35: World News & Prophecy - Revelation 4-5

[McNeely] Good morning, everyone. We are at Revelation 4, ready to cover what is a fantastic section of the Bible because Revelation 4 is a vision of the throne of God. It starts in verse 1 where John says, "After these things I looked" (Revelation 4:1). That would be a, we would assume then, a reference back to the opening chapters and especially the messages to the seven congregations in Asia Minor at that time.

And so this is the next scene: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice that I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.' Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald" (Revelation 4:1-3).

So we have three different jewels that are mentioned here, in coloring of red and brilliant green, and a rainbow with, obviously, a mixture of the colors of a rainbow around the throne.

So it is a vision that John has here as he is transported in spirit to the throne of God. Now this is not an unusual scene in the Bible. As we know, there are other scenes of the throne of God in the Bible. There are other great epic scenes in Scripture of God appearing before His servants—Exodus chapter 3 and other scenes in the book of Exodus where God is on Sinai, Moses goes up, receives the Ten Commandments, sees—first of all in chapter 3—sees a burning bush and has that encounter, and then on the mountain.

All of that are direct contact between a human servant and God. And from all of that there is something then that is learned. There are two other Old Testament scenes that are a particular parallel to this in Revelation 4 with what we see in them. And I would like to turn to them and just note them here. Actually there are three, but we'll turn to two. We've already studied one, and that is Daniel chapter 7 where Daniel in his vision has a vision of the throne of God—"One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven… came to the Ancient of Days" (Daniel 7:13).

We studied that when we were in Daniel. But if we turn back to Isaiah chapter 6, this is a great scene as well in the prophecy of Isaiah. Beginning in verse 1: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple" (Isaiah 6:1).

Now the throne of God— all of these scenes have something in common in that there is a scene of God sitting on a throne. And it is—this adds in the idea of a temple. And we know that the temple built on earth, first given as a pattern to Moses, later in the ark that he built, and the temporary portable tabernacle that he built, was then a forerunner of the temple built by Solomon. But both of them in their layout, their design, the components, all the elements there, and rituals and washings and sacrifices of both of those, were a shadow or a pattern of heavenly things.

The book of Hebrews tells us that. I'm not going to turn and go back into all of that analogy there, but Hebrews tells us that what was built was a pattern of that which is in the heavens. All right? So with these scenes then, we're seeing then the ultimate reality, if you will.

The temple, as beautiful as it was, as important as it was in the plan of God, was only a physical representation or a shadow of the ultimate in heaven. Never forget that. And so, in these glimpses that God gives us of the throne room of heaven, don't think so much of a castle and some human-designed palace where an earthly king or queen sits. Think of the reality of the earthly tabernacle or, in this case, temple where God is, and where everything that was patterned on the earth through Moses is the reality. And that's where our scene should be in our thinking and in our mind.

And so Isaiah sees this and he sees the throne. "Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew" (Isaiah 6:2). A very powerful rank or caste, if you will, of the angelic realm, the divine angelic realm—these seraphim, very powerful angels. We have a booklet on angels that can walk you through all that the Bible gives us about the angelic realm.

And there are—you know, how do you picture that? There's a representation. I saw a picture of it yesterday, and I didn't want to throw all this into a PowerPoint for you today. But when we go to Turkey, we always go to Istanbul. And Istanbul is the—what is this huge, today it's a mosque. It's called the Hagia Sophia. It was built by Justinian in the 600s AD, originally as a Christian church, but with the Muslim overtaking Constantinople years later—800 years later—then it became a mosque. Then in more modern times, in the early 20th century, when Turkey became a little bit more secular, they turned it into just a kind of a historic relic.

But about three or four years ago, the current Turkish government turned it back into a mosque. So when I go in there today with a tour, which I will in a few weeks, we're going into a mosque—a very large mosque that has had a storied past. But since it was an original Christian church, there are four images on the four corners of this mosque—or I call it corners—of a seraphim. And it's got multiple wings that are covering it.

And every time I looked at that and pointed out to the group I'm with, it kind of reminds me here of verse 2—somewhat, not a perfect representation of it. But they are rather fearsome-looking images that were painted into the ceiling and have been there for hundreds of years in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. So it's two wings that covered, and it's got eyes peeking out there.

Verse 3: "One cried to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!'" (Isaiah 6:3). "And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke" (Isaiah 6:4).

I mean, this is a fantastic scene that is given to us. "So I said: 'Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.' Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: 'Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged'" (Isaiah 6:5-7).

