Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Revelation 4:1-11
The Throne in Heaven
1After 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.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3 And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. 4 Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.6 Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.
In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. 8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.”
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
Every two years, the lectionary list of New Testament readings arrives back at the last book of the Bible – the Book of Revelation. I tend to call this book “the Revelation of John,” because its author identifies himself as John. Church tradition says this is the same John whose account of the life and ministry of Jesus is recorded in the Gospel of John. Other scholars believe it was written by another John, a ‘presbyter’ or elder leading the seven churches addressed in the early chapters of the book.
The John who wrote the book was exiled to the island of Patmos, apparently as part of the persecution of Christians by the Roman authorities. It was apparently during this exile on that island that he wrote the Revelation.
We should remind ourselves that the New Testament was originally written in Greek, and the Greek word for ‘revelation’ is apocalypse. Today, that word has come into use as a term for some horrific disaster, but it’s just the Greek word for ‘revelation’ or ‘unveiling.’
The first three chapters of the Revelation are a series of letters to seven of the early churches. These churches were Greek cities in ancient times, but today those cities are in Turkey. They give encouragement and correction to those churches, which were facing persecution and other serious problems in those early years of the Christian movement. Some followers of Jesus were giving up their faith because of the persecution, and others were just losing interest in the faith or deciding they had more important things to do and drifting away.
It’s in the fourth chapter that the author gets to the fantastic imagery people think of when they hear the name ‘Revelation. Our reading for today comes from that fourth chapter.
Lots of scholars – as well as some not-so-scholarly Christian writers – spend a great deal of time and energy trying to explain the meanings of the elaborate symbols in this book. It’s a complicated mixture of Hebrew religious imagery and symbolic numbers. Who are the twenty-four elders and what do they represent? What about the seven lamps and the “seven spirits of God” they are said to be? And the four creatures all covered with eyes?
But it’s important to know that there’s no real agreement among scholars on the meanings of many of these symbols. Some of the “experts” write with great certainty about what the various symbols represent, but even the best Revelation scholarship includes quite a bit of speculation and some good old-fashioned guesswork. This book was written almost 2,000 years ago, and most of the symbols were meant to represent leaders of the time and events going on in the world back then. The symbols have been likened to political cartoons – we might understand the connections, but people 2,000 years in the future might have no clue. And we don’t fully understand the connections the first readers of the Revelation made 2,000 years ago.
The way of interpreting the Revelation that’s embraced by most New Testament scholars in our part of the church is to focus on the larger themes of the Revelation rather than the individual details. Those larger themes are pretty important, and getting caught up in the details can cause you to miss the forest for the trees, theologically speaking.
For instance, this passage we’re thinking about today is probably about the power and majesty of God. The Hebrew people had understood that God reigned over the universe from the temple in Jerusalem. Now it was being revealed to the followers of Jesus that God’s reign is really not connected to any one spot on earth. Instead, God’s reign over the universe is from a heavenly realm as he brings about his reign to fulfillment on earth.
According to this reading, the greatest figures in faith history, when they leave this life and come into the presence of God, find their hearts moved to constant worship. They symbolically remove their crowns of fame and glory and lay them at God’s feet, acknowledging that God’s power and glory are infinitely greater than their own.
So the real message of this passage is probably that the more you experience the reality of God, the more you’ll be moved to worship him. (It’s worth noting that more hymns and more Christian liturgy are based on the Book of the Revelation than on any other part of the Bible.)
So this passage we’re thinking about today from the beginning of John’s vision gets right to what are the two most important messages of the whole book of the Revelation: that our God will eventually be victorious over all the powers of the earth that might oppress his people, and that only God is worthy of our worship.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the assurance you gave to the early church – and that you continue to give to us today through John’s writings: that in spite of the trouble we may face in this world, you will ultimately be victorious over all that can harm us. Help us to live in the face of every power with the confidence that comes from being your people. Amen.
Every Blessing,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 61 and 62; Lamentations 1:1-12; and Matthew 13:1-9. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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