Revelation 4

The Throne in Heaven

¹After this I looked and saw a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had previously heard speak to me like a trumpet was saying, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.”

²At once I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne standing in heaven, with someone seated on it. ³The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne. ⁴Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these thrones sat twenty-four elders dressed in white, with golden crowns on their heads.

• REV 4:2[MIRACLE]John sees a throne in heaven
• REV 4:4[NOTE]TWENTY FOUR ELDERS. Maybe the twelve tribes and twelve apostles, the whole people of God, 21:12 to 14, or a council of angels.

Worship of the Creator

⁵From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits of God. ⁶And before the throne was something like a sea of glass, as clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, covered with eyes in front and back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third had a face like a man, and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. ⁸And each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around and within. Day and night they never stop saying:

• REV 4:6[NOTE]FOUR LIVING CREATURES. Like the creatures of Ezekiel 1 and the seraphim of Isaiah 6. Irenaeus matched the four faces to the four Gospels.
• REV 4:7[ALLUDES TO]Refers to ← EZK 1:10

“Holy, Holy, Holy,

is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!”

• REV 4:8[MIRACLE]Four living creatures cry holy, holy, holy
• REV 4:8[QUOTES]Direct ← IS 6:3

⁹And whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to the One seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before the One seated on the throne, and they worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

¹¹“Worthy are You, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for You created all things;

by Your will they exist and were created.”

• REV 4:11[NOTABLE]Heaven praises God first as the Creator.