DAY NINETY-EIGHT:
The Throne of Heaven
Revelation 4:1-7:17
The Heavenly Throne, by Peter Olsen
Immediately his eyes were drawn to a throne, and the One sitting 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." Jasper and carnelian are gemstones. Jasper is most often green while carnelian is blood-red. The figure on the throne glowed with these colors, and an emerald rainbow surrounded Him. Then John noticed twenty-four thrones surrounding the central throne. On these sat twenty-four elders, "...clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads." Some commentators believe these represent the twelve patriarchs (Jacob's sons) and the twelve apostles as representatives of God's people. John reported that peals of thunder and flashes of lightning proceed from the throne, and that seven torches, "...which are the seven spirits of God," are before the throne. We discussed the seven spirits of God in Monday's post. Also stretching out before the throne was "...a sea of glass, like crystal." This is the floor plan, if you will, of God's throne room in heaven.
"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..." John could think of no better word for these amazing beings than zoon, the Greek word for animal or beast. Compare the accounts of Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1 with what John saw. They're very similar in their details. Isaiah said that he saw seraphs, from the Hebrew word for fire, with six wings. Ezekiel described four "living creatures" that look like what John saw. Isaiah wrote nearly 800 years before John and Ezekiel over 600 years before, but they got the same glimpse of heaven!
These living creatures or seraphim shouted "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" God is holy. The word means separated or set apart. God is not like us, and we must resist the temptation to cast Him in our image. He is thrice holy. In Hebrew whenever a word is repeated three times in succession, it means completeness and perfection. God is absolutely holy, and while we may have a measure of holiness thanks to Jesus, only God is perfect in His holiness. He is the Almighty, pantokrator, ruler of all. And He is eternal, existing in the past, present and future simultaneously. He is utterly unbound by time!
The twenty-four elders, when they hear the cry of the seraphim, fall on their faces and throw their crowns before the throne. Then they proclaim, "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." God is the creator of all, and He deserves our thanks and praise. Our word worship comes from worthy. Worship is showing forth God's "worth-ship." The creatures rightfully give praise to their Creator.
In the Lord's right hand was a scroll, sealed with seven seals. This was how Roman law required that a Last Will and Testament be executed. The testator would gather several friends who would watch him write the will. When he finished a page the scroll would be rolled to that point and one of the friends would seal with wax and his own signet ring that part of the scroll. Then the man would resume writing and another friend would seal the next page, and so on until the will was completed. Then upon the testator's death the friends would authenticate the seals and open the will. This scroll in God's hands contains His plan for the ages and for the last days in particular. But there's a problem. "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" Search was made, "And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it." Not Abraham, Moses or David. Not any believer currently living on earth. None of the angels. No one was worthy to open those seals. This news crushed John. He wept, literally bawled like a baby. What disappointment! But then one of the elders tapped John on the shoulder and said, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals." Cheer up! There IS someone who can open those seals! The Lion of Judah and Root of David are titles for the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. He has conquered- he defeated sin and death. He is worthy to open the scroll!
John looked up, expecting to see a lion. But instead, he saw a lamb! And not just a lamb, a lamb that had been slain (literally slaughtered, its throat cut). The lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, again representative of the seven spirits of God. The Lamb went up to the throne and took the scroll. Then the elders fell down before the Lamb and offered up bowls of incense, which represent the prayers of the saints. And they burst into song once again, singing a new song that had never been sung before: "Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." The elders sang before that God was worthy of praise for His work of creation. Now they praise the Lamb for His work of redemption. By His blood He has saved a people for Himself, and they will reign with Him forever! After this the angels join in the chorus. There are "myriads of myriads, thousands and thousands" of them. The word myriad comes from the Greek word for 10,000, the largest number in that language. 10,000 x 10,000 = 100 million! At least that many angels, and probably far, far more, sing the Lord's praise! Everyone else joins in and the Living Creatures put an "Amen" on it.
Then the Lamb breaks the first six seals in rapid succession. The first four call forth four mounted horsemen:
- The first was on a white horse and went forth to make war and to conquer;
- The second was seated on a red horse and carried a large sword. He was to take peace from the earth and cause great bloodshed;
- The third rode a black horse, and carried scales. He would cause scarcity and famine on the earth; and
- The final rider sat on a pale horse. His name was Death and Hades, and he had authority to kill and destroy over vast areas.
The fifth seal revealed the martyrs who had died for their faith in Christ. They were beneath heaven's altar. They cried out, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" They were told to be patient and rest a little longer, until their number was complete.
The sixth seal brought a great disturbance to the earth, sea and skies. Earthquakes and darkness, stars falling from the sky, mountains displaced. Everyone on the earth was gripped with fear, and cried out to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?"
Before the seventh seal was opened two things happened: First, God sent His angels to seal 144,000 Israelites, 12,000 from each tribe. Then John looked and saw a great multitude from every nation on earth. They came before the throne in white robes, waving palm branches and praising God. One of the elders asked John "Do you know who they are?" He said no, and the elder told him, "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." They are the faithful Christians from all ages who overcame the world and were faithful to the end. "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
This is where our reading ends today, but I'll try to fill you in briefly up to chapter 19, where we'll pick up tomorrow. When the seventh seal is opened, seven angels with trumpets appear. Each blows his trumpet and disasters upon the earth follow. Then we see a woman giving birth to a child and then pursued by a dragon. We see a "beast" with seven heads and ten horns rise up out of the ocean. The beast deceives the earth for a time, during which seven angels with bowls of plagues pour out still more disaster on the earth. "Babylon the Great," a wicked woman who rides atop the beast, is judged. And that catches us up to where we'll pick up next. Whew!
How do we make sense of all of this? First, we learn some invaluable truths from chapters 4 and 5. They give us a complete theology of worship. There are two reasons to worship God. First, He is holy, absolutely perfect and pure and great beyond our imagination. This is who God is. And He is worthy. That's what He does. He is worthy because He created everything, and all the beauty and mystery of life draws our attention to Him. And He is worthy because He redeemed us from our sins with His blood. God is worthy because of His works of creation and redemption. Just remember the little dinner grace we learned as children: "God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for our food. Amen." We worship God because He is great (holy) and because He is good (worthy). Our response is to thank Him for who He is and for what He's done for us.
Second, I think this is the place where I can tell you how I see the Book of Revelation playing out. I see the events circling back and repeating rather than moving ahead in a linear fashion. Scholars call this recapitulation. The same basic events are told again from a different perspective, like what we see in the accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and 2. The three "sevens," the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, represent the ongoing patterns of war, famine and natural disasters that plague the earth as the consequence of our sin. Even so, history is moving toward a conclusion, which we'll see tomorrow and Friday. This is far more complicated than I can lay out in this short space, so let me share a flowchart that I think presents it pretty well:
Everything to the left of the red line is past or present, and to the right is the future. I'm indebted to Russ Hicks for this chart, and while I might question small parts of his interpretive scheme I think he's done a great job of making a whole lot of scholarship accessible to everyone. You can see his full website here.
And for your holy earworm today, is there any other choice but this great hymn that's drawn from today's reading:
No comments:
Post a Comment