WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA
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THE MYSTERY of mysteries — that is "the mystery of God." We people have a vital stake in this mystery. Just why so? Because it is tied in with the greatest issue of all times: the future rulership of our earth as well as heaven. All of us long for life and happiness, peace and prosperity. Well, all of this hangs on the settling of this crowning issue. This "mystery of God" should therefore arouse more than mere idle curiosity. It should arouse the warm interest that it so richly deserves. It should stir us to make an honest investigation that will not stop short of the goal of knowing and understanding the "mystery of God." That mystery, when finished and revealed, will win the highest admiration for its author and will result in endless good for all mankind. All the righteous desires of our hearts will be completely satisfied. This will make plain to us ever so many things that now baffle and mystify us.
An aged man of almost nineteen centuries ago heard the thrilling announcement of "the mystery of God." Later he saw the finishing of it, in prophetic vision. Not only that, but he also saw, in miraculous vision, the glorious God of this fascinating mystery. From this vision of God alone we have reason to believe with all our hearts that "the mystery of God" is for our eternal benefit. The man who saw that vision reported on a number of mysteries and considerately gave us the explanations of them. The man was John
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the son of Zebedee, formerly a fisherman at the Sea of Galilee in the Middle East. At the time of the vision he was a prisoner of the Roman Empire on the penal isle of Patmos in the Aegean Sea, not far from the city of Ephesus, then the capital of the Roman province of Asia. But why was he now a prisoner? Nothing strange about why — then. It was for being a Christian, for this aged man was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. — Revelation 1:9-11.
The pagan Roman Empire might isolate him as a dangerous criminal on a forbidding penal isle and limit his free movement, but it could never limit the power of John's God from lifting him by the spirit of inspiration to realms of vision far beyond even those of scientific men in this nuclear space age. In this almost unbelievable experience John was highly honored with seeing, in miraculous vision, the Author of "the mystery of God," even God the Almighty himself, in a different setting from what earlier men such as Moses, Isaiah, Daniel and Ezekiel had seen in a vision of God. As if to photograph for us what he saw, the apostle John wrote down under inspiration the account of his awe-inspiring vision. But could the aged apostle John describe with words of human language the glorious sight so as to aid us weak-eyed humans to get some idea of what he saw?
Yes! By the spirit of inspiration John was able to do so, in simple words: "After these things I saw, and, look! an opened door in heaven, and the first voice that I heard was as of a trumpet, speaking with me, saying: 'Come on up here, and I shall show you the things that must take place.' After these things I immediately came to be in the power of the spirit: and, look! a throne was in its position in heaven, and there is one seated upon the throne. And the one seated is, in appearance, like a jasper stone and a precious red-colored stone, and round about the throne there is a rainbow like an emerald in appearance." — Revelation 4:1-3.
The visionary "opened door in heaven" was awaiting
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the entrance of someone, and that one was the apostle John. This was made certain by what was now said by a voice, possibly speaking to John in the common Greek of the first century of our Common Era, if not in John's native tongue, the Hebrew of that day. No mere human voice was it, for, without the aid of modern-day electrical loudspeakers, that first voice from heaven that John heard was "as of a trumpet." It could have reminded John of the sound of the trumpet that became continuously louder and louder, pealing forth from Mount Sinai at the time that the Ten Commandments were declared by Jehovah God there to the nation of Israel. (Exodus 19:19; 20:18, 19) And yet no one else on the island of Patmos heard that awe-inspiring voice, for only John had the vision given to him by the invisible active force or spirit of Almighty God. Thus in powerful tones that conveyed the message an invitation was given to John to enter through the door in heaven: "Come on up here, and I shall show you the things that must take place."
Only by the active force or spirit of God could the human creature John respond to an invitation such as that, one that the astronauts of this twentieth century have never received and could never fulfill in their man-made space suits. Not launched into outer space by a titanic rocket, but elevated in vision by the spirit of God, the apostle John was ushered through the "opened door in heaven" to behold a vision of the royal Ruler of heaven and earth. The setting in which this majestic Ruler throned had some features that could remind the apostle John of God's temple that once stood in old Jerusalem. For a most holy place, how fitting was all this! In the Most Holy of the temple, Jehovah God had been symbolized by the Shekinah, the miraculous light, Jehovah thus throning in the midst of ancient Jerusalem.
How could the human creature John describe God, or even the visionary picturization of God? Did John see some three-headed personage, representing the trinitarian deity of religious Christendom? No; nothing
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like that idea of pagan imagination! The God whom John saw was like the gleaming of a beautifully cut jasper and of a precious red-colored stone (possibly a carnelian). How appropriately John could later write, in 1 John 1:5, these words that reflect what he had seen in vision: "God is light and there is no darkness at all in union with him"! God is just glorious, that is all! The gleaming glory of his person can be compared only remotely with the dazzling gleam of precious cut gemstones that entrance the human eye. How impossible it is, then, that he could be the source of immoral, untrue, deceptive things that are pictured by darkness! How worthily he is called "the Father of the celestial lights"! (James 1:17) How suitable that he should be the One to say, when starting the preparation of this earth for the habitation of man: "Let light come to be"! — Genesis 1:3.
