Revelation 7 opens in a pause. Before the great tribulation breaks over the earth, four angels hold back the winds until God's servants have been sealed. This teaching asks what the winds are, what the seal is, and who the 144,000 are.
The age of grace ends with the covenant (karaar), and Daniel's seventieth "seven", the final seven years, begins. Its first half is 1,260 days (forty-two months, or three and a half years), when the two witnesses give their message and the first three trumpets sound in the Middle East.
Four angels holding four winds
And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
— Revelation 7:1
The same four angels appear at the sixth trumpet, bound at the great river Euphrates and ready to kill a third of mankind, with an army of 200 million horsemen (Revelation 9:13–16).
So the winds are, in a sense, winds of war: political winds that, once released, would set nations against one another. The four angels hold them back so that no one goes to war.
Until the sealing is finished
Another angel rises from the east with the seal of the living God. He tells the four not to harm the earth, the sea or the trees until God's servants are sealed in their foreheads (Revelation 7:2–3).
A war is coming before the covenant; when it ends, all wars stop and the covenant is made, closing the age of grace. From then on the four angels restrain the political winds. For 1,260 days the two witnesses give their message, and through it people are sealed. When the sealing is complete, the winds are let loose in the second half of the seven years, and wars begin in the great tribulation.
This is why the fifth trumpet harms only those without God's seal on their foreheads (Revelation 9:4), and why the four angels are loosed at the sixth.
What the seal is
Ezekiel saw the same pattern. A man clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn, was sent through Jerusalem to mark the foreheads of those who sigh and cry over its abominations. Others followed to destroy everyone else, but were told not to touch anyone with the mark (Ezekiel 9:3–6).
Those who grieve over evil are marked and spared; the rest fall. In Ezekiel's day it began at Jerusalem; in the 1,260 days the sealing is done again, through the two witnesses. Revelation 14:1 shows the mark itself: the name of the Lamb and of His Father written on their foreheads.
The 144,000
And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
— Revelation 7:4
These are Israelites. In the age of grace, in which we live, those who have believed the message of salvation have been Gentiles. But the seventieth seven belongs to Israel. Daniel was told that seventy "sevens" were set for his people and nation; sixty-nine have passed and one remains, beginning with the covenant. The first three and a half years are given for sealing Israelites through the two witnesses, so that they believe and are saved.
Revelation 14 shows them with the Lamb, who is Jesus Christ, on Mount Zion. They are Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, Messianic believers as they would be called today.
These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.
— Revelation 14:4
To follow the Lamb is to walk as He leads, by the Spirit of God, guided by the dreams and visions He gives. They are Jews by descent and Christians by faith, like Peter, John, James and Paul. The Spirit of God has come upon them.
They are not the only ones saved: other Israelites and Gentiles will hear the witnesses, believe and be saved. But the 144,000 are sealed so that no harm touches them, and are kept through the coming great tribulation.
Twelve tribes, but not Dan
Revelation 7:5–8 names twelve tribes, with 12,000 sealed from each: Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.
Compared with the sons of Jacob, two things stand out. Manasseh is listed, though he was Joseph's son; but Jacob blessed Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, as his own. So Manasseh is counted on his own, and the rest of Joseph's line, Ephraim's descendants, is counted under the name Joseph. With Joseph's line counted twice, one of Jacob's sons has to be left out to keep the number at twelve. That son is Dan.
The reason lies in Judges 17 and 18. A young Levite from Bethlehem, looking for a place to live, became priest in the house of Micah, who kept idols. The tribe of Dan had not yet taken the land given to it, because others lived there. Five Danites, sent to look for a place to seize, met the Levite at Micah's house. Later six hundred armed Danites came and stood at the gate while the five went in and took the carved image, the ephod, the teraphim and the cast image. The priest asked what they were doing; they told him to keep quiet and come with them, and asked whether it was better to serve one man's house or a whole tribe. He was glad, and went with them (Judges 18:19–20).
Jonathan, the son of Moses's son Gershom, and his sons were Dan's priests until the land went into captivity (Judges 18:30). The Danites kept to idols from receiving their land until the exile in Babylon, in Daniel's time. A verse, remembered as being somewhere in Deuteronomy, warns that a person, family or tribe that turns from the LORD to another god will have its name removed from Israel. So Dan's name is taken out of the twelve, and no one from Dan is among the 144,000.
Takeaway
God holds back the winds of war until His servants are sealed. The seal marks those who belong to the Lamb, who bear His name, have His Spirit and walk where He leads. When the witnesses have made them ready, their 1,260 days of work is done and they are put to death, the subject of the next teaching.