The making of the 144,000 prophets

“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Isa. 13:12).

“But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appeareth? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.” (Mal. 3:2,3).

“I was pointed down to the time when the third angel’s message was closing. The power of God had rested upon His people; they had accomplished their work and were prepared for the trying hour before them. They had received the latter rain, or refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and the living testimony had been revived.” Early Writings, p. 279.1.

The Lord chooses His people in the furnace of affliction. And He promises to make them more precious than fine gold. Thus, in difficulty and tragedy and loss, He seals in them the love and righteousness that they had when they first believed, some as babes in innocence. But others when they first cuddled in fear under the shadow of His wings in complete surrender and relief, resurrected from a mountain of sin and guilt, sorrow and shame, into certainty of salvation.

This we see the most descriptive model of this with Samuel. First; he was reared by Hannah who longed for, prayed for, wept over a baby until God heard her and opened her womb. It was her persecution troubles that purified her motives and determination to raise her babe in strict obedience to the Law of Jehovah. The heart-breaking moment of separation in the presence of high priest Eli intensified the long-time, anticipated and growing, pain of their self-sacrificial gift to God. Both mother and 5 year old suffered together, at the parting and distantly. But, Israel got the strong, loyal leadership that it needed. Who else could have arranged this genius salvation but Providence?

We see Abraham also longing for a son until the childless patriarch was ready to exemplify such a perfect father figure that his faithfulness would perpetuate for 2,000 years. Thus, Isaac was a beloved child surrounded by very protecting and instructing parents in a home that knew only happiness, comfort, quietude, and divinely originated love. Later, sealed on Mount Carmel he, with his beloved father, saw Messiah’s day. Thus, after Abraham’s passing, Isaac would bring the remnant Hebrew race into prominence before of the Canaanites and Pharaohs. And thus, a knowledge of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He would send would be spread at the very crossroads of ancient civilization.

There was Jacob, wanting children, but especially from the woman he first loved and, in his heart, first married. But, not until many years passed did the son of his yearning come forth, Joseph. Then came the unexpected separation and eternal loss to both. Both had been less than perfectly representative of the Father and Son, as the Godhead require of those who profess to serve and represent Them. But, although their lives were slowly slipping into the snare of Satan, Providence permitted sibling hatred to go unrestricted, which their father and his beloved son to some degree had fomented, to split up the two, and to give them divine discipline from His righteous right hand. It was then that all the parental love that had been instilled in Joseph and the divine grace that he had received and bathed in, would be put to the test and sealed in him. Caged and passing his homestead from so great a distance that any calls for rescue would be futile, in total surrender to the God who had been his confidante, he determined to let the cards fall where they may, and learn lessons of life that his God had been trying to teach him. Strict fidelity, which he had learned at home, was honed to perfection in many areas of character than he had ever faced as a teen in his parents’ tent. While separated from his great father and the mother he might never see again, the names he gave his sons express the surrendered heart-wrenching and lonely walk, that took him higher and higher in responsibility while guarding against constant temptations of every specie. “Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” (Gen. 41:51,52).

Then there was Manoah, whose wife was also barren. Every woman of ancient times yearned to have children. In those dark days of the Hebrews this was the only couple who could produce the muscles to forcibly enough persuade the Philistines to leave Israel. It took some divine doings to get their son on the same page as Jehovah was on, but he got there. A man of strong body and lightning-quick reflexes and mind, yet Samson’s spirituality limped along. Maybe it was super-strong hormones that competed with undeveloped consecration, which the Lord had to work around. But, with sufficient punishment Samson recovered and rehabilitated, sealed in obedience just in time for the final completion of his mission. Samson took the hard road to the sealing and patient endurance, but thankfully the Lord’s grace was sufficient. The Lord’s strength in a praying sinner was made perfect regardless of Samson’s weakness.

