Notes on the book of Revelations/Chapter 4
In the fourth chapter we come to the next branch of the subject—the things μετά ταύτα, or (as it is here translated) which must be hereafter, taking up i. 19.
If we take the former part, as the protracted condition of the Church dispensation, then this will be the power of the throne of Him who was, and is, and is to come[1] (the Lamb being still, however, there), exercised over the world, after the close of this dispensation, yet properly before the beginning of the next. If we take the former part, as the things which actually then were (and, doubtless, such actually existed), then it is the governance of the world, when the Church had no formal recognised existence on earth which could be called the habitation of God in any full sense, though just as dear: to him, individually, as regards salvation. I believe both these thoughts are intended for the Church.
The apostle now is translated (in spirit) into heaven. Before, he had seen Christ, on turning round—a newly revealed state of things—but on earth, and he there still: but the churches now were no longer so recognised; and the voice which he had heard at the first behind him on earth now calls him up to heaven.
Here, accordingly, for the first time, he saw the throne, for it is set in heaven (the earth, as addressing the Church, he had left), and there was one sitting on it.
Heretofore, it has been the Son of Man judging upon earth: according to His various glory, in address; but in vision, the Son of Man. We have not the Son of Man again, till the judgment in xiv. 14. The Lamb only is concerned in the seals. The angelic power is connected with the trumpets. We shall see this more particularly; but I remark only, the Lamb is always in a higher or lower place; this latter, by grace, not exercising intermediate providences. In the throne, suffering, or judging.
It was in heaven the apostle must learn the things which were to be hereafter. There only they can be learnt;[2] and by the habituation of the mind there, seen[errata 1], as they are important to God, to Christ, and, therefore, to the Church, and to the Spirit for the Church; no one having the Spirit so as to be interested in God’s mind about the Church loved of Christ, could be indifferent to them.
But to follow closely the chapters. The fourth chapter sets up the throne in heaven, and one sitting on it; the sign of the covenant with creation was around the throne.
There is no statement of a veil, intercession, incense, or priesthood. It is government—elders on thrones. There were the seven spirits, the Holy Ghost in his energy and perfectness, the fixed moral purity which belonged to the place, the approach to the throne, and lastly (that of which most was said), four beasts, which were the heads of the genera of creation, and filled with the intelligence and activity of providence, celebrating Jehovah Elohim Shaddai, the covenant and dispensation names of God, not the relationship name of the Church, thus representing the throne of providence and creation, controlling all the springs of the state of things in nature; of which throne these living attributes of God formed the pillars and support ; they were κύκλω τοῦ θρόνου. It was the temple; but the temple was the accompaniment of the throne, without veil or priest. The twenty-four elders may be taken as the representatives of the redeemed of the two dispensations; but it was not the essential character. They were on thrones. The beasts, or living creatures, are more particularly noticed as connected with the living creatures of Ezekiel—the living supports of the throne of God leaving Jerusalem, now found as parts of the circle of the throne in heaven.[3]
We may remark, that all dispensation, and that which is the source of it, is noticed (save the Church properly, i.e. sons with the Father), God,[errata 2], Shaddai, i.e. God, as with Abraham, the Almighty, and Jehovah, the Governor, who was, and is, and is to come. A part of these living creatures, the eyes, are found elsewhere: first, in 2 Chron. xvi. 9; there service generally:—in Ezekiel their connection is with the place of the throne in Jerusalem, but a throne of God over all, the Spirit leading:—graven on the stone laid, in Zechariah iii. 9; and again, in Zechariah iv. 10., resuming their course through the earth, and, as we shall soon see, as the eyes of the Lamb (as possessing all power in heaven and earth) the seven spirits so sent forth.
This, then, established the throne; the Church not being (properly speaking) in the scene at all, save representatively in the enthroned elders. It was another subject. The throne of Him that liveth for ever and ever, was the subject here.
- ↑ In the next, He is Son of Man and Son of David seated on His throne.
- ↑ History was not written in heaven. I believe that the attempt to interpret prophecy by history has been most injurious to the ascertaining of its real meaning. When we have ascertained, by the aid of the Spirit of Christ, the mind of God, we have, as far as it be history, God’s estimate of events and their explanation. But history is man’s estimate of events, and he has no right to assume that these are in prophecy at all; and it is clear that he must understand prophecy, before he can apply it to any. When he understands it, he has what God meant to give him without going farther, I do not admit history to be, in any sense, necessary to the understanding of prophecy. I get present facts, and God’s moral account of what led to them, and thereby His moral estimate of them: I do not want history to tell me Nineveh or Babylon are ruined, or Jerusalem in the hands of the Gentiles. Of course, where any prophecy does apply to facts, it is a true history of those facts; but it is much more. It is the connection of those facts with the purposes of God in Christ, and whenever any isolated fact, however important in the eyes of man, is taken as the fulfilment of a prophecy, that prophecy is made of private interpretation, and that I believe to be the meaning of that passage. Of course, when any prophecy is fulfilled, the fulfilment is evidence of its truth, but the Christian does not need this; and evidence of truth and interpretation are two very different things.
- ↑ The four characters of beasts are the heads of the four genera stated in Genesis. Birds of the air, cattle, beasts of the field, and man; doubtless they had specific characters as to attribute too.