So it goes on. So this is Isaiah. In chapter 1 of Ezekiel, there is another image, vision. This is Ezekiel's vision of God. We'll just jump to verse 4: "Then I looked, and behold, a whirlwind was coming out of the north, a great cloud with raging fire engulfing itself; and brightness was all around it and radiating out of its midst like the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire" (Ezekiel 1:4). He's by the river with the captives, and he sees this vision.

So you will also see a similarity with the coloring of Revelation 4 as well. "Also from within it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man. Each one had four faces, and each one had four wings" (Ezekiel 1:5-6).

I won't go through and read all of this here, but it's another description, and I'll add a more detail to what must be—you see Ezekiel's vision here, the divine beings have faces like a man, face of an ox, and of an eagle down in verses 10 and 11. And this particular vision—what it is—kind of moves at right angles very quickly, unlike a description of anything that we have human-made today, aircraft.

I mean, it moves quickly, and it moves—you know—it can go backwards and forwards. You know, a fighter jet can go at supersonic speed, but it can't suddenly stop and then go left at the same speed. If it did, it'd tear itself apart—centrifugal force. But that's not so with the divine realm here. You know, just a little aside—UFOs, or whatever they're called, I forgot what they are now, but I do my... I'm going to get into personal opinion here, but there is something there. And, you know, some believe, and I think there's reason to suspect that it is of an other-earthly realm—not God's appearances or what Ezekiel or Isaiah sees or John—but from a different evil realm, confusing because some of the things that are there, and there's been too many sightings and descriptions to just dismiss it, kind of replicate some of the motions or observations that we see out of the Bible of these things.

But I think it's there... I think there's a different motive behind that other than what we read from Scripture with the sightings of divine beings, angelic beings, and the visions of the throne of God, which from the Bible perspective are meant to point us to God with a very clear revelation, with a very clear meaning and purpose, as opposed to these random types of sightings and confusion that is a part of what is in the realm of our world today.

We shouldn't be confused or worried about that, but that's another topic. And when God reveals a bit of the divine realm, it is to strengthen our faith, it is to draw us closer to Him and stand in awe of His power. And so Isaiah, Ezekiel have their visions. And you know, you've been through Zechariah, and I really like Zechariah's visions there as well.

When we come back to Revelation 4 here, and we see this, these are things that we should mark in our mind as we—periodically when we're praying to God—these are some of the things we should think about. This is where we are going with our words and our petitions and our prayers to God. We're going into a scene like this, literally. And God hears; Christ is our Mediator, our High Priest. And there's power there, there's splendor, there's glory unimaginable. It is the nerve center of the cosmos. It is the headquarters of the universe—whatever you want. It is everything that any science fiction, mythic telltale can conjure up in all of their cinematic glory and abilities, and a whole lot more.

A whole lot more. I've seen the Star Wars, and I've seen a lot of the Marvels—not every one of them. And they're great stories. The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and all of these others that are science fiction, they capture the imagination. Some are better than others.

My view is, basically, they're all a rip-off of the Bible. And just don't forget that. Whatever is your particular cup of tea, it's a rip-off of the Bible in theme and ultimate—whatever their storyline is. And the best scenes, the best stories, are in the Bible.

And so just keep that in mind as you read, watch, view all of those things.

John here comes into this, and he is seeing the throne of God. Now, let's go on to verse 4 of chapter 4 of Revelation: "Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads" (Revelation 4:4).

This is the Stephanos crown that I mentioned as we were talking in chapter—with the crown as the promise in Revelation chapter 3. The Stephanos crown, which, if you remember, was the crown for a victor—the winner of the race in the Olympiads. And it was a laurel wreath. It was made out of the branches and leaves of a laurel bush. So it was temporary in that it's corruptible, but it represented victory in a race. And it's different from the diadem—or diadēma, I believe—of a kingly crown. Even though the kingly crown mentioned in Scripture was often—and you'll see that in antiquity—that was often patterned after the Stephanos crown, but it was a gold crown, but made and shaped like a laurel crown. But a king wore the diadem.

But here, these are crowns—these are the Stephanos crown—on their head. And we have 24 elders that sit on that kind of a second tier, if you will, the Father and Christ at the center of the scene, and then around them, 24 thrones with these divine beings called 24 elders.

