The Court of Heaven Rev. 4:5-8
Revelation chapters four and
five should be understood as one unit. It is an extremely dramatic scene in
heaven, a future scene. John is being transported not only to heaven but he is
going to be given a vision of future things. He is going to see what will take
place during the future time known as the day of Jacob’s wrath/trouble in the
Old Testament, or Daniel’s seventieth week, or what is more commonly referred
to as the great Tribulation. The first scene as we go through this section of
the book of Revelation deals with what is going on in heaven. It is a heavenly
court room scene, the scene before the throne of God. Chapter four gives us an
introduction to the scene, we learn who all of these major characters are but
the action really doesn’t begin until the last couple of verses when the
heavenly chorus of the four living creatures begins to sing and worship God.
But the main action takes place in the fifth chapter. Chapter five sets up what
is going to happen in the rest of the book of Revelation.
The first person that we are
introduced to is the person sitting upon the throne, God the Father. The second
group that is present in this heavenly scene is identified as the twenty-four
elders, the raptured and rewarded church age
believers who are in this scene sitting on thrones around the throne of God in
heaven. We have yet to identify the seven lamps and the seven spirits of God
before the throne, the four living creatures, the Lamb who will come forward to
take the scroll, and the seven seals on the scroll.
These are foundational to understanding the events that transpire during the
rest of the Tribulation period.
We now come to the second
part of verse 5, “…And {there were} seven lamps of fire burning before the
throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” The text itself interprets the
symbol for us. The word that is used in the Greek for lamps here is actually
the word from which we derive our English word lamp, which is the word LAMAPADES [lampadej]. It is actually a word that should be translated a
torch, it is not a word for a typical oil lamp that would have been used, for
example, to illuminate a house or building, it was more of a torch. These seven
torches are identified within the context as referring to the seven spirits of
God. This is an interpretation that is somewhat puzzling to many people. There
are those who suggest that the root for understanding this is found back in
Isaiah 11:2. “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.” This is a passage that is a prophecy related to the
Messiah (v. 1). The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon the Messiah, and then the
rest of the verse describes the various aspects or attributes of the Spirit of
the Lord: 1) wisdom and understanding; 2) the spirit of counsel and strength;
3) the spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. There are not seven there,
only six. Many apparently have taken the initial reference “the Spirit of the
Lord” as an independent reference, but that is identifying the personage, the
next six are identifying the attributes. So Isaiah 11:2 cannot be the Old
Testament reference for understanding this particular image of the Holy Spirit
as the seven lamps.
We see this representation
several times in the book of Revelation. For example, in 1:4 in which he gives
a Trinitarian reference and then, secondly, “from the seven Spirits who are
before his throne.” Then third, “from Jesus Christ the faithful witness…” So it
is a reference to the Trinity. There is the Father who is referred to as the
one who is, and who was, and who is to come.” When it comes to that third
statement, “and who is to come,” a lot of people have balked at that and said
that the one who is coming is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But if we look in Revelation 21 what we discover is that in the future
God the Father will come, and it is said there that he will make His abode with
us. So at the end of the book of Revelation the one who is coming to make His
abode with us is God the Father. So He is referred to several times in the book
of Revelation clearly as the one who is and was and is to come, as the one who
is sitting upon the throne. In a number of passages we also have in that same
scene not only the one on the throne, the one who was, who is, and is to come,
but you also have the Lamb. The Lamb is the second person of the Trinity, so
these must be understood as two distinct personages, the first person of the
Trinity and the second person of the Trinity. And before His throne we have the
Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, identified as the seven spirits.
There has to be an
interpretation given for this that we can go to in the Old Testament. You don’t
come to the book of Revelation and just see these symbols and images and then
sort of contemplate your navel and wonder what this could be, or just think
that seven is some sort of number and has some sort of biblical numerology.
This is the sort of thing that historicists have done that leads to a lot of
confusion when they try to understand what is going on in the book of
Revelation. But as we have seen many times in our study these symbols, these
images that we discover in the book of Revelation are derived from the Old
Testament. Indeed, this particular reference to the Holy Spirit as the seven
lamps has its origin in Zechariah chapter four. Zechariah is a post-exilic
prophet. He is one of three prophets who came to
Zechariah 4:1, 2 NASB
“Zech 4:1 Then the angel who was speaking with me
returned and roused me, as a man who is awakened from his sleep.
Zechariah 4:4-6 NASB
“Then I said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, “What are these, my
lord?”