Once again, the people of God needed strong leadership. Zacharias, now of late age, hearing that his elderly Elizabeth would have a son who would preach in the power of Elijah, and knowing his time was short, took this special bundle of joy from heaven, taught him to disregard the worldliness of Israel, and raised him in the fear of God and His Law. Then when John’s beloved parents were laid to rest, everything that was dutifully instilled in his heart and mind in his youth, must be put to the test. He must press forward flying solo without the earlier combination divine-human inspiration, and living only off of guidance from heaven. For years, living in the harsh wilderness galvanized the lessons he had learned at his parents’ knees and from his own hungry study of the scriptures. He paid special attention to the message of Isaiah and the final prophet, Malachi. Then the final test came with his short office as prophet in order to prepare the Jews for their coming Messiah. He got the call to begin his ministry when he learned that a pagan king sat on the throne of Israel compared to the promise that the scepter would not depart from Israel until Shiloh would come. “A Roman ruler sat in the palace upon Mount Zion. By the sure word of the Lord, already the Christ was born”! Desire of Ages, p. 103. John was launched on his mission under the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Christ’s disciples were another example of early training turned to full bloom of experience. Like His “children” (Mark 10:24; Luke 5:34; 6:35; John 13:33; 21:5), in whom He had invested all His teachings and future earthly work, the twelve had a full curriculum load for a short course on the ministry. Much exhausting travel, study of scriptures and creation, apostleship internship courses, metaphor and analogy comprehension, training in object lessons, training in parable making, fasting and prayer, communion with the fullness of the Godhead manifested, all of which Jesus entrusted to these practical men, most with no formal education. The only advantage that they had was that they had less to unlearn than the religious leaders. But, soon enough the Master Teacher must leave them. And soon enough they must operate without His blessed visible presence and His musical voice heard in hope-filled conversations and grateful songs to His Father. Tried in the fire of the crucifixion, alone they must travel the great distances accompanied by His voice behind them, saying, “Turn to the right or to the left”, and “Go here”, “Don’t go there”.

Lastly there was God, the Father, who, like Abraham, had to wait a long time until He could bring forth His first born Son. In the long ago prior to the angelic hosts, the King trained up His Heir in the plan of salvation, that, when He was put to the test in Gethsemane and on Golgotha, He would not depart from the way He should go. There, in that hill garden, so very alone, not only alone among humanity, but alone in the universe, unearthly sorrow made Him sense the pall of death within. He could no longer walk, death hit Him with such dizzying depression that He could only fall on His face. Stricken to the ground, His soul empty and dark and silent, He must muster all the momentum that He had gained from 3 ½ years of the Spirit of His Father without measure. All that momentum would be tried to the extreme when all the measureless fullness of God left Him in a spiritual destitution without measure, and dropped Him into a cave-dark bottomless pit, falling, tumbling forever and ever. No other child leader-in-training had to endure the rigors of post-graduate work that the Co-creator must endure under the almighty condemning power of the Ever-existent One. “Him that sat on the throne,… Him that liveth for ever and ever” who “created all things”, and for whose “pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:10) poured thunderous, scathing wrath upon His beloved rather than pour it on His beloved human race.

“I WILL SCATTER [HIM] AS WITH AN EAST WIND BEFORE THE ENEMY; I WILL SHEW [HIM] THE BACK, AND NOT THE FACE, IN THE DAY OF [HIS] CALAMITY.”

Before the first Roman whip with steel and bone woven into it ripped His flesh, the spiritual plagues left Him laid open. “From the sole of [His] foot even unto [His] head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.” (Isa. 1:6).

“GET”

“THEE”

“BEHIND”

“ME!”

 “WHAT MEAN YE THAT YE BEAT MY PEOPLE TO PIECES, AND GRIND THE FACES OF THE POOR? SAITH THE LORD GOD OF HOSTS. 

MOREOVER THE LORD SAITH, BECAUSE [YOU] ARE HAUGHTY, AND WALK WITH STRETCHED FORTH NECKS AND WANTON EYES, WALKING AND MINCING AS [YOU] GO, AND MAKING A TINKLING WITH [YOUR] FEET: 

THEREFORE THE LORD WILL SMITE WITH A SCAB THE CROWN OF THE HEAD OF [THIS SON OF MINE], AND THE LORD WILL DISCOVER [HIS] SECRET PARTS. 