Now, the number 24 here reflects the orders of the priests, the different rank or orders of the priests that were set up in the Old Testament temple to do the service of the offerings and the sacrifices there. You find that back in 1 Chronicles 24:7-19 that talk about the order of the priests, and there were different orders that rotated through on an annual basis to make sure that there was always a priest attendance in the temple. So that number corresponds, at least to this.

Beyond that, the Scripture doesn't give us exactly—we could say that these 24 elders may be a type of, or maybe the ultimate representation of, what those 24 orders of the priests that were, in a sense, around the temple and around the Holy of Holies and ministering and serving in that way. So there is a connection. But also, we can look at this as being a symbol of the unity of God's people.

That includes Israel, which had 12 tribes. In the Old Testament, Israel is a forerunner or a type of the New Testament church. And the foundation of the New Testament church are the 12 apostles. So you have 12 apostles and you have 12 tribes of Israel—foundations of the nation of Israel, foundations of the Israel of God, or the New Testament church—12 and 12, 24. So there could be then a connection there, speaking to the total unity of God's purpose through Israel of old and the church of the new.

And they're both connected here. Now, in chapter 21, we'll see the New Jerusalem coming down, and there's a connection of the 12 tribes that are the names that are on the gates of the city, and the foundations have the names of the 12 apostles. I think I've got that correct there.

If I'm not, somebody will let me know, I'm sure. But we'll see that in chapter 21.

And so there's this connection. Now, I think that is a legitimate matter to draw from this. And one of the things we're going to see as we go through Revelation is that, obviously, these numbers do connect to various other aspects of the Bible and the aspects of God's plan and purpose. Again, 12 tribes, 12 apostles, 24 elders here—the unity. And I think that it is telling us something there. One of the things we're going to see when we get into chapter 7 is we're going to have a reference to the 12 tribes of Israel and the 144,000 that are mentioned there. And we'll see that.

And we're also—as I've already mentioned—chapter 21, the New Jerusalem has the tribes on the gates, the names on the gates. Here's my point: throughout Revelation, Israel is in and on the book of Revelation here in this last message that God gave through John. And projecting us into the time of the end—it's Israel.

It's about Israel. It's about God, obviously, but God chose Abraham and his descendants as the human agency and family through whom He worked out His plan. He's worked out His plan on the earth. And Israel is very important. And we will see that as we go through Revelation and draw many other different conclusions from this.

So that's kind of a setup there. Let's go on to verse 5: "And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (Revelation 4:5).

And so, here's a reference to Zechariah 4 again and to Revelation 1 and the seven Spirits of God—the completeness of God's power on omnipotence and omniscience that go through the spirits mentioned in Zechariah 4 that go throughout the earth. The seven congregations of Revelation 2 and 3, the seven churches there that are connected—God's knowledge of, purpose with, and actions through the church and the world—are involved here in this idea of the seven Spirits of God.

Not that God has seven distinct spirits—God is Spirit. And there is a unity of that Spirit. But as it is apportioned over churches or divine manifestations, if that is a term I can use, that go through the world as God rules the world, as God looks at and knows the world—this is, I think, what it comes back to—that this scene is telling us that God is in control, knows all, is directing the events of this world, history, movements of nations, major events that can impact the course of nations and, if not guided by God, could derail His purpose and plan.

Not that God's purpose or plan can be derailed, but God does not allow human beings to go any further than or within His divine realm. And that's an important topic that we'll keep coming back to as we go deeper into Revelation. God allows the nations to do their thing, but that's done within a plan. And the Spirit of God is guiding and directing this continually.

You bring that back to your level and mine as we receive God's Spirit at baptism. And God dwells in us. His life is within us. We're a part of that scene.

We're part of this scene. Now, we're reading about John Gillow going up in a vision. Now, you and I are not going to be startled awake some night and have the same vision. We have John's vision, but we also have God's Spirit. And that puts us in this scene as we have a relationship with God, as His life is within us. And again, as I say, when we pray, when we think about God, it should be upon, from, and even within this particular setting that Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation give us of what is taking place at the throne of God and the sea of glass that is here, that is mentioned in verse 6: "Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back" (Revelation 4:6). And we'll come back.

This sea of glass is mentioned several times in Scripture—Exodus 24:10, Revelation 15:2—we'll see that. We didn't read Ezekiel 1:22, where there was a reference there. But look at the sea of glass as kind of the floor of heaven and/or the ceiling of the created universe in a metaphorical sense—not that we'll ever see that, you know, with our telescopes or, you know, if we ever do, you know, fly out that far with some Elon Musk, SpaceX rocket or whatever. But the sea of glass is the floor of heaven.

