As he began settling his accounts, a man who owed 10,000 talents was brought to him.

After he went out, that same slave found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 silver coins. So he grabbed him by the throat and started to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’

Or what king, going out to confront another king in battle, will not sit down first and determine whether he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000?

The man replied, ‘100 measures of olive oil.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and write fifty.’

Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ The second man replied, ‘100 measures of wheat.’ The manager said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write 80.’

So Simon Peter went aboard and pulled the net to shore. It was full of large fish, 153, but although there were so many, the net was not torn.

In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a gathering of about 120 people) and said,

Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about 100 years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

For though you may have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, because I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

The Sealing of the 144,000

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth so no wind could blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.

Now I heard the number of those who were marked with the seal, 144,000, sealed from all the tribes of the people of Israel:

And I will grant my two witnesses authority to prophesy for 1,260 days, dressed in sackcloth.”

and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.

An Interlude: The Song of the 144,000

Then I looked, and here was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him were 144,000, who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.

and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.

And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people, but they blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since it was so horrendous.

Now the city is laid out as a square, its length and width the same. He measured the city with the measuring rod at 1,400 miles (its length and width and height are equal).

He also measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which is also the angel’s.