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Revelation 4:1-11

After This…

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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.”  At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.  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.  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.  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, 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: 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.  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!”

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 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,

“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.”

 

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John sees a door open in heaven and is called up to heaven.  A voice tells John to come up here and he will show him what must take place after this.  And so, we enter the third part of the book.  The first part was what John has seen, and that was in chapter 1.  The second part was about what is, and that was chapters 3 and 4, the messages to the churches.  The rest of the book, chapters 4 through 22 is about what must take place after this – the future. 

 

John sees a door open in heaven and a voice says, “Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this.”

 

John is taken up in the Spirit. 

 

The first thing that John notices when he gets to heaven is that there is a throne in heaven and someone is seated on the throne.  He has the

appearance of jasper and carnelian.  Jasper is a red marble.  Carnelian is a deep orange quartz. 

 

Now what colors do you see when you see a fire?

 

(Red & Orange)

 

This vision is similar to other visions of God in the Bible. 

 

In Exodus 24:9-11, it says, “Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.  And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank.”

 

So, we can tell from this that God has hands and feet.  And he can eat and drink. 

 

In Exodus 33, verses 17 to 23, Moses asks to see God’s glory.  God says Moses cannot see his face because one cannot see his face and live. 

 

In Exodus 34:29, we find that Moses’ face was shining from talking with God.  This leads us to believe that God gives off some sort of radiation.

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In Isaiah 6:1, Isaiah sees the Lord sitting on a throne.

 

Daniel 7:9-10 says,

“As I looked,

thrones were placed,

    and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

    and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames;

    its wheels were burning fire.

A stream of fire issued

    and came out from before him;

a thousand thousands served him,

    and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;

the court sat in judgment,

    and the books were opened.”

 

So, Daniel sees fire coming out before him.  What color is fire again?

 

(Red & Orange)

 

Ezekiel also saw God in Ezekiel 1:26-28,

 

“And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance. And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.  Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.”

 

Once again, a fire is emanating from God.  What color is fire?

 

(Red & Orange)

 

In Matthew 17:2, Jesus transforms and this is what 3 disciples see:

 

“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”

 

What color is the sun?

 

It may appear as red, orange or yellow through the atmosphere, but if viewing from outside of earth’s atmosphere, it is white.

 

1 Timothy 6:14-16 says that Jesus Christ now dwells in unapproachable light.

 

“to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,  which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

 

Hebrews 12:29 says, “for our God is a consuming fire.”

 

So, God is overwhelmingly depicted as a fire or the color of fire in these sightings in the Bible. 

 

Now there are several verses in the Bible that say no one has ever seen God.  There could be a contradiction here. 

 

John 1:18, “No one has ever seen God; but the only God, the one being in the Father’s bosom, has made him known.”

 

1 John 4:12, “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”

 

Genesis 32:30, “So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”

 

(But was it God or an angel, or a man? – the text says ‘a man’)

 

Exodus 3:11, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.”

 

(But I thought Moses could not see God’s face or he would die?)

 

(John 5:37), “"And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”

 

(John 6:46), "Not that anyone has seen the Father, except the One who is from God; He has seen the Father.”

 

(1 Tim. 6:15-16), “He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

 

So, how should these verses be resolved?  There seems to be a direct contradiction between verses where God was seen and verses that say no one has ever seen God. 

1. One way of resolving this is to make the claim that the God sightings were of the Word, Jesus, and that it is the Father that has not been seen.

2. Another way to resolve this is to make note that when Moses could not see God’s face, it was because he asked to see all of God’s glory.So God could be seen face to face, but not with all his glory.

3. The best resolution is right there in plain sight in all these statements.It is that simple 3 letter word, “but.”What comes after the word “but” is where you find the doctrine or truth being told.The part about “no one has ever seen God” is not a part of doctrine.Rather it is used like an old worn out quote as though it was something said by those that don’t believe there is a God.The doctrine of all these passages is that God HAS revealed himself.Time and time again, he is called “The Living God.”He is the God that parted the Sea of Reeds for the Israelites.He is the God that protected the Israelites as they traveled in the desert by being a column of cloud by day and a column of fire by night both BEFORE them and AFTER them.He may live in unapproachable light, but he HAS revealed himself to us. He came out of his magnificent dwelling place to live with us!

