Bible Gem 2226 – The Four Living Beings: An Even More Difficult Image with a Challenge (Revelation 4: 5-8)

From the throne came flashes of lightning and the rumble of thunder. And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. This is the sevenfold Spirit of God. In front of the throne was a shiny sea of glass, sparkling like crystal. In the centre and around the throne were four living beings, each covered with eyes, front and back. The first of these living beings was like a lion; the second was like an ox; the third had a human face; and the fourth was like an eagle in flight. Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered all over with eyes, inside and out.

Revelation 4:5-8

Well you can’t say I didn’t warn you. I wrote in Gem 2223 that we moved now from:

• earth to heaven
• sinful to holy
• human to divine
• things somewhat familiar to things we have no experience of
• history to apocalyptic
• present tense narrative to visions, symbolism and imagery

It is clear the text of Revelation is getting harder to understand.

Where did John get his inspiration from? That is not a hard question. He was given an open door and called upward to the presence of God by the same voice which gave him earlier inspiration. John’s input is via vision with explanation from Christ. He was told to look and hear “what the Spirit was saying to the churches. It is just that the things he saw and the words he heard were somewhat hard to interpret. But is that all, was that the only source? No, there is an Old Testament source for the Four Living Beings, but I suspect most of my readers knew that.

On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles beside the Kebar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. This happened during the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity. (The LORD gave this message to Ezekiel son of Buzi, a priest, beside the Kebar River in the land of the Babylonians, and he felt the hand of the LORD take hold of him.)

Ezekiel 1:1-3

From the centre of the cloud came four living beings that looked human, except that each had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight, and their feet had hooves like those of a calf and shone like burnished bronze. Under each of their four wings I could see human hands. So each of the four beings had four faces and four wings. The wings of each living being touched the wings of the beings beside it. Each one moved straight forward in any direction without turning around. Each had a human face in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back. Each had two pairs of outstretched wings—one pair stretched out to touch the wings of the living beings on either side of it, and the other pair covered its body. They went in whatever direction the spirit chose, and they moved straight forward in any direction without turning around. The living beings looked like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and lightning seemed to flash back and forth among them. And the living beings darted to and fro like flashes of lightning.

Ezekiel 1:5-14

Each of the four cherubim had four faces: the first was the face of an ox, the second was a human face, the third was the face of a lion, and the fourth was the face of an eagle. Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the same living beings I had seen beside the Kebar River. When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved with them. When they lifted their wings to fly, the wheels stayed beside them. When the cherubim stopped, the wheels stopped. When they flew upward, the wheels rose up, for the spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. Then the glory of the LORD moved out from the entrance of the Temple and hovered above the cherubim.

And as I watched, the cherubim flew with their wheels to the east gate of the LORD’s Temple. And the glory of the God of Israel hovered above them. These were the same living beings I had seen beneath the God of Israel when I was by the Kebar River. I knew they were cherubim, for each had four faces and four wings and what looked like human hands under their wings. And their faces were just like the faces of the beings I had seen at the Kebar, and they traveled straight ahead, just as the others had.

Ezekiel 10:14-22

Now you have the apocalyptic background to this image from Ezekiel. The essence of our challenge is knowing how we are to interpret the image of these Four Living Beings in the context of Revelation 4 and 5. What is the point of comparison with these four living beings? How did they relate to the Christians in the seven churches of Revelation? How do they relate to us in the 21st Century? What is the lesson to be learned from these four faces: a lion, an ox, a human face and an eagle? The challenge in this case is these four images appear so unconnected. What is it that links them together? Many have attempted over the centuries to come up with the key to the connectivity. So I have chosen to pass that challenge on to you as well. I am leaving aside the complications of past, present, future tense settings. I am leaving aside all peripheral issues like the additional questions from the previous Gem. Let’s zero in on why the lion, the ox, the man and the eagle were chosen? What is it about these four beings which hold the key to understanding the relevance of this second image to us in the 21st Century? I look forward to seeing your answers, input and ideas.

I have said before in the Gems and I teach in Deeper Bible that in order to rightly interpret the images and symbolism of Word Pictures in the Word of God we have to figure out the point of comparison. What is it about the images that is in focus? Allow me to explain: Let’s take the word “snow” which I have used as an example in Deeper Bible Level 1 and Session 5 of handling Word Pictures. What are the properties of Snow which could become the focus of a biblical Word Picture. Snow has multiple properties, any one of which could be the focus in a verse of the Bible.

• purity
• cold
• whiteness
• usefulness for building igloos
• good for melting to use as drinking water
• is it safe to walk on?

The Eskimos have 25 different words used to describe the features of snow, all in some way related to what property of snow is in focus. So too in this case related to these four images of the Four Living Beings. What do you think is in focus which makes these four living beings useful for communicating a message? Hence I feel inspired to pass the challenge on to you my readers. Once I get your input I will combine it with the others have suggested and then share it all with you in the next Gem. Believe me when I say you can’t go wrong with your input whatever form it might take. You will see why I say that in the next Gem. I will give you a week to come up with your input for the symbolism behind each of the four faces after which I will share a summary of what others have said from the 1st Century AD until now, including yours. But in the case of Gem readers, your input will be anonymous. Believe me, the suggestions Bible experts and commentators over the centuries have come up with contain some outlandish points of comparisons. Enough for me to encourage you to try your best educated guess. It can’t be more outlandish than some already recorded in the literature. Following that I will share what I believe the point of comparison to be.

Don’t let the other issues in the text cloud your thinking. Just stick to what holds these four faces together sufficiently to form an object lesson for us all. But if you also see some other elements in the text which spark your curiosity and you wish to form a question related to what you have seen or what you want to query, then by all means ask it.

Those of you who are familiar with the Bible Gems will know I have returned to what I used to do a number of biblical books back by opening up the text to your questions. In this case it just seemed a good thing to do.

Here is some helpful advice from the experts:

All attempts to draw meaning from these four images literally come crashing down since they are thoroughly – and intentionally – an odd mixture.

Gordon Fee

These four images appear to confound all attempts to link them together on the basis of common properties.

David Pawson

This image may well have to be solved by meditation and asking help from the One who sits on the throne.

David Pawson

The imagery has to be explained but too often we get bogged down on the detail. Sometimes we just have to confess we don’t know for certain the meaning of a particular image.

Eli Lizorkin-Eyzenberg

Allow the images to spark your imagination rather than approaching them analytically.

Gordon Fee