Revelation Class #16

       We've finished looking at the seven churches of Revelation and are now going to continue on through the rest of the book. Before doing that, I want to step aside for a moment and discuss Suzerain Treaties. These treaties were very common in Old Testament times. Suzerain means “Great King.” There would be a situation where two armies would come together and one king would be victorious. He was the great king. The other became subject as a vassal king. He was the one who had been overcome. To formalize this situation, the two kings would enter into a formal treaty. As we read through the Old Testament, we see that God frequently makes or “cuts” a covenant.

       Well, this same idea and the same words are used in Suzerain Treaties. Two written copies of the treaty are drawn up in a very stylized format with specific sections. There is a Preamble, where the suzerain king states who he is. There's a Historical Prologue, stating why he's the suzerain and relating his historical accomplishments. Then there are the laws of the land – the Ethical Stipulations – to include the organization of the vassal king's government and taxes and the tribute owed the great king. Then there's a section on Sanctions, including the benefits of obedience (protection and peace) and the consequences of disobedience (punishment and death). Then the last section concerned Succession Arrangements, which laid out how the treaty would continue after either of the parties died.

       There was also an elaborate ceremony where the treaty was actually ratified, with vows and witnesses. Each party had a copy of the treaty. They would then take a number of animals and sacrifice them, cutting them in half. They would lay the pieces out in rows and both of the kings would walk between the halves of the animals. What did this mean? They were saying in effect “if either of us break the stipulations of this covenant, if either of us become covenant breakers, may it be to us as these animals are. Let us be torn asunder, let us be killed.”

       This is important because when we study the Bible, we find several books structured as a Suzerain Treaty. For example, the book of Deuteronomy is structured in that format. It has all of the sections in it. You can see these sections very clearly if you look at Exodus, where God gives the Ten Commandments.

       Exodus 20:2 And God spoke all these words (2) I am the Lord you God, [this is the preamble, where God is stating who He is] who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery [this is the historical prologue, which recounts what God did. Then come the stipulations or laws – what we call the Ten Commandments. It's like saying “Therefore…”] (3) You shall have no other gods before me. (4) You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth… God also includes sanctions – these are the things He says He will do if we break His commandments. Throughout the Bible, God constantly lays out cause & effect: “if you break My commandments, this is the consequence.” For example, notice in verse 5: I the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the iniquity of the fathers to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me. He's saying, “If you break My commandments, these are the sanctions.” Later on we also find the succession arrangements.

       David Chilton, the author of "Days of Vengeance", has shown that the book of Revelation is also in the form of a Suzerain Treaty. John, who wrote the book of Revelation, would have understood this form of communication. As an Elder in the church, he would have been very familiar with the Old Testament. We see this kind of covenantal structure in Deuteronomy, in parts of Exodus, in Joshua 24, in Hosea – over and over again in Scripture.

       In Revelation, the Preamble is the first chapter, where we see John's vision of the divine Son of Man, the resurrected and glorified King of Kings who is Jesus Christ. We see Jesus declaring that He is the Suzerain. This is immediately followed by the Historical Prologue, the letters to the churches, “this is what I have done, how I have taken care of you” It also lays out choices in the present based upon the historical past with future consequences. Next we see the Ethical Stipulations beginning in chapter four with the seven seals. This is followed by the seven trumpets, which are the covenant Sanctions, “this is what is going to happen if you don't follow My word.” Then lastly we find covenant Succession Arrangements and continuity, which is the seven chalices or bowls. So clearly the book of Revelation has been written as a covenant treaty.

       One of the incredible pictures of this covenant structure in the Old Testament is when God comes to Abraham and gives him a promise. Genesis 15: After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” Then the Lord makes a promise to Abram. Then in verse 8: And he [Abram] said, "O Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?" [The land that God has promised him] (9) So He said to him, "Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and a three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon." (10) Then he brought all these to God and he [Abram] cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds. (11) And the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, and Abram drove them away. (12) Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. (13) And God said to Abram, "Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. Then He makes His promise (v17) And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. (18) On that day the Lord made a covenant, [the Lord cut a covenant] with Abram saying to your seed I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, …

       Here, God as the suzerain King is saying to Abram the vassal king, I'm cutting a covenant with you. Abram cut the animals, and laid them out, and then God Himself passed between the animals because He had caused a deep sleep to come upon Abram. Now remember the suzerain treaty. When the two kings walked through the animals, they were promising, “If either of us breaks this treaty, so be it to me. Let me be cut, let me be killed as these animals are killed.” As God is going through the pieces, He is saying if either of us breaks this treaty, let Me be torn asunder. I don't know about you but that's mind boggling to me! Here is God promising Abram thousands of years before the fact, knowing that Abraham and his descendants are going to be covenant breakers, yet He is promising that He will take upon Himself the penalty for breaking the covenant.

