Revelation Series: Chapter 4 - "The Scene In Heaven"

***BONUS EPISODE***
John is transported into the heavenly throne room! Listen as we discuss thrones, stones, elders, and creatures (OH MY)! Something really awesome is about to go down...we hope you're as excited to find out as we are!

Transcript

good morning good afternoon or good evening wherever or whenever you're listening to us right now and welcome to this bonus episode of the Churchosity podcast my name is Heath Brady and I'm Andrea Brady and we are your Churchosity podcast Personnel these are the types of episodes that we like to call the Post scripts because these are the things we think and talk about when the record button is off so thank you for listening and welcome to the Inner Circle well Andrea yes Heath we did it we got to chapter 4 oh man we have arrived and I got to be honest with you as much as I have been excited to get to this section of the Book of Revelation yeah I'm kind of sad to be leaving those letters behind I learned a lot lot with those letters I have to say I've been thinking about them a lot yeah you have yeah they're just it's like an onion got it's got lots of layers layers like ogres they have layers that's right that's it so I hope that like yourself I hope that our listeners have learned a lot and listened to some of the hermeneutical principles that we have employed up to this point that's a big scary seminarian word it sure is hermeneutics being the means by which you study and interpret scripture because the way that we have studied and things that we have learned up to this point we're going to use that as kind of our means by which we're going to continue to study and dissect and learn through the rest of the Book of Revelation okay it's going to be very interesting we're going into unfamiliar territory for me we are yeah what you've never read the chap fourth chapter I have but it's been a long time yeah and I never studied it gotcha kind of like I read it I read through it so I could say I read it I do have I do have one preliminary question for you though what have you ever been told what this chapter means or how to interpret it by somebody yeah yeah yeah yeah I mean I think when I was in high school at youth group my other youth group not the good one no it depends what good means but not the one that we went to the one that we went to was the good one yeah shout out to Craig Finley well we studied Revelation and it was more of a survey I think I don't think our leader was necessarily trying to impose any particular view but she did dis discuss what a lot of the common thoughts were sure okay that's good surveys are better than definitive opinions because opinions are like armpits everyone's got a couple and they all stink I'm happy to hear that that you haven't like so many folks in the church especially in our generation that have been told how to interpret this chapter and subsequent chapters of the rest of the book I mentioned on our last episode rather emphatically that I am not a dispensational Christian M and that's going to begin to make even more sense the deeper we get into the Book of Revelation why I do not hold a dispensational view of Biblical history and essentially what dispensationalism is and it depends on which school of dispensationalism you fall into but BAS basically a dispensation is a period of time separate from the rest of periods of times or dispensations and within each perspective dispensation on Earth there is a specific people group that is the center of focus and God deals or interacts or intervenes with that people group in a specific way all of that in a dispensation and no two dispensations are the same right so essentially what a dispensationalist what there's anywhere from seven to I believe 14 dispensations that that dispensationalists subscribe to I see but all dispensationalists pretty much agree that the most important quote unquote dispensation has been happening since the Ascension so basically for the last 2,000 years we've been in what's known as the church dispensation where the church is the people group on Earth that is in the center of focus and God is intervening and interacting and dealing with his church right now and all of the other people groups such as the Jews nation of Israel Etc are put on the proverbial shelf until the next dispensation and I have a lot of problems with that but this isn't a podcast about debating over dispensationalism and covenantalism I'm just merely wanting everyone to know that if you're listening to me teach you will not hear me Teach from the vantage point or through the lens or template of a dispensational Christian that's all I'm trying to say okay that's in a nutshell what you're trying to say why all of that matters is because within the dispensational camp there are certain eschatological views as well and one of those views deals with this thing this event known as The Rapture oh yeah this is the episode where we are going to start very briefly touching on the conversation about the Rapture we're going to talk about a fancy Greek word Harpo okay which doesn't mean Rapture mhm it actually means caught up okay the word rapture is actually a Latin term but that's a whole different conversation so we are going to begin to scratch the surface on this episode but we'll continue the conversation in subsequent episodes about the Rapture also on this episode we're going to we're going to talk about The Throne of God we're going to talk about 24 Elders we're going to talk about seven lamps we're going to talk about a sea of glass we're going to talk about four living creatures cool it's going to be crazy so I hope everybody's ready cuz this this is going to be fun and if you've stuck around thus far I haven't scared you away yet maybe I will after this episode who knows I'm still here well you