(4:1-11:18)
Great Throne Room
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| Douce Apocalypse Manuscript Bodleian Library, Oxford |
In apocalyptic literature, a heavenly being comes to an important figure on earth (usually a biblical figure from the past) and reveals to them what is going on in heaven and what is about to take place on earth. The message is inevitably that God wins. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is the heavenly figure and John is the recipient of the revelation.
It is in chapter 4 that the door to heaven is opened. Opening is a major theme of the book of Revelation. The church at Philadelphia has a door opened that no one can shut. When the seals on the scroll are opened, judgment is revealed.
But the most significant opening is the opening of heaven, because that is where the revelation is seen. We can actually outline the book of Revelation in terms of three great openings of heaven and what we might call three great visions in the book. These visions are not sequential but rather give us different perspectives on the same basic reality.
The first of these visions runs from 4:1-11:18 and gives the opening of the seven seals and the sounding of the seven trumpets. The second opening takes place in 11:19 with the opening of the heavenly temple. This vision gives us the symbolism of the dragon, the prostitute and the beasts. It stretches from 11:19 to 19:10. Then the final opening brings us to the end of the revelation, from 19:11-22:7.
The expression, "after these things" is also significant. It also indicates a transition on some level in the revelation. Here it marks a transition from the more overtly "letter" part of the text to the more apocalyptic part.
To indicate the otherworldliness of the speaker, the voice is described as like that of a trumpet. In other places, we will hear that heavenly sounds are like many waters. These are attempts to find reference points on the earth to describe something that is on a completely different scale and magnitude. At the same time, the point of such imagery is the overall experience. As we will argue, Revelation does not give us a play-by-play of future events. It gives us a fantastical feel of the same basic truths over and over again.
2. Immediately I came to be in spirit and, behold, a throne was in the sky and upon the throne, One sitting. 3. And the one sitting was like in appearance to jasper stone and carnelian and a rainbow around the throne like in appearance to emerald.
John indicated that he was in the spirit in chapter 1, when the revelation began (1:10). There seems to be a sense that to visit heaven requires him to be in spirit rather than in body--at least at this point of his existence while he still has an earthly body. The Jewish worldview at this time saw the earth as flat and the heavens as a layer cake of skies.
In fact, the Greek word ouranos means "heaven" or "sky" interchangeably--they were one and the same in their minds. They thought of heaven as sky, straight up. Thus when Jesus ascends to heaven, he is ascending straight up to the highest sky (cf. Acts 1:11). [1] For this reason, I have often translated the word ouranos as "sky" instead of "heaven" in other translations, so that we get a more accurate feel for what John was thinking.
The throne room of God in heaven is ground zero for the universe. This is the heart of hearts for all that is. Of course even this image is a picture. If God created the universe out of nothing, then God's essence is not in this universe. We may have slightly better categories to think about such things today than John did, but not too much better. The universe has become fantastically more vast to us than it was for John, but it still comes nowhere close to knowing God as God is beyond this universe.
So John must draw upon the most amazing things he knows in order to picture what the throne room of God might look like. He thinks of precious gems--jasper (reddish-brown stone), carnelian (an orange or orange-red stone). He thinks of rainbows and emeralds (green stone). These are only attempts. God himself is beyond our imaginations. Indeed, "he" is not even a "he," for that would require God to have genitalia. These are all metaphors.
Moses may have thought of God having body parts (cf. Exod. 33:20-23), but God has no body. God reveals God-self to us in the vastly inadequate categories of our understanding so that we can catch just a tiny glimpse of who God is. This is how revelation works. We know God by imperfect analogy and by what God is not (negative theology). We should not think of the imagery of Revelation as anything close to literal.
4. And around the throne [were] twenty-four thrones and upon the thrones [were] twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments and upon their heads [were] golden crowns.
The twenty-four elders appear in three scenes of Revelation--here in chapters 4-5, in chapter 11, and in chapter 19. Twenty-four is a multiple of twelve, so it is a special number, possibly representing the wisdom of the people of God. The leadership of synagogues centered on a group of elders, and we see this structure manifested in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council in Jerusalem.
Early churches likely followed the same leadership structure, with house churches lead by such elders. Perhaps, as Christianity grew, the leadership of churches in whole cities may have been run by a similar council of elders. The city of Jerusalem was probably the first place where city-wide leadership of this sort was established, with James as the focal leader.
Assuming this background, the twenty-four elders may represent the leadership of the church of the ages. We should not think of them as specific people. Together, they represent the church and the wisdom of the people of God. They are dressed in white, showing that they have proved themselves worthy. They have golden crowns of victory on their heads. They have finished the race victoriously.
5. And from the throne went out lightnings and voices and thunders and seven lamps of fire burning, which are the seven spirits of God. 6. And before the throne [was] like a glassy sea like to crystal.
We have already learned that the seven lamps represent the seven churches, which in turn represent the church everywhere. The seven spirits of God are likely the seven angels who watch over those churches, representing all the angels who watch over the universal church. Lightnings, thunders, sounds once again give us a glimpse of the awesomeness of God and God's presence. These are the kinds of metaphors that help the reader grasp the "numinous" character of God--his otherworldly awesomeness.
The glassy sea appears at least twice in Revelation. We see it first here, where its glassy quality suggests it is no threat. The sea was a perilous place in ancient times, often associated with chaos. Ancient creation stories often saw creation as the emergence of order out of a watery chaos, and it is at least possible that this was the original sense of Genesis 1:1-2. The earthly sea in Revelation can also have this connotation, as we see in the beast from the sea in Revelation 13.
