The Throne of God
REVELATION 4:1-3
“After 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.’ At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne.” (Rev. 4:1-3, NIV).
PROLOGUE
In the first chapter of the book of Revelation, the Apostle John mentions that he was raptured in the Spirit on the island of Patmos. He saw our Lord Jesus Christ in a symbolic form, like a Son of man. John perceived the One who received the Revelation from God to show to his servants what must soon take place.
The Lord commanded John to write seven letters to the seven Churches, representing the whole Lord’s Church in seven epochs. In those letters, we find a summarized history of the whole Church, various encouragements and reproaches together with promises to the overcomers. The letters are inserted in the second and the third chapters.
However, in the fourth chapter John also saw God Himself in a symbolic form, seated on a throne and holding in His right hand a scroll written within and on the back, closed and sealed with seven seals.
A DOOR WAS OPENED
The chapter begins with these words: “After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.” The book of Revelation is symbolic, that is why it is not for us to understand those words literally, although John saw heaven opened literally.
We remember that the heavens also opened when our Lord Jesus Christ, after His baptism in Jordan, went up out of the water (Matthew 3:16). Then the Spirit of God descended like a dove to alight on Him. Jesus, being begotten of the holy Spirit, was thenceforth able to understand the deep things of God, the spiritual and heavenly things. Heaven opened to Him.
A similar event is recorded in the prophecy of Ezekiel. The prophet said: “The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” Undoubtedly, the vision of Ezekiel is similar to the vision of John. It might even be said that these visions are connected and that we cannot explain one without the other. Ezekiel and John could see the glory of God, the throne of God, not a literal throne, but a symbolic one. We perceive that both visions refer, to some extent and in a second sense, to the time of our Lord’s second presence.
Sometimes, what is said about our Heavenly Father also refers, secondarily, to our Lord Jesus. For example, the prophet Isaiah, speaking of God, declared: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3). The Apostle John, in his gospel, applies this prophecy to our Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote: “They could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere: He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts …
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (John 12:39-41).
In Psalm 9 7 we read: “The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne” (Psalms 97:1, 2). These words refer first of all to our Heavenly Father, but they have also reference to our Lord Jesus secondarily, since 1878, because our Lord then began to reign in the name of His Father, as the representative of the Almighty.
It even happens that the throne is common to our Heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, as we read: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city” (Revelation 22:3). But we do not understand that the Lamb would be equal to God. The position of the Lamb would only be at the right hand of God. It is written: “When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28).
In view of these facts, the word heaven in our text may have a larger meaning and represent the new heavens, in which righteousness dwells, the third heaven or age; this third age follows the Judaic age and the Gospel age (2 Peter 3:5, 7, 13; 2 Cor. 12:2).
When John saw the door opened in heaven, he was not in heaven, but on the earth, on the island called Patmos. The word Patmos means death. John represents here the last members of the Body of Christ, being still in the flesh and dying a sacrificial death. We remember what the Lord said about John: “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” (John 21:22). Not John, but those whom he represented, were to remain alive. The Apostle Paul has written: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven … and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we who are alive and remain …” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17).
The last members are caught up by the Spirit on the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10, NEB), in the time of the second presence of the Lord, in the beginning of the last day (John 6:40, 44), the seventh thousand years, when the Lord girds Himself and gives them spiritual food in due season (Luke 12:37; Matthew 24:45-47).
These members are caught up by the seasonable truths; they understand them by the holy Spirit. They see that a new age is beginning and the old age is finishing, that the day is dawning and that the night is disappearing, that light is increasing and darkness is decreasing, that the old heavens are being shaken and the new heavens are already at the door. The door of the new heavens is opened and they see the beginning of the blessings which will be the lot of all mankind.
A VOICE LIKE A TRUMPET
John heard a voice speaking to him like a trumpet. John heard the voice of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he declared that he heard this voice before. He had heard the same voice when he saw our Lord like a Son of man. We read in Revelation 1:10,12,13: “On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpeter. I turned round to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man.”
These words refer to the time of the Lord’s second presence, when the John class is caught up by the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, when they receive a clearer understanding of the Truth, at the beginning of the last day. The Lord’s Day is to say the present day. Paul said: “For you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2).
In this first chapter of Revelation, the Lord spoke to John like a trumpet, and the Lord speaks like a trumpet during his second presence: “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven … with the trumpet call of God” (1 Thess. 4:16). The trumpet of God sounds in the Lord’s day.
If the first Lord’s speaking to John, like a trumpet, refers to the time of the second presence of the Lord, the second speaking of the Lord to John, also like a trumpet, recorded in the fourth chapter of Revelation, is connected in a sense with the time of the Parousia, with the present time.
The prophet Ezekiel does not mention the trumpet, but he makes mention of an event which applies to the time of the Lord’s presence. We read in verse 4: “I looked, and l saw a windstorm coming out of the north-an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The centre of the fire looked like glowing metal.” A windstorm came out of the north. Our Lord precisely left the sides of the north (Isaiah 14:13) where He was seated on the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 8:10; 10: 12); He “himself came down from heaven” (1 Thess. 4:16). The prophet saw an “immense cloud”; our Lord came with the clouds (Matt. 24:30; Rev. 1:7). The expression “with flashing lightning” or “with a fire flashing continually” according to another version, reminds us of 2 Thessalonians 1:7 where Paul said that the Lord will be revealed from heaven in flaming fire. It is said that the cloud was surrounded by brilliant light, because a fire was in it. The coming of the Lord is accompanied by fire. We remember what the Psalmist said: “ Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles” (Psalms 97:3, 4).
In the book of Exodus, however, in a similar statement which also relates to the second coming, the trumpet is mentioned. “On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.” (Exodus 19:6-19).
The descending of the Lord on mount Sinai in fire represents the descending of the Lord Jesus from heaven at his second coming, because fire, thunder, the sound of the trumpet, smoke, the voice of God, lightning and the trembling of the mountain are symbolical and represent events of the present day in the world (Hebrews 12:18-27).
The sound of the trumpet heard on mount Sinai corresponds to the sound of the trumpet of God (1 Thess. 4:16), the last trumpet, at the sound of which the Church is raised up (1 Cor. 15:52). The last trumpet is of necessity the seventh trumpet (Rev. 11:15) and corresponds to the trumpet of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9, 10). At the increasing sound of this symbolic trumpet of liberty and truth, the world is awakening and asserting its rights. All nations claim freedom and the abolishment of every form of slavery.
“COME UP HERE”
Our Lord, speaking to John like a trumpet, said to him: “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” John did not ascend to heaven, but he was caught up by the Spirit: ‘At once I was in the Spirit.” He came under the Spirit’s power, according to some versions. God, who is rich in mercy and because of His great love for us, “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions, raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:4-6). John, being begotten of the holy Spirit, to a spiritual nature, was seated in the heavenly places and reckoned spiritual (Gal. 6:1) as a new creature in Christ Jesus. In this case, however, he was raised up still higher in Spirit, in order that he might see what was to take place in the future.
Those who belong to the John class and who like him are begotten of the holy Spirit, and among whom we are counted, ought to raise themselves high in spirit, that is to say they ought to possess as much holy Spirit as possible to understand the deep things of God, the timely truths, and by the same token to be strong in the faith.
– Antoine Papajak, France