“In the midst of the throne and in the circle of the throne Four Living Ones being full of eyes before and behind.”—Verse 6.
These four living ones being “in the midst of the throne and in the circle of the throne,” must be symbolical of those represented by the twenty-four elders, that is, of the saints. The elders, as we have seen, are representative of the saints in the peaceful exercise of their sacerdotal and regal functions, “resting from their labors” performed in “the war of the great day of the almighty Deity”; while the four living ones represent the saints in coöperation with the Spirit carrying on the war to its victorious consummation.
In the Common Version these four are styled “beasts.” The word in the original is ζωα, and signifies simply living ones. In Ezek. i. 5, they are styled חיות, chaiyoth, rendered in the E. V. “living creatures.” They are symbols representative of what is to be, not of what is yet manifested. That which is to be manifested exists, but the form of manifestation does not. That which exists is the all-pervading spirit radiant from the Divine Substance; but the spirit-forms, which do not exist, are the dead saints. These must be raised, and then transformed into spirit-bodies, instinct with life and power omnipotent; a transformation which in all its elements is aggregately represented by these “four living ones full of eyes before and behind.”
The Spirit of the Deity, then, is the great reservoir of power out of which they are born or developed. “That which hath been born out of spirit is spirit.” These are the words of Jesus to Nicodemus. The glorified saints, glorified after resurrection, are therefore spirit multitudinously manifested, and ισαγγελοι, equal to angels. In his “Visions of Elohim,” Ezekiel beheld this manifestation of the saints out of spirit in symbolic representation. He tells us that he was looking in a northerly direction, and in the p. 38 distance behold “a whirlwind, A GREAT CLOUD, and a fire came out of the North.” This was the Spirit in tempestuous and destructive operation. But to show that it was not free spirit, but embodied spirit, he goes on to say, that out of the midst of the fire issued forth “the likeness of four living creatures.” He then describes their appearance, and afterwards remarks concerning their movements, that they were identical with those of the spirit; for “they went,” saith he, “every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went”; and of this going, John says, it was “into all the earth.” They went with the Seven Spirits of the Deity, for they will be the seven spirits embodied. Hence the terms applied to the seven spirits by John, are applied to the four by Ezekiel, who says they were like burning coals of fire and like lamps; and that out of the fire, that is, from them went forth lightning; and that they ran and returned as a flash of lightning.
But though Ezekiel introduces them as four living ones and four wheels in ch. i. 5, 16, in referring to them in ch. x. 15, he speaks of them as one, saying, “this is החיה, hăchaiyah, THE LIVING ONE.” In other words, the individuals of whom this Spirit manifestation is composed are, in the aggregate, what the voice issuing from their midst proclaims without intermission day and night, namely, the thrice or superlatively holy YAHWEH, the Omnipotent Deity, who was, and who is, and who is coming—Apoc. iv. 8. These are the ONE BODY, nearly all the atoms of which are now in death, “sleeping in the dust.” But, speaking of them as they are now in reference to its future, the Spirit styles them “MY DEAD BODY,” and says “they shall arise,” and, in view of the resurrection, exclaims, “Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust.” When they come forth from the dust they are no longer the Spirit’s Dead Body, but they become the Spirit’s Living One, and can then say, “I am the First and the Last, and the Living One: and I was dead, and behold I am living for the Aions of the Aions, the Amen.” Jesus is the visible Head of these. Without Him the Living One would be incomplete—Isa. xxvi. 19; Rev. i. 18.
Ezekiel clearly indicates what was represented by the four living ones and their wheels in ch. i. 24. He says, “The noise of their wings was like the noise of great waters, as the voice of שדי, shaddai, MIGHTY ONES, the voice of speech, as the noise of a host.” This was equivalent to saying that their wings represented “great waters,” which represented “Mighty Ones,” who gave utterance to their will and purpose, and that there was a multitude of them. These were the waters John heard responsive to the voice issuing p. 39 from the throne, saying, “Praise our Deity, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, small and great.” “I heard,” says he, “the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, הללו יה, hallelu Yah, praise ye YAH; for YAHWEH Elohim the Omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give the glory to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready”—ch. xix. 6. This glorious multitude will be the embodiment of the power that is “to execute vengeance upon the nations and punishments upon the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute upon them the judgment written:” that is to perform all those things I have sketched under the caption of “The Apocalypse Rooted in the Prophets”—from page 41 to 85, vol. i.; to set up the kingdom and to establish glory to the Deity in the highest heaven, over the earth peace and goodwill among men.
These four living ones and their four wheels are “THE CHARIOT OF THE CHERUBIM.” They are the chariot in which the Deity rides forth to battle against the enemies of the house of David, and upon which he sits enthroned over Israel. This appears from 2 Sam. xxii. 11, and Ps. lxxx. 1. In the former place, Yahweh is said to ride upon a cherub; and in the latter, to inhabit the cherubim. The etymology of the word is regarded as obscure. In view of this, I would suggest that we may take the root כרב, chărāv, as having been the same with חרב, khārăv, to waste, to destroy, from which comes חרב, khĕrĕv, a sword. This derivation is suggested by the text where kheruvim, or cherubim, first occurs in the scriptures; as, “Yahweh Elohim placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned itself to guard the way of the tree of the lives.” By rendering ו, wav, by even, instead of “and,” it would make the flaming sword expletive of the cherubim; as, “the cherubim, even the flaming sword”—the flame containing the cherubic power, as Ezekiel’s “whirlwind, great clouds, and fire,” did the four living ones he saw.
