Revelations 4

This passage from Revelations is not unlike the rest of the book, beautifully crafted, full of vivid imagery and opaque symbols. Let’s spend some time unraveling the images and symbols to come to a better understanding of what the writer is telling us and why the book was determined to be divinely inspired and included in the Bible.

The mysticism expressed bears more fruit in later centuries through the witness of other mystics like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Julian of Norwich and my favorite, Walter Hilton. To be honest, however, the imagery captured by John has more in common with the mysticism of certain southwestern shamans who liberally utilized mescaline and peyote to and color and fill in the blanks.

Before we get started, there is another question to ask first.

“How about them Cubs?”

Back to the question in a moment.

Obviously, when we read a passage like this we are not to imagine that it in any remotely literal way corresponds to the reality of God. It is simply the use of language and images to express the inexpressible. Another way to say it, John, when he wrote Revelations, was speaking in code to a community with the cultural capacity to know what he was talking about even if it did not make sense to an unsuspecting outsider.

When I asked the question about the Cubs, I was speaking in code to you. You have the cultural understanding to understand that I was not really talking about the Cubs as much as I was not taking about Revelations. In this case the code was I was changing the subject rather than trying to climb a ladder with too few rungs and too far to climb.

Writing in the 60’s, after the letters of Paul and before the earliest compilation of the Gospels, John used imagery and symbols found throughout the apocalyptic literature of the Old Testament such as Ezekiel and Daniel to tell a story the Jewish listener would instantly understand but gentile would not comprehend.

There is one part of the passage that doesn’t require cracking any codes.

“Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.”

John speaks to us directly today, asking us to join in with the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles and all the rest of Christendom to praise God, our creator.

Let us repeat the verse together as one.