the temple in Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, as we go down through this chapter, we see what he really has in view here is the throne room of God, isn’t it? If we look there in verse 3, “They sang as it were a new song before the throne….” So, we’re back to the throne room of God, a heavenly view, which John has had previously.

We see, then, that John continues using this illustrative language, this figurative language, the image of a Lamb to represent Jesus the Christ, a depiction of Mount Zion to represent power and firmness and victory—the throne room of God.

Then, we have the 144,000. We’ve read about them before. We’ve identified, of course, the 144,000. We know from our previous reading and from our previous discussion that these represent, no, not just the Jews who are going to be saved, but rather, the representation here is of ALL of those who belong to God throughout the ages. We see the explanation in verse 3b: “…and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth.” So, again, we’re not talking about a literal number here; we’re talking about a group of people who represent the people of every age who are the people of God AND have, not the mark of the beast, not the certification that they have bowed down and worshiped the Emperor of Rome, but rather they have on their foreheads the mark of God, the identifying characteristics of God, Hebrews 12:22-24: “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.”

This is, then, the view that John has. What a contrast between what he has previously viewed and described, and this depiction that he now has.