“And I looked, and lo a Lamb stood on Mount Zion and with Him an hundred and forty and four thousand having His Father’s name written in their foreheads.” Rev. 14:1-5.

“AS WE RECEIVE HIS NAME…”

Before moving on to verse 2 of our study text, Rev. 14, it is essential to consider some relevant points on the significance of our receiving the name of the Lord on our foreheads. May I remind us that a clear understanding of the Scripture in question (Rev. 14:1+) will reveal to you a company of people who are the followers of the Lamb as contrasted to the followers of the beast of Rev. 13:16-17.

While the followers of the beast, those who are earthly minded, putting on the image of the earthy (1Cor. 15:49a) have received a mark of the beast in their right hand (i.e., the place of power for services) or the NAME of the beast in their foreheads (place of wisdom) or the number of his name, the 144,000 on the other hand who have overcome the beastly nature through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, are now receiving the name of the Father in their foreheads.

Prophet Isaiah prophetically speaks of these people when he spoke of the ‘remnant,’ the faithful believers who have survived the workings and persecution of the beastly system and are, therefore, qualified to begin the restoration of God’s Kingdom when its enemies have been destroyed. “And it shall come to pass that he that is left IN ZION, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone that is written among the living in Jerusalem…,” Isa. 4:3+.

Those living in Zion are those who have the life of God in them, the Christ life. And they are those who have received the Father’s name and the name of the Lamb in their foreheads. Who truly then have become the living temple of the living God.

SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF HIS NAME ON OUR FOREHEAD

In 2Chron. 7, Solomon dedicated the temple he built to the glory of God. We are told, the Lord appeared in glory and said in response to the prayer of Solomon, “…If my people, who are called by MY NAME, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I HAVE CHOSEN AND CONSECRATED THIS TEMPLE SO THAT MY NAME MAY BE THERE FOREVER. My eyes and my heart will always be there,” 2Chron. 7:14-16 NIV.

Can you see anything from this? As we receive His name, nature, we become “consecrated people” – to be observed as clean ceremonially or morally, to be dedicated or hallowed, purified or sanctified wholly.

By implication we become blameless in spirit, soul and body (1Thes. 5:23). And with that, His eyes, which speaks of face, intelligence, and the presence of His Glory and His heart, which speaks of his thoughts and mind towards us, will ever be upon us continually.

In other words, He will watch over those whom He set apart for His name – perpetually, because His nature has been formed in them. Therefore, He will identify with His nature and so share His glory with us because of His divine nature – character – that is formed in us.

Prophet Zechariah also prophesied about this holy temple of God which we are (2Cor. 6:16-18) when he said, “When that day comes, (the day of the lord, the Messiac age) the horse bells will be inscribed with the words ‘sacred to Yahweh'(HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD) and in the Temple of Yahweh the very cooking pots will be as fine as the sprinkling bowls at the altar. And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall become sacred to Yahweh Sabaoth; and all who want to offer sacrifice will come and help themselves from them for their cooking; there will be no more TRADERS IN THE TEMPLE of Yahweh Sabaoth, when that day comes,” Zech. 14:20-21 JB.

In considering this passage I would like to bring to your mind the prophecy against the nations as judgment, who have kept and plundered the resources and the utensils in the temple of God as Israel was brought to captivity through sin and the eventual restoration of Israel in the vision of the ‘valley of dry bones’ (Ezek. 23-39). But as it affects the day of the Messiah, the Lord initiated the move when He literally, in the days of His flesh, walked into the temple and drove away all that were buying and selling.

In His words “…take these things hence, make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise,” John. 2:13-16.

In the King James Version, these ‘traders’ are referred to as ‘THE CANAANITE’ (Zech. 14:21), who were the people that initially occupied the Promised Land (Exo. 23:23, 28) with other nations known for their wickedness and immorality, whom the Lord eventually drove out.

So we find that the Canaanites are symbolic of wickedness and immorality which is spiritual wickedness inhabiting man… the temple of God; constituting the buying and selling – traders to whom the Lord – the spirit, the angel of Exo. 23:23 has to drive out, thereby consecrating it for God’s dwelling even as, “…unto an holy temple IN THE LORD, in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the spirit,” Eph. 2:21-22.

Therefore, in Rev. 22:14-15, we read, “Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life (the Christ Spirit) and may enter in through the gates (2Pet. 1:2-11) into the city. For without (i.e. outside the city, the spirit to be driven out) are dogs and sorcerers, and whore mongers (immoral) and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” These represent the spirit of the Canaanites, the nature of the fallen man that has been a hindrance to the life of God.

On the other hand, we who have eventually become the true temple of God, are told, “…the gates of it (the City) shall not be shut at all by day; for there shall be no NIGHT there (night of ignorance, when thieves and robbers operate is gone for them). And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie, BUT THEY WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THE LAMB’S BOOK OF LIFE,” Rev. 21:25-27.

To be continued…