Revelation of John 4:5

Start with what is on the page. John has just seen a throne in heaven and the One seated on it, blazing like jasper and carnelian with a rainbow around him ( Revelation 4:2-3). Now he tells you what comes out of that throne: lightning, rumblings, thunder. The throne is not quiet. It is the source of a storm.

Any first-century Jewish reader would have recognized the picture at once. This is Mount Sinai, where God came down to give the law and "there was thunder and lightning" so that "all the people in the camp trembled" ( Exodus 19:16). John is telling you that the God of Sinai is the God on the throne, and nothing about him has softened. John Gill

Here is what is easy to miss. This exact cluster of lightning, rumblings, and thunder comes back three more times in Revelation (8:5, 11:19, 16:18), each time at a hinge in the book, when a cycle of judgment reaches its peak. Tyndale So verse 5 is not decoration. It is the first sounding of a signal that will mark the book's heaviest moments, as if to say: everything that follows comes from this throne.

Then the second half: seven torches burning before the throne, and John interprets them himself: "These are the seven Spirits of God." The word "seven" has been attached to the Spirit since the book's opening greeting ( Revelation 1:4), and it will appear again as the Lamb's seven eyes "sent out into all the earth" ( Revelation 5:6).

Christians have read "seven Spirits" two ways. Most Protestant commentators, and many others, take it as the one Holy Spirit in his sevenfold fullness, since seven in this book means completeness, and since Isaiah 11:2 describes a sevenfold Spirit resting on the coming King. thegospelcoalition.org The Catholic study notes on this verse, along with some older commentators, read it instead as seven angels who stand in God's presence, like the seven angels of Revelation 8:2. bible.usccb.org Adam Clarke Both readings are honest attempts at a hard phrase, and the book itself does not settle it with a definition. What it does settle is the location: whatever these seven are, they burn before the throne, serving the One who sits on it.

In the shape of the book, chapter 4 is the door. The letters to seven struggling churches are finished; now the curtain pulls back and you see the throne that stands behind all of history.

The writer calls himself John, a man exiled on the small rocky island of Patmos off the coast of what is now western Turkey ( Revelation 1:9). Most scholars date the book to the mid 90s AD, during the reign of the emperor Domitian, though a minority place it earlier, in the late 60s under Nero. Either way, it was written to seven real congregations in Roman Asia: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

Picture the world those Christians walked through every day. The cities were full of temples, and increasingly the biggest temples were built to Rome and its emperors. Pergamum had a shrine to Augustus; Ephesus would soon have a massive temple to Domitian with a colossal statue of him. Public festivals, trade guild dinners, and civic loyalty all ran through the worship of the emperor. To refuse was to be strange at best and dangerous at worst, and John himself had already paid for it with exile.

So when John describes a throne, he is using the most loaded political word of his day. Caesar sat on a throne. Caesar's image glowed in gold. And before Caesar, in his court, torches and lamps were set out to signal his majesty and authority. Tyndale John looks past all of that and says: there is one throne that matters, and it is not in Rome.

The thunder and lightning would have carried a second layer for Jewish-background readers. Zeus, the chief god of the Greek world, was the thunderer, and Pergamum had a famous altar to him. But Israel's Scriptures had long claimed the storm for the LORD. "The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble" ( Joel 3:16). At Sinai the people "trembled and stood at a distance" when they saw the thunder and lightning ( Exodus 20:18). John's readers knew which God actually owns the sky.

The seven torches would also have reminded them of the temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, perhaps only twenty-five years earlier. Its golden lampstand held "seven lamps" ( Exodus 37:23), trimmed by priests and kept burning. For readers who had lost that temple, John is saying the lamps still burn, in a sanctuary no legion can reach.

ἐκπορεύομαι (ekporeúomai, G1607), "to proceed, go out from." The lightning and thunder do not just appear near the throne; they come out of it, as if the throne itself is the origin point. Strong's That one verb carries the verse's first claim: the storm is not something God endures, it is something God emits.

ἀστραπή (astrapḗ, G796), "lightning, glare," and βροντή (brontḗ, G1027), "thunder," from a root meaning "to roar." Strong's These are plain storm words, and John chooses them deliberately so that you hear Sinai.

φωνή (phōnḗ, G5456), translated "rumblings" here. Its basic meaning is "a tone, a voice, a saying," and it is the ordinary Greek word for a spoken voice. Strong's That is worth pausing on. The noise from the throne is not only weather; there are voices in it. Some older commentators heard in this that God is not just making a threatening sound but saying specific things, announcing judgments to come. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

λαμπάς (lampás, G2985), "a lamp or torch," the kind you carry or set up to light a room, not the small household oil lamp. Strong's Paired with πῦρ (pŷr, G4442), "fire," and the participle of καίω (kaíō, G2545), "to burn, kindle." These are torches in full blaze, continuously burning.

