Day 242, Revelation 4 
This chapter begins the third of three natural divisions in the book
of Revelation---when John begins to record what will take place “after these
things” (compare 4:1 with 1:19). He was apparently transported to
heaven to witness the scene around God's throne. If this chapter doesn't put
the fear of God into you, nothing will.
More theories and speculation have been extracted from this book
than perhaps any other. For example, from this chapter, some find support for
the idea that the church will be raptured before the world-wide
tribulation simply because John heard a trumpet sound just before he was
transported to heaven, and Scripture tells us that the church will be raptured
at "the last trumpet" (1 Cor. 15:52)! And because John was in heaven before he experienced his visions of the earth's tribulations, this is presented as
proof that the church will be in heaven before the earth's tribulations. The
truth is, the only thing that is proven by John hearing a trumpet and being
transported to heaven before he had his visions of the earth's tribulation is
that John heard a trumpet, was transported to heaven, and then had visions of
the earth's tribulation.
Some point out that, although the church is mentioned many times in
the first three chapters of Revelation, it is not mentioned again until chapter
22, supposedly proving that the church is in heaven during the time of earth's
tribulation. The truth is, however, that believers are mentioned in Revelation
as being on the earth during its tribulations (6:1; 7:3-17; 9:4; 11:3-7;
12:14-17), and if there are believers there, the church is there as well, even
if John didn't use the word "church" to describe them. Granted, many
believers will suffer martyrdom during the time of the tribulation, and so they
will be transported from earth to heaven due to their deaths.
John did his best to describe the scene around the throne of
God, a sight that was almost indescribable by earthly standards. Can
you imagine a primitive man from the jungles of Borneo visiting New York
City and then trying to describe what he saw when he returned to his
friends? That was John's problem. It was interesting that the four living
creatures whom John saw---each with six wings and full of eyes---were very
similar to the four-winged cherubim Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 1, 10), and
the six-winged seraphim that Isaiah saw (Is. 6). John wrote of those
creatures:
And the first creature was like a lion, and the
second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that
of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle (4:7).
Ezekiel similarly wrote of the creatures that he saw:
As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the
face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle (Ezek. 1:10).
Imagine all that if you can!
Both John and Ezekiel described a rainbow over God's throne (Ezek.
1:28; Rev. 4:4).
John also saw “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne,”
explaining that they were the “seven Spirits of God” (4:5). This is
certainly a mystery. Some commentators suggest those seven fires represent
the sevenfold nature of the Holy Spirit listed in Isaiah 11:1-6: “And
the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Again, that is speculation that
doesn't convince me.
Rather than trying to comprehend every mystery of this chapter
(as well as other mysteries in the book of Revelation), it is better
to simply allow what we read to fill us with awe and wonder. May it
inspire us to worship our awesome God whom we’ll someday see in heaven as
John did, and bow before Him!
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