THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Lesson 12 - Chapters 4 & 5
Because of the substantial volume of unfilled prophecy and mystery that it contains, Revelation
is the most challenging book in the New Testament, if not the entire Holy Bible. Therefore I will
endeavor to review the previous lesson to start the next, and at other times sum up what we
have heard and learned in order to keep us on the most level ground we can find. We'll take
some time to do that to begin today's discussion.
Chapter 4 (that we started last week) ushered us into a new vision given by God to John the
Apostle, a Jew in exile on the Mediterranean island of Patmos. On this Roman prison island
John had the vision not only of the letters of God's judgment upon 7 Believing congregations of
Asia but he also received other visions that form all of what we read in the Book of Revelation.
These 7 were not the only Believers' assemblies in Asia at that time; but they may have been
the largest and/or the most known. Each of the 7 were Jewish synagogues whereby the
leadership and the members agreed that Yeshua of Nazareth was indeed the
Mashiach (Messiah), the anointed one, upon whom the Jewish people had waited for
centuries. Many gentiles had joined the Messianic movement by now, but not without struggle
as to how these gentiles, considered unclean according to Jewish tradition, could possibly be
part of, and fit in with a mostly Jewish congregation without contaminating these devout Jews
with their ritual impurity. The matter had been addressed and guidelines were put forth more
than 40 years earlier than the writing of Revelation in the famous Jerusalem Council chaired by
James the biological brother of Jesus, and attended by Paul the Apostle, the leader of those
who evangelized gentiles and Jews who lived outside the Holy Land.
The time of John's visions was probably the early 90's A.D., meaning it had been 2 decades
since Rome had put down a Jewish rebellion by besieging Jerusalem, destroying the Temple
and much of the city, while killing thousands of Jewish citizens in Judea and the Galilee. John
was the only remaining Apostle of the original 12 and due to the horrendously traumatic
destruction of the Temple, the scattered persecutions against Believers in Christ, and the
continuing occupation of the Jewish national homeland by the Romans, John believed as did
Paul that the End Times was upon them; Yeshua was expected to return and rescue Israel and
its people from its dismal situation at any moment. This explains the extreme urgency to
spread the Good News, and the disdain for their own lives, present among the Apostles and
other Jewish evangelists of the mid-1st century A.D.; a disdain that modern Believers would do
well to emulate as we too must assume that we are on the event horizon of the return of our
Lord and Savior from His heavenly seat at the Father's right hand.
Just as Paul had been certain of it 4 decades earlier. John was also certain that the end could
not be more than a few months or years away because of the fulfilled prophecies concerning
the ruination of the Temple and what comes thereafter. So it is for us that we can know for
certain that the end cannot be too far ahead of us because of the fulfilled prophecies about the
rebirth of Israel in but one day, and the control of Jerusalem being wrested away from gentiles
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and returned to the Jewish people.
In chapters 1 - 3 God's vision to John was about judging (meaning evaluating) the spiritual
temperature and temperament within 7 specifically named assemblies. In each case the Lord
either pronounced His commendation upon the assembly, or His condemnation of it, or as in
most of the letters a mixture of both. These are neither made-up stories nor general metaphors
about churches; these were real Believing congregations and the letters addressed to them
were meant to communicate God's assessment of them. That said, there are lessons to be
universally learned in all eras by those who call Yeshua Lord and Savior. Therefore we are to
consider what God has to say as pertaining to ourselves as individuals and also as a corporate
body (that is, the congregation that we belong to) where it applies.
Perhaps one of the most difficult and bothersome outcomes from studying the letters to the 7
congregations is what we find about the One who is narrating the letters to John in his vision. It
is that we never get His name or position in the Godhead. While it is nearly universally insisted
upon that this is Jesus Christ, the divine figure Himself never says so nor does John. In fact
beyond the immutable reality that the person narrating is the God of Israel, John seems to
remain somewhat perplexed over who this person is. So rather than a name or a title we get a
series of statements that describe this individual only by a set of attributes and characteristics
that change letter to letter. The problem is that while some of the attributes and characteristics
typify Christ, others more typify the Father. Thus it is my position that while it is tempting to
solve the dilemma by simply declaring that this divine narrator is Jesus (because that way the
doctrines of several popular Christian denominations are not harmed) the material to this point
leaves His precise identity a mystery. Therefore we too shall (at least for now) leave His
identity as a mystery as we engage the next recorded vision given to John.