 

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—  the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—  that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.  And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:1-4

 

Now back to that consuming fire that John saw.

 

“and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.”

 

I tried to picture this and wondered how a rainbow could look like an emerald.  The word for “rainbow” here is not usually used for a “rainbow.”  It is the word “iris.”  Most of the time it is translated - “iris.”  So, what I am picturing is an emerald colored floor around the throne that is textured like an iris.  Notice it says around the throne, not over the throne. Emeralds are green, by the way, and the most intense light in the spectrum of light is green. 

 

“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,”

 

There is that burning fire again.

 

Now, I wanted to do some more research on this because it seems like I saw a documentary once where the guardian of the ark of the covenant, where it is now supposed to be hidden in Ethiopia, was interviewed and he said that above the ark is where God resides and he is like a fire. I couldn’t find the video.  This is what I found.  There is a modern day Indiana Jones.  His name is Josh.  Remember Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark?  They surmised that the Ark of the Covenant was a radio to God!  Back to Josh.  He has a video about his search for the Ark of the Covenant.  First he goes to Jerusalem.  He finds a Jew that tells him that there is a tradition that before the King of Babylon attacked Jerusalem, they hid the Ark in a subterranean tunnel.  Josh searches all the known tunnels in Jerusalem and doesn’t find anything.  Then Josh goes to the Church of the Holy Seplecure and finds out there is another tradition – that the Ark was taken to Ethiopia to be hidden there.  So, Josh finds out that there is a monk in Ethiopia that has a writing about the Ark coming to Ethiopia.  Josh finds out that this monk and his book reside in a cave surrounded by high cliffs.  So, Josh scales this cliff to get up there and he asks the monk to read the book about the Ark of the Covenant.  The monk reads the book, and it says that the Ark was taken to an island in the middle of a certain lake in Ethiopia.  So, Josh goes to this lake.  He has to paddle a reed boat part of the way because of the rock outcropping.  Then he has to scale a cliff there, and he gets to the top of the island and he finds that there is a gravesite there of the Levite that took the Ark there, a breastplate brace, the brass basin that held the blood of the sacrifices, and the forks that were used to put sacrifices on the brazen altar to be burned.  He also finds the spot where the ark was located and he finds there that there are post holes in the rocks that match the dimensions of the tabernacle in Exodus.  But he does not find the Ark there.  A priest that lives there tells him that the Ark went to a church in the city of Axum around 400 A.D.  So, Josh goes back across the lake and endures a storm with lightning all around.  He gets to Axum and finds the church that is supposed to have the Ark of the Covenant.  They won’t let him see the Ark.  Then they have this procession using a replica of the Ark.  Josh finds out that all the churches in Ethiopia have replicas of the Ark.  Josh starts going to these other churches and watches their processions with their replicas of the Ark.  Then he comes upon this one church.  The former priest of that church is bedridden, but he is very alert mentally.  Josh talks to the old priest.  The old priest says, “If you want to hide a tree, the best place to hide it is in a forest.”  Then he says, “The Ark of the Covenant should be in your heart, and the Ark of the Covenant is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

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“and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.”

 

Much like Moses and the elders saw, “under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness.”

 

Sapphire is a blue quartz stone. 

 

We usually think of a sea being the color blue.

 

So, we see in heaven that there is the throne of God.  In the tabernacle, God spoke from above the cover of the Ark.  The Ark was his throne in the Tabernacle.  Inside the Ark were some of the mana that came from heaven, the Law of God, the 10 commandments, and the rod of Aaron that budded.  So, in the Tabernacle, God’s throne was on His Words, Eternal sustenance from heaven (The Bread of Life), and something that was supposed to be dead, but was alive.  Let’s keep these things in mind as we move through the book of Revelation. 