Revelation 4:1 After these things I looked, and behold, a door open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things." (2) Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. (3) And He who was sitting like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. (4) And around the throne twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. (5) And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; (6) and before the throne, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. (7) And the first creature like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature like a flying eagle. (8) And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "holy, holy, holy, the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come," (9) And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, (10) the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying (11) "Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You did create all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

       This is a picture of the throne in heaven. What is going on around the throne? Worship!! The twenty-four elders are there in thrones and they fall down on their faces and throw their crowns in front of the King of glory and all of the living creatures say “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God Almighty.” This is worship. What Chilton points out marvelously in his book is that the book of Revelation really is a worship manual. It shows us what worship ought to be like. Look at verse 8: And the four living creatures, … day and night they do not cease to say, "holy, holy, holy,…" There are two places in the bible where you see the word 'holy' repeated three times like that. The other place is in Isaiah 6 when Isaiah is caught up into heaven and given his call as a prophet and he sees the very throne room of God. Behold the creatures are crying out "holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." That's important because the Hebrew language didn't have words for comparison, for saying, good, better, or best. If they wanted to say 'the mud was muddier,' they would say 'mud, mud.' They would say it twice. If they wanted to say something was the greatest, 'this is the stickiest mud you ever saw,' they would say 'mud, mud, mud.' They tripled it. That was the way of saying it was the greatest. It's interesting that there's only one attribute of God that's repeated three times: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.” We see this twice,  in the visions of God in Isaiah 6 and here in Revelation 4. God is the focus and He is being worshiped as the “Holy, holy, holy” one. "Holy" means set apart. God is completely righteous. He is completely truthful. He is completely transcendent, or other. He and He alone is the only being who ever deserves our attention in worship.

       In the church today God should be the focus of our worship. Why? Because He alone is holy. He alone is worthy of worship. When you see this situation in Revelation and Isaiah, the focus is on God and His holiness. A lot of people come to church to get their spiritual batteries recharged. But that is the wrong idea. The idea is to come to God and to give Him the worship, respect, praise, glory, and honor that He alone deserves. Then the byproduct of that is that you get your spiritual batteries recharged. But the motivation is wrong if you think the reason for worship is to get your batteries recharged – that's man-centered worship. Do you think John was concerned about his spiritual batteries when he was caught up in the very throne room of God in the Spirit on the Lord's day? I don't think so! When Isaiah was caught up in a vision of the throne room of God, and he heard the voice of God with the timbers of the temple cracking, do you think he was concerned about his spiritual batteries? No! I think he was totally absorbed and focused exclusively on God.

One of the reasons people have difficulty understanding the visions of Revelation is because we don’t understand the Old Testament and the Temple worship service. One of the main reasons is that we don't read the Old Testament any more. So we don't understand why there were twenty-four elders around God's throne. Some say it's twelve plus twelve; twelve representing the twelve tribes of the Old Testament people of God, and twelve representing the twelve apostles of the New Testament people of God. But if you dig a little deeper into the Old Testament, in particular Old Testament worship, I think there's an even more direct tie, which Chilton points out in his book.

       Look at 1 Chronicles 24:1 Now the divisions of the descendants of Aaron were these: the sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. (4) Since more chief men were found from the descendants of Eleazar than the descendants of Ithamar, they divided them thus: there were sixteen heads of fathers' households of the descendants of Eleazar, and eight of the descendants of Ithamar according to their fathers' households. Sixteen plus eight equals twenty-four. These people (5) were officers of the sanctuary and officers of God. Our word for officers of the sanctuary and officers of God is "elder." In the temple service, we see twenty-four elders.

       When Moses built the tabernacle and designed all of the Old Testament worship service, what was he going by? He was following God's plan that he had seen in heaven. He had been caught up in a vision by God and shown what the plan of the temple was and what worship was supposed to be like. What do you think Moses saw in heaven? The same thing John saw and writes down for us in Revelation. Therefore, what did Moses design in a literal sense on this earth? Simply a copy of what he saw in heaven. So what John is telling us in Revelation is what worship in heaven is really like. What should our worship be like? Maybe we too ought to pattern it after what we see in the heavenly realms.

       So what we see here in Revelation four is a pattern for worship. Now you have the foundation. The book of Revelation is written in the form of a Suzerain Treaty. In chapter one we have the Preamble – a declaration of who our sovereign God is. Then in chapters 2 and 3, we have the Historical Prologue. It's really easy for us to understand about the churches in Revelation because it's historical and we have the historical records of what actually took place. They are real churches that actually existed. Then comes the Stipulations section. We haven't actually gotten into the stipulations yet, but we'll see that worship is a main theme and that God is giving direction to his Church – “this is what I expect you to do.” Much later we'll get into the Sanctions and the Succession Arrangements sections.