don't really have a choice well I've been begging to go through this book with you for a while so I'm excited to dive into chapter four awesome well before we do that I want to remind everyone that this book that we are studying is the Revelation singular of Jesus Christ which God gave to him Jesus Christ to show his bonder servants what things must quickly take place and he communicated this Revelation Jesus communicated this Revelation through signs and wonders to his bonder servant John now I I've really tried to emphasize this point it's going to be hopefully crystal clear by the end of this episode that John didn't just have dreams he didn't fall asleep and dream this whole book of Revelation up he literally had real experiences when when there's things in this book that say I will show you right uhhuh where where an angel or an elder or the Lord himself says to John I will show you 70 times in the Book of Revelation John writes I looked 35 times I saw seven times I beheld 23 times I heard and and the voices that he hears the the sounds that he hears are not Whispers they are not the still small voice of the Lord they are loud like trumpets they are loud like peels of Thunder wow so my point is is that John isn't just dreaming all this stuff up and mysteriously writing about it he's literally transported to somewhere else and I would argue somewh else and is literally experiencing these signs and wonders and communicating them to the seven churches and ultimately to all of us because we have it in front of us mhm so I thought that the best sort of precursor for us as we begin to Edge our way into this next section of the Book of Revelation was to have a conversation about time yes cuz I heard you say something interesting yes you said some when mhm else yes now Andy yeah much like the rest of the world uhhuh through all of you know history pretty much when uh but I'll just speak to our generation when we were kids and we were talking about history in school and the teacher would talk about timelines yeah um how would that teacher basically demonstrate what a timeline looked like they'd go to the chalkboard cuz back then we had chalk that's right and they would draw a line from left to right mhm and the earlier times were on the left and then the more recent times would be on the right correct so the left side would be the beginning of something and the right side would be the end or conclusion of something yeah we read it from left to right it was linear linear exactly yeah well what's interesting is that there have been all sorts of experiments that have happened over the last couple of centuries to research time and not just for the purpose of trying to see if you can go backwards in time mhm but wondering if time is actually linear and absolute and if time could actually be a physical property huh okay these are the things that Quantum physicists when they're bored like we like when we're bored we do the postcript when these guys are bored they sit around and say hm I wonder if we can measure the physicality and nature of time sounds like a episode of The Big Bang Theory or something Sheldon it's very Sheldon no doubt quantum physics um so what's interesting is that some 60 years ago the the United States Office of Naval Observatory conducted an experiment they loaded up two radar planes on an airst strip at the equator and they took off at the same exact time one flying East and one flying West each of those airplanes contained what's known as an atomic clock which is something that is a precise instrument for measuring time it's like perfect to like Plus or Min - one to the 100th of a point you know correct right so they're flying on the equator all the way around the globe they cross each other's path at some point they don't Collide and they come back to their place of origin in land okay and what they discovered was that the plane that flew East gained time and the plane that flew West lost time weird and because of things like Einstein's theory relativity and a bunch of other stuff that only Sheldon would understand right they deter they have determined that not only is time linear and absolute but it is in fact a physical property because time it turns out is subject to mass acceleration and gravity now you say to me Heath what the heck does any of this have to do with the Book of Revelation just stay with me here trust me okay this will all make sense in a few minutes here okay where we run into trouble is that when we talk about God or eternity like when we imagine eternity from our human finite brain in relation to time how do you think that we would try to draw or demonstrate what eternity might look like well we might go up to the chalkboard and draw a line from left to right and on the left side write the infinity symbol and on the right side write the infinity symbol meaning that eternity is infinity to the left stretching from Infinity to the right mhm well there's a few problems with that number one if God as as it says in the scriptures he alone inhabits eternity and time is linear and absolute then could someone please tell me what's God's Mass what's his acceleration what's his gravity in other words God in his in his eternal dwelling place is not just some entity with lots of time and that's the trouble that we run into when trying to discern things that are of a prophetic nature in scripture H so when it comes to what's going on in chapter 4 of The Book of Revelation John is teleported somewhere or somewh else what does that look like what could that possibly look like well back to the time analogy that we just walked through let's Envision as as metaphorically as we can a parade if you go to a parade we us you know in Seattle honey we always had the the infamous Torch Light Parade yeah you go down to the parade and you know your family you set