Revelation 4

Chapter 4. The Throne, the Lamb, and the SealsAfter this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Revelation 4:1)We have seen the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Church of Christ. We are now to behold the vision of the world up to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the plan of God with respect to it as set forth in the seven seals. Before, however, the seals are opened and the plan of God’s providence is unfolded we have a vision of the throne in heaven and the enthroned Lamb who is to administer the execution of the divine plan and the opening of the seven seals. There has been much discussion about the place of this section in the panorama of the future. There are some who believe that, from the fourth chapter on, the revelator is referring exclusively to things yet future and to events which are to come to pass after the Parousia. Those who hold this view apply the words in the first verse of the fourth chapter, “Come up here,” to the translation of the Bride, and regard them as the call to the prepared ones who will be found waiting for the return of the Lord to ascend to the throne through the door which John saw opened in heaven. This is very much strained and most unnatural in every way. The call to come hither was not a call to the glorified, but it was a special call to the seer to behold things which he was to see in vision, and when he did ascend it was not a literal translation, but immediately he adds, “I was in the Spirit” (Revelation 4:2). It was a spiritual vision of the heavenly world. To make it still more certain that this chapter does not refer to events after the coming of the Lord, the four living creatures in their adoration refer to God as “who was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8). This expression so frequently repeated in the Apocalypse seems to look directly forward to the Advent, and its being repeated by the glorious beings who worship around the throne clearly intimates that the time of the coming has not yet occurred. This is the more marked when we consider the fact that in the 11th chapter, where they again worship God and the Lamb, they change this expression and leave out the clause, “who is to come.” This does not appear in the authorized version, but in the revised version of Revelation 11:17, which contains the true and accepted reading, it is, “We give Thee thanks O Lord God Almighty, which art and wast because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power and hast reigned.” It is certain, therefore, that the Lord’s coming occurs somewhere between the fourth and the eleventh chapter, but had not occurred when these beings uttered their adoring ascription in the fourth chapter. There seems no doubt that this chapter simply describes the throne of God as John beheld it in heaven at the commencement of the great series of events which immediately followed Christ’s ascension and led on through the Christian age to the consummation in the Lord’s coming. It is the scenery, as it were, of the mediatorial government and plan of God. It marks the beginning of the Christian age and leads up to all the events symbolized by the seven seals. And so we behold the Father seated upon His throne in all His eternal glory, with the adoring hosts of the heavenly sanctuary and the glorious worship of the celestial world, while the Son under the image of the Lamb slain, ascends and takes His place by His side on the throne and begins to open the seals and solve the mystery of the ages as the great Redeemer and mediatorial King. Let us look briefly at the Throne, the Lamb and the seals.

The Throne

The ThroneThe throne is the throne of God in heaven. It is the seat of sovereignty. It is the symbol of supremacy and government. The surroundings are majestic and glorious, but He who sits upon the throne is indescribable, and there is no attempt to paint a picture of His person or His ineffable face save that He was like a jasper and carnelian stone (Revelation 4:3)—the jasper, the most brilliant gold, and the sardine, the most vivid crimson or scarlet. They were the royal colors and emblematic of splendor and glory. The surroundings of the throne were all in keeping with the majestic vision. There was a rainbow round about the throne like unto an emerald. This was the symbol of a covenant God, and told the glorious story that judgment was past, and that God was now dealing with men on principles of mercy. The rainbow was all around the throne. It was not the half circle of our incomplete firmament but the completed sphere of God’s perfect plan and finished redemption. The emerald color marks the tint of earth and suggests that the purpose that is to be wrought out from the throne in connection with the vision has reference to the green earth where man dwells and where Jesus died. The sea of glass that stood before the throne tells of the deep, calm purpose of God, the power that moves unruffled and resistless through all the ages working out His sovereign will. The seven lamps before the throne were symbols of the sevenfold power of the Holy Spirit, and show that the purpose that was to be wrought out was not connected merely with the natural government of the world, but was to be a spiritual plan under the direct agency and through the infinite resources of the Holy Spirit. Still more marked were the living forms around the throne. Seated upon thrones were 24 elders. These correspond to the 24 courses of the Jewish priesthood, and they seem to denote an order of heavenly worshipers, priests of the heavenly sanctuary. Many have supposed that they were representatives of the redeemed standing for the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles of the Lamb. But this is improbable. The argument for their human character is usually the language of the song they sing in the ninth verse of the fifth chapter “With your blood you purchased men [us] for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” The true reading, however, nullifies the force of this argument by taking the word “us” quite out of the passage and making the redemption apply to others. If this chapter describes a period anterior to Christ’s coming, as we have already assumed, and as seems certain from the heavenly ascription, “Who was, and is, and is to come” (Revelation 4:8), then it is out of place to regard these beings as redeemed men, for the redeemed have not yet attained their place of glory before the throne, but are waiting until Jesus comes and the number of the elect shall be completed when all together will be crowned and glorified. Still nearer to the throne were four living creatures corresponding to the symbolic beings that we find all through the Bible from the gate of Eden and the tabernacle in the wilderness down to the visions of Isaiah and John. In any case they are heavenly beings and not human beings, and they seem to be part of the sanctuary above and its glorious worship.