Surrounding God in the Tabernacle were angels, cherubim to be exact.  Cherubim were always depicted in those days as oxen with wings. 

 

Verse 6b to verse 8:

 

“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!”

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This is similar to Isaiah 6:1-3,

 

“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

 

And, this is similar to Ezekiel 1:5-10,

 

“And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings.  Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf's foot. And they sparkled like burnished bronze.  Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched one another. Each one of them went straight forward, without turning as they went.  As for the likeness of their faces, each had a human face. The four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and the four had the face of an eagle.”

 

Also, in Ezekiel 1:22-28, we find:

 

“Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of an expanse, shining like awe-inspiring crystal, spread out above their heads.  And under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. And each creature had two wings covering its body.  And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army. When they stood still, they let down their wings.  And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads. When they stood still, they let down their wings."

 

"And above the expanse over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with a human appearance.  And upward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.  Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around.”

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So, Ezekiel seems to be seeing the same Throne of God as John describes, but from underneath.  Wherever God goes, these living creatures are serving him and worshiping him constantly.  Now we see in Revelation, something that was not seen previously Revelation 4:9-11,

 

There is a reason that these 4 types of creatures are found in these instances.

 

One creature was like a lion, symbolizing the kingship of Christ. Christ is the conquering Ruler of all.

 

The second creature was like a calf, symbolizing the priesthood of Christ. Christ is the sacrifice for our sins. He can wash away our sins in his blood.

 

The third creature was like a man, symbolizing the humanity of Christ.

 

The fourth creature was like an eagle, symbolizing the divinity of Christ.

 

    The six wings symbolize all the fullness of Christ and his universal authority. Before and behind, to this side or that, above and below, Jesus is all in all.

 

    The many eyes, symbolize the eternal wisdom and knowledge of Christ whose judgments are true and righteous.

 

According to rabbinical tradition, the standard of Judah bore the figure of a lion, that of Reuben the likeness of a man or of a man’s head, that of Ephraim the figure of an ox, and that of Dan the figure of an eagle; so that the four living creatures united in the cherubic forms described by Ezekiel as well as by John in the book of Revelation were represented upon these four standards.  According to Numbers chapter 2, the Israelites were to camp in a formation with each of these 4 standards on each side of the Tent of meeting.  Because one of the groups was larger than the others, the formation would have looked like a cross from above.  

 

Also, we have 4 gospels.  The Gospel of Matthew was written for the Jews – thus is representative of the lion.  The gospel of Mark was written emphasizing the sacrifice Jesus made – thus representative the ox.  The gospel of Luke was written for all the world – thus emphasizing humanity.  The gospel of John emphasizes the deity of Jesus – thus representative of the eagle.  

 

“And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 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,

 

“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.”

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Remember that the emperor Diocletian at this time was demanding that everyone worship him.  This revelation reveals that the angels of heaven and the twenty-four elders are worshipping the True God in heaven.  Creatures do not depend on Diocletian for life.  Only by the will of God do they exist and are created. 

 

God rules all things.  God resides on his throne.  God is in control of all things.

 

In 1 Chronicles 24, the Levites were tasked with appointing priests to work in the temple around the clock.  So they chose 24 elders to maintain shifts at the temple to choose and train priests and keep everything going 24/7.  This is much like what is going on here at God’s throne.  The angels say their praise night and day without ceasing.  And every time they praise God, the 24 elders here are constantly also bow to God, cast their crowns before God’s throne and say their praises. 

 

Now this reminds me of something.  Jesus taught us to pray Gods will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  In heaven, the 24 elders are constantly praising God.  I don’t always praise God 100% of the time.  Sometimes, I just get angry.  I have noticed though that if I have the attitude of praise during adversity, I will make it through the adversity easier, and usually find a better way to work through it. 

 

Song: You are worthy by Juanita Bynum

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