up your chairs or your blankets on the curb and you sit there right now where you are sitting on the street when the parade happens what what is that experience like as far as sequence of events well you can kind of see them coming and then they happen right in front of you you know the floats and the vehicles and the marching bands and the drill teams and then they pass you and then they're gone and it's just one sequence after another right right but unless you're literally sitting at the beginning of the parade can you see the beginning of the parade from where you're sitting no what about the end of the parade no right the only way that you could see the end the beginning and the middle all at the same time is if you were in a helicopter covering the event from a in the air okay so in in Isaiah 46 when Isaiah writes of God the Eternal one he alone knows or determines the end from the beginning and then read that everything in between God is Not subject to our dimensionality of time as we experience it he is outside of time all together able to see the end from the beginning and everything in between all at once and again I can hear all of you Heath what the heck does any of this have to do with Revelation 4 well let's get into this and let's read chapter 4 starting in verse one the scene in heaven after these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me said come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne and he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance around the throne were 24 Thrones and upon the Thrones I saw 24 Elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder and there were seven lamps of fire burning Before the Throne which are the seven spirits of God and Before the Throne there was something like a sea of glass like Crystal and in the center and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind the first creature was like a lion and the second creature like a calf and the third creature had a face like that of a man and the fourth creature was like a fly eagle and the four living creatures each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within and day and night they do not cease to say holy holy holy is the Lord God the almighty who was and who is and who is to come and when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the Throne to him who lives forever and ever the 24 Elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns Before the Throne saying worthy Are You O Lord and our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created so where to begin H well first of all remember that in chapter 1: 19 we're given an outline of how John's going to separate this book remember the uh the Lord tells John to write the things which you have seen write the things which are and write the things which shall be after these things so here's the things that are quote after these things it's the metat um it's at the beginning of this verse and at the end of this verse he says after these things I looked and at the end of the verse I will show you you what must take place after these things and you know that this is the Lord Jesus that is talking to John because here he says in verse one of chapter 4 and the first voice which I had heard like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me do you remember that in chapter one this is the Lord talking to John and it's interesting that after these things so after after John has finished writing the seven letters the next thing that he sees the next thing that he looks at is a door standing open in heaven so he's not in heaven he sees a door open in heaven now remember Jesus talked a lot about doors in those letters yeah to the seven churches uh that he has the keys and that what he opens no one can shut and what he shuts no one can open so apparently Jesus has opened the door in heaven and nobody can close it and John sees it and Jesus says with a voice like a sound of a trumpet says come up here so it's a loud voice come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things now first of all many adequate and well-educated scholars believe or will tell you that this is the rapture the Rapture being this event where a certain group of Believers are instantaneously snatched from the earth and brought up into heaven to be with Jesus H and I I can appreciate how one might infer this because the Book of Revelation is rendered into signs and wonders but John is the one that's standing here so to first of all associate all of the quote unquote church with John being told to come up here well guess what you're going to have to assume that the entire church is with John through the rest of the Book of Revelation right and the farther we get into the Book of Revelation even in the very next chapter in chapter 5 even it's going to make sense that the church is not in heaven yet okay so I want to dispense with the positive assertion that this is the rapture and that the church is now transported into heaven I don't believe that that has happened yet if there's a Rapture I do not believe that this is where it is taking place okay all right mhm verse two John says immediately I was in The Spirit Well he was in the spirit once before remember he was in the spirit on the Lord's Day right so as an overview John is is fully in the spirit he is he is led by the spirit and he sees the Lord's day and that'll make more sense when we get to chapter 6 but all of these things that John is experiencing and seeing and hearing and now writing about are all things that revolve around the Lord's day okay and he says I was in the spirit and behold a throne was standing in heaven so now he's in heaven mhm my Clumsy parade analogy yeah John's in the helicopter with the Lord okay right John is now from here till the end of the book of Revelation he is going to be flying all