The Revelation of the Throne

Behold the Throne in Revelation 4

Behold, a Throne!

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD's throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright" (Psalm 11:7).

As if with tribulation in mind, David asks one of earth's most haunting questions: when the world comes unglued, what can the righteous do? He immediately answers his own question with a vision--as if to say, we can't do anything but worship. We don't throw up our hands in defeat; we throw up our hands in praise. The sovereign Lord is still on His throne. This throne is the first thing the Apostle John sees when a door opens in heaven in Revelation 4:1.

On the Throne

"And, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne" (Revelation 4:2). Who is sitting on this throne? John has just beheld the exalted Christ, with features unmatched elsewhere in Scripture: His head and hair, like wool, as white as snow; His eyes as a flame of fire; His feet like fine brass burned in a furnace; His voice as the sound of many waters; out of His mouth a sharp two-edged sword; His countenance shining with the strength of the sun. This newly terrifying persona of the One who has washed us in His own blood (Revelation 1:5) is not who John sees now.

He writes, "And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald" (Revelation 4:3). This is the God of Israel whom Moses saw on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:9-10), the Ancient of Days whom Daniel envisioned in Babylon (Daniel 7:9-10). And when we realize that Scripture is severely reserved in giving any physical description of God the Father--for, as John writes elsewhere, no man has seen God at any time (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12)--we sense that John's vision here carries unprecedented significance--as did his vision of Christ.

The details are not merely descriptive; they are prescriptive: jasper--a diamond flashing in blinding brilliance--and sardine--a gem radiating blood-red fire--denote terrifying symbolism: the holiness of God demands justice, and make no mistake--justice is on its way. "When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" They can look up, for God sits on His throne.

Round about the Throne

The Emerald Rainbow

Round about the throne of God, which blazes with white purity and fiery justice, glows a rainbow such as earth has never shown. If the half has never yet been told, this rainbow gives a clue--for all we see on earth is but half a bow bent to the horizon. But this rainbow is completely circular and unending with multi-dimensional emerald light. "And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald" (Revelation 4:3). The emerald rainbow circumscribing the throne of God that sits on nothing reveals that, even in wrath, God remembers mercy.

The Twenty-four Elders

And also round about this throne sit twenty-four elders clothed in white raiment with crowns of gold on their heads. Who are these elders? Believed by pretribulation dispensationalists to represent the Church raptured before the time of Jacob's Trouble, textual evidence and logical inference point instead to twenty-four literal elders, comprised of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Twelve Disciples. Not only does the word "elders" (presbyteros) in Scripture always denote men in leadership; it never refers to the Church as a whole. The elders in this scene are shown to hold the identical positions of authority that Christ promised His disciples and that God covenanted with Israel: they are seated before the throne, wearing crowns of gold. Their executive purpose here, as becomes unmistakable in Revelation 5, renders any substitution of a corporate raptured entity not only irrelevant but inappropriate as an obvious reduction in meaning.

Scripture elsewhere strengthens, both thematically and structurally, the logical inference of a literal twenty-four elders, for the number twenty-four is drafted physically into the blueprint of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. The Holy City has twelve gates named after the Twelve Patriarchs, and it has twelve foundations identified as the Twelve Apostles. In God's mathematics, twelve as the number of completion squares with itself to represent perfection, and this City's total dimensions clearly signify the harmony of redemption across the Old and New Testaments.

Antithetical to the division between the Church and Israel demanded by dispensationalism, this unity is vividly foreshadowed in Peter's writings, when he describes the Diaspora as "lively stones . . . built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 2:5). This unity of Jew and Gentile is possible only because, as Peter continues, "Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded" (1 Peter 2:6). If Jesus is the Cornerstone, there is only one City--a city, as Abraham sought, whose builder and maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). When we see that not merely the governance of this City but its very architecture denotes twenty-four handpicked leaders, we understand exactly why twenty-four literal elders are here worshiping in anticipation around the throne.

We would further point out that, because these elders represent Christ's ruling body and not the Church at large, no Rapture was required to get them here. Twenty-three of them had already died. Only John is still alive on earth, and he is here summoned in Revelation 4:1--"Come up here"--to join them in a proleptic projection of future fulfillment known to the apocalyptic genre. Through this literary device, John is present here as if in duplicate--in a manner Dickens utilized in A Christmas Carol.

The Four Beasts

Also around the throne is yet another group representing the unity of all of God's creation. Four beasts, each bearing six wings and being full of eyes before and behind, worship around the throne of God forever and ever. As prototyped by the Cherubim in Old Testament Scripture, these "beasts," or living creatures, encompass the entire created world: the lion, as the king of wild beasts; the calf, as the ox of domesticated labor; the beast with the face of a man, representing God's crowning creation; and the last like a flying eagle, as the king of the air. I learned a sweet song when I was five years old: "Little birds their Maker praise; why not I? Why not I?" Nothing can restrain creation's praise as lion, calf, man, and eagle rest around the throne. Rather, the beasts rest unresting in their praise of God, saying night and day, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come" (Revelation 4:8).

And when the beasts lead worship, giving glory and honor and thanks to Him that sits on the throne--the One who lives forever and ever--the twenty-four elders fall down before Him and cast their crowns forever and ever, for He lives forever and ever and ever.

Out of the Throne

And out of the throne--flashing with white, red, and emerald light surrounded by eternally worshipping elders and beasts--come lightnings and thunderings and voices such as accompanied the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. A "horrible tempest," such as smote anyone who touched the mountain, is about to "rain snares, fire and brimstone" upon the wicked--not, this time, for trespassing against God's holiness but for rejecting Christ's righteousness.

Before the Throne

John also sees before the throne seven lamps of fire burning (Revelation 4:5; 5:6) as the seven Spirits of God. Jesus, the Light of the World--as the menorah of heaven's temple--shines before the Father's throne, before which John also beholds "a sea of glass like unto crystal" (Revelation 4:6). The washbasin of heaven's temple no longer ripples with cleansing, for time has run out. And the elders fall on their faces, casting their crowns and worshipping: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11). "Thou art worthy, indeed, O Lord," a prostrate David would cry. But who alone is worthy to open the scroll?