The revelation of Jesus Christ, His Coming in Glory for all to see, that God has given Him to show to His servants, and in particular to His servant John, to reveal what is shortly to take place, are to contain three elements: what you have seen, what is, and what will take place later.
First of all, the Church receives Christ’s sevenfold comforting, encouraging and exhorting messages, which accompanies her on her journey through the centuries right up to His Coming.
After this I, John, saw the following vision. He had first seen Christ on Patmos (past), then there had been the seven messages (present), and now he looks at the things that are to take place ‘after this’ (future).
When John had heard Christ’s voice, commanding him to climb up, he had to be in the spirit or, put better, in the Spirit. That was necessary. He cannot just move over there in his own spirit, but he must be taken there by the Holy Spirit.
Who are these elders? The traditional explanation is that they represent the glorified Church. Some say that they are the representatives of the people of God throughout all ages, consisting symbolically of two times twelve: the twelve fathers of the tribes of Israel and the twelve Jewish Apostles, the fathers of the Church.
The fourth reason for thinking of angelic rulers here, generals of the Heavenly hosts, ‘archangels’ if you like, instead of representatives of the glorified Church, is as follows: They sing a song of praise about people, human beings who are redeemed.
Why this rather extensive consideration of the twenty-four elders over the past few days? Because it is important to see what the Book of Revelation is all about.
Someone was sitting on the throne. His appearance was like a diamond, shining white as the pure, clean holiness of God. The King James Version uses ‘jasper’, which is called the most precious stone; the jasper stone is clear as crystal, in Revelation 21:11.
A sea of glass was what Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel saw under the feet of the God of Israel. It was as if a pavement made of lapis lazuli (silver-blue), as bright blue as the sky, existed under His feet.
The word for ‘creature’, ‘created being’ (therefore sometimes also translated as ‘animal’, ‘beast’) is ‘zóo-on’ in Greek. Plural: ‘zoo-è, or zoo-a’. Probably the background of our word for an exhibition in a park of a lot of animals called a ZOO!
That Israel is the ‘bearer of God’s image’ is apparent from the four living creatures. On the banners of the children of Israel were depicted the lion, belonging to Judah, the bull (calf) to Ephraim, the man to Ruben and the eagle to Dan.
There are four ‘zoo-a’, living beings (‘creatures’). These should not to be confused with the beasts to be found in chapters 13 and 17, where the Greek word is ‘thèrion’, used for a wild, untamed beast.
