SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/7/2015
10:04 PM
My Worship Time Focus: In and Around the Throne
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
4:6b-8a
Message
of the verses: “and in the center
and around the throne, four
living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. 7 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 flying eagle. 8 And the four living creatures, each one of
them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within;”
What we are seeing in this passage
is the introduction to the four living beings, and we will see that these being
will play a significant role in what will happen from the throne room of God
throughout the book of Revelation. Their
position is in the inner circle nearest the throne and now we want to look at
an extended look at a portion of Scripture from the book of Ezekiel, actually
21 verses from chapter one and verses four-twenty-five.
“4 As I looked, behold, a storm wind
was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually
and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the
fire. 5 Within it there
were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their
appearance: they had human form. 6 Each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight and
their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. 8
Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and
wings of the four of them, 9 their wings touched one another; their faces did
not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. 10 As for the form of
their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the
right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an
eagle. 11 Such were their
faces. Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another
being, and two covering their bodies. 12 And each went straight forward;
wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they
went. 13 In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like
burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living
beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. 14 And
the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.
15 Now as I looked at the living beings,
behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living beings, for each of
the four of them. 16 The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was
like sparkling beryl, and all four of them had the same form, their appearance
and workmanship being as if one wheel were within another. 17 Whenever they
moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they
moved. 18 As for their rims they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all
four of them were full of
eyes round about. 19 Whenever the living beings moved, the wheels moved
with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels rose
also. 20 Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction.
And the wheels rose close beside them; for the spirit of the living beings was
in the wheels. 21 Whenever those went, these went; and whenever those stood
still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels
rose close beside them; for the
spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. 22 Now over the heads of
the living beings there was something
like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal, spread out over
their heads. 23 Under the expanse their wings were stretched out straight, one
toward the other; each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side
and on the other. 24 I also heard the
sound of their wings like
the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a
sound of tumult like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stood still, they
dropped their wings. 25 And there came a voice from above the expanse that was
over their heads; whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings.”
John MacArthur writes “Ezekiel’s
description appears incomprehensible, almost incoherent, as he struggled to
make sense out of the spectacular, supernatural scene that he witnessed. Both Ezekiel’s description and that in
Revelation 4 describe what could be called the divine war machine ready to
unleash judgment.”
Now we look at one more verse from
Ezekiel as we will see it specifically identifies these four living
beings: “Then the cherubim rose up. They
are the living beings that I saw by the river Chebar.” What we see is that these beings are Cherubim’s,
something that is seen different times in the pages of the Old Testament from
Genesis, and Exodus and then in other books.
These Cherubim are usually associated in the Scriptures with God’s power.
In Genesis 3:24 we read “So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden
of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every
direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” This was done by the Lord to keep man from
eating of the tree of live in their sinful condition which would have caused
man not to die and that would not have been good at all. I have read a very interesting book entitled “One
Minute After you Die,” which is written by Erwin Lutzer who is the Pastor of
Moody Church in Chicago Ill. He talks
about why death is necessary to man and also what happens to people as soon as
they die. I will not take the time to go
over all of the times that Cherubim are mentioned in the Bible but if you want
to know you can look the word up in a Bible Concordance.
We mention Ezekiel having trouble in
his description of these four living beings and John had similar trouble giving
a description of them. In Ezekiel we see
a little different description from what is seen in Revelation and that is that
each cherub had four faces in Ezekiel’s description and only one in John’s. They had faces like a lion which represents
wild creatures, a calf for domestic animals, the eagle for flying creatures and
man the pinnacle of creation. It runs in
my mind that one commentator has written that these four different faces represent
what the theme of who Christ is in the four Gospels, not sure if that is true,
but it is interesting. One thing for
sure these are angels, high ranking angels, and powerful angels as they are in
the very presence of God Almighty.
The following is what I wrote in my first study of Revelation
from April 16, 2005 on the description of these beings. “These four living beings all had six wings
which were full of eyes around and within them, and this could represent the
wisdom of God, and it could also point to God being omniscient, but this
attribute is only reserved for God alone.
Another attribute that God alone has is being holy, and that is what
these beings continue to say is holy, holy, holy, for God has complete and
perfect holiness. It is good at this
point to remind myself that the scene that is read about here is worship and
that these four living beings may indeed represent a number of the attributes
of God they are worshiping God the Father who is sitting on His throne in
heaven. These beings are calling God the
Lord God Almighty, and this name is used in all eight times in the book of Revelations,
and only once again in the NT in 2Cor. 6:18, but in the book of Job it is used
as many as thirty-one times. Job is a book where nature is seen in it a
lot and God has made a covenant with nature along with mankind not to bring a
global flood upon this earth ever again, and it could be said that the elements
of nature have the tendency to obey God even better than the human race. In the 8th chapter of Romans Paul
points out that all of nature is groaning as they wait for the Lord Jesus
Christ to come and set up His Kingdom.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have to agree
with the statement that nature has a better time obeying the Lord than people
do, and people are the highest form of creation God has made, for the Bible
tells us that we believers will rule angels in the future. Nature also does better in worshiping the
Lord than we humans, and so do the angels.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind, and strength, and to better understand that love Christ has for me and to
live in that love.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “John.”
Today’s Bible question: “Who said, ‘What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?’”
Answer in our next SD.
3/7/2015 10:43 PM
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