Always master of every situation throughout all creation, this glorious Ruler of heaven and earth thrones in perfect sereneness and composure. See, as a soothing, calming suggestion of this, the "rainbow like an emerald in appearance," round about his throne. How restful-looking that emerald-green color of the rainbow! How a rainbow is produced is a mystery to man, but this One on the heavenly throne knows. Over twenty-four centuries earlier, that is to say, after the earth had dried off from the rainfall of forty days that caused a global deluge, God said to Noah and his family who survived the flood in the ark: "My rainbow I do give in the cloud, and it must serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. And it shall occur that when I bring a cloud over the earth, then the rainbow will certainly appear in the cloud. And I shall certainly remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living soul among all flesh; and no more will the waters become a deluge to bring all flesh to ruin." (Genesis 9:13-15) How we would like it if that rainbow about God's throne betokens the coming of endless peace for us!
God the Creator is King Supreme. This fact is illus-
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trated by what is next disclosed to the apostle John with regard to God's throne. John says: "And round about the throne there are twenty-four thrones, and upon these thrones I saw seated twenty-four older persons dressed in white outer garments, and upon their heads golden crowns. And out of the throne there are proceeding lightnings and voices and thunders; and there are seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, and these mean the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there is, as it were, a glassy sea like crystal." — Revelation 4:4-6.
Could that part of the vision portray that God the heavenly King is surrounded by a body of twenty-four counselors or advisers with whom to consult on any problems or new purposes concerning what he should do? Not at all! The apostle Paul quotes from the prophecy of Isaiah 40:13, 14 and asks: "O the depth of God's riches and wisdom and knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments are and past tracing out his ways are! For 'who has come to know Jehovah's mind, or who has become his counselor?' Or, 'Who has first given to him, so that it must be repaid to him?' Because from him and by him and for him are all things." — Romans 11:33-36.
Who, then, are those twenty-four older ones, dressed in white outer garments and with golden crowns on their heads and seated upon twenty-four thrones about God's throne?
A clue as to who they are or whom they picture is given earlier in the Revelation by John. After addressing himself to the "seven congregations" of real Christians like himself, he speaks of Jesus Christ as "The Ruler of the kings of the earth" and adds: "To him that loves us and that loosed us from our sins by means of his own blood — and he made us to be a kingdom, priests to his God and Father — yes, to him be the glory and the might forever. Amen." (Revelation 1:4-6) And just before John describes his vision of
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God on his heavenly throne, he quotes Jesus Christ as saying to the "angel of the congregation in Laodicea": "To the one that conquers I will grant to sit down with me on my throne, even as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne." (Revelation 3:21) The twenty-four crowned and enthroned older persons must therefore be the entire body of the faithful, conquering Christians whom he finally makes priestly kings with him in the heavenly kingdom of God. — Revelation 20:4-6.
These were foreshadowed by the faithful priests of ancient Israel. Those Israelite priests were divided up into twenty-four courses or divisions for appointed terms of service at God's temple. (1 Chronicles 24:5-19; Luke 1:5) The number twenty-four would thus be appropriate for the faithful Christians in the new covenant, to whom the apostle Peter says: "You are 'a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for special possession, that you should declare abroad the excellencies' of the one that called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:9) Besides this, the final number in the "royal priesthood" or "kingdom of priests" will be one hundred and forty-four thousand. (Exodus 19:6; Revelation 7:4-8; 14: 1, 3) And 144,000 is a multiple of twenty-four, this number being the product of 6,000 times 24. Further details, given later on in the Revelation, add to the proof that the twenty-four older persons stand for the 144,000 conquering footstep followers of Jesus Christ.
These one hundred and forty-four thousand conquerors as pictured by the twenty-four older persons were not always sitting enthroned around the heavenly throne of Jehovah God. Remember that the fulfillment of the vision of these symbolic twenty-four older persons dates from a certain time future from the apostle John's own day. Remember that the trumpetlike voice that invited John to "come on up here" added: "And I shall show you the things that must take place." Consequently, the vision of these crowned, enthroned twenty-four older persons was a prophetic preview of
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the arrangement that was to be set up in heaven with respect to God's throne. It was a disclosure of God's purpose to have 144,000 priestly kings associated with Jesus Christ the Chief Priest and Messianic King of God. So at the time of John's vision those who were pictured by the twenty-four older persons were not then seated on thrones around God's throne in heaven, for the faithful apostle John himself was to be among those symbolic twenty-four older ones; and certainly at the time of John's vision he was not actually among them in heaven.
