The Cosmic Throne

Revelation reveals the throne of heaven as the theoscape after which the cosmos was modeled in Genesis 1.

The deep structure of the book of Revelation is the “Heptateuch,” or the first seven books of the Bible. This is the primary key that “cracks the code.” But this one key is also a host: the same pattern, or type, is stamped into the Creation Week, Israel’s harvest festival calendar, and Israel’s “ascension in a cloud” from Egypt to Canaan. All of these aspects must be kept in mind as we work through the book.

COVENANT	CREATION/ TABERNACLE Genesis 1	HARVESTS Leviticus 23	HEPTATEUCH	REVELATION
TRANSCENDENCE Creation	DAY 1 Light & Darkness Ark of the Testimony	Sabbath Oil & Wine from previous year	Genesis Patriarchs	The Man: Vision of Jesus
HIERARCHY Division	DAY 2 Firmament Veil	Passover Unleavened Bread: history cut off	Exodus Red Sea	The Churches: Burning Trees
ETHICS: Priesthood Ascension	DAY 3 Dry Land & Fruit Bearers Bronze Altar & Golden Table	Firstfruits Barley, Wheat & Legumes	Leviticus Ascensions	The Lamb Enthroned: Sacrifice Ended
ETHICS: Kingdom Testing	DAY 4 Governing Lights Lampstand	Pentecost Grains and Seeds: Sesame, Flax & Millet	Numbers Wandering Stars	The Wilderness: Spiritual War
ETHICS: Prophecy Maturity	DAY 5 Swarms in Sky & Sea Incense Altar	Trumpets Grapes & Figs	Deuteronomy Mustered Hosts	True & False Armies: Saints & Judaizers
OATH/SANCTIONS Conquest	DAY 6 Garden, Spring, Land Animals & Man Laver & Priesthood (Mediators)	Atonement Pomegranates	Joshua Devoted City	True & False Brides: The Harlot & the Cup
SUCCESSION Glorification	Day 7 Rest & Rule Shekinah	Booths Olives	Judges Human Elohim	The Saints Enthroned & Final Judgement

With this matrix in mind, we can not only understand the enigmatic final prophecy of the Bible, but we can discern this pattern in other places. Some are overt, but some are very subtle. One of these is the description of the throne of heaven in Revelation 4.

The word “throne” is used fourteen times in Revelation 4, but the characteristics of the throne are sevenfold, matching the covenant-creation pattern described above.

• Revelation 4-5 is the Ascension step of the prophecy, so John is taken up as a living sacrifice into the heavenly tabernacle. Jasper (Benjamin) and carnelian (Reuben) were the last and first in the birth order of the sons of the Jacob on the breastplate of the High Priest, so this is a symbolic reversal of the Alpha and Omega. The second-born or last born becoming God’s firstborn (the heir) by faith is a recurring theme in Genesis, in the national rivalry between Israel and Egypt (Exodus 4:22), and also in Jesse’s youngest son, David (1 Samuel 17:14).
• The rainbow alludes to the second stage of Genesis (See The Shape of Genesis – Part 1) but the emerald is the stone of Levi, the faithful tribe that answered Moses’ call after the sin of the golden calf. The emerald thus relates to faithful sword-bearing as a cherubim/guardian, as seen in the spear-wielding Phinehas, and the green horse of Revelation 6:8 (the fourth Gospel, by John the Levite). In that sense, the bow which God had hung in the clouds, represented by the rainbow stones of the High Priest, was about to be taken up again against Herodian Israel, the corrupt mediators between heaven and earth.
• Under David, the Levitical priesthood was expanded to twenty-four courses of priests. This comprises a three-tiered altar (like the one in Ezekiel 43) as a miniature ziggurat, a priestly “mountain of God” made of people, like the kingly one in Numbers (See Jacob’s Ziggurat). Here, however, the men are priest-kings. Since angels are only servants, not sons, and these men are crowned, it would seem that they are the faithful covenant heads who have been assembled throughout Old Testament history. They are assembled here to receive their Lamb-Lion, the true priest-king.

• The fourth characteristic continues the “mountain of God” theme with an allusion to Sinai, the fourth mountain (see The Highest of the Mountains). Later in the prophecy, the Tabernacle sequence (described above) is played out backwards to indicate the de-creation or destruction of the Mosaic polity at the end of Israel’s ministry (just as Moses would not enter the Land era, so the seat of Moses would not enter the World era in AD70). That sequence ends with the ark of God opened in heaven that the curses of the Law might be poured out upon the unbelieving Jews and their Gentile conspirators (see Moses and the Revelation, 140).
• The seven spirits might have been expected to fill the Day 4 – Lampstand spot, but here they appear at the same location at the virgins with the lamps in the sevenfold pattern of Matthew 24-25 (see The Shape of Matthew 24-25: Overview). The image here is thus one of the holy, bridal army (the reason why Nazirites did not cut their hair!), a host later described as virgins (Revelation 14:4), in contrast to Judaizers being filled with “seven worse demons” (Matthew 12.43-45). So, this host is the result of the “pouring out” in the previous step, a spiritual body that resulted from the Day of Pentecost (see also Ezekiel 1:13 and Zechariah 4:2).
• The sea of glass is the sapphire pavement seen upon Sinai (Exodus 24:10) and by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:26). An image of this court was made by King Ahasuerus (Esther 1:6). The idea is that God’s court is the true “waters above” in contrast to the abyss as the true “waters below.” As Joseph discovered, the throne and the dungeon are only ever a step apart. During judgment, or worship, God’s “bows the heavens“ and His court and man’s court become one, heaven and earth united in a bridal tryst, a “tent of meeting.” The sea described here was above to be transformed. Just as the Red Sea corresponded to the waters below (Hagar, old Jerusalem, the servant) and the Jordan to the waters above (Sarah, new Jerusalem, the sons), and both were raised up as walls to the enemy and gates to the faithful, so this crystal sea would imminently be transformed in a crystal city, nature becoming culture, as is the way with God.
• Finally, the four beasts speak of the four points of the compass, and their eyes speak of the x-ray vision of wise judges who discern the hearts of men. This corresponds to Judges but also the Feast of Booths, the festival to which all nations are invited. These four points correspond to the four horns of the altar, and the four empires of Daniel 7 which guarded the people of God. Adam’s first throne was dominion over the beasts. (Daniel 4 and John 17 work through these four faces as deep structure. See The Gospel According to Nebuchadnezzar – Part 3 and The Four Faces of Jesus in John 17.) The beasts submitted to Noah, and the nations to Mordecai, in humble fear. Seated above the “four compass-point” beasts, the one on the throne becomes the apex of another pyramid or ziggurat, the ultimate peak of all hierarchies, a “mountain” that is not a rough altar of unhewn stones (nature) but a city of smooth, chiseled, beauty (culture).

Further reading: Cosmos and Covenant (PDF).

Image: The Armchair of Morpheus.

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