Revelation 4:2 At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.
We have a number of photo albums around our house, most collecting dust, if I am completely honest. My wife uses Facebook like a photo album these days. But I realized that we have over 40,000 photos on our computer. Yikes! I had better get busy looking at them. If I start now, I can be finished by….
Photos are wonderful because we call allow them to carry us to moments in our past. The pictures color a moment in the present with the brush strokes from the past. When we look, and we should look, we make the connection between past and present.
This is precisely what the human authors of the Scriptures did so often. We might not notice it, as the first readers would have, but the current words of the text of the New Testament so often bring up the stories and lessons from the Old Testament. We don’t notice it because we are not seeped in the Old Testament as those first readers.
WE notice one of these pictures in our text today. John, the human writer of the Revelation, mentions the throne of heaven with someone seated on it. For these first readers their minds would have immediately brought up Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1, and Daniel 7, three Old Testament passages that gave the readers a glimpse of heaven in earthly language.
It is almost as if there were a modern hyperlink in the text. The author mentions the word and their minds click to the other passages and then brings the understand of the previous passages into the present passage. This idea of a hyperlink was first presented to me by Tim Mackie of the Bible Project.
So what was the picture of this throne in heaven like? It is so glorious that human words can’t even begin to scratch the surface. Just go read those three chapter mentioned earlier. Let the words speak to you directly.
And this is the picture that John picks up and uses here in Revelation. He uses some of the same language as the previous Prophets had used. There are beasts and creatures and angelic beings and the glowing occupant of the Throne. The language is hard to understand, as it is human language attempting to capture the eternal glory of the dwelling place of our Eternal God. No language is able to capture it.
In John’s description some things are added that pertain to the churches to whom he is writing. There are twenty-four additional thrones and elders, probably depicting the continuity between the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve apostles of the Church. Their action is that of a worshipping community, giving glory, honor and thanks to the Occupant of the Throne.
So what can we glean from this? I think the most important lesson is that the Church and Israel, whatever shape that takes, are together as one family with one goal. There is continuity between the Old Testament and the Church. The Church continues the work that Israel was designed to fulfill, but failed to do.
The Church is to be God’s presence and grace to the world. We are to be bringing people to God and God to the people. We are the lamp through whom the Light of the World shines.
How are you doing at this?
The Arnold Journey 