4 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honour and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they existed and were created.”
We can well imagine what associations the rainbow round about the Throne must have had for John and his first readers. For the rainbow was the covenant sign of their covenant God. In Genesis 9, in the story of the Flood, it was the sign that the storm was over, and here it was the assurance to the stricken saints of God that the victory which they longed to see was not in doubt but already an accomplished fact. This is something that is not as fully ap preciated as it might be. As Christians, we do not work towards, but from, victory. Victory was won at the Cross, and in the experience of the Church it is a question of realising a victory that has already been accomplished. We recall hearing of an anxious passenger on board ship as he saw storm clouds on the horizon. On asking one of the crew whether it was likely to be a severe storm, the reply was 'That storm has already passed us. It will never touch us.' That is how it is with storms of evil that threaten life today. For those in Christ it is always true that nothing can finally harm them, for He has already triumphed in His cross, and evil no longer has the final word in. human life.
The blessing of this vision is sealed to John in the fact that four and twenty elders appear in it, representative of all the redeemed of God gathered into His Kingdom through the death of Christ. It was an assurance to him and through him to all the suffering saints of every age that there is a place for them around the throne, echoing our Lord's own words in the Upper Room, 'In my Father's house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you... Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid' (John 14:2, 27).