While such is the general conception of the third and fourth chapters
viewed as one, we have further to ask whether, subordinate to their
united purpose, there is not a difference between them. Such a
difference there appears to be; and words of our Lord in the fourth
Gospel, spoken upon an occasion which had deeply impressed itself upon
the mind of the Evangelist, may help us to determine what it is. In
the fourteenth chapter of that Gospel Jesus encourages His Apostles as
He sends them forth to fight His battle in the world. "Let not," He
says, "your heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in Me."
The section of the Apocalypse upon which we are about to enter
embraces a similar thought in both its parts. Chap. iv. conveys to the
Church the assurance that He who is the ultimate source of all
existence is on her side; chap. v. that she may depend upon Christ and
His redeeming work. The two chapters taken together are a cry to the
Church from her glorified Head, before she enters into the
tribulation that awaits her, "Let not your heart be troubled: believe
in God, believe also in Me."
After these things I saw and, behold, a door opened in heaven, and
the first voice which I heard, a voice as of a trumpet speaking with
me, one saying, Come up hither, and I will show thee the things
which must come to pass hereafter. Straightway I was in the Spirit:
and, behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and One sitting upon
the throne; and He that sat was to look upon like a jasper stone and
a sardius; and there was a rainbow round about the throne, like an
emerald to look upon. And round about the throne were
four-and-twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four-and-twenty
elders sitting, arrayed in white garments, and on their heads crowns
of gold. And out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and
thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the
throne, which are the seven Spirits of God (iv. 1-5).
The _first voice_ here spoken of is the voice of chap. i. 10: "And I
heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet;" and it is well to
remember that that voice introduced the vision of a Son of man who,
while both King and Priest, was King and Priest in judgment. It is
impossible to doubt that the sound of the same voice is intended to
indicate the same thing here, and that the King whom we are about to
behold is One who has "prepared His throne for judgment."[88]