And it's—you know—think about a sea of glass. You know, this is a pure crystal scene. Think of your most beautiful snowy day, with a big fresh carpet of snow out there and icicles hanging off of the trees in those scenes, the sun reflecting through it and the brilliance off of the snow, but also through a large icicle that might be there. You can see some of those in the depictions or pictures. But it's kind of an ice scene, an ice castle. This is kind of, in part, the way I envision it—going back to the science fiction part of this discussion.

My, I think my all-time favorite is Superman. All right? I, you know, read all the comics and had the original black-and-white Superman from the 1960s. But on a plane trip back from Europe here a few weeks ago, I was trying to find something to watch on the air on that long, long flight. And they had a documentary about Christopher Reeve, who played the original Superman back in the ’70s of the current genre of Superman. He's not the original, but I think everybody knows who Christopher Reeve was. He played Superman in the remake. I think he did four or five Supermans, and then there have been other iterations of that.

But they were profiling his life. He had fallen from a horse and was essentially paralyzed from his neck down the remainder of his life. And that's quite a dramatic story in itself. If you ever run across that documentary, I encourage—it’s very well done and it’s very inspiring.

But they had the scene in the first one that he did in 1977—whatever it was—where he was in his fortress of solitude. And he flew through the fortress of solitude right into the camera and on out. And it was very well done for that time with the technology that they had. But I've always thought of that fortress of solitude as where, in the story, Superman retreated to kind of recharge and then to get his head together after a dramatic episode.

But in a sense—and Superman is kind of a mythic tale and superhuman and you've got the God thing working there and the type of that—but this scene is God's fortress of solitude on steroids.

Okay? And that's where we go when we need to be recharged, rejuvenated, when we need to retool—through prayer, through study of the Word of God, periodic fasting. We go—we should, in a sense—retreat into God, is what I'm saying. And that's where we are. And that's where we draw strength. That's where we get our mind put back together, focused on God and His way, and then we can get back into life. And so this is, again, the scene that God wants us to project ourselves into.

Well, verse 7 goes on with the description: "The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!'" (Revelation 4:7-8).

And so these are all regal animals in the epitome of God's creation in many different ways. They carry God's throne—angelic beings, divine beings. And these words are right out of Isaiah 6:3 in particular.

And so it goes on in verse 9: "Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: 'You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created'" (Revelation 4:9-11).

And so I think we need to try to parse who this is going to. It is going to the Godhead or the God family. And they are worshiping God. When we put together the composite picture from the New Testament of the throne of God, Christ is at the right hand of the Father. Remember, we read that back at the stoning of Stephen when he had his vision of the heavens opening, and he saw the Lord sitting at the right hand of the Father (Acts 7:55-56).

And so this glory goes to God and to Christ—to the whole God family. And we know that the Father created all things through Christ and what the Scriptures tell us on this. So they cast their crowns before the throne. In a sense, they take theirs off and lay them down, an act of submission, an action showing that whatever glory we might have on a human level—if this is that Stephanos crown—it comes from God. And you could almost know that as part of the scene and what is being told, that crown goes back on the head of these beings.

But they know that it's not their glory. They are in themselves created beings. They are part of the created order. And whatever crown we will ultimately receive, we too would be in a mode of taking that crown off, setting it down, casting it down before God, acknowledging that what we have—what we will have in glory even—is of the grace and the gift of God.

And so a lot to reflect on and to think about in this. Now, this scene goes right on into chapter 5. So let's just keep going.

"And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals" (Revelation 5:1).

All right—again, echoes of Ezekiel 2, where Ezekiel had also, in his vision, looked and saw a hand stretched out with a scroll in it that had, in that case of Ezekiel, the writing of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

John sees a different type of seal, in one sense, and it is in the hand of Him who sits on the throne. There are depictions from antiquity, from the Roman world, of statues of emperors sitting on a throne with a scroll in their right hand. I was looking through some pictures of it. I could have brought them in, but I thought, oh, they see enough Roman statues—why bring in more Roman statues? You've seen one Roman statue, you've seen them all, in that sense. But you want more? Well… But this one was, I think, the Emperor Claudius, sitting in a chair on a throne.

And he's semi-naked, in that he’s just kind of got a robe thrown over him, which is picturing him as semi-divine. Anytime you see a Roman statue of an emperor naked—and they were done that way—they're being portrayed as a god, as a god. But in his right hand was a scroll.

