The Throne at the Centre

4:1-3A door, a voice, a throne

"After these things I looked and saw a door opened in heaven" (WEB). The door on earth in 3:20 had Christ on the outside, knocking. Now a door stands open in heaven, and the voice that invites John in is "like a trumpet," the same voice he heard in 1:10. It is most likely Christ who says, "Come up here, and I will show you the things which must happen after this."

Some Christians read "come up here" as a picture of the church being taken to heaven before a time of great trial. Many others see it as John's own visionary ascent, given to help every reader see earthly events from heaven's side. Both agree on what the chapter does: it shows us reality from above. John is at once "in the Spirit," and what he sees is first a seat: "a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne."

Notice what John does not describe. He gives no face, no height, no robe. All he offers are gemstones and light: one "like a jasper stone and a sardius," the red and the clear, shining like fire and crystal. Later, jasper will describe the glory of God shining in the new city (21:11). Scripture is reverent here, as it was when God told Moses, "You cannot see my face" (Exodus 33:20).

John adds "a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald to look at." The rainbow was the sign of God's covenant after the flood (Genesis 9:13-16). Even the seat of judgment is encircled by a promise.

4:4Twenty-four elders

Around the central throne sit "twenty-four thrones," and on them "twenty-four elders sitting, dressed in white garments, with crowns of gold on their heads." Who are they? Christians have suggested several answers. Many think they represent the whole people of God, perhaps twelve tribes of Israel and twelve apostles together, the old covenant and the new. Others see them as a high order of angels. Another idea draws on the twenty-four divisions of priests in 1 Chronicles 24, so that they stand as heaven's priesthood.

The details lean towards the first reading. The white garments are what Christ promised to the overcomers in Sardis (3:5), and the crowns echo the crown promised to Philadelphia (3:11). They sit on thrones, which recalls his promise in 3:21 to share his rule. If so, the elders are a preview: this is where the faithful of the seven churches end up. That is a great comfort for believers who felt small and persecuted: here they sit near the centre of the universe.

And yet notice that the elders are never the focus. Their thrones are smaller and set around the throne. They do not rule from the centre, and they will soon take off their crowns. Whatever authority is shared with God's people is borrowed from the One who sits in the middle.

4:5-6aThunder, lamps and a calm sea

"Out of the throne proceed lightnings, sounds, and thunders." This is Sinai again, where the mountain quaked and the people trembled (Exodus 19:16-18). A holy God is not safe to approach on our own terms, and the heavenly throne is no less awesome than the mountain.

Then "seven lamps of fire burning before his throne, which are the seven Spirits of God." John tells us what the lamps mean: the Spirit, shown in his fullness, as in 1:4. The Spirit stands before the throne as light and fire, the way a lampstand burned before the Lord in Zechariah's vision (Zechariah 4:2).

The last image in this group is easy to rush past: "something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal." In Exodus 24:10, when Israel's elders saw God, "under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone." In Scripture the sea often stands for chaos and for the realm from which the beast will later rise (13:1). Here, in front of God, the sea is glass. Many scholars think the image shows that everything that churns and threatens on earth is still, solid and transparent before his throne. In the end, John will say there is no more sea (21:1). Before the first judgment appears, he has already shown us that the chaos is under control.

4:6b-8The four living creatures

Now come four living creatures "full of eyes before and behind." John's readers, who knew Ezekiel 1, would have recognised them. Ezekiel saw four living beings, each with four faces: a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. John adds the six wings from Isaiah 6, where the seraphim above the throne cried "Holy, holy, holy." He is gathering the great throne visions of the prophets into one.

Here each creature has a single face: "like a lion," "like a calf," "a face like a man," "like a flying eagle." Many interpreters see the noblest of wild animals, domestic animals, humans and birds, which together represent the created order. Their eyes suggest ceaseless attention and nothing hidden. They are creation's choir.

Their song is a threefold "holy," a Hebrew way of saying the highest degree: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!" Holiness means being utterly set apart from everything that is made and everything that is corrupt. The creatures sing it "day and night" without rest. That does not sound like drudgery. It sounds like minds so full of beauty that they cannot be silent.

Notice that their song is not about us. It simply declares who he is, in a line that echoes 1:8.

4:9-11Crowns on the glass

Whenever the creatures give "glory, honor, and thanks to him who sits on the throne," the elders respond. They "fall down," worship, and "throw their crowns before the throne." A crown was something earned or granted: the sign of status. The elders have been given crowns by grace and here they give them back.

Their words are a hymn: "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, the Holy One, to receive the glory, the honor, and the power." The title "our Lord and God" is striking. An ancient Roman biographer reports that the emperor Domitian liked to be addressed as lord and god, and many scholars hear this as a pointed contrast, though the connection is debated. Either way, the elders' worship says something the empire could not: the One who is worthy is the Creator, and not a ruler.

Then the reason: "for you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!" The word "desire" can also be translated "will." The whole universe exists because God wanted it. Creation is not an accident, a necessity or something God needed. It is the overflow of his will.

So the first thing heaven teaches is not what God does for us. It is that he is worthy, and that all things, ourselves included, exist for him. Tomorrow we see that worthiness met in a person.