1. The Remnant of Israel

John says, “I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount Sion, and with him an hundred fort) and four thousand, having His Father’s name (or, according to the best copies, His name and His Father’s name), written in their foreheads.” They are presented in blessed rest and companionship with the Lamb. They are servants of God, sealed in their foreheads, and, however much they had been oppressed by the beast nevertheless they are seen as having proved the faithfulness of Jehovah, and the sure abiding of His word of promise, in caring for them and exercising His own power in bringing their through the fire. John, who had before seer them so hotly pursued by Satan, now sees then with the Lamb; and not only so, but on Mount Sion, the place of promised blessing on the earth, the metropolis of past and future national glory―the mountain, not of Sinai blackness and darkness, but the place of royal grace, when David and Solomon were honored by Jehovah, and where again the true Messiah, the greater than Solomon, shall yet manifest His wondrous power and grace, bring glory to His people Israel, and reign before His ancients gloriously. These hundred and forty and four thousand then are blessed in the earth; they have not their Father’s name, but His Father’s name, written in their foreheads. Those who compose the Church of God, the body of Christ, are a heavenly people, ―know their sonship, have received the indwelling Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, and know God as their Father. But these are not the Church; but, like every redeemed company whether heavenly or earthly, they owe all their blessing to the Lamb; for the blood of the Cross is the foundation of all lasting good.
While John is thus beholding this favorer remnant, he heard “a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder.” He heard also “the voice of harpers harping with their harps.” These, too, were heavenly sounds; for he goes on to tell us that “they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four living creatures, and the elders.” Let the reader notice here, that we have first the company on Mount Zion; secondly the elders in heaven; and, thirdly, harpers harping before the elders. Here are three distinct companies―one on earth, and two in heaven and though all are redeemed and brought into their blessing by the blood of the Lamb, it is impossible to identify them, or to regard them as only different visions of the same company, for reasons assigned when considering the seventh chapter. The question for us now is, Who are he harpers? 1. We are distinctly told they are in heaven, singing as it were a new song before the elders. 2. There seems to be a remarkable sympathy between the “harpers” and the hundred and forty and four thousand on Mount Zion, for no man but these could learn their Song of Solomon 3. We only get one company in the Revelation having harps besides the elders in the fifth chapter, and these are that part of the faithful remnant who are martyred for not worshipping the beast, who get the victory over him by having a place given them in heaven on the sea of glass, and to them is given harps of God. They are described in chapter 15 as singing the song of victory and of the Lamb; but it is Jewish in character, for they sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. But further. In this first action in the chapter before us, the remnant evidently are taken of as on Mount Sion with the Lamb, as redeemed, as learning directly from heaven to sing the new song. They are virgins, have escaped the foul defilement of an adulterous generation; they have been true to God, and are only now engaged in following the Lamb whithersoever He goes. In their mouth is found no guile or lie, and they are without fault. The last words, “before the throne of God,” are omitted by the best critics. My conviction is, that we must place this first scene, in Revelation 14, on earth, as existing at the same time as the harpers seen in heaven in chapter 15.
There are two other points deserving special notice in the description here given of the remnant on Mount Zion. 1st. They are redeemed from the earth, from among men, the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb (verses 3,4); and, secondly, they were faithful to God. The first point is of importance, because it shows us that this company is still on earth, on the mount of earthly favor and blessing, redeemed from the earth―an election from among Israel for the earth. There is no thought here of the Church the body of Christ. It is a sealed remnant of Israel, which will be brought through the great tribulation into the millennial blessing. With regard to their being the “first-fruits,” we are to understand the first fruits from the earth for earthly blessing; the harvest of the earth is to follow.
2. We are told “they are virgins,” i.e., pure and uncorrupted. Living in a time when violence and the foulest corruption fill the earth, when the world is deluged with infidelity, men are under the “strong delusion,” and the only Lord God in every way denied, they stood boldly out for the living and true God, and refused to worship the beast; they were therefore not defiled, and in their mouth was found no guile or lie. The power of the God of Abraham encircled them, and brought them through the time of temptation, and they now are with the Lamb, follow Him whithersoever He goes, and are without fault, or blameless.