Revelation 4:1-11--The Throne in Heaven

Revelation 4
English Standard Version

The Throne in Heaven
4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!”

9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

---

This is the first of several times in the book of Revelation where Jesus redirects John's focus towards heaven, usually because John is getting too fixated on the way things are going on earth.  We started with a powerful vision of Jesus serving as our Great High Priest only to be followed up by letters to the kingdom of priests that were mostly in need of admonishment for Jesus to live carefully before men because they repreesented God and His Kingdom to all men Iincluding each other).  In fact, there were even those that were among the sheep who were not sheep at all, but who were goats (see Matthew 25:31-46).

John needs a break from all of that.  He needs another vision of God high and lifted up and on His throne and in control of everything.  The issue is not with God changing or loosing control.  The issue is with the people who claim to be people of God who have lost the vision for who God is or they never knew God to begin with.  Before John is set an open door (this goes back to Revelation 3:8 and the open door that Christ set before the Church of Philadelphia, who were the true and faithful believers).  He hears the voice of Jesus commanding him to come up to heaven with Him.  Jesus says, "I will show you what must take place after this," which Dispensationalists think refers to end to the "Church Age" that started with Pentecost in the book of Acts.  If we read the rest of the book of Revelation, I'm not sure God is done saving people at this point.  More on that later.

John looks towards the throne and all he can describe is that it was like looking at a rainbow of color from various jewels and precious stones--bright and vivid shades of red surrounded by a rainbow of green.  Then there was another outer ring of 24 thrones on which sat the 24 elders--we are not told the identy of these 24 men (I say men because this word was always used in Greek to refer to men of a particular age).  These elders are always refered to in the book of Revelation as an entire group, though someimes one of them (unnamed, unidentified) will stop what he is doing to come and speak to John--specficially when John is distraught later that there is a scroll (a very important-looking scroll) that no one on heaven or on earth or under the earth has been deemed worthy to open.  One of the elders will tell John during that vision to take heart because the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is the one who is worthy to open the scroll.  More on that passage when we get there.  Other than that, we mostly see these elders around the throne praising God day and night, leading the people of God in worship, and they never seem to get tired of it.

The crystal sea that John sees here might be light the blue lapiz takes me back to what Moses saw in Exodus 24:9-10 where the throne of God and the ground around the throne was transformed into blue lapis lazul (maybe we would call this blue sapphire?).  This vast spread of clear, transparent, blue crystal might have reminded John of what the ocean would look like if it was frozen in place wihtout waves--massive in size, being a barrier to entry, yet not blocking God's view at all because it was crystal-clear.

From the throne came flashing of light (lightning) and peals of thunder (think back to what the people saw when Moses went up Mount Sinai in Exodus, "On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled." (Exodus 19:16).  The people of God in that moment were afraid of the holiness of God (as they rightly should have been), but no one here seems to be afraid, except maybe John.  We see seven torches of fire burning before the throne here--I would assume this has something to do with either the seven-fold Spirit of God (the Holy Spirt) the Seven Churches that we just discussed or both (because it is the Spirt that is at work in and through the Seven Churches).  They provide a more steady source of light as opposed to the random bursts of light that come forth from the throne of God.

In addition to all this, we get our first glimpse at the four creatures that surround the throne (though we've seen these creatures before in the Old Testament prophets, specifically the book of Ezekiel).  They stand guard around the throne in the front, the rear and on each side.  Each has four faces, one on each side, so that they see everything and everyone that approaches the throne.  They move everywhere that the throne of God moves, but they only move in cardinal directions (think of Rooks in chess--they never turn their heads and always move in the direction that one of their four faces is looking).  John describes these as four separate creatures, one with the look of a lion, the second with the look of an ox, the third with the look of a man, and the fourth with the look of an eagle in flight.  Other Scriptures would seem to indicate that each of the cratures was all four of these things and each had the face of a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle.  I don't think that's a contradiction--they are seeing and both seeing and describing the four-fold nature of these creatures.   The new information here is that these creatures are full of eyes on every side so that they see everything and everyone that approaches the throne.  Think of these creatures like the inner circle fo the security detail that surrounds a president, prime minister, king, or other such dignitary.  These creatures are prefectly designed for their job--they see in all directions and they move everywhere that God moves.

Yet, even these creatures are there to worship the Lord and lead others in worship as they cry "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"  This idea of "Who was, and is, and is to come" is not just the theme of the book of Revelation--"The things that are, the things that are not yet, and that things that are yet to come," but also the idea of God's covenant name of "I AM."  The ever-being one--the one who "was" (past tense), who is (present tense," and "who is to come" (future tense) of the infinitive "to be" which is the same verb as "am" (a "being verb"--"am" is the first-person present tense form because God Himself is always present with His people.  Also "Holy, Holy, Holy" is the only "superlative" (said three times in a row) that we see in the Bible  The last time we saw it was in Isaiah 6:3 when Isaiah sees the Lord high and lifted up and the train of His robe filled the Temple and the Temple was filled with smoke.  The cherabim called out to each other, "“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”  What is the same and what is different?  God is still holy, but we no longer need to look at the earth to see the fullness of His glory (his people on earth), as we are now being called to look directly on Him--something we were never able to do in the past.

The livng creatures start the chorus, and then they are joined by the 24 elders, who bow down before Him and build the doxology (which will itself eventually become sevenfold as we progress throughout the book of Revelation).  

11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they existed and were created.”

Tho Him who sits on the throne they ascribe
1) Glory
2) Honor
3) Power
both now and forevermore.  Wny?  Because He is the Creator of all things and without Him was not anything made that was made.  As Collossians 1 says, "All things were created by Him and for Him."  As we progress through the book of Revelation, we will also see other reasons why He is worthy of worship (such as the salvation of HIs people and the destruction of the wicked).  Follow this doxology as we progress through the book of Revelation and continue to see it build.  Does it not encourage you to burst forth in praise even right now?  Why wait until we get to heaven?  Join the heavenly chorus now, because, as you will see later, you too are part of it.  Choose to sing to the King now!