Key Verse: Revelation 4:11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being.”

The vision continues. Here we see the “throne room” of heaven. It’s a key description for a number of reasons, not the least of them being that this “throne room” is the main “set” of the drama. For  interests sake, you might try drawing the set as it’s described in verses 1-6. Probably you’ll do what I did — you’ll draw in two dimensions (a flat picture, rather like a disk). But try something else: try drawing it, or imagining it, in three dimensions (like a sphere) — the difference will be rather like that between a square and a cube. And don’t forget, our interpretations will always be less than satisfactory, for John is attempting to describe something that’s indescribable.

The main elements of the description are:

(a) a throne

(b) someone on the throne

(c) a rainbow around the throne

(d) 24 other thrones around the throne

(e) 24 elders on these thrones

(f) seven lamps before the throne

(g) a glass sea before the throne

(h) four creatures around the throne

Add to this the colours of jasper, carnelian, rainbow, white, gold, and crystal — all lit with flashes of lightening and vibrating with peals of thunder, and you have three-dimensional description, It’s an awesome picture.

But the key factor in this picture is the verbal message: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is, and is to come” (v.8b). We’re dealing here with God the Father Himself. The only adequate response is prostration (v.10). No description can even come close.