Fix Your GAze
Revelation 4 & 6
Fix your Gaze
To many the book of Revelation is an obscure and scary book. It is a poetic book that can leave many baffled and confused. It is a book that some argue, has had more influence on history than any other Bible book. Because of its poetic nature and apocalyptic language, this book has tended to be incorrectly understood. For example, I am not sure that Revelation was meant to be a random end of the World date generator, a crystal ball of sorts. In this regard its influence has often not been a good one for people or creation. I wonder and I am interested in what this book meant to the early Christian community as they navigated the challenges of their day.
What might this mean for us today? Sometimes, you make the very difficult decision to change for the better. When you do so, There is often this belief that everything else around you will get better. You expect to feel better, you expect life to be easier and your days to be filled with more joy. But sometimes things get worse before they get better. Sometimes one stops a drinking habit, expecting their children to suddenly adore them, only to find the hours they do spend with them are very painful and unwanted from the children’s side. Someone makes a decision to attend church more regularly and then is unpleasantly surprised at the new challenges that spring up in their lives at work and in relationships. When this happens, when it gets worse before it gets better, we tend to question if we ever needed to make a change for the better. We are tempted to call it quits and go back to our old ways.
Revelation was written for the early Christians. Many did not come from Christian households and becoming a Christian was a huge cost. To some it was the cost of alienation from their families. To others it was prosecution under the Roman authorities. But…they found in the gospel of Jesus Christ; something irresistibly hopeful even if, in the reality of their lives, they experienced alienation, rejection and persecution. To give you an idea of their suffering, some of them were burned alive and others thrown into arenas with wild animals. In the midst of this, Christians needed pastoral encouragement.
Revelation is a letter written by the apostle John. He was no stranger to suffering. He wanted to give these people hope and encouragement and perspective. He wanted to tell people who swam in the gospel stream against the empire and its evil, that their suffering was not a sign that they had it all wrong. He wanted to remind them that even the most cruel and unforeseeable things they experienced were still under the authority of God and that these trials could not thwart His plans for a renewed creation. Revelation was written to tell Christians who suffered that they should keep heart. God knows. God is in control. Jesus conquered death and even in our suffering we share in His victory.
There is something very interesting and important to see in Revelation 4. John gets a vision of God on the throne. Picture this as God in the control room of what happens in heaven and on earth. This is how the Israelites understood the seat in haven imagery-as a seat of authority and control of everything. It’s like God tells John in verse 4: “I am about to show you some very shocking things that are going to be played out on earth and the only way you will be able to face them, is by seeing and not forgetting that I am on the throne”.
The book mentions seven Spirits, but this does not mean that the Holy Spirit is actually seven persons. It points to the omnipresence of God and that His Spirit is with his people everywhere. God the Father is on the throne with the seven spirits that point to the Holy Spirit. So, where is Jesus in all of this? We also read in this cahpter about four living creatures around the throne. They represent Jesus. One looks like a lion, one like an ox, one like a human and one like a flying eagle. Now, I’m going to come back to these four images in a while. But first, I want to tell you about the four horsemen two chapters later in Revelation 6…
Between Chapter 4 and Chapter 6, we get chapter 5 (who would have guessed that!). In chapter 5 we read about a book. In the letter John seems very sad that this book was closed. To many of his readers, life felt like a closed book that could not be read or understood. Nobody could open this book and it was sealed with seven seals. Doesn’t life feel like that sometimes even today? A closed book? But, here comes the hopeful and good news. The Lamb, seated at God’s right hand which refers to the resurrected Jesus can open the book and can break the seals. It implies that those who follows Jesus can actually make sense of life amid all the suffering around them.
Now, every time a seal is broken the meaning of a mystery is revealed. The mystery is then incorporated into God’s salvation plan for creation. God is in control.
Revelation speaks about four horsemen. Each horseman represents a powerful consequence of sin commonly experienced in the world, that tempts people to doubt that God is in loving control of affairs. The first horseman rides on a white horse.
In the book of Revelation, the only other person that rides on a White Horse is Jesus. He is the only one supposed to. We read that He rides on a white horse early on and that there is a sword coming from his mouth (which refers to his teaching and wisdom that brings deliverance). But on this white horse it is not Jesus but another. And he is up to no good. He is an imposter. This Horseman stands for false teaching. False teachings and fake news were a source of much pain in the world back then and are today. Think about this. Isn’t the Corona virus an impetus for many false teachings about what it is and how to treat it? But this white horseman refers specifically to the false teachings in the church…About Who God is and the work He is doing in the world.
The second horse is a red one. He steals away the peace on earth. War, violence, conflict and strife is his game. The way of violence and force is not God’s way. We know that wherever violence and force take over people struggle to see and find God.