over time and existence in this helicopter and so I want everyone at this point to really get their heads wrapped around the concept that the rest of the this book is not necessarily chronological it's not necessarily sequential and when we get to certain parts where locations change and times change I will be sure to point them out to you because the rest of this book is not it doesn't happen all in order but there are things spread out all over time and that's going to make sense as we go okay but here after John has finished writing the seven letters to the seven churches he is is spiritually transported by the helicopter into heaven he says and behold a throne with standing in heaven one more point that I want everyone to start getting has to do with prophecy biblical prophecy specifically there's a real unfortunate thing about our culture the way that we try to interpret prophecy the way we see things prophetically what that means is that we think like the Greeks that there's a prophecy and a fulfillment a prophecy and a fulfillment but in Jewish culture prophecy was fulfilled in patterns so remember how I've talked about things like the law of first mentioned yeah the law of double mentioned mhm uh expositional coherence you know that kind of stuff that's very much Jewish thought and so there are just things that do not translate correctly or coherently if we're trying to interpret them like a Greek okay like a literal fulfillment of something independent in and of itself versus what's the pattern been of how these things have taken place does that make sense yeah so let's talk about Thrones okay there's a lot of Thrones going on here I noticed 58 times in the New Testament there is a throne mentioned 43 in the Book of Revelation alone wow 14 times the word Thrones is in chapter 4 so obviously Thrones are important to the Lord mhm we know that the Messiah will sit on his father's Throne Psalm 110:1 and we read about that in in Revelation 3: 21 the Lord also has the mercy seat or the Throne of Mercy which is Hebrews 4:16 we also have talked about the Messiah sitting on the throne of David Isaiah 9:7 Luke 1:32 MH here's some interesting stuff the 12 apostles were told that they will sit on 12 Thrones and judge the tribes of Israel huh that's in Matthew 19:28 Paul in his in his his first letter to the church at Corinth says that we whoever we are will judge Angels okay and here in Revelation 4 you have these 24 Elders who are sitting on Thrones and in chapter 20 there's this great white Throne where the dead are judged so a lot of Thrones yeah Thrones matter apparently mhm and all throughout the entire Book of Revelation cuz I looked this is me being being a Berean I looked and every single time that the word throne is used it is the same word in the Greek it's thronus okay which means a seat for a king but more specifically for a judge oh so when we get into these Thrones these 24 Elders there's something interesting going on here all right we already know that the throne that God sits upon is the Throne of the universe and that he is King and judge over everything so certainly that Greek word for throne lines up with that right right well verse three it says that he who was sitting on the throne was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance now this is notice like a jasper stone and sardius in appearance it's not literally a Jasper stone or a sardus stone this is just kind of what it looks like you follow me yeah but not so much the colors but an illusion to the glory but there's even more going on here it's interesting because the jasper stone is Crystal Clear in fact some talmudic scholars believe that the jasper stone was the earlier equivalent to what we would referred to as a diamond oh neat okay and the sardus stone we talked about this Stone in the letter to the Church of Sardis right remember it had lost its importance yeah I remember well now it's extremely important again but the sardia stone is red oh okay these stones are two of the 12 Stones that were classically placed in the breastplate of the high priest in the Old Testament M there were 12 Stones one representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel you with me yep that's cool now here's where it gets a little Goosebump oh okay of the 12 Stones that are listed in the Book of Leviticus chapter 8 and in Exodus 28 and 39 where in order of the list do you think that the sardus stone is listed oh gee I don't know I'll give you a GU just guess last nope first first first okay it's the first stone and it is assigned to the tribe of Reuben and Reuben literally means Behold a

son wow now just out of curiosity sardius being the first stone in the list where do you think the jasper stone comes in on the list at the end the last the 12th and it is assigned to Benjamin oh which means son of my right

hand are you getting Goosebumps yet yeah oh it's going to get better because here in this one verse verse three he who was sitting was like a Jasper and a Sardis in appearance in that one sentence you have the first and the last yes and you have Behold a son and son of my right hand wow now remember from the very beginning of our Revelation study what have I been trying to make sure that everybody understands that the Book of Revelation is about whom Christ's unveiling Christ's unveiling even here the appearance of God the father on the throne in heaven speaks directly to the unveiling of Jesus Christ gee by the Stones that John chooses as similes to explain what he's looking at wow isn't isn't that crazy yeah nuts I I got goosebumps I'm tingly all over wow okay all right let's continue verse four Around The Throne were 24 Thrones and upon the throne I saw 24 Elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads now back to this conversation about the Rapture mhm again lots of really