REVELATION 4
We must keep in mind that this book is divided into three parts. It was said to John, “Write therefore what thou hast seen, and the things that are, and the things that are about to be after these” (Revelation 1: 19). The things which John had seen are in chapter 1; “the things that are” refer to the assemblies — the church period. This was present when John wrote, and it still continues. Then there are “the things that are about to be after these”; chapter 4: 1 connects itself with this by the twice-repeated, “After these things”. We do not find the assembly on earth after chapter 3, but we see divine grace and testimony in other companies of saints who will be found here after the assembly has been translated.
Chapters 4 and 5 come in as introductory to the properly prophetical part of the book. The first verse of chapter 4 is most important. John saw “a door opened in heaven”, and heard a Voice which said, “Come up here, and I will shew thee the things which must take place after these things”. John was to look at things from heaven, and it is from that standpoint that saints of the assembly view prophecy. It is this which makes the difference between Revelation [p. 74] and Daniel, though there are, of course, certain points of contact between them. Daniel — the representative of an earthly people — had visions by the rivers Ulai and Hiddekel, but John is the representative of a heavenly company, and he is called to “Come up here”.
The church will be actually in heaven after chapter 3, and to look aright at chapters 4 - 19 we must be spiritually there. The Lord would call us up there in spirit now, so that we may look down upon the earth as the scene of prophecy from a point outside it. He would not have us to be occupied with prophecy from an earthly standpoint. Many interpreters of this book have not gone up there, and they have been largely occupied in trying to fit past and current events into prophecy. Every one knows how they have succeeded! If you read this book to discover what will happen to England, how certain wars will terminate, and so forth, you are not likely to get much light. But if at the outset you respond to the invitation, “Come up here”, you will get great illumination. Heaven is our true place; the assembly is found here in witness for the moment, but she belongs to heaven. It is as she takes her true place as belonging to heaven that she gets understanding in regard to other families.
Then there is another thing essential to clear vision of “the things which must take place”; John says, “Immediately I became in the Spirit”. The heavenly position must be accompanied by a state in keeping with it. To become in Spirit is to be abstracted from all activity of the human mind, and to be in a region where every thought and feeling is of the Spirit. It is a privilege within our reach. A brother well known in the ministry of the word said, “As soon as I find my mind working when reading Scripture, I close the book!” A right standpoint and a right state are necessary if we are to profit by this revelation. We need to look at things from the standpoint of heaven, and to be “in Spirit”. This is really to anticipate the rapture in mind and spirit. It will preserve us from being earth-dwellers, and from the influence of the human mind. Surely each saint should covet this.
We need to apprehend what John saw: viz., “a throne stood in the heaven”. Sin’s confusion is here, and it has not been publicly interfered with by God since the flood, save in such exceptional cases as that of Sodom and Gomorrah. The heavens do rule, but it is in a hidden way. It has been said that God is behind the scenes, but that He moves all the scenes He is behind. Faith knows this, and is kept quiet in the presence of empires overturned and lawlessness abounding. The power of the throne protects the saints so long as their witness here is needed, but it has not yet asserted itself in a public way. Psalm 110: 1 describes the present interval. “Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet”. Nearly two thousand years of Christ being despised and rejected here have passed, but the throne stands unmoved in heaven; there is no perturbation there. The One upon the throne is sitting, and round the throne are seated twenty-four enthroned elders. In view of His purposes of grace God has borne long with the wickedness of men, but the throne will assert its power when the appointed time comes, and it is now close at hand. God is going to bring in the Firstborn into the habitable world. In the meantime the elders are in repose — in restful accord with the throne, and with Him who [p. 76] sits upon it. It is our privilege to be there in spirit now.