The Lamb

The LambSoon the center of interest in the throne becomes personified in a single figure—the Lamb. The inspired apostle beholds a strange spectacle of suspense in the heavenly court. He that sat upon the throne was holding in His right hand a book or scroll, written over in every part, both within and without, yet sealed with seven seals; a scroll which no one could read and no one could fulfill. It seems to represent God’s plan of destiny for man, and there was no one able to work it out. The universe was at a deadlock. As John beheld this strange perplexity and suspense he began to weep, until suddenly one of the elders addressed him and bade him dry his tears, for One had appeared who was to open the book and loose the seals. He described Him as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David. And as John turned to behold Him, suddenly there stood before him and in the midst of the heavenly scene, not a lion in its majesty, but, as the Greek finely expresses it, “a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain,” (Revelation 5:6) with the marks of blood upon it. And yet the Lamb had the glory of infinite wisdom and power back of all its gentleness and lowliness. This is expressed by seven horns of power and seven eyes of wisdom, which told the story of infinite resources and the sevenfold light and power of the Holy Spirit which are under the direction and control of this enthroned Lamb. It was a scene of unspeakable dramatic power and interest. It is said that once in the Roman Coliseum a crowd was waiting, as there stood a martyr in the midst of the arena, for a roaring Numidian lion to burst from its cage and devour the holy saint. Suddenly, as a little piece of play for the amusement of a Roman crowd, the keeper led forth from the stable under the galleries not a lion but a lamb, which stepped up and licked the hand of the martyr, while the crowd thundered out its surprise and applause. More majestic infinitely is this heavenly scene as He who has all power and glory, instead of ostentatiously displaying His greatness, presents Himself in all the simplicity and humiliation of the cross and its shame, and undertakes to solve the problems of destiny and wield the scepter of the universe, not as the Lion, but as the Lamb. Immediately He becomes the center of attention, and there bursts forth, from all the choirs of heaven and all the myriads of earth and sea, the sublimest chorus of adoration ever heard in earth or heaven. First, the living creatures and the elders fall down before the throne and sing a new song composed especially for that grand occasion, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9). Then as the song reaches the outer circle of angels, 10,000 times 10,000, and myriads whose numbers could not be told take up the chorus and they sing, “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” (Revelation 5:12). And as the echoes of their song go ringing out and resounding back from the courts of heaven and the realms of immensity, still farther out there comes another chorus from “every creature in heaven” (Revelation 5:13), and there seemed to be other creatures there, and “on earth and under the earth and on the sea” (Revelation 5:13). Every created voice seemed to join in the anthem, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13). The mighty song has rolled through space and echoed along the galleries of heaven, and as the echo comes back the four living creatures answer with their mighty response, “Amen” (Revelation 5:14), and deeper and higher than all speech or song the 24 elders fall down in prostrate silence and worship Him who lives forever and forever.

The Seals

The SealsBut next the interest moves on even from the blessed Lamb Himself to the great task He has undertaken. He takes the book out of the Father’s hands, and as He looses the seals one by one and unfolds the scroll, lo, a series of events begins to take place on earth and a procession of mighty providences moves down through the ages to the end. These are the successive events that are to follow each other up to the coming of the Lord. They are described in the sixth and seventh chapters of Revelation. As each of the first four seals is opened in succession there is a strange and mighty voice going up from one of the living creatures, the single word, “Come!” (Revelation 6:3). Not “Come and see,” as the authorized version, but “Come.” It is the keynote of all the history of this book. It is the deep undertone of all the thought and teaching of the Apocalypse. It is the meaning of the seals expressed in one unutterable word, “Come.” What is the specific meaning of each seal? The first four present a general resemblance to each other. In the first we behold a white horse, and he that sat upon it was armed with “a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest” (Revelation 6:2). The second shows a red horse and he that sat upon it crimsons the earth with carnage and war (Revelation 6:4). The third presents a black horse, and behind it follow famine and destruction (Revelation 6:5). The fourth is a livid horse, and he that sat upon it was Death, and Hell came hard behind (Revelation 6:8). These four horses and their riders represent successively the destructive forces of the early centuries, the conquering power of Rome, the carnage of the revolutions that followed, the horrors of famine that came with the inroads of the Barbarians, terrors of the Middle Ages and the crowning holocaust of death which filled up and finished the picture. As the fifth seal is opened the cry of the living creature ceases, but instead there comes a deep moan from the souls of the martyrs under the altar. They echo the same old cry, but more plaintively for their voice is, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Revelation 6:10). It is the vision of persecution and suffering for Jesus’ sake. It is the story of the Roman martyrs and the Papal martyrs. It is the picture of the suffering Church under the ban of a cruel world and it leads on far through the age. Next comes the sixth seal, and lo, as it breaks and the scroll unfolds, there is a sudden catastrophe. It seems for a moment as if the end had already come. There is a great earthquake. The sun is black and the moon is blood. The stars of heaven fall and the heavens roll up like a scroll, while mountains and islands are shaken and the kingdoms and peoples of earth are filled with terror, and cry to the rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from “the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17). Yes, it would seem that this is at last the end. But no, not quite. Just on the eve of the catastrophe it is suspended for a little while, and four mighty angels who hold the cyclone of judgment that is about to strike the earth, are commanded to hold back a little longer until two necessary things are done. First is the sealing of Israel’s tribes, an elect number out of each. The Jew is to pass through the tribulation time, and God has already told us in Zechariah and Daniel that a certain number of His chosen people are to be preserved through the fire of that awful day. These are now sealed. Some mark is put upon them by which their lives shall be inviolate during the terrible times that are to come. But what is the next great scene? What means this mighty throng that suddenly has appeared before the throne and the Lamb? After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10) John asks in wonder, and is told that these are redeemed men, not Jews, but men of every nation, that have come up out of the great tribulation that is already beginning, and are now before the throne and the Lamb. This is the rapture of the saints. This is the translation of the waiting Bride. This is the blessed hope for which we are told to watch and wait and stand prepared. God grant that we may understand it, be ever ready for it and at last be found in that happy company.