This next vision begins with the opening words of Revelation chapter 4. It is important to grasp
that we have essentially 2 ways to think about how to understand the order of John's visions.
Either we are to assume that the order they are given to us within Revelation is the specific
order in which John received them; or the order they were received is not the same as the
order John wrote them down. And within the context of each of those 2 choices is the matter of
whether the many events foretold within each vision unfold in precisely the order they are
spoken, or is the order they occur not necessarily the point but rather only that all the listed
events are certain to happen in some order or another. Most Christian denominations have
made their choices, written them in stone, and declared them as part of their faith doctrines.
Thus depending on the denomination the interpretation and meaning of the many mysterious
beings and events of Revelation are generally predetermined. We shall take a different
approach and do our best to set aside our doctrinal filters and, adding only the hindsight of
history and of ancient language and culture, reckon that the words of Revelation mean what
they say and say what they mean. And where things are unclear, some may remain unclear.
This necessarily implies that we will not be able to provide answers to some of the intriguing
mysteries that we wish we could. However, to me, at times no answer is better than pure
speculation or the employment of the human imagination because the first way allows us to be
open to interpreting current events within the confines of Scripture while the second way limits
us to interpreting current events only within the boundaries of manmade doctrines and
traditions.
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Chapters 4 and 5 work together and probably should not have been later divided into 2
chapters. They are part of the same vision and revolve around the same motif of the throne of
God in Heaven. Whereas the prophecies of Ezekiel tend to play a large role in chapters 1 -3,
and still have a contributing role in chapter 4, the prophecies of Daniel become dominant in
chapters 4 and 5. The heavenly throne room is the setting and the glory of both God and Christ
are the emphasis. What gets overlooked nearly universally among Christian commentators is
the tight connection between God, Yeshua, and the throne room (that is, the heavenly Temple)
as presented by John, and its earthly counterpart represented in the tribes of Israel, the
Temple and the Priesthood. In fact without recognizing that tight connection the interpretation
of these passages has to resort to allegory. We spoke specifically about that last time as John
describes the appearance of God as like jasper and carnelian (also called sardius), with a
rainbow of emerald surrounding the throne (it is true that the CJB says diamonds and rubies
but that is a poor translation that is neither warranted nor does it agree with other solid
translations). Looking to the Torah we find that jasper is the symbol for the 12th tribe of Israel,
Benjamin, and carnelian is the symbol for the 1st tribe of Israel, Reuben, and emerald is the
symbol for the 4th tribe of Israel, Judah, from which came the Messiah. These stones were
arranged and placed in birth order on the Breastplate of the High Priest so that when he went
before the Lord, so did the 12 tribes of Israel.
Surrounding God's throne are 24 Elders sitting on their own thrones. By default these can only
be Believers, but they must also represent the 24 courses of priests and Levites who served
the Lord on earth at the Temple in 2 week increments. Ezekiel chapter 44 tells us explicitly that
Levites and priests from the line of Tzadok will serve the Lord in the Millennial Temple
(meaning they must be Believers in Christ), and therefore it forms a tight fit that in Heaven
these would of course also be saved Priests and Levites. In the Book of Acts we read: Acts
6:7 CJB
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So the word of God continued to spread. The number of talmidim in
Yerushalayim increased rapidly, and a large crowd of cohanim were becoming obedient
to the faith. Therefore it was not rare but rather many Priests and Levites became Believers
not long after Christ's death. This is who the 24 Elders were surrounding God's throne in
Heaven as it connects directly with the reference to the tribes of Israel concerning the
appearance of God as like precious stones, which then directly relates to the tribal symbols.
And finally we encountered the strange 4 living creatures that guarded God's throne; beings
with faces like a man, Ox, eagle, and lion. This, too, forms a tight connection with the tribes of
Israel. We learned in Exodus that the 12 tribes encamped around the Wilderness Tabernacle
in 4 assigned groups of 3 tribes each with each grouping having a designated leader tribe. In
addition to precious stones as tribal symbols, each Israelite tribe also flew a banner that had
sewn onto it a living breathing creature as its symbol. And the 4 leader tribes' symbols exactly
match those of the faces of the 4 living creatures in Heaven: those of a man, an Ox, an eagle
and a lion.
Let's finish up chapter 4 and then get into chapter 5. Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 4
and we'll read from verses 8 - 11.