But, be the true etymology what it may, it is certain that they are symbols of a wasting and destroying power. When their wings are expanded they are in lightning operation; when let down, they are standing, and either preparing for action or “resting from their labors.” They are “full of eyes before and behind;” or, as Ezekiel says, “their whole בשר, bāsār, flesh, even their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about.” An eye is the symbol of intelligence; and when a multitude of eyes are aggregated together, each eye indicates a particular p. 40 or individual intelligence. Ezekiel informs us that the eyes were in flesh which was full of them. Each eye, then, was a flesh-intelligence; and, as the four had each a human face and hand, and were endowed with the faculty of speech, the intelligence was that of a man. Hence, each eye is representative of a man; and as the four sing, “Thou hast redeemed us,” each eye is symbolical of a saint. The eyes are “a great multitude which no man can number;” yet they are symbolized by four, by 144,000, by a city lying foursquare, and 144 cubits—that is, these numbers are symbolical of the saints; first, in relation to their encampment; second, to their nationality; third, to their municipality; and fourth, to their corporation limit.
1. Seraphim Identical with Cherubim
In Isa. vi. 2, these cherubic symbols are styled שרפים, serāphim. “I saw the Adonai,” saith he, “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. SERAPHS stood near to it. . . . And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, YAHWEH TZ’VAOTH (He who shall be hosts): the whole earth (shall be) full of his glory.” There is no obscurity about the etymology of seraph. It signifies burning, fiery, deadly. The fiery serpents sent among the people (Numb. xxi. 6) are styled by Moses seraphim. By the saints, the seraphim and cherubim of Messiah’s throne, the whole earth is to be filled with his glory. Being incarnations of Spirit, they will be more than a match for all the powers of the world. They will cast down their thrones, overthrow Babylon, waste the land of Assyria, reap the harvest of the earth, tread the winepress of wrath, and as a stream of devouring fire destroy the body of Daniel’s fourth polity with their burning flame.
2. The Four Faces
In the Most Holy Place of the Temple of Solomon there were two cherubic figures, which stood opposite to each other, with wings outstretched over the Ark of the Covenant. Each of these had four faces, which were so ordered that four different faces of the eight should look down upon the caphporeth, coverlid, mercy-seat, or propitiatory. By this arrangement, the face of the lion, of the ox, of the man, and of the eagle, all looked upon the coverlid, on which was sprinkled the sacrificial blood of the great day. Though the number of the cherubim varies, the faces are always p. 41 four. In the temple there was one body to four faces. Ezekiel saw four bodies with four faces each, and John saw four bodies, each body having one face. But though the number of the bodies differed, they were only the subdivisions of a general whole.
The faces are the faces of the Spirit. The show-bread placed on the golden table in the holy place is styled “the bread of the Faces taken from before the Faces of Yahweh,” when it was given by the priest to David—1 Sam. xxi. 6. The faces of Yahweh were the cherubic faces over against the table embroidered on the curtain of the tabernacle. They symbolized the Spirit in flesh-manifestation and were therefore the faces of the Spirit.
Now collectively the saints are an encampment, and are so represented in Rev. xx. 9; where it is stated, that the rebel nations at the close of the Millennium go up against their “camp.” As the saints are “the Israel of the Deity;” and though by the accident of birth multitudes of them were once Gentiles, yet by adoption through Jesus were grafted into the Commonwealth of Israel; they necessarily partake of its national organization. The camp of the saints, then, has its ensigns in conformity with those of the four camps into which the twelve tribes were distributed, whose captains or princes they become. From Numb. ii. we learn that the whole host of Israel was marshalled about four standards; the first, that of Judah; the second, of Reuben; the third, of Ephraim; and the fourth, of Dan; and in the midst of these four grand divisions was the camp of the priests and saints, and in their midst the tabernacle, in which was the throne of Yahweh over the Mercy Seat and between the Cherubim. Now, of these several camps of fighting men the following were their ensigns: first, the Lion, which symbolized the camp of Judah; second, the Man that of Reuben; third, the Ox that of Ephraim; and fourth, the Eagle for the camp of Dan. Hence it is that the Lamb in Rev. v. 5, is styled “the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.” Being descended from that tribe, and the King of the nation too, the royalty of which belongs to Judah, he is symbolized by the ensign; and as the king is thus designated, so all his brethren, the saints, are apocalyptically divided into camps about the throne; each camp being represented by a living one; and the ensigns of the camps borrowed from the nation they are to rule. And that the reader may not erroneously suppose that the four living ones represent the fleshly descendants of Abraham, their standards are enumerated after a different order; it being first, the lion; second, the ox; third, the man; and fourth, a flying eagle.
Apocalyptically, then, we have the whole multitude of resurrected p. 42 and accepted saints marshalled into four camps in the midst of, and circling about the throne; and according to the law, “every man of the children of Israel pitching by his own standard with the ensign of his father’s house.” There will be the east camp composed of three gates, or tribes; on the north three; on the south three; and on the west three, ch. xxi. 12, 13; all ready to go forth following the Head to the place it may indicate (Ezek. x. 11) on the mission of the chariots and horses, of which we have treated already on page 74, vol. 1. In the new song they sing they say, “We shall reign on the earth;” not “we do reign.” They go forth energized by the spirit to establish their dominion, and to fill the earth with glory; so that when their victory is complete they may as royal priests of the Deity, cast the coronal wreaths they have acquired before the throne; that he who sits upon it, whom in their wars they will have followed whithersoever he led them, may receive the glory and honor and power; for the reason that he has “created all things, and for his pleasure they are and were created.”