qualified scholars believe that chapter 4 in chapter 4 the church is now in heaven because the Rapture has taken place and I've already explained to you one reason why if the Rapture is a thing it hasn't occurred yet in chapter 4 this is going to be another reason why I don't believe that the church is in heaven yet okay a lot of these Bible scholars who think that the church is in heaven attribute it to these 24 Elders they believe believe that the 24 Elders are the church because they're sitting on Thrones they're clothed in white rment and they have crowns of gold now those are idioms that we heard in the seven letters Jesus said to him who overcomes I will give him the right to sit on my throne with me just as I have sat down with my father on his throne M the letter to the Church of Philadelphia they had crowns the Stefanos right guess what same Greek word here Stefanos okay okay clothed in white we talked about that that that those who were overcome they had not soiled their garments but they uh were given white clothing white rainment right and and then in chapter 5 which we'll look at in our next episode These 24 Elders sing a song and because of what's in the song these same Scholars who say that these 24 Elders represent the church will say it's because they are referred to as elders and Kings and Priests but the problem is is that the 24 Elders are not singing about themselves in chapter 5 they're singing about people on the earth oh okay so needless to say that's the first reason why I do not believe that these 24 Elders represent the church but here's the main reason why you ready for this okay the first place in the Bible where 24 remember law first mentioned this is how I'm a Berean I'm sorry I am half Jewish after all if you go back to 1 chonicles 24 you you can read at your leisure in summary what H what's happening in 1 Chronicles 24 is King David is organizing the levitical priesthood oh okay and there's roughly 24,000 levitical priests and so David takes 24 guys and makes each of them the head of the lot of a thousand oh so you have roughly a thousand that sit under the head of one particular levitical priest you follow me m so one represents a thand in 1 chonicles 24 you have 24 of these levitical priests that represent the whole priesthood okay okay still with me yeah each represented the whole collection well these 24 Elders in Revelation remember signs and wonders m one represents the completed group just like in 1 chonicles 24 we know that these 24 Elders cannot be Angels which we'll see from Revelation 7 and chapter 5 we know that they cannot be believers who have come out of the quote tribulation as we'll see in chapter 7 we also know that it can't be the nation of Israel which will'll see in chapter 7 and possibly chapter 12 and now we also know that they can't be the church okay so based on all of that information plus where I took you in 1 Chronicles 24 this group of 24 Elders is the levitical priesthood oh in heaven mhm and I'm going to freak you out even more okay you ready for this yeah how do I know this well if you turn in your Bibles to the Book of Numbers probably the least studied book next to Revelation in all of the scripture if you go to the Book of Numbers Chapter 2 there's something really boring that to read but exciting to study and this is when the Lord tells Moses and Aaron how to arrange the 12 tribes around the Tabernacle okay how they're going to camp and how they're going to March now I'll come back to this in a few minutes I won't bore you to tears with it now but what's interesting is that in numbers 2 beginning in verse 17 the Lord tells Moses specifically where to put the tribe of Levi and guess where the tribe of Levi is supposed to camp in the middle in the middle around the Tabernacle the Tabernacle and the Tabernacle housed what the Ark of the Covenant and what was in the Ark of the Covenant bunch of stuff bunch of stuff but in that holy of holies uhhuh why why was only the high priest allowed to go in there what was in the holy of holies specifically the spirit of God yeah the presence of God so if you have to take out a piece of paper and draw this it totally fine but if you if you don't need to picture this in your mind's eye you have the entire all of the armies of Israel and there's a total of 13 tribes by the way I'll get into that in a few minutes and the tribe of Levi is told to Camp around the Tabernacle around where the presence of God dwells you with me yep now go back to Revelation 4 verse 4 around the throne who's sitting on the throne the one who is the Lord God mhm around the throne were 24 Thrones and upon the Thrones I saw 24 Elders sitting clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads so just like the Tabernacle and the tribe of Levi camped around the Tabernacle where the presence of God was here you have 24 Elders who in first chonicles 24 were the levitical priesthood so you have levitical priesthood in numbers levitical priesthood in first Chronicles 24 here in Revelation 4:4 you have the levitical priesthood around the throne okay do you see the consistency here yeah all right and remember these are Thrones for judgment oh so they are in a position of judgment somehow okay and they have golden crowns Stefan which means that they've earned them on their heads these are Victor's crowns that they're wearing okay all right you still with me yeah all right let's move on verse 5 out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder and there were seven lamps of fire burning Before the Throne uh-oh well this is another reason why the uh these scholars believe that the church is in heaven now because they see this phrase unfortunately in the English seven lamps of fire burning and immediately what might they be reminded of the seven lampstands in chapter one right and in chapter one