Scripture Daily

Context No. 113 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 4:1-11: in context

1After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard, like a trumpet speaking with me, was one saying, “Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this.” 2Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne 3that looked like a jasper stone and a sardius. There was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at. 4Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. On the thrones were twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads. 5Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders. There were seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal. In the middle of the throne, and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes before and behind. 7The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8The four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within. They have no rest day and night, saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!” 9When the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and throw their crowns before the throne, saying, 11“Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power, for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed and were created!”

Revelation has opened with letters to seven churches, all of them dealing with pressure, compromise, and fear. Then this passage: a door standing open in heaven, a voice like a trumpet, and John taken up to see the throne room. Everything that follows in the book is seen from here.

The description avoids describing. The one on the throne is not given a face or a form, only stones: jasper and carnelian, with a rainbow like emerald around the throne. Twenty-four elders in white with gold crowns, seven torches burning, a sea like glass. Four living creatures covered with eyes, one like a lion, one like an ox, one with a human face, one like an eagle, singing holy, holy, holy without stopping. The elders keep falling down and throwing their crowns before the throne.

The order matters for a persecuted church. Before John is shown a single disaster, seals, trumpets, bowls, beasts, he is shown who is sitting down and who is on the throne already. The crowns get taken off in that room. Whatever comes later in the book comes after this scene, not before it. When I am frightened about what is coming, what do I need to have looked at first for the rest of it to be bearable?

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