Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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R E V E L A T I O N.

CHAP. IV.

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In this chapter the prophetical scene opens; and, as the epistolary

part opened with a vision of Christ

(ch. i.),

so this part is introduced with a glorious appearance of the great God,

whose throne is in heaven, compassed about with the heavenly host.

This discovery was made to John, and in this chapter he,

I. Records the heavenly sight he saw,

ver. 1-7.

And then,

II. The heavenly songs he heard,

ver. 8, to the end.

The Vision of Heaven.	A. D. 95.

     

1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in

heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a

trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will

show thee things which must be hereafter.

  2 And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne

was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

  3 And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine

stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight

like unto an emerald.

  4 And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and

upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in

white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

  5 And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings

and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before

the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.

  6 And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto

crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the

throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.

  7 And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast

like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the

fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

  8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him;

and they were full of eyes within–

     

We have here an account of a second vision with which the apostle John

was favoured: After this, that is, not only “after I had seen

the vision of Christ walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks,”

but “after I had taken his messages from his mouth, and written and

sent them to the several churches, according to his command, after this

I had another vision.” Those who well improve the discoveries they have

had of God already are prepared thereby for more, and may expect them.

Observe,

     

I. The preparation made for the apostle’s having this vision.

     

1. A door was opened in heaven. Hence we learn,

(1.) Whatever is transacted on earth is first designed and settled in

heaven; there is the model of all the works of God; all of them are

therefore before his eye, and he lets the inhabitants of heaven see as

much of them as is fit for them.

(2.) We can know nothing of future events but what God is pleased to

discover to us; they are within the veil, till God opens the door. But,

(3.) So far as God reveals his designs to us we may and ought to

receive them, and not pretend to be wise above what is revealed.

     

2. To prepare John for the vision, a trumpet was sounded, and he was

called up into heaven, to have a sight there of the things which were

to be hereafter. He was called into the third heavens.

(1.) There is a way opened into the holiest of all, into which the sons

of God may enter by faith and holy affections now, in their spirits

when they die, and in their whole persons at the last day.

(2.) We must not intrude into the secret of God’s presence, but stay

till we are called up to it.

     

3. To prepare for this vision, the apostle was in the Spirit. He

was in a rapture, as before

(ch. i. 10),

whether in the body or out of the body we cannot tell; perhaps he

himself could not; however all bodily actions and sensations were for a

time suspended, and his spirit was possessed with the spirit of

prophecy, and wholly under a divine influence. The more we abstract

ourselves from all corporeal things the more fit we are for communion

with God; the body is a veil, a cloud, and clog to the mind in its

transactions with God. We should as it were forget it when we go in

before the Lord in duty, and be willing to drop it, that we may go up

to him in heaven. This was the apparatus to the vision. Now

observe,

     

II. The vision itself. It begins with the strange sights that the

apostle saw, and they were such as these:–

1. He saw a throne set in heaven, the seat of honour, and

authority, and judgment. Heaven is the throne of God; there he resides

in glory, and thence he gives laws to the church and to the whole

world, and all earthly thrones are under the jurisdiction of this

throne that is set in heaven.

2. He saw a glorious one upon the throne. This throne was not empty;

there was one in it who filled it, and that was God, who is here

described by those things that are most pleasant and precious in our

world: His countenance was like a jasper and a sardine-stone; he

is not described by any human features, so as to be represented by an

image, but only by his transcendent brightness. This jasper is a

transparent stone, which yet offers to the eye a variety of the most

vivid colours, signifying the glorious perfections of God; the

sardine-stone is red, signifying the justice of God, that essential

attribute of which he never divests himself in favour of any, but

gloriously exerts it in the government of the world, and especially of

the church, through our Lord Jesus Christ. This attribute is displayed

in pardoning as well as in punishing, in saving as well as in

destroying sinners.

3. He saw a rainbow about the throne, like unto an emerald,
v. 3.

The rainbow was the seal and token of the covenant of the providence

that God made with Noah and his posterity with him, and is a fit emblem

of that covenant of promise that God has made with Christ as the head

of the church, and all his people in him, which covenant is as the

waters of Noah unto God, an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things

and sure. This rainbow looked like the emerald; the most

prevailing colour was a pleasant green, to show the reviving and

refreshing nature of the new covenant.

4. He saw four-and-twenty seats round about the throne, not

empty, but filled with four-and-twenty elders, presbyters,

representing, very probably, the whole church of God, both in the

Old-Testament and in the New-Testament state; not the ministers of the

church, but rather the representatives of the people. Their sitting

denotes their honour, rest, and satisfaction; their sitting about the

throne signifies their relation to God, their nearness to him, the

sight and enjoyment they have of him. They are clothed in white

raiment, the righteousness of the saints, both imputed and

inherent; they had on their heads crowns of gold, signifying the

honour and authority given them of God, and the glory they have with

him. All these may in a lower sense be applied to the gospel church on

earth, in its worshipping assemblies; and, in the higher sense, to the

church triumphant in heaven.

5. He perceived lightnings and voices proceeding out of the throne;

that is, the awful declarations that God makes to his church of his

sovereign will and pleasure. Thus he gave forth the law on mount Sinai;

and the gospel has not less glory and authority than the law, though it

be of a more spiritual nature.

