Revelation 4:3-8 Series

Revelation 4:3-8

Coming out of verses One and Two some may be wondering why I chose to focus on the tern “freewill” and I just wanted to say a few words about that before we get started. Faith in God and who He is, is important for us to understand. God does all things first for His glory, good and purpose not for ours. Though everything He does or allows is best for us no matter if we understand it or not.

If we are going to have faith and confidence in God we need to know He is in complete control not us. Though scripture says we are responsible for everything we do and we are. Jesus said He wanted God's will to take place not His own and that's the place we need to be. OK, that's it.

We are now going to get into a description of Jesus of sorts in which John is trying to explain what he is seeing in his vision. John doesn't always understand what he is seeing and is describing it to the best of his ability and that is important for us to understand. We will take this in bits.

3 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.

What is jasper without getting to technical? Jasper is a silica based stone with high quartz content and comes in many colors many times greenish. What is carnelian? This is usually a reddish brown stone with a variance from orange to dark reds in colors.

Neither of these stones seem to have any biblical significance but again John is just trying to describe the colors he is seeing radiating from Jesus.

A rainbow as we know is a multicolored arch in the sky but John describes this one as just being green like an emerald. The rainbow is a sign of the covenant God made with Noah and all other people at the end of the flood. This covenant is two sided with God upholding His end and our responsibility is to uphold our end as stated in (Genesis 9:1-17).

4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.

The mention of these twenty-four thrones cannot be biblically attributed to anything in particular and any thoughts on this would just be speculating based upon nothing but personal opinion so I will not comment on this.

An elder in the bible is not just an older person but it is one who has shown to be wise and godly. These elders would be male and that conclusion comes from the book of Timothy in the explanation of who and elder would be.

What we do not know are these elders made up from humans that made it to heaven or were these elders created for this position.

Being these elders are wearing white garments and crowns again shows their stature in heaven and that they in some way have made it to a certain level. Heaven does have a hierarchy of course, if God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are there then there has to be.

5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.

Lightning and thunder are a powerful representation of what John is seeing and hearing and I am sure it adds to the awe of the situation.

The seven torches which are the seven spirits of God was mentioned in Revelation one and most would say it represents the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

The sea of glass like crystal just adds to the majesty of this entire picture and God could have chosen anything and this is what He chose.

And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 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.

All of these creatures have eyes all around them so they are able to keep complete watch at all times. If you were going to pick four animals for protection I doubt you could pick four better ones than these.

The lion, the king of the jungle, nothing prays on a mature healthy lion in the wild, it is one of the most majestic animals of God's entire creation. A blend of speed, power and fearlessness is what a lion is known for. Notice John states “like a lion” so did it completely look like a lion we don't know.