RE-READ REVELATION CHAPTER 4:8 - 11
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Verse 8 tells us that since the glory of God is the emphasis in Heaven then it follows that
praising Him and worshipping Him is the order of the day for those most closely surrounding
His throne. God is to be glorified because of His sovereignty and His holiness that is
unmatched and represents the very core and substance of His existence (if it can be called
such). We read from Genesis throughout the Old Testament and then regularly throughout the
New that the function of God's creation is to proclaim God's glory. The trees, the hills, the
stones; the stars and sun and moon; every living creature that crawls, swims, flies or walks; all
were created by God to glorify Him. As created sentient creatures that is especially the
fundamental purpose of humanity; but it is an even higher calling than the other creatures who
operate mainly on instinct. God has given humans a choice and free will that no other created
thing (other, perhaps, than angels) have; the choice to love and glorify Him...or not. And so
naturally when we get to Heaven that will also be the purpose of the spirits and souls of
everything and everyone that is present with God. Thus for a human being to NOT glorify God
(the God of the Bible), that is rebellion of the worst sort and so that human is marked for
eternal destruction since he or she refuses to serve his or her fundamental purpose for
existing.
The words used by the 4 living beings to praise God are: "Holy, holy, holy is ADONAI, God
of heaven's armies the One who was, who is and who is coming!" (Rev. 4:8 CJB) This is
taken directly from Isaiah 6:1-3, which is Isaiah's vision of God's throne that matches so closely
with John's.
CJB
Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King 'Uziyahu's death I saw Adonai sitting on a high, lofty
throne! The hem of his robe filled the temple.
2
S'rafim stood over him, each with six
wings- two for covering his face, two for covering his feet and two for flying.
3
They
were crying out to each other, "More holy than the holiest holiness is ADONAI-Tzva'ot!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!"
Since the reference used by John is to this passage in Isaiah then it behooves us to
understand it in the context that Isaiah gave it. When in the CJB version the Seraphim cry out
"More holy than the holiest holiness", that can also be legitimately (and probably better)
translated as "holy, holy, holy" (the word "holy" repeated 3 times). The object of that supreme
holiness is said to be Adonai Tzva'ot: the Lord of Heaven's hosts (or army). However that is
not quite complete either because the original language does not use the word Adonai; rather it
uses YHWH; yud-heh-vav-heh; Yehoveh. Therefore the proper translation is "Yehoveh of
Heaven's hosts". And of course Yehoveh, as always in the Bible, is the formal name for the
Father (although, admittedly, it might be possible to sometimes speak of Yehoveh as the sum
of the Godhead). Therefore that is exactly how we are to take it in Revelation 4:8. The praise is
being lavished upon God the Father (or perhaps Yehoveh the Godhead) who sits on the
central throne in Heaven.
Notice also how the characterization of God is as He "who was, who is, and who is to come".
This matches with the same characterization as we read back in Revelation 1:8, and makes us
scratch our heads about the "is to come" part since in nominal Christianity the person of God
who is "to come" is Christ. Yet we put that to rest some time ago when we looked at Zechariah
14 that specifically says that YHWH is also coming, and in fact when He steps foot on the Mt.
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of Olives it splits in half under the weight of His immense holiness. Thus while with 100%
certainty Yeshua Our Messiah is coming back, in some way the Father (or the entire Godhead)
is also coming to earth at the End Time.
Verse 10 then explains that whenever the 4 living beings sing out their praise to God it sets off
the 24 Elders who also give praise but with a slightly different pronouncement. Why do the
Elders pray as they do? Because they express that what makes God so worthy of praise is that
the entire creation came about solely by God's will and because God's omniscience is
demonstrated by His creation. A wonderful application for modern Believers is that we can be
confident that everything that will ever happen to us personally, and everything that has ever
happened in both recorded and unrecorded history, plays a role in God's purposes. Whether it
is from our abundance or our poverty; from our joy or from our suffering; let us always praise
God because nothing He permits truly goes to waste nor is it out of His control. All is
happening according to His plan and His plan focuses on redemption and restoration of His
creation.
Let's move on to Revelation chapter 5.
READ REVELATION CHAPTER 5 all
While chapter 5 is connected to chapter 4 and the two chapters really shouldn't be divided,
chapter 5 does provide a kind of transition from the ideal perfection exhibited in Heaven by the
4 living beings, the 24 Elders, the glorious design of the throne and the throne room and the
order and sinless condition of all involved, to the earthly realm with all the chaos, immorality,
suffering and pain, and rebelliousness in humanity that has been the world order since Adam
and Eve fell from grace.