IN THAT DAY THE LORD WILL TAKE AWAY THE BRAVERY OF [HIS] TINKLING ORNAMENTS ABOUT [HIS] FEET, AND [HIS] CAULS, AND [HIS] ROUND TIRES LIKE THE MOON, 

THE CHAINS, AND THE BRACELETS, AND THE MUFFLERS, 

THE BONNETS, AND THE ORNAMENTS OF THE LEGS, AND THE HEADBANDS, AND THE TABLETS, AND THE EARRINGS, 

THE RINGS, AND NOSE JEWELS, 

THE CHANGEABLE SUITS OF APPAREL, AND THE MANTLES, AND THE WIMPLES, AND THE CRISPING PINS, 

THE GLASSES, AND THE FINE LINEN, AND THE HOODS, AND THE VAILS. 

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT INSTEAD OF SWEET SMELL THERE SHALL BE STINK; AND INSTEAD OF A GIRDLE A RENT; AND INSTEAD OF WELL SET HAIR BALDNESS; AND INSTEAD OF A STOMACHER A GIRDING OF SACKCLOTH; AND BURNING INSTEAD OF BEAUTY. 

[YOU] SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD, AND … IN THE WAR.” (Isa. 3:15-25, cf John 5:39). 

“[YOU DO NOT] UNDERSTAND, [YOU DO NOT] SEEK AFTER GOD. 

[YOU] ARE ALL GONE OUT OF THE WAY, [YOU] ARE TOGETHER BECOME UNPROFITABLE; [YOU DO NO] GOOD, NO, NOT [ANY]. 

[YOUR] THROAT IS AN OPEN SEPULCHRE; WITH [YOUR] TONGUE [YOU] HAVE USED DECEIT; THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER [YOUR] LIPS: 

WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS: 

[YOUR] FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD: 

DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN [YOUR] WAYS: 

AND THE WAY OF PEACE HAVE [YOU] NOT KNOWN: 

THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE [YOUR] EYES.” (Rom. 3:11-18).

“[YOU] ARE [A] GRIEVOUS REVOLTER, WALKING WITH SLANDERS: [YOU] ARE BRASS AND IRON; [YOU] ARE ALL CORRUPTERS. THE BELLOWS ARE BURNED, THE LEAD IS CONSUMED OF THE FIRE; THE FOUNDER MELTETH IN VAIN: FOR [YOUR] WICKED[NESS IS] NOT PLUCKED AWAY. REPROBATE SILVER SHALL MEN CALL [YOU], BECAUSE THE LORD HATH REJECTED [YOU].” (Jer. 6:28-30).

On and on through the night the divine retribution was delivered.

“It pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in His hand. 

He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities. 

Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isa. 53:10-12).

But, He tread the winepress of the wrath of God alone, and of the people there was none with Him. His earlier eternal training and a Father of infinite love, got Him through our damnation.

All of these examples were raised in Christian homes by godly, God-fearing, holy, converted parents. Each desperate parent infused love and holiness into their sons and daughters. They taught them the way of the Lord. Years together, children holding communion surrounded by the security of their parents’ unreserved love.

For them all this was so. But, infinitely, infinitely more so was communion open and freely unreserved for the divine Son of God. No one else had it as good as our Lord Jesus Christ. “God is love; and He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in Him.” (1Jn. 4:16). “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?…. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” (John 14:10,11). No one else came forth from the bosom of Parental love without measure.

Nevertheless, for them all, the Son not excepted, the parents left them bereaved, and that forced them into a new phase of life. They must now all tread the winepress alone. The beloved of their soul had separated from them. The parent left them to walk by faith and no longer by sight. What about us? Are we getting ready to walk by faith without the steady hand of other tangible companions?