6. He saw seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which

are explained to be the seven Spirits of God

(v. 5),

the various gifts, graces, and operations of the Spirit of God in the

churches of Christ; these are all dispensed according to the will and

pleasure of him who sits upon the throne.

7. He saw before the throne a sea of glass, like unto crystal.

As in the temple there was a great vessel of brass filled with water,

in which the priests were to wash when they went to minister before the

Lord (and this was called a sea), so in the gospel church the

sea or laver for purification is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,

who cleanses from all sin, even from sanctuary-sins. In this all those

must be washed that are admitted into the gracious presence of God on

earth or his glorious presence in heaven.

8. He saw four animals, living creatures, between the throne and

the circle of elders (as seems most probable), standing between God and

the people; these seem to signify the ministers of the gospel, not only

because of this their situation nearer to God, and between him and the

elders or representatives of the Christian people, and because fewer in

number than the people, but as they are here described,

(1.) By their many eyes, denoting sagacity, vigilance, and

circumspection.

(2.) By their lion-like courage, their great labour and diligence (in

which they resemble the ox), their prudence and discretion becoming

men, and their sublime affections and speculations, by which they mount

up with wings like eagles towards heaven

(v. 7),

and these wings full of eyes within, to show that in all their

meditations and ministrations they are to act with knowledge, and

especially should be well acquainted with themselves and the state of

their own souls, and see their own concern in the great doctrines and

duties of religion, watching over their own souls as well as the souls

of the people.

(3.) By their continual employment, and that is, praising God, and not

ceasing to do so night and day. The elders sit and are ministered unto;

these stand and minister: they rest not night nor day. This now leads

to the other part of the representation.

The Vision of Heaven.	A. D. 95.

     

–8 And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy,

holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

  9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him

that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,

  10 The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on

the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and

cast their crowns before the throne, saying,

  11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and

power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure

they are and were created.

     

We have considered the sights that the apostle saw in heaven: now let

us observe the songs that he heard, for there is in heaven not only

that to be seen which will highly please a sanctified eye, but there is

that to be heard which will greatly delight a sanctified ear. This is

true concerning the church of Christ here, which is a heaven upon

earth, and it will be eminently so in the church made perfect in the

heaven of heavens.

     

I. He heard the song of the four living creatures, of the ministers of

the church, which refers to the prophet Isaiah’s vision,

ch. vi.

And here,

1. They adore one God, and one only, the Lord God Almighty,

unchangeable and everlasting.

2. They adore three holies in this one God, the Holy Father, the Holy

Son, and the Holy Spirit; and these are one infinitely holy and eternal

Being, who sits upon the throne, and lives for ever and ever. In

this glory the prophet saw Christ, and spoke of him.

     

II. He heard the adorations of the four-and-twenty elders, that

is, of the Christian people represented by them; the ministers led, and

the people followed, in the praises of God,

v. 10, 11.

Here observe,

     

1. The object of their worship, the same with that which the ministers

adored: Him that sat on the throne, the eternal everliving God.

The true church of God has one and the same object of worship. Two

different objects of worship, either co-ordinate or sub-ordinate, would

confound the worship and divide the worshippers. It is unlawful to join

in divine worship with those who either mistake or multiply the object.

There is but one God, and he alone, as God, is worshipped by the church

on earth and in heaven.

     

2. The acts of adoration.

(1.) They fell down before him that sat on the throne; they

discovered the most profound humility, reverence, and godly fear.

(2.) They cast their crowns before the throne; they gave God the

glory of the holiness wherewith he had crowned their souls on earth and

the honour and happiness with which he crowns them in heaven. They owe

all their graces and all their glories to him, and acknowledge that his

crown is infinitely more glorious than theirs, and that it is their

glory to be glorifying God.

     

3. The words of adoration: they said, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to

receive glory, and honour, and power,
v. 11.

Observe,

(1.) They do not say, We give thee glory, and honour, and power;

for what can any creature pretend to give unto God? But they say,

thou art worthy to receive glory.

(2.) In this they tacitly acknowledge that God is exalted far above all

blessing and praise. He was worthy to receive glory, but they were not

worthy to praise, nor able to do it according to his infinite

excellences.

     

4. We have the ground and reason of their adoration, which is

threefold:–

(1.) He is the Creator of all things, the first cause; and none but the

Creator of all things should be adored; no made thing can be the object

of religious worship.

(2.) He is the preserver of all things, and his preservation is a

continual creation; they are created still by the sustaining power of

God. All beings but God are dependent upon the will and power of God,

and no dependent being must be set up as an object of religious

worship. It is the part of the best dependent beings to be worshippers,

not to be worshipped.

(3.) He is the final cause of all things: For thy pleasure they are

and were created. It was his will and pleasure to create all

things; he was not put upon it by the will of another; there is no such

thing as a subordinate creator, that acts under and by the will and

power of another; and, if there were, he ought not to be worshipped. As

God made all things at his pleasure, so he made them for his pleasure,

to deal with them as he pleases and to glorify himself by them one way

or other. Though he delights not in the death of sinners, but rather

that they should turn and live, yet he hath made all things for

himself,
Prov. xvi. 4.

Now if these be true and sufficient grounds for religious worship, as

they are proper to God alone, Christ must needs be God, one with the

Father and Spirit, and be worshipped as such; for we find the same

causality ascribed to him.

Col. i. 16, 17,

All things were created by him and for him, and he is before all

things, and by him all things consist.

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Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1721)

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