But what we also are witness to from here forward is the inauguration of God's sovereignty in
its fullest, and at its most awful, over His creation in the End Times. This fallen world is about
to suffer what has been foretold and threatened by the Prophets for millennia: God's judgment
and wrath that brings history to a close, and also brings into reality manifest redemption to a
degree that mankind has never known. So here in chapter 5 begins the unavoidable process
that Believers must at once dread and welcome; a process with the happiest outcome, but also
one that may well cost us, and those we love, our physical lives.
I said in an earlier lesson that when we back away and take the far view of the Bible, what we
find is that in the Old Testament God brought deliverance for those who were His own from
oppression, death and suffering by defeating enemies and giving Israel supernatural strength
often under miraculous conditions. However in the New Testament, upon the advent of Christ,
we find that deliverance for His people (Believers) from oppression and suffering is often by
means of our physical death. The Believers' deliverance, then, is not from a life of misery and
troubles on earth to a life of abundance and peace on earth. Rather it is that through our
suffering and death, which is bound to our faith in God and identifies with the sufferings of
Christ, that we will have a true and perfect life in Paradise where peace and abundance
abound for eternity.
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One of my deep concerns among the Church as we know it today is not only the false teaching
of the Prosperity Doctrine, but also the false teaching that in the End Times those who trust
Christ can expect to avoid discomfort, tribulation and death as is prophesied to be coming for
all of earth's inhabitants. I'm not only speaking of when the Rapture may occur, but of all the
destructive events leading up to it. It fascinates me how some Believing people seem to
actually be looking forward to the devastating events of the End Times as they joyfully sing
"come Jesus, come" without seeming to realize that the two events arrive together. We are
regularly told in the New Testament to be faithful even unto death; this is not referring to dying
peacefully in our sleep. It is by no means that the New Testament glorifies death; rather it is
that because of Yeshua's death and resurrection that prefigures our own, we need not fear it.
Death is not the end for the Believer; it is but a transition to the Heaven that we saw described
for us in chapter 4.
I'm quite aware that some of this is not the message that most Christians want to hear.
Christians of the West, especially, have been conditioned to believe that salvation is a
universal get-out-jail-free card. Trust in Christ and all our troubles are over. Have enough faith
and that BMW and house with a swimming pool is as good as yours. Believe in Jesus, go to
Church, and before the big trouble that is somewhere ahead of us begins, you'll be painlessly
whisked away and avoid it all. That is a dangerous mindset because first of all it's not biblical
and it's not true. But second this is why so many seem to come to Christ only to fall away later;
they are sold a bill of goods, believe these false doctrines of men promised in God's name, and
when trouble inevitably comes, or perhaps when they aren't overwhelmed with the promised
abundance of material pleasures, they fall away because they think God has failed them. Don't
let this happen to you or to those you know. Believe the Word, understand that our hope is in
Christ and the joy we can have in the midst of troubles here in this present life; and for the
glorious future that comes after He returns and sets up God's Kingdom.
Verse 1 of chapter 5 continues what we were witnessing at the end of chapter 4; there is no
break or pause in the action. The One seated on the throne is the Father and what is about to
take place is but the fulfillment of the prophecy given to Daniel in chapter 7 of his book. It is
incumbent upon on us to take the time to read the prophecy to which John is alluding so that
we can see the full picture. Open your Bibles to Daniel chapter 7.
READ DANIEL CHAPTER 7 all
In Daniel 7:13-15 he explains that he sees in his vision one like a son of man approaching the
Ancient One, and that the son of man was given rulership and a kingdom by the Ancient One,
and that His rulership would never pass away. This, along with the rest of the vision, gave
Daniel a sizeable headache as it troubled him deeply. Not just because it was so frightening
but also because he couldn't make sense of it.
Here in Revelation chapter 5 John is attaching the identity of the person who is the one like the
son of man in Daniel to the Lamb that appears to have been slaughtered. That is, they are one
in the same. So while Daniel had no concept of who this one like a son of man is, John
identifies Him as the Messiah. Mystery solved. I'll repeat so that we can get the players in
John's vision properly labeled. The Ancient one in Daniel 7 is the One sitting on the throne in
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Revelation 5. The one like a son of man in Daniel 7 is the Lamb that appears to have been
slaughtered in Revelation 5. We know from the Old Testament that the Ancient One is God the
Father. And we know from the several descriptions of Messiah in earlier passages of the New
Testament, and from Old Testament prophecies, that the Lamb is Yeshua, the Son of God.