The One sitting upon the throne was “like in appearance to a stone of jasper and a sardius”. It is God known in His glory as it will shine forth in the holy city (chapter 21: 11), and in the building of its wall, and in the first foundation of its wall (chapter 21: 18, 19). It is all that which has been obscured by the entrance of sin and death into the world. If men judge of God by the present state of the world, as if He were to be known by what is seen there, we cannot wonder if they come to entirely wrong conclusions. For we see every kind of evil, innumerable forms of sorrow and misery, wicked men prosperous and the righteous suffering, wars desolating, and death passing upon all. It is true there is a witness to the goodness of God in the sunshine and the rain, and in the productiveness of the earth furnishing food for man, but even the Providence of God is often mysterious. There is no public administration of God’s throne. There could not be in a fallen and sinful world without judgment coming on all. In the wisdom of God it is a time of longsuffering that men may have opportunity to repent, and that by the gospel of His grace those may be called who shall be joint-heirs with Christ, but who in the meantime suffer with Him.
The jasper and the sardius speak of what God is as He is known in relation to the throne in heaven before that throne makes its power and character publicly known. It is known to the one who comes up to heaven and is found in the Spirit. It is made known for faith in the gospel which reveals the righteousness of God in perfect grace to men, and in connection with which the principles of His government have [p. 77] come clearly into view (Romans 2). It will shine forth in “the holy city, Jerusalem”, in “crystal-like” clearness. There will not be a shade of obscurity, not a trace of dimness, then. What God is will shine forth in His glorified saints, made the righteousness of God in Christ, and He will be publicly vindicated in the scene where He has been so long slandered and blasphemed, and where the very fruits of man’s sin, and His longsuffering in regard to men, have seemed to obscure His true character, and the principles of His government.
I think one can understand why the wall of the holy city should be jasper! It is what God is, as known in relation to the throne, that will safeguard that city, and for ever exclude from it what is common or what makes an abomination and a lie. And one can understand, too, why the first foundation should be adorned with jasper! Man’s great cities have no moral foundation, and therefore the cities of the nations will fall. I have often thought that this world is like the vale of Siddim — “full of slimepits”. You cannot build securely on slime! Abraham looked for a city which had foundations, and nothing but what is founded in righteousness will stand. The kingdom of God is “righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit”, so that those who are in that kingdom walk in accord with what will characterize the city, and with Him who sits on the throne in the heaven.
Then the “rainbow round the throne” carries the mind back to Genesis 9; it speaks of God’s faithfulness to His covenants and promises. I do not know how many promises there are in Scripture, but God is faithful to them all. In the public course of events it [p. 78] might seem that His promises had failed, for Israel is scattered; the answer to the glowing picture of her future glory in the prophetic word seems as far off as ever, and all creation groans still under the bondage of corruption. But the throne in heaven is encircled by the sure token of God’s faithfulness, and it is known there with abiding certainty that it will yet be said in the fullest possible way that “there has not failed one word of all his good promises”.
The promises of God have come in as the divine answer to successive developments of the power of evil and its results. Whatever form of evil made its appearance here God met it by a promise to bring in on His part a corresponding good. The promises fall largely into three classes. The first has to do with the power of Satan; of this class Genesis 3: 15 is an example. The second stands in relation to all the rebellious pride of man’s heart, and the confusion which results from it. Genesis 12: 2, 3 belongs to this class. The third comes in to meet the demonstrated inability of man after the flesh to hold anything for God. 2 Samuel 23: 1 - 7 would illustrate this. The world to come under the Son of Man will be the fulfilment of every promise, and the complete vindication of the faithfulness of God. But His saints know His faithfulness today; they see the rainbow round the throne in heaven. Our place is to rest in His faithfulness, and, not get occupied with events on earth.
The first movement towards the fulfilment of prophecy will really take place in heaven. It will be the rising up of the Lord Jesus from His Father’s throne to receive the church. If we want to see the first move we must keep our eye on heaven, not on [p. 79] events here. That current events are all being overruled in view of what God has in His mind is most certain, but God would not have His people occupied with them as fulfilling prophecy. To get thus occupied is really to be distracted from what God is doing at the present time in the assembly. If we are in the calm certainty of the mind of heaven we shall in spirit be sitting — like the elders — instead of being restless, and perturbed by political movements in the world, or excited by foolishly imagining that they are going to bring about any divine result.