Zechariah
Revelation 4:6 NASB
“and before the throne {there was something} like a sea of glass, like crystal;
and in the center and around the throne, four living
creatures full of eyes in front and behind.” It is not a crystal sea, and idea
that is heard in some hymns, it is a sea of glass that looks like crystal, a
sea that is glass-like. It is a glassy sea, flat. What is the significance of
this particular sea? In the Old Testament, for example in 1 Kings 7:23 the
laver that was out in front of the temple where the priest would have to wash
his hands and his feet was called the sea, the bronze sea. It is a picture of
the fact that there is something that separates man from God and there has to
be cleansing before man can come into the presence of God. So the best
explanation of this is that between God and His creatures there is this sea,
this expanse, a separation between creatures and the creator. God is completely
distinct; He is unique. That is bound up in our idea of
holiness that Christians use a lot and are not really sure what it
means. It loses its value over time because it is repeated so much. The idea of
holiness comes out of the Old Testament and the root word there is based on the
word qodesh
which has to do with being completely set apart to the service of God. When God
is the focus of this verbiage based on qodesh he is the one who is totally distinct, totally
unique, there is none like Him, He is completely holy.
This begins to set us up for the focus of the doxology, the praise that is sung
by the four living creatures in verse 8” “HOLY,
HOLY, HOLY {is} THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO
WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” Then
we are told, “and in the center
and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.”
Again we have this same imagery of eyes. These living creatures are then
described in verse 7.
Revelation 4:7 NASB
“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.” There is a distinction made here between how these four
living creatures were described and the cherubim in Ezekiel chapters one and
two. In Ezekiel the cherubs each had these four faces, but here these four
living creatures each has a different face, so they
are not the same as the cherubim in Ezekiel. What is interesting here is that
these four living creatures as well as the faces on the cherubs in Ezekiel
preceded the creation of the animal kingdom. The angels were created first,
then as God was creating in Genesis chapter one He created the animals, and He
culminated with the creation of man. But what preceded all of them was the
existence of the cherubs and the living creatures. So obviously some sort of
pattern existed in the mind of God where He created the living creatures and
the cherubs with these features, and then He duplicated those features in
various members of the animal kingdom. We have to identify who these four
living creatures.
Revelation 4:8 NASB
“And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of
eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY {is} THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO
WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME.” The
imagery of the eyes indicates knowledge. The function of the four living
creatures is to sing praises to God in heaven. There is obviously no day or
night in heaven but John is simply expressing in his own frame of reference
that there is no cessation to their worship. Incidentally, this term “Lord God,
the Almighty” is one that is used consistently throughout the book of
Revelation.
Revelation 4:9-11 NASB
“And when the living creatures give glory and honor
and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the
twenty-four elders [church age believers] will fall down before Him who sits on
the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast
their crowns before the throne, saying,
The doctrine of angels, an introductory
summation
1) Both the Greek word AGGELOS [a)ggeloj] and
the Hebrew word malak,
translated “angel,” are terms that mean simply messenger. The English word that
we have for angel is simply a transliteration of the Greek word. It is a word
that means messenger and obviously this is a functional term that tells us
something about their role and purpose to serve as heavenly emissaries.
2) The term describes a class of rational immaterial
spirit beings created by God to fulfil a variety of functions. They are
mediators of divine revelation (Galatians 3:19); they are messengers of God
(Daniel 10:11); they are witnesses of God’s justice, and this is their role
throughout the book of Revelation; they are attendant to the divine throne (Ezekiel
1:5; Isaiah 6:2-6; Revelation 4 & 5); they are overseers of the outworking
of divine judgment. Again, this is seen throughout the book of Revelation. They
were originally created higher than man but man in the resurrection will be over
the angels. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6 that we will judge the angels.
3) Angels can appear in human form. They can apparently
transform their immaterial bodies into material bodies that take on all of the
attributes of flesh and blood (Genesis 18). Throughout the Scriptures they
always appear as males. There are different categories of angels, so this indicates
perhaps a ranking among the angels. Several angels are described as flying
(Daniel
4) Scripture reveals several classifications of angels.
Cherubim are the highest class of angels. Lucifer, the pre-fall name we use to
identify Satan, was of this class. He was the highest of the cherubs. Cherubs
are identified in Scripture in association with the glory, the holiness, and
the majesty of God. They are described in Ezekiel 1:5-14, and even though the
name cherub is not used in chapter one, in Ezekiel