But the sea in heaven is glassy like crystal. It is peaceful. It is no threat to the children of God. It will become mixed with fire in 15:2, perhaps in preparation for the judgment. Revelation is not exactly clear on the relationship between this sea and the lake of fire, but the common image of fire may suggest they are the same. We will consider later whether Revelation 21:1 pictures the removal of this sea.
And in the middle of the throne and around the throne [were] four living creatures covered with eyes in front and behind. 7 And the first living creature [was] like to a lion and the second living creature [was] like to a bull and the third living creature [was] having the face as of a human and the fourth living creature [was] like to an eagle flying.
The imagery here is drawn from Ezekiel 1. Revelation draws a good deal from the "apocalyptic" elements of the Old Testament, the parts with more fantastical imagery about heaven and the future. However, Revelation does not always use the imagery in the same way. You might say that many of the ingredients of Revelation's imagery come from the Old Testament, but it is cooking its own recipe.
In the past, some have tried to correlate the four creatures with something like the four Gospel authors. We do not really have enough evidence to indicate specific referents. It is probably best simply to them of them as John's version of the beasts of Ezekiel. But whereas in Ezekiel each beast has multiple features, these features relate to individual beasts in Revelation. In Ezekiel, each creature has four faces--one of a lion, a bull, an eagle, and a human being. In Revelation, each beast correlates to one of these faces.
In Ezekiel, there is a wheel within a wheel that is full of eyes. Here each beast is. We can only conclude that these creatures see. They see a lot! Perhaps they see everything that happens in the world, so we can be certain that God's does too.
The point is perhaps again to show us that the heavenly is beyond our comprehension. It is a fantastical place that our imagination can only dream of approaching. At the same time, perhaps they also reflect the life of the world that God has created, meaning that the whole created order is involved in the worship of God around his throne.
8 And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, around and within, filled with eyes and they are not having rest, night and day, saying,
"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
the one who was and the one who is and the one who is coming."
The vision of Ezekiel 1 itself likely builds on the vision of Isaiah in Isaiah 6. There, seraphim fly around the throne of God crying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty" (Isa 6:3). John follows the imagery of Isaiah in seeing six wings on each beast (In Ezekiel 1:11, they have four). They praise God the Father ceaselessly. God should be praised at all times. God does not sleep, and neither should his praise ever stop. This is true from the past to the present to the future. God is the one who was and is and is coming. Revelation 1 has already described God in this way (1:8).
Time is an intriguing thing in relation to God. Certainly the Bible indicates that God goes through time with us (immanent). Yet throughout the centuries Christians have also thought of God as transcendent in a way that is beyond or outside of time as we know it. God was before time and is already at the end of time. God knows the future not least because he has already seen it.
God is also the one who is coming. In the person of Jesus, God is coming in judgment. God is also the one coming with salvation to those who are faithful to him.
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to the One sitting on the throne, to the one living forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall before the one sitting on the throne and they worship the one living forever and ever...
Here the whole creation praises God. All creation worships God--the angels and the living creation and humanity. Hebrews puts it this way: "You have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to ten-thousands of angels in festive assembly, and to the assembly of the firstborn in the heavens and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the perfected righteous" (Heb. 12:22-23). The living creatures represent all the live God has created. The twenty-four elders represent all of victorious humanity.
...and they throw their crowns before the throne saying,
11. "Worthy are you, our Lord and our God,
to receive the glory and the honor and the power,
Because you created all things
And because of your will they were and they were created."
No human crown comes anywhere close to the worthiness of God. Victorious humanity casts these before God the Father. All their worthiness is nothing next to his. Of course this is likely symbolic. It is unlikely that they will constantly throw them, go pick them up, return to their seats only to throw them again and again for all eternity!
God the Father is the focus of worship in Revelation 4. Then this assembly will bow down before Jesus the Lamb in chapter 5. It would take the Church several hundred years to work out the details of the Trinity, how Christians could worship one God and yet there be three distinct persons who are worshiped. The primacy in Revelation is given in chapter 4 to God the Father. [2]
To God belongs all glory and honor. These are not always familiar concepts to us in the western world because our culture tells us to be true to ourselves and not to pay attention to what other people think about us. By contrast, the ancient world was a world of honor/shame, where primacy was put on reflecting well on your group and thus of others thinking highly of us. Honor and glory were highly valued.
God sets the standard for honor and glory. God is the one with all the power. All other glory and honor is to be measured against his standard. All other glory and honor is derivative, reflective.
Revelation draws a sharp line between God as creator and the creation. Not only did God create all things, but they were created for him. It was his decision and no one else's. The continued existence of the creation is his decision and no one else's. Although the wording of the King James Version goes beyond what John was saying, it is certainly true: "for thy pleasure they are and were created."
God did not need to create the universe. God is self-sufficient, in need of nothing outside himself. God created the world because he wanted to, for his "pleasure." He delights in us. He delights in his creation.
[1] A writing called the Testament of Levi pictured going up through three layers of sky before reaching the highest sky where God lives (cf. 2 Cor. 12:2). Another apocalypse called the Ascension of Isaiah has seven layers of sky with God in the highest sky.
[2] The Athanasian Creed of the early 400s would express that the three persons of the Trinity are "equal in glory and co-equal in majesty." The orthodox position is thus that there is no hierarchy within the Trinity.
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