REVELATION 4
Read Revelation 4:1-11
Having been given a kind of ‘state of the nation’ report on the church, John is now given a glimpse into heaven. He was taken by the Spirit to a doorway and shown what was there. And what a sight it was! At this point it is worth noting that what John was given was a symbolic view of heaven and we are not meant to take these descriptions literally. We can look at this strange language in the following chapters and tie ourselves in knots trying to decipher and understand every last detail, but rather it is better to just try to get an overview of what is being presented to us.
Chapters 2 and 3 gave us a picture of the church. Chapters 4 and 5 give us a picture of God: Chapter 4 of God as creator; Chapter 5 of God as redeemer.
John’s first sight of heaven is of someone on a throne. We don’t know who it is at this stage, but in the context of this vision it is obviously God himself, and that is made clear by the end of the chapter. A throne implies a king. The king has the appearance of jasper and carnelian, precious gems; so the king is valuable, priceless even. He is encircled by a rainbow, a symbol of God’s grace and faithfulness (think of the sign of the rainbow that God gave to Noah after the flood) and there was thunder and lightning around him. These are signs of God’s presence that we see again and again in the Old Testament. John is looking at God!
Before the throne there are seven lamps blazing (v5). There is that number seven which comes again and again in Revelation and throughout the Old Testament as well. In Hebrew the number seven stands for wholeness, completeness; that sort of thing. There were letters to seven churches in the previous two chapters. Yes, they were letters to individual churches, but they were also for the church as a whole, not just when they were written, but for all the church throughout all of history. We saw what the lampstands represented back in Chapter 1 Verse 12 – the church. So what we have is a picture of the church in all its fullness, alive and bright, before the throne of God. God is with his church; a heartening picture for us today as well as for the persecuted church of John’s time.
What about these twenty four elders and four weird looking ‘creatures’. All these elders are wearing crowns, so they are kings of some sort; but they are worshipping God. However important you are in earthly terms, you are to worship God; he is king of kings. The four living creatures look like different animals and are covered with eyes and have wings – all very strange and reminiscent of Ezekiel’s vision, speaking of power and characteristics of these animals in a symbolic way. But they are creatures, made by God, and thus subservient to him. However powerful, all-seeing, fleet of foot and flight they might be, they must worship God. It is God who has the power and the majesty and authority over all creation and all creation must acknowledge this, saying, “You are worthy to receive glory and honour and power for you created all things” (v11).