So God the Father is sitting on His heavenly throne with a scroll in His right hand; the scroll
was written upon on both sides of the paper. Further the document was sealed with 7 seals.
Although the CJB and other Bible versions call the document a scroll, it may be a book. The
Greek word being translated is biblion and it refers to writing material. Thus it could be most
any form. It actually seems more logical that it is a book because by this time books were more
in use than scrolls. Be that as it may, part of the reason that Bible scholars even debate what
seems to be a small point is because of the use of the 7 seals. As we'll read later, after each
seal is broken some of what is written is revealed. But how, if it is a scroll sealed with 7 seals,
can someone view any of its contents until all 7 seals are broken? After all, only one seal is
sufficient enough to keep the contents of a scroll closed up. Therefore some think it is a book
with a certain amount of pages sealed by 1 seal, then another certain amount of pages sealed
by another seal, and so on such that each opening of a seal can reveal the contents of
additional pages.
In Daniel 12:4, Daniel is given this instruction by God:
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"But you, Dani'el, keep these words
secret, and seal up the book until the time of the end. Many will rush here and there as
knowledge increases." (Dan. 12:4 CJB) So when we hear "seal up the book until the time of
the end", we realize that what John sees happening is that this sealed-up book mentioned in
Daniel is about to be opened. Mysteries that were known to Daniel....mysteries he was not
allowed to share.....are about to be revealed. Saying that Daniel should "seal up" the book is
referring to placing a seal on the book so that no one can gain knowledge of its content. And
we see from Revelation 5 that in fact 7 seals were placed on this book. We should also note
that even though as we study Revelation that it feels as though we are the first to get a peak
into it and learn what awaits humankind at the end, in fact God revealed it all in the late first
century through John. So this same information has been available to Believers for 1900 years.
But even more, since Daniel was told that this book would not be unsealed until the time of
end, and in John's day the book was unsealed, then you can imagine whey John and the first
readers of the Book of Revelation had to assume that they were indeed living at the time of the
end. As we now know, however, John's day was not the end. Therefore what God must have
intended by telling Daniel to seal up the book until the time of the end more meant when the
events foretold within the book actually begin to happen rather then when the contents of what
was in the book were merely revealed. So it is a two-step process: first the unveiling of the
contents, and then later the actual carrying out of what the contents reveal.
Because 7 is a sacred and ideal number, and is regularly associated with the work of the
divine, then it is appropriate that the book or scroll would have 7 seals on it because the book
is kept by God and exists only in Heaven. But it also applies to the fact that the book reveals 7
judgments; one for each seal that is broken. So next an angel appears and shouts out "who is
worthy to open the scroll and break it seals?" Notice that it is not a matter of who is "able" but
rather who is "worthy". There is only one person who is worthy: Yeshua. He is worthy because
of His willingness to go to the cross, and then His subsequent resurrection.....all fulfillments of
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OT prophecy.....that merits Him that worthiness.
There is an interesting backdrop that adds to the reason that only Yeshua was worthy to open
the scroll; it occurs in Genesis 1. There were read:
Genesis 1:26-28 CJB
26
Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, in the
likeness of ourselves; and let them rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the
animals, and over all the earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the
earth."
27
So God created humankind in his own image; in the image of God he created
him: male and female he created them.
28
God blessed them: God said to them, "Be
fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in
the air and every living creature that crawls on the earth."
So Adam was given rule over the earth, but then threw away his opportunity to act upon it
when he was deceived by Satan and rebelled against God. Yeshua rescued the divine promise
for mankind to have dominion over the earth. The promise had been given to a man and so a
man had to be the one to open the seals to the book and appropriate what God had promised
to Adam. However because we have all descended from Adam, we have all inherited his sin,
which deprives us of the right to rule over the dominion God intended for us. How to solve this
dilemma? God sent His Son to be born in sinless human form to suffer the punishment, and
provide atonement, for the sins of mankind. Christ did not back down from this duty and in
doing so became the only one worthy to redeem God's people and to execute judgment and
redemption upon planet earth. Thus Messiah Yeshua will rule over the earth, and over God's
Kingdom, forever. And He is most worthy to do so.
We'll continue with chapter 5 next time.
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