Unlike the prophet Ezekiel, the apostle John did not describe God's throne as having the gleam of a "sapphire stone." (Ezekiel 1:26) Yet to John it was more awe-inspiring, for "out of the throne there are proceeding lightnings and voices and thunders." (Revelation 4:5) Flashes of dazzling enlightenment do indeed dart forth from God's heavenly throne, but his lightnings could also be employed like fiery arrows or missiles to strike his enemies dead instantly. Voices also issue out from the throne of the One who is the Creator of all speech, voices not talking meaninglessly, but conveying messages in agreement with one another and in harmony with the light of truth. Thunder follows lightning, and the peals of thunder out of God's throne pound into the senses of the people who behold and hear the meaning of the lightning flashes of divine revelation. These things proceeding out of God's heavenly throne betoken that he is on his throne at this time for a spectacular event to occur, just as when lightning flashes, thunder peals and sounds as of a horn accompanied his presence at Mount Sinai to give the Ten Commandments. — Exodus 20:18.
Necessarily God's invisible active force, his spirit, must be in heavy operation at the time his purpose is revealed. The full measure of operation of his forcefully active spirit is portrayed to us, in that "there are seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, and," says the apostle John, "these mean the seven spirits of God." (Revelation 4:5) Lamps lighted are
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for the purpose of giving light to persons in a room or in a certain area. The perfect number of lamps — seven of them — would shed a fullness of light, enlightenment that is due to the operation of God's spirit in a sevenfold way, in the fullness of its force. (1 Corinthians 2:10) Those seven symbolic lamps suggest that, in the fulfillment of John's vision, God is throning in his heavenly temple in behalf of pure, clean worship, inasmuch as in God's earthly tent or temple at Shiloh before King David's day there was a lampstand with seven branches, to provide seven lamps for illuminating the Holy Place. — Exodus 25:31-40; 40:1-4, 24, 25.
A further indication that the scene here presented is that of God in his heavenly temple is the fact that "before the throne there is, as it were, a glassy sea like crystal." (Revelation 4:6) In God's ancient arrangement among the Israelites there was a laver or wash basin, placed between the copper altar and the sanctuary (Exodus 30:18-21; 40:7, 11, 30, 31); and, later on in King Solomon's temple at Jerusalem, this laver or basin was so large that it was called a sea. — 1 Kings 7:23-44; 1 Chronicles 18:8.
The molten sea in Solomon's temple was made of copper, but the sea seen in John's vision was glassy, "like crystal," transparent. As in ancient Israel the temple sea was for the sacrificing priests to have plenty of water to wash hands and feet, the "glassy sea like crystal" suggests purity, cleanness, on the part of those who approach God. John's fellow apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5:25, 26, speaks of the cleansing of Christ's followers "with the bath of water by means of the word." True to the picture, God keeps his "glassy sea like crystal" filled with the purifying water of his Word of truth. For those who approach God acceptably, cleansing is needed by means of his Word. — John 15:3.
Still another feature of John's vision suggests the temple of God and the proper surroundings of his
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heavenly throne. John describes this feature, saying: "And in the midst of the throne and around the throne there are four living creatures that are full of eyes in front and behind. And the first living creature is like a lion, and the second living creature is like a young bull, and the third living creature has a face like a man's, and the fourth living creature is like a (lying eagle. And as for the four living creatures, each one of them respectively has six wings; round about and underneath they are full of eyes. And they have no rest day and night as they say: 'Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah* God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is coming.' "
The "living creatures" thus described in Revelation 4:6-8 picture the cherubs of God, the first appearance of whom to human eyes is described in Genesis 3:24, alter the expulsion of sinful Adam and his wife Eve from the Garden of Eden. In Ezekiel 1:6, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 10:15, 18, 20, the cherubs that moved alongside the tremendous wheels of God's throne chariot are called "living creatures," and Ezekiel 10: 1-22 directly calls the living creatures "cherubs." Whereas in Ezekiel's vision each cherubic living creature has four faces, namely, those of a man in front, of "a lion to the right, of a bull (cherub) to the left, of an eagle to the rear, the cherubs seen in John's vision have each an individual face, each one having respectively one of the four faces seen in Ezekiel's vision. (Ezekiel 1:5, 6, 10, 11; 10:14, 20-22)† Thus each one of these cherubs or living creatures would give particular prominence to the special distinguishing quality that was represented by the face.
In having a man's face the third living creature in John's vision made outstanding the quality of love,
* The name "Jehovah" occurs here, in Revelation 4:8, instead of"Lord" (Kýrios), in nine translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures into Hebrew, from 1599 down to 1885. See footnote a on page 717 of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, edition of 1950.
† The Greek Septuagint translation (LXX) of Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10, uses the same Greek expression for "living creatures" as does Revelation, chapter 4.
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