How To Come To Know About The Symbols In Revelation 4

And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper 

and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow

 round about the throne, in sight like unto

 an emerald. And round about the throne 

were four and twenty seats: and 

upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders 

sitting, clothed in white raiment; and 

they had on their heads crowns of gold. 

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings 

and thunderings and voices: and there

 were seven lamps of fire burning before 

the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.  

Revelation 4:3-7

     Before I address these symbols that represent the wonder and power of God I once again remind you that this blog is all about considering faith. Often we are confused about what we have read in the Bible and how God may not have done for you as you asked; and this is so confusing leading many to seek out answers that are not Scriptural. This is true when it comes to the various symbols used in Revelation, so we must take our time to ferret out the truth. Jesus asked in Luke 18:8b, "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?" In spite of all the confusion you may have will He find you to be faithful and stand in your faith believing that what Jesus said is true, though in the meantime you do not understand these symbols, or what God is doing. Words have meaning(s) and often we have a distorted view or understanding of word, or that a word is not construed to have another or different meaning: i.e., "Gay," a word that means to be happy but has now taken on a different meaning and the original meaning has been all but lost. Now the word "gay" is associated with a homosexual as this word came to somehow represent that a "gay" person is happy, he or she may be but that has not taken away from the word as it was intended to be understood: to be happy. What has been done to this word is apply it to a sexual deviant, a deviant lifestyle in an attempt to give this deviant lifestyle some higher acceptance. Words that are misused are words that lead to falseness, so we must take our time to look at the words used here in Revelation, and see why they were used and to ensure that we come to the right definition. Our faith cannot grow in darkness, so we must bring light. 

     This vision takes us back to the time when God instructed Moses how to make for the priests a garment, an ephod, holy garments where placed upon precious stones. In fact the ephod was to be made of god, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined lined. Upon the ephod was to be placed town onyx stones (usually they are black) with six names of the children of Israel, (not the nation, but the sons of Israel) on one stone and six on the other. Then there were rows of stones placed on the ephod, first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond, the third row a ligure, and agate, and an amethyst, the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, an a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. (you can find this in Exodus 28). How do you picture what you cannot picture but know that it is precious? On earth we have only one way, words, words that describe precious stones which we have given great value. Precious stones refer to the excellence and justice of God, His divine nature. A rainbow was seen by John and that rainbow that was by the will of God to be seen so that men could understand the faithfulness of God, in this case, not to bring upon earth another flood that destroyed all but the animals in the ark and the eight faithful people, Noah and his family. When you see a rainbow, remember that God is faithful and that He has given that to you as a reminder. 

     John now records that he saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white raiment with crowns of gold on their heads. Gold is a precious metal that is malleable and ductile, and not subject to oxidation or corrosion. Why 24? In the Old Testament on the ephod were the names of the twelve sons of Israel that represented the Hebrew nation. Jesus had twelve disciples and those twelve disciples represent the Christian Church, therefore the 24 elders seated in white clothing represent the Church of God as a whole. Seating there were because this denoted their honor, that they were in rest, and were by seating at the throne of God declared their closeness to Him. White because white represents purity and righteousness. The word "throne" can represent a literal object, or as the Greek word denotes, it can also represent power, authority, and dominion. The seven Spirits of God are to be construed as seven different beings for we have covered this word "seven" in previous blogs showing that "seven" represents completeness, for God is complete within Himself and out of Him flow all that is needed to sustain life. Lightnings, and thunderings, represent the declarations of God as He did when He gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The seven burning lamps represent the seven Spirits of God that give to man graces, and enlightenment. We are the light of the world, we are a burning lamp representing and bringing to the world knowledge of who God is and what God is doing and will do and all who come to faith in Him will be among those sitting at the feet of Jesus, upon the seats of God next to the throne, the power, the authority of God and all the graces of God, all the enlightenment from God is all man for an eternity will need: but, a person must come to faith in Jesus for there is no other way for that person to have all the pleasures and the will of God for their salvation. Be a burning lamp, donot hide it under a bushel tree.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,

    and a light unto my path. 

I have sworn, and I will perform it,

    that I will keep thy righteous judgments.

                         Psalm 119:105-106

You are the light God wants to use

Richard L. Crumb