Who are the 144,000 witnesses?

Those are some good points. And I think we could go round and round about this because it is certainly a bit ambiguous. But I feel like this verse settles it:

The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. - Genesis 32:22

It does not say it took 4 wives... it says 2 wives and 2 female servants.

Don’t the best ideas always come when you should be asleep? Here’s another:

Which bride, Rachel or Leah, bore the most fruit? Which bride had a womb that was closed until much later? (We see the church has born much fruit but Israel has only recently begun to convert.) Which bride became jealous of the other when she saw her sister was bearing fruit but she wasn’t? Hmmm. Sounds a lot like Romans 11 to me.

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I shall die!" - Genesis 30:1

It’s like all of a sudden Rachel looked around and saw Leah had children and she didn’t. That verse always struck me as funny that she didn’t see it happening over several years but rather one day noticed she didn’t have kids.



Thankfully, this chosen bride did eventually bare fruit, and this fruit was the apple of his father’s eye. This son was loved above the other 11. (That always felt unfair to me too, yet that’s exactly how things went down.)

Let’s go a step further... this son, Joseph, the most loved by his father, the one Israel had in his old age, saved all his brothers and even his father. When you’re reading the story and all you see is the well and slavery, you think this can’t possibly end well. Yet God works miracles and what people intend for evil He uses for good. And this fruit of Rachel born to Israel in his old age saves his brothers and the whole land during the 7 year famine.

If God is going to restore all things... And I say “if” because this is new to me and I don’t feel sure of it yet... wouldn’t it make sense that He has a plan to do so? A plan that has been in the works since the dawn of time? A story that began long ago and whose characters develop through the ages as each plays his role in the grandest story ever told? Could it be that He shows us how this will play out? A bride is chosen but barren. An unloved bride who bears much fruit. The offspring of the chosen bride suffers greatly at the hands of men but meets his Lord in the dungeon of darkness and then shines this light forward into all the land.

We know the Lord meets us in the pit. When you read Joseph’s story, you see that God worked in him in that prison. He came out a different man, having encountered God. The other brothers never rose to greatness because they were never tried as severely as the one who was loved above all others. This is a hard road to be called to for sure. But He who calls is faithful. As for us, let us be like Reuben who tries to come to the defense of Joseph and not like the brothers who are eager to sell him. May we begin praying for these 144,000 witnesses who will travel a narrow and rocky path but who will meet the Lord along the way and, perhaps, in the end save the entire land, or at least his father’s house.