The third one is a black horse. The rider has a scale in his hand. He says: “A quart of wheat for a day’s pay, and three quarts of barley for a day’s pay but do not damage the olive oil and the wine” Olive oil and wine were considered luxuries. So, this horseman represents economic injustice: corruption, exploitation of labor and unequal wealth distribution. It stands for famine and poverty. We know that when economic injustice, famine and poverty take over, people suffer and struggle to find God.
The last horseman rides a pale green (yuk!). He brings epidemics and natural disasters. Haven’t we come to know this one intimately the past week! He is trotting all over the globe right now! The Corona virus is making this poetic image vivid for us today.
So, this thought might make us feel a little bit better. God is totally in control and aware of all these disruptions that we lament. But, we need more, don’t we? And for this “more” we need to go back to the four creatures of Revelation 4. I shared with you that they are all about Jesus. You see, the early church immersed themselves in Jesus and they came up with what is referred to as “The four faces of Christ”. They linked each face, describing a specific attribute of who Jesus is and what He does, to a different gospel. Matthew was ascribed the Lion because Matthew describe Jesus as the brave Lion from Judah, who came to conquer. An Ox was ascribed to Mark because Mark describes Jesus as the one that works tirelessly for our salvation (an ox is associated with the ability to work very hard). A human face was ascribed to Luke because Luke sketches Jesus as the one who came up close and personal with humankind, especially the poor and the outcast. Lastly an eagle was ascribed to John because an eagle sees things others do not. An eagle sees a bigger picture and John describes Jesus as the one Who came from above with deep wisdom and godly perspective.
So, in Revelation John gets a vision of the four faces of Christ because he is shown the four horsemen of the apocalypse. You know what our problem today is? We look at the horsemen before we look at Jesus and by the time we do, we misunderstand the message and are so frightened that we cannot see a consistent and clear picture Jesus if we tried. If you see Jesus on the throne you can face any harsh reality that life throws your way. If you see Jesus first, you see the horsemen for what they are. Temporary consequences of sin that will ultimately be conquered by Christ.
Now let’s go deeper. Way back when Israel camped in the desert, they camped in a specific way and order. They were told to put the tent of meeting, the tabernacle, The very presence of God in the middle. And then they set up camp in groups of three tribes to every direction. In each group of three tribes, there was a leader tribe that had an emblem. This emblem was displayed on a banner and raised above each of the groups. To the east, the leader tribe was Judah and their emblem was a lion. To the west the leading tribe was Efraim and their emblem was an ox. To the South, the leading tribe was Ruben an their emblem was a human face. To the North, Dan was the leading tribe and their emblem was an eagle.
Now, this is very interesting to me. Did you know, in the ancient near East, when people set up camp they would face their tent openings to the outside, so they could scan their surroundings for enemies and be prepared should they decide to attack? No Israel did it differently. They were instructed to camp with their tent openings facing the tabernacle, not the outside. It is as if God wanted to tell them: “Stay focused on me, and I will have your back!”.
Now, the people camping like this knew nothing of Jesus and his so called four faces. But their God knew all about it. I wonder if it is even a coincidence that this camping arrangement was shaped like a cross with the tent of meeting in the middle. Because much later on, God would meet humankind like no other time when Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice in the middle of a cross for our sins.
In Ezekiel 1:10 we read about the same four faces. In the book of Zachariah, chapter 6, we read about the same horses than in Revelation 6. In Matthew 24 Jesus mentions the same kind of things that the horses stand for. Famines, earthquakes, false prophets and pandemics. And the message in all of these passages is the same: Keep your eyes, your focus on God and you will conquer with him. The horsemen will not have the last say, God will.
You know what is great reading about these camping arrangements? It was done in a chapter of God’s history with his people where his transcendence took prominence, the fact that God is above and beyond us and our ways. But during this time God also showed them His immanence, the fact that He is with them. Today we can still hold on to His transcendence because Jesus is seated on a seat of authority at the right hand of God. We can hold on to his immanence because Jesus became a human being and lived amongst us. But there is more… He is now not only above us, beyond us and with us. He is through his Holy Spirit also in us. He works in us and around us. He is the brave lion of Judy and He embolden us. He is the ox that works tirelessly for our salvation and we work hard from the rest His work gives us. He is the only God with a human face and he gives us compassion to truly know and understand human beings. He is the eagle that soars above and shares his perspective of things with us so that we can have peace and calm when other people are losing their cool.
Close
So the question that remains is this? At who do you look at first during this time? The Jesus, The Lion, Ox, human and eagle above you, around you and in you or the pale green horse running all around the globe now? Or at the markets in the hope that they will recover and bring you salvation?
What do you need to do to keep your eyes on Jesus in this time? You need to simply open the eyes of faith. How do you know you are focusing on Him? You look at the fruits. You become hungry for His truth. You get to love his church, as imperfect as they may be, more. You experience an increasing hunger for justice and equality. You become less fearful and anxious. These are the fruits of salvation. This is what gets one not just through an epidemic but through life in a hopeful way.
Amen