1 Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb - and with him, 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads.  2-3 And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders.  No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4-5  It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. Revelation 14:1-5 English Standard Version

In the last chapter we read of people who'd been marked on the hand or forehead to signify their loyalty to the two beasts John saw in his vision. Now, as he looks towards Mount Zion, he sees a crowd of 144,000 standing with Jesus, and they had the name of the Father and the Son on their foreheads. He heard a loud song, rolling like thunder from heaven, a song that only the 144,000 could learn. Now while some people (including Jehovah's Witnesses) have looked for a literal meaning of some elite group, many Bible scholars regard it as representing all the redeemed people of God who have been made 'as pure as virgins' (vs 4-5).

Speaking of virgins, do you think John was teaching that women are somehow evil, and that men are soiled through any union with them?

One would have to say 'of course not'! It was God who brought Eve to Adam and said 'the two shall be one flesh'. The Old Testament book 'Song of Solomon' speaks favourably of romantic physical love, and many see it as a picture of spiritual union too. Writing to Christians in Corinth, the apostle Paul didn't forbid marriage, but simply said there were many advantages in singleness when it comes to serving God. Hebrews 13:4 says: “Let marriage be held in honour among all - and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” Perhaps that verse is a good guide to how John is using the picture of virgin purity. He is contrasting the faithfulness of Christians who follow the Lamb - to the spiritual adultery of those who follow the beast.

What did John say he heard as he gazed upon the 144,000 with the Lamb? (vs 2-3)

He heard the singing of 'a new song', the words of which only the 144,000 could learn! It's interesting that when God gave the people He redeemed out of Egypt their final victory by drowning Pharaoh's pursuing army in the Red Sea, we read “Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, ‘I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation’”. (Exodus 15:1-2) . It was a song of the salvation God had brought about.

Psalm 40:2-4 is another lovely example of such a song. Speaking of God, it says: “He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!” So too our reading in Revelation said of the 144,000 that “in their mouth no lie was found.”

The challenge for us is to seek to be faithful followers of the Lamb; people in whose lives no deception is found. We're called to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling, as God works in us to will and to work His good pleasure”. We're called to “live without grumbling, so that we'll be blameless and innocent - children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom we shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:12-15) May God work in us to be like that.