A Door Standing Open in Heaven
John is called up through an open door and finds a throne already occupied. Lightning, a sea of glass, creatures that never stop saying holy. Twenty-four elders throw their crowns down, telling our Father he is worthy because everything exists by his will.
4 1After this I looked: a door stood open in heaven. The first voice I'd heard, like a trumpet speaking to me, said, "Come up here, and I'll show you what must happen after this."
2Instantly I was in the Spirit, and a throne stood in heaven, someone seated on it. a a v2 The one on the throne is our Father. Rev 5:7 — the Lamb takes the scroll from the right hand of the throne-figure — confirms Father and Son are distinct here. By Rev 22:1, they share the throne. 3The one seated looked like jasper and carnelian, and a rainbow like an emerald encircled the throne. 4Twenty-four thrones surrounded the throne; on them sat twenty-four elders in white, gold crowns on their heads.
5Lightning, rumblings, and thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches burned before it—the sevenfold Spirit of our Father. b b v5 The seven Spirits of our Father name the Holy Spirit in his sevenfold fullness — echoing Isaiah 11:2, where the Spirit rests on the Messiah in seven dimensions of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and reverence. 6Before the throne was something like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Around the throne, on each side, were four living creatures covered with eyes front and back. 7The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with a human face, the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. 8The four living creatures, each with six wings, are full of eyes around and within. Without rest, day and night, they say: "Holy, holy, holy is the Sovereign Father Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" c c v8 Christian tradition has long heard the threefold "holy" as worship of all three Persons — our Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Our Father is on the throne here; the Son joins the worship in the next chapter as the Lamb; the Holy Spirit is the sevenfold Spirit named in v.5.
9Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to him seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10the twenty-four elders fall before the one seated on the throne, worship the one living forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11"You are worthy, our Father to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