we were told what those seven lampstands were weren't we mhm they were the the churches the seven churches right yeah okay well there's two problems with these seven lamps being the church the first one is it's a different word in the Greek okay in chapter one the word is for light bearer oh the bearer of someone else's light got it here it's a different word in the Greek which literally just means Candlestick that burns with oil ah so that's reason number one why this isn't the same seven lamps reason number two what comes immediately after that phrase there were seven lamps of fire burning before the the throne which are the seven spirits of God so it tells you what it is it tells you what it is well thank you I'm so glad he did and that's why it baffles me because there are so many places all over the Book of Revelation where the explanation is literally right there and prominent totally thoroughly capable Bible scholars I don't know if they're ignorant or they do it on purpose because it has to fit the pattern they step right over this so these seven lamps are not the church they are the seven spirits of God which we do know what that is from chapter 1 remember the Sevenfold Spirit the Sevenfold Spirit or the Holy Spirit the holy spirit so you have the father sitting on the throne mm you have the levitical priesthood sitting around the throne oh and what burned in the Holy place the manora which has how many candlesticks seven and it burned with oil and guess what in heaven it's illuminated by the Holy Spirit oh my goodness okay is your skin tingly still yeah okay let's keep going okay and Before the Throne there was something like a sea of glass like Crystal now I have I have searched the scriptures I have read commentaries I have listened to every Tom Dick and Hank preacher and Bible teacher and whatnot the op opinions on what this sea of glass this Crystal sea is are all over the radar I think that the majority which is who I'm going to go with here majority rules on this one remember in the Tabernacle in the Holy place was the shikina glory mhm and they had to be led by the pillar of smoke by day and the pillar of Fire by night remember that yeah well here in heaven they're not led by it it's now crystallized and they're standing on it oh they're they're they're not in other words they're in the presence of God fully mhm but it's what what matters here is not trying to decipher what the sea of glass or the or the crystal C is it's more important to understand that it's a simile okay that that Before the Throne there was something like a sea of glass or like Crystal does that make sense what's more important is what comes next in the center so this is in the center of this Crystal sea and around the throne better translation out from the throne like out in front of the throne four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind wow yeah now Bible scholars say these are cherubim Bible scholars say that these are seraphim some say that cherubim and seraphim are the same thing it's certainly provocative because this isn't the only place that these four living creatures are talked about okay the first place is in the book of Isaiah chapter 6 starting at verse one in the year of King uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted this reminds me of a worship song I Saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted with the train of his robe filling the temple M seraphim stood above him each having six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he also flew and one called out to the other and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory oh another place that these creatures show up is in Ezekiel 1:1 same type of deal but in Ezekiel 1:1 it actually says what their faces look like as for the form of their faces each of them had a face One Like a Man one like a lion one like a bull and one like an eagle oh wow so then come back to Revelation 4 you got these four creatures which are probably seraphim or cherub these are super angels of some kind mhm verse 7even the first creature was like a lion the second creature like a calf the third creature had a face like a man and the fourth like a flying eagle hm consistency yeah but actually this goes back even further and this is going to creep you out okay okay are you ready yeah I love the Bible so much because I'm telling you the libraries are full of what or who these four living creatures are or represent right mhm back to Numbers Chapter 2 mhm as I said if you have to get out a piece of paper and a pen to map this out do it but I encourage you on your own time listeners go through Numbers Chapter 2 and pay attention to what's going on and draw it on a piece of paper and see what you come up with for the sake of time and our conversation here I will summarize by telling you that this is the Lord telling Moses and Aaron how to arrange the 13 tribes around the Tabernacle and as we already discovered the tribe of Levi is around the entire Tabernacle right right the other 12 are going to be divided on all four sides of the Tabernacle each of those 12 are going to be divided into groups of three one group on each of the four sides of the Tabernacle but each of those groups of three are going to be United under one standard or Banner if you will okay okay not that they're the leader but this is just how God wanted Moses and Aaron to arrange the camps okay you follow me yeah the first Camp is under the standard of Judah and it's on the east side of the Tabernacle okay the second Camp is on the south side under the standard of Reuben on the west side of the Tabernacle is the camp of Ephraim and on the North side is the camp under the standard of Dan okay okay mhm now here's what's interesting you ready to have your cookies baked yes according to rabinal tradition the standard of Judah was a lion the standard of Reuben was a man

