Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 1 Study # 9
March 10, 2024
Broadlands, Louisiana
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Thesis: As background for the rest of the Book of The Revelation, the "sea of glass" is a representation of the awesome judgments of God.
Introduction: We have been working our way through the issues that John recorded at the beginning of his visions of heaven and the "wrath of the Lamb". We have come in our studies this evening to what the translators call "something like a sea of glass, like crystal" that exists before the throne.
- I. This Chapter Is The Ultimate Background For All That Follows.
- A. It is a vision of The Heaven as the initial presentation of the realm of Heaven (with its characteristics and significances) in respect to "what must take place after these things..." (4:1).
- B. The relationship of "being in the spirit" to the summons to Heaven.
- C. What John saw...
- 1. The "First" issue: he saw a throne...
- 2. The "Second" Issue: he describes the One sitting upon the "Throne of Heaven".
- 3. The "Third" Issue: the emerald "iris".
- 4. The "Fourth" Issue: the twenty-four thrones.
- 5. The "Fifth" Issue: "out of the throne proceed..."
- 6. The "Sixth" Issue: "seven lamps of fire..."
- 7. The "Seventh" Issue: "the sea of glass..."
- a. The description.
- 1) Before the throne...
- a) Revelation 7:9 -- a great multitude ... from every nation, tribes, and people and tongues clothed in white robes, and palm branches in their hands