January 21 - The Throne Room (pt. 4)

January 21 – The Throne Room (pt. 4)
Revelation 4:1-11

The last piece of symbolism in this picture is the Sea of Glass. There are actually several layers of symbolism within this. “Before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal.” (Rev. 4:6)

First of all we see that there is a vast expanse between John and the throne. At the same time, the reader is asked to see the expanse between heaven and earth.

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters he called ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:7)

In Exodus 24:10, Moses, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement of sapphire, clear as the sky itself.

The people hearing these words came together each week to learn scripture. They didn’t just hear these words and forget them, they imbedded them in their hearts, so as to never forget. When John saw this sea of glass, they knew what he was seeing. They’d seen this in their minds eye over and over as scripture was being read.

The last bit of symbolism is taken from God’s image of heaven on earth, the Temple. The Laver (basin) that was in the Tabernacle was called a Sea in Solomon’s Temple. It was filled with the water that was used to purify the priests before entering the temple.

The sea before the throne of God would have symbolized purification before entering the presence of God.

As we move throughout the next chapters of the Revelation, we will learn more about the Elders and Creatures. Most scholars assume that the elders represent the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples. More specifically, the Old Covenant (twelve tribes) and the New Covenant (twelve disciples).

The elders prostrate themselves six different times in the Revelation. Three times they are joined by the four creatures and once by all of the angels. They voluntarily lay down their crowns and their dignity.

The four creatures represent all of animate creation. The lion represents nobility, the ox – strength, man represents wisdom and the eagle represents speed. In Isaiah 6:1-3, we see the seraphs – each with six wings – the same as the creatures in Revelation 4. In Ezekiel 1:4-15, he sees four creatures, with the faces of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle. In Ezekiel 10:12, he describes them as being completely full of eyes – just as we see in Revelation.

It’s exciting to me to see God’s hand moving throughout all of Scripture. The Word of God moved throughout time. In Revelation, we find God drawing us back through the entire Bible to learn how to make all of this relevant to our lives and to our times, just as it was to the churches receiving this letter in the first century.