ἐνώπιον (enṓpion, G1799), literally "in the face of," before. Strong's The seven torches burn in the direct sight of the One on the throne.

ἑπτά (heptá, G2033), "seven." In Revelation this number almost always signals completeness and perfection, which is the main reason so many readers take "seven Spirits" as the one Spirit in his fullness rather than seven separate beings. John Gill

Hold this verse next to the chapter that follows. In Revelation 5:6 John sees a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of this same throne, and the Lamb "had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth." The torches that burn before the throne in 4:5 turn out to be the eyes of Jesus in 5:6. Whatever stands before God in fullness also belongs to the crucified Lamb and goes out through him into the whole world.

The letters to the churches have already set this up. The risen Jesus introduces himself to Sardis as "the One who holds the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars" ( Revelation 3:1). And the book's opening greeting puts "the seven Spirits before His throne" between the Father and Jesus Christ in a single blessing ( Revelation 1:4-5). If the sevenfold-Spirit reading is right, this is one of the New Testament's clearest pictures of Father, Spirit, and Son around one throne.

The Old Testament prepared for this too. Isaiah 11:2 promised that "the Spirit of the LORD will rest upon" a shoot from Jesse's stump, and then lists the Spirit's qualities: wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the LORD. Jesus is that shoot, and the fullness of the Spirit rests on him ( John 3:34). The fire in these torches is the same fire John the Baptist promised Jesus would bring: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" ( Matthew 3:11). Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

The thunder has its own fulfillment. Hebrews 12:18-24 says you have not come to Sinai's "fire and darkness and gloom and storm," but "to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant." The God of 4:5 has not changed; what has changed is that the Lamb now stands at the center of the storm, and you approach through him.

One honest caution. Some teachers point out that this scene still shows God at a distance from us, with the Spirit as the one who crosses that gap, and that the Spirit's presence now is a down payment of what is coming, not the whole inheritance ( 2 Corinthians 1:22). thegospelcoalition.org The throne room is real, but you are not standing in it yet. You are standing where Jesus has put you, waiting.

Let me ask you something plainly. When you picture God, is there any thunder in the picture?

A lot of us have quietly edited him down. We keep the kindness and lose the lightning. But John will not let you do that. The throne he sees is not a comfortable chair; it is the source of a storm, the same storm that made a whole nation tremble at Sinai. If your God never unsettles you, you may be worshiping a smaller God than the one John saw.

And notice: this is the same God who, two chapters earlier, walked among the lampstands of ordinary churches and knew every one of their deeds ( Revelation 2:1-2). The thunder and the tenderness come from one throne. You do not get to choose one and ignore the other.

Now look at the torches. Seven of them, in full blaze, before the throne. If this is the Spirit of God in his fullness, then there is no shortage in heaven. John Gill Whatever your church lacks, whatever you lack, the problem is not that God ran out. The problem is usually that we prefer dimmer light, because full light shows everything.

That is the cost this verse asks of you. Fire does two things: it lights and it burns. The Spirit who illumines also purifies, and you cannot ask for one without the other. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown The church in Sardis had a reputation for being alive and was dead, and Jesus told them so as the One who holds these seven Spirits ( Revelation 3:1). Would you let the same Spirit tell you the truth about your reputation? About the parts of your life you keep out of the light because they would not survive it?

Here is where it lands. Tonight, before you sleep, sit with the throne for a minute. Let it be loud. Let it be holy. Then ask the Spirit who burns before it to burn in you, and mean it, knowing that the first thing he will do is show you something you have been avoiding. That is not God being cruel. That is God being the fire he has always been, and refusing to leave you in the dark.

• Lord, you are the God of Sinai and the God on the throne, and I confess I have made you quieter and tamer than you are. Give me back a holy fear of you.
• Spirit of God, you burn in fullness before the throne. Where I am dim, cold, or running on reputation alone, burn in me the way you burn there.
• Father, the thunder from your throne has voices in it. Help me to hear what you are actually saying rather than only what I want to hear.
• Jesus, Lamb at the center of the throne, I come to the storm only through you. Thank you that I do not have to stand at a distance as Israel did.
• Lord, light and fire are the same thing in your hand. I give you permission to show me what I have hidden, and to burn away what cannot stay.

• The lightning and thunder come "from the throne." What has your picture of God been missing, and what have you gained by leaving it out?
• The word for "rumblings" literally means "voices." When God has spoken a hard word to you through Scripture or another believer, what did you do with it?
• Seven torches burn before the throne, a picture of fullness. Where in your life do you act as though the Spirit is scarce or absent, and what does that say about what you actually believe?
• The same Spirit who gives light also burns. Is there a part of your life you keep out of the light because you suspect it would not survive the fire?
• Jesus told Sardis, as the One holding the seven Spirits, that they looked alive but were dead. If he described your spiritual reputation versus your spiritual reality, what would the gap be?