The twenty-four enthroned elders are a priestly and royal company. Their number alludes, no doubt, to the twenty-four courses of the priesthood instituted by David (1 Chronicles 24). It is the whole priesthood represented by the heads of each course, and probably includes Old Testament saints as well as the assembly, all having been caught up in glorious bodies at the rapture. It is instructive to note that they are seen as a complete company around the throne in heaven before one of the seals is opened. Indeed, it is characteristic of this book that before each series of judgments begins we are shewn that God secures His elect before we see the judgments which will fall upon the sphere where their testimony was rendered. The different companies of saints have different places assigned them by the sovereignty of God. The elders are seated in heaven before the seals are opened (chapters 4 - 6). The bondmen of God from the sons of Israel are sealed, and the great crowd which no one could number from the Gentiles are seen before the throne before the trumpets are sounded (chapters 7 - 9). The hundred and forty-four thousand bought from the earth are seen with the Lamb upon mount Zion,
[p. 80] and those that had gained the victory over the beast are seen upon the glass sea before the bowls are poured out (chapter 14 - 16).
This is in keeping with the ways of God in all ages. Noah and his house were secured in the ark before the flood came. Lot was taken out of Sodom before the overthrow of the guilty cities. The firstborn in Israel were sheltered by the blood of the lamb before judgment was executed on Egypt. Israel was saved, and on the wilderness side of the Red Sea, before the hosts of Pharaoh perished. The remnant according to the election of grace from amongst the Jews was brought into the assembly before Jerusalem was destroyed.
The fact that the glorified saints are seen as “elders” would indicate that they are viewed as having matured experience and intelligence. It has often been noted that they can explain things. (See chapters 5: 5, 7: 13). The Old Testament saints had much experience of God’s ways, as they moved in the pathway of faith in the light of the world to come, and those ways have been recorded that we might be enriched by their experience. It is said of Israel, “Whose are the fathers” (Romans 9: 5), and if Israel had “the fathers” we have them too, to profit by their wealth of experience, and to acquire our own in the light of theirs. I think “his ancients” in Isaiah 24: 23 is much the same thought as the “elders”. It speaks of those who, through thousands of years, have waited for God’s glorious world to come, and have suffered for it, and have passed out of this world in the faith of it. The kingdom in glory will be taken up before them. They will be spectators of its glory, and will have their own glory in it too; we see them here as enthroned [p. 81] and crowned. It is the divine answer to a long course of endurance and suffering in faith.
The “lightnings, and voices, and thunders” (verse 5) which proceed from the throne shew the peculiar character of the time that is in view from Revelation 4 - Revelation 19. It is not like the present time when God is speaking from the mercy-seat, declaring His righteousness in grace, and all is in man’s favour — a throne of grace. There is a different character of things at once when the church has been translated. But it is clearly not yet the millennium, when “a river of water of life, bright as crystal, goes out of the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Revelation 22: 1). Chapters 4 - 19 come between, and are characterized by those preparatory dealings of judgment by which the scene will be cleared of all that is evil in view of the establishment of the kingdom in power. Even the Spirit of God takes a judicial character here as “seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne”, reminding us of how God will cleanse His people “by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4: 4).
The “four living creatures” (verses 6 - 8) are very intimately connected with the throne — in the midst of it and around it — and they are “full of eyes, before and behind” and also “within”. They have, symbolically, fulness of intelligence as to the actings of the throne, and inward discernment as to the character of Him who sits upon it. As seen in this chapter they are ceaselessly engaged in ascribing holiness to Him. In chapter 6 they call the four terrible horses and their riders to “Come” to inflict progressive sufferings upon men, and a voice in their midst announces famine. In chapter 15 one of them gives “to the seven angels seven golden bowls, full of the fury of God”. So that they act in a twofold character. Godward they “give glory and honour and thanksgiving to him”, and they fall before the Lamb. And when the myriads of angels acclaim the worthiness of the Lamb, and every creature ascribes blessing, and honour, and glory and might to God and to the Lamb, they say, “Amen”. Then they have also an executive function in regard to the judgments of the throne, and in this they are characterized by strength, firmness, intelligence, and rapidity of movement, set forth in the lion, the calf, the face of a man, and a flying eagle.
