In that same vision, John saw “a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues . . . , crying with a loud voice, saying: ‘Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.’” (Revelation 7:9, 10) In saying, “Salvation we owe . . . to the Lamb,” the great crowd show that they too are blessed by means of Abraham’s Seed.

2. When did the great crowd make its appearance, and how is it identified?

² This great crowd was recognized back in 1935, and today it numbers more than five million. Marked to survive the great tribulation, its members will be separated for everlasting life when Jesus divides “the sheep” from “the goats.” Christians of the great crowd are among the “other sheep” in Jesus’ illustration of the sheepfolds. They hope to live forever on a paradise earth.—Matthew 25:31-46; John 10:16; Revelation 21:3, 4.

Members of the great crowd are not participants in the new covenant. However, they associate with the Israel of God and live with them in their “land.” (Isaiah 66:8) So it is reasonable to say that they too come under Jehovah’s undeserved kindness and under the law toward Christ. While not participants in the new covenant, they are beneficiaries of it.

“Foreigners” and “the Israel of God”

4, 5. (a) According to Isaiah, what group would minister to Jehovah? (b) How is Isaiah 56:6, 7 fulfilled upon the great crowd?

⁴ The prophet Isaiah wrote: “The foreigners that have joined themselves to Jehovah to minister to him and to love the name of Jehovah, in order to become servants to him, all those keeping the sabbath in order not to profane it and laying hold of my covenant, I will also bring them to my holy mountain and make them rejoice inside my house of prayer. Their whole burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be for acceptance upon my altar.” (Isaiah 56:6, 7) In Israel, this meant that “foreigners,” non-Israelites, would worship Jehovah—loving his name, obeying the terms of the Law covenant, keeping the Sabbath, and offering sacrifices at the temple, God’s “house of prayer.”—Matthew 21:13.

⁵ In our day, “the foreigners that have joined themselves to Jehovah” are the great crowd. These minister to Jehovah in association with the Israel of God. (Zechariah 8:23) They offer the same acceptable sacrifices as the Israel of God. (Hebrews 13:15, 16) They worship in God’s spiritual temple, his “house of prayer.” (Compare Revelation 7:15.) Do they keep the weekly Sabbath? Neither anointed nor other sheep are commanded to do this. (Colossians 2:16, 17) However, Paul said to anointed Hebrew Christians: “There remains a sabbath resting for the people of God. For the man that has entered into God’s rest has also himself rested from his own works, just as God did from his own.” (Hebrews 4:9, 10) Those Hebrews entered into this “sabbath resting” when they subjected themselves to “the righteousness of God” and rested from trying to justify themselves by works of the Law. (Romans 10:3, 4) Anointed Gentile Christians enjoy the same rest by subjecting themselves to Jehovah’s righteousness. The great crowd join them in that rest.

6. How do other sheep today lay hold of the new covenant?

⁶ Further, other sheep lay hold of the new covenant just as foreigners of old laid hold of the Law covenant. In what way? Not by becoming participants in it but by submitting to the laws associated with it and benefiting from its arrangements. (Compare Jeremiah 31:33, 34.) Like their anointed companions, the other sheep have Jehovah’s law written ‘in their heart.’ They deeply love and obey Jehovah’s commandments and principles. (Psalm 37:31; 119:97) Like anointed Christians, they know Jehovah. (John 17:3) What about circumcision? Some 1,500 years before the making of the new covenant, Moses urged the Israelites: “You must circumcise the foreskin of your hearts.” (Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4) While compulsory fleshly circumcision passed away with the Law, both the anointed and the other sheep must “circumcise” their hearts. (Colossians 2:11) Finally, Jehovah forgives the error of the other sheep on the basis of Jesus’ shed “blood of the covenant.” (Matthew 26:28; 1 John 1:9; 2:2) God does not adopt them as spiritual sons, as he does the 144,000. But he does declare the other sheep righteous, in the sense that Abraham was declared righteous as God’s friend.—Matthew 25:46; Romans 4:2, 3; James 2:23.

7. What prospect opens up for other sheep today, who are declared righteous as Abraham was?

⁷ For the 144,000, being declared righteous opens the way to their having the hope of ruling with Jesus in the heavenly Kingdom. (Romans 8:16, 17; Galatians 2:16) For the other sheep, being declared righteous as God’s friends allows them to embrace the hope of everlasting life in a paradise earth—either by surviving Armageddon as part of the great crowd or through the ‘resurrection of the righteous.’ (Acts 24:15) What a privilege to have such a hope and to be a friend of the Sovereign of the universe, to be “a guest in [his] tent”! (Psalm 15:1, 2) Yes, both anointed and other sheep are blessed in a wonderful way through Jesus, the Seed of Abraham.