Again, all of this imagery Satan counterfeited through his human government—Rome, the beast (keep in mind Daniel 7, the fourth beast and the system). Satan counterfeited all of that, including the “divine savior” Augustus, which we talked about recently in the book of Acts as a part of the story here. But John now sees this.

Now, again, you can realize that a church member in the first century reading Revelation—of God sitting on a throne with a scroll in His right hand—is also going to conjure up in his mind, “Oh yeah, I saw that down in the square,” or—he didn’t see it in a museum, because those statues then were in temples or outdoor settings—“Oh yeah, I’ve seen the emperor sitting there with a scroll in his right hand.” And God’s saying, “I’m over that emperor.” And again, if they understood it correctly, they would realize, “Oh, Rome is a counterfeit. It’s just temporary. It’s earthly. God is the ultimate.”

That’s what’s being said here.

"Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, 'Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?'" (Revelation 5:2).

A scroll here—and we’re going to see that there are seven seals on this. And it would be a big scroll, but it was typical of what was done. A scroll would be the “book.” They didn’t have, in every case, the books like we have today set up like this. Their writings were done on scrolls, and they rolled them out. And there would be multiple pages there, and those would be—each one, as they were rolled up—sealed with usually a wax seal. And then there would be multiple scrolls within the larger scroll.

And in this case, someone had to be worthy to open and to loose the seals that have the pronouncements and the judgments of God, which we will talk about as we go through this.

"So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it" (Revelation 5:4).

Who’s worthy to do it? Well, in John’s mind, nobody was.

"But one of the elders said to me, 'Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals'" (Revelation 5:5).

He’s prevailed because He overcame the world, overcame Satan, was the perfect sacrifice, and He prevailed in that way. And He’s called here the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

So we have some interesting things said about Christ here. The Lion of the tribe of Judah, again, puts us back at the time in Genesis 49 where Jacob was blessing Judah and referred to him in that way. And, of course, the messianic scriptures of the Old Testament show that a Branch would grow from the root of Jesse to restore David’s dynasty—Isaiah 11:1-10 is a messianic prophecy that speaks to this. And He’s called the Root of David.

So Jesus was not only the royal descendant of David through the line directly, and not only as a Jew of Judah, but also, as the genealogies show, He was a direct descendant of David. But He was also the source of David’s rule. And so He is the Root of David in that way—He’s part of the whole system of David. David grew from, ultimately, Christ, because He was the source of David’s rule. Mark 12:35-37 brings that out as well.

This is the only place here in the New Testament and in the book of Revelation where Christ is called the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

"And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne" (Revelation 5:6-7).

And so this is a very clear reference to Christ and His ministry as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), as John the Baptist said. And the word lamb here has reference to the idea of the Passover lamb sacrificed by the Israelites. He’s also called a lion—speaking with strength. So there’s a mixture of strength and the perfect meekness of a lamb, which really is a very good description of Christ in His first coming.

It’s a lamb that submitted to death, but is also coming as a lion—a conquering lion—at His second coming. So again, this is the only place in Revelation where Christ is referred to as a lion.

So He receives the scroll, much like what we saw back in Daniel 7, where "One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven… came to the Ancient of Days" (Daniel 7:13). Total authority is being given, and total judgment is being handed to Christ. And He becomes the focal point then of the unfurling of this scroll and all of its seals, as we will talk about beginning in chapter 6, all the way through chapter 19 of the book of Revelation.

So going on in verse 8: "Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying: 'You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth'" (Revelation 5:8-10).

The totality of Christ's sacrifice was for all the nations, all the people. "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honor and glory and blessing" (Revelation 5:12). And "every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: 'Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!'" (Revelation 5:13).

These words are set in probably one of the more beautiful parts of the Messiah—not the Hallelujah Chorus, but Messiah, Handel’s Messiah, of which the Hallelujah Chorus is a part. The final section of the Messiah, done by George Frideric Handel in the 1700s, is taken right from these words—it’s the “Amen Chorus.” I'll play it for you here during the break. That’s the “Amen Chorus,” and it’s these words right here that we’ve just read. And it’s very well done, very well known, very popular.

Verse 14: "Then the four living creatures said, 'Amen!' And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever" (Revelation 5:14).

And so John’s vision here continues. That brings us to the end of the chapter then. So next class we’ll get into chapter 6 and the unfurling of the seals as the Lamb begins to open up the seals, and John records what they see. We’ll talk about the four horsemen of Revelation and get into that. So that will bring us through chapter 5 here.