Had the 144,000 sought salvation prior to the Rapture they would have been snatched up and their witness would have been lost to Israel. I would suspect that the 144,000 servants were left behind either at God's direction as a witness to Israel or as they had been blinded by the blindness Jesus had pronounced on Israel. Luke 19:41-44, "And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation."
The 144,000 servants were under God’s protection as in Revelation 7:3, “Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” During the Tribulation much of Israel will come to faith in large major due to the 144,000 sealed servants of God. The saved remnant of Israel will cry out to Jesus. Hosea 5:15, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”
I would extrapolate the sealing of the 144,000 servants of God to the assurance that the Church is sealed to God and will be removed prior to the start of the tribulation. Lot was counted as a righteous man by God and He sent His angels to remove Lot before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Enoch was translated before the flood. These events offer assurance that we too will be raptured before the Tribulation. However, we will likely experience persecution.
As for where the 144,000 are presently, likely in Israel in a state of unbelief.
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