the standard of ephra was an ox so guess what the standard of Dan was an eagle an eagle Jewish tradition says that the four standards under which Israel encamped in the wilderness to the east Judah to the north Dan to the West Ephraim and to the South Reuben were respectively a lion an eagle an ox and a man while in the midst of the Tabernacle with the shakina glory or the divine presence of God was the levitical priests H wow now there's a whole lot more going on there in Numbers Chapter 2 seriously be a Berean study that as a as an aside of what's going on in Numbers Chapter 2 draw it on a piece of paper you will be amazed but back to Revelation 4 verse 7even the first creature was like a lion H consistency yeah second creature like a calf mhm third face of that of a man fourth was that of a flying eagle mhm oh but I'll take it one step further in scripture the lion is symbolic of the Lord's kingship Christ's kingship oh the man symbolic of Christ's Humanity the ox or the calf symbolic of his sacrifice oh and the Eagle symbolic of his Swift judgment so even these four living creatures whatever they are most likely seraphim even these four living creatures speak to the unveiling of Jesus Christ throughout all of human history yeah is that wild yeah that's so cool oh but it gets better okay let's keep going in verse eight uh-huh the four living creatures each one of them having six wings that we've heard that before y full of eyes around and within all day and night they do not cease to say guess where this is quoted from Isaiah chapter 6 yeah holy holy holy is the Lord God the almighty who was and who is and who is to come and when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne to him who lives forever and ever the 24 Elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship Him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns Before the Throne so those 24 Elders picture this okay yeah it says when the living creatures sing this holy holy holy or say this holy holy holy the 24 Elders Fall Down and Worship and cast their crowns Before the Throne how often do the four living creatures say holy holy holy forever forever day and night they do not cease so you ask the question is there going to be Worship in heaven uh this to me sounds like the ultimate worship band I'm just saying right but these 24 Elders these representations of the levitical priesthood the they're wearing the Stefanos the Victor's crowns and they bow down and cast their crowns Before the Throne [Music] saying worthy are you our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created so even though these were the priests these were in the Old Testament they were the tribe of Levi that was responsible for the spiritual condition of the nation of Israel they were in a position of authority and Leadership and judgment they take all of that Authority and they lay it at the foot of the one who gave them the authority and notice you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created wow remember in a previous episode I told you what one of the greatest lies the devil has told the world that they fell for was Evolution oh yes it is because of God's will whatever God Wills exists and is made and that's how the chapter ends pretty intense huh yeah it really is my goodness this is just the throne room in heaven mhm that John rode the helicopter to there's a lot going on there is a lot going on here yeah but what what's important I think to draw from this chapter is to focus on on who is front and center in almost every single verse in this chapter who is being put on display or rather who is being unveiled yeah Jesus you follow me mhm it's not the church being glorified know it's not even the elders or the levitical priests being glorified it's not even the seraphim being

glorified it's Jesus Christ who was unveiled through literally every idiom metaphor simile in this entire chapter don't you just love the Bible Andy yeah it's so good and because I am an application Christian I believe that what we can take away and apply to our lives from Revelation 4 is that very thing to be students of the scriptures yeah listen I'm just a dumb football player oh stop who happens to love the scriptures and most of this stuff I started studying when I was 16 years old and I'm not saying that to brag I'm saying that anybody can do this have fun with it go be a Berean acts 1711 search the Scriptures Daily to prove whether these things are so in other words acts 1711 gives every single person that's listening right now permission to not believe a word that I'm telling you and go discover it for yourself yeah especially that Numbers Chapter 2 passage as a side note oh my gosh you'll have a field day with that it's it's it's amazing but ladies and gentlemen we have not even scratched the surface we're we haven't even touched the surface yet of the exciting ways that Jesus Christ is going to unveil himself or how it's going to be explain to us his unveiling in the rest of this book it's freaking phenomenal and I'm so excited so be a student be a Berean get into the scriptures get excited and don't fall into the Trap of believing what people tell you to believe about this chapter or any chapters in The Book of Revelation study the scriptures do it for yourself be a Berean and just like the promise in chapter 1 verse3 you will receive a special blessing for reading and he hearing and putting into practice the words that are in the Book of Revelation and that's all we have to say about that thank you for listening to the Churchosity podcast the post scripts on our next episode we will be taking a look at chapter 5 in the Book of Revelation which is much shorter but even more exciting than chapter 4 but until next time this is the Churchosity podcast Personnel saying

peace