The elders worship God as Creator, in the intelligence that all things exist and have been created for His will or pleasure. “Glory and honour and power” are ascribed to the Creator. The last verse of this chapter is important as giving the scope of what is in view in the Revelation. We shall find in this book, as we might expect, special dealings with those who have come in a special way into contact with divine testimony. But all men everywhere are God’s creatures, and all have had testimony of some kind, and will come under God’s dealings. What joy it is to see that God created all things for His pleasure, and it is impossible for Him to be finally robbed of His rights in regard to creation! This is celebrated in heaven while man on the earth is saying “No God”. We are called to go up to heaven now in spirit, and to be in concert with the theme of heaven’s worship. To give glory to God as Creator, and as the One for whose pleasure all things have been created, is not a low or limited note. It brings the whole “wide creation” into view as standing in relation to “him that sits upon the throne”. Psalm 148 strikes a wonderful note of praise which will yet vibrate through all [p. 83] creation from angels at the top to creeping things at the bottom.
The throne speaks of the absolute supremacy of God. It is well known in heaven, if not on earth as yet, that “God sits as Sovereign on the throne”. He is worshipped and glorified by those actually in heaven, and by those in spirit there, as the Supreme Creator before a single movement of the power of the throne has been manifested on earth. The throne ensures that that for which He created all things will be secured; His pleasure will be brought about in the wide creation. Whatever happens, this must be the ultimate issue of things. The coming in of sin is not alluded to by the elders in their worship here, though the character which the throne takes in this chapter supposes its presence. The elders know all about that, but what prostrates them in worship is that God has created all things for His will. This utterance is the foundation of the whole book; all that follows in this book is the necessary consequence of chapter 4: 11. God’s will must prevail in the wide creation. This necessitates the “restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began” (Acts 3: 21).
If God’s will is to prevail in blessing in a creation devastated by sin it necessitates the most wondrous actings of divine love and mercy in redemption and reconciliation. This we shall find celebrated in heaven in the next chapter. It is the ground of all blessing for every family in heaven and earth that is named of the Father. But that which is lawless, and will not come into reconciliation, must pass away in judgment. The solemn judicial actings seen in this book — whether corrective inflictions with the possibility [p. 84] of repentance in view, or the final judgment of the wicked — are the actings of the throne to enforce what is due to God as celebrated in chapter 4: 11. All the companies that are seen in blessing throughout this book, and their praises, are secured by sovereign love and mercy upon the ground of what is celebrated in chapter 5. So that these two chapters give the key to all that follows.
The holiness of God which the living creatures are absorbed with, and His rights as Creator which the elders celebrate, necessitate that judgment must come on all that opposes His rights or is contrary to His nature. But, then, there is another thing. Redeeming love has come to light in the Lamb, and on that ground infinite blessing can be brought in, whether for heavenly families or earthly, or for the wide creation. The elders know God and His blessed will; they understand that the Lamb of God is the Taker away of the sin of the world. They know the wide scope of that verse, “so that by the grace of God he should taste death for everything” (Hebrews 2: 9). It is much wider than “every man”. The very Person “by whom also he made the worlds” has tasted death for everything. Is it not wonderful that we belong to that company which is represented by the elders? God would give us the knowledge of this, and form us in the intelligence that we see marks them. We are not yet actually in heaven, but we are privileged to be there spiritually, and to be in accord with heaven’s worship and praise. To glorify God as Creator, and to know that His will must and will prevail throughout creation, is profoundly blessed. None but the “elders” — the saints of the assembly — really do so at the present time. There are sweeter notes connected with family [p. 85] relationships and affections, and we may be sure the elders know sonship in the full height of its blessedness. But they are seen here as falling before Him who sits upon the throne to do homage to Him as Creator, and as linking all created things with His pleasure. It is our privilege to do so even now.