A Reading of Revelation, Chapter 4

¹After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

²Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. ³And He Who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. ⁴Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

⁶Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. ⁸The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him Who sits on the throne, Who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before Him Who sits on the throne and worship Him Who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

¹¹ “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your Will they exist and were created.”

THE THRONE SCENE (VERSES 1-8)

John is Taken to Heaven (verse 1)

¹After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

John says, “After these things I looked….” After what things? After what has preceded, obviously. John was told to write what he saw, to write “the things that are.” In the preceding two Chapters, the Lord dictated to him “the things that are,” the circumstances, the conditions, which existed among those seven churches of Asia. Now, John is writing about the things that he will see, “the things that are to come,” and, in a sense, the things that already are; but not on earth, as Chapters 2 and 3 were, but in that heavenly realm, in that heavenly setting.

So, John says, “After this, I looked….” He is going to be doing quite a bit of “looking” as we go through the remainder of Revelation. In fact, there are three other places, Chapter 7 [Revelation 7:1: “And after these things I saw…”; Revelation 7:9: “After this I beheld…”], Chapter 15 [Revelation 15:5: “And after that I looked…”] and Chapter 18 [Revelation 18:1: “And after these things I saw…”], where a similar expression is used.

John then says that he “beheld” (or “saw”—depending on your translation). In each of the remaining Chapters, with the exception of two Chapters, Chapters 11 and 12, this expression “beheld” is given. So, he’s going to be doing a lot of “looking;” he’s going to be doing a lot of “seeing” so that he might report on the things he is seeing, because, once again, that was what the Lord instructed him to do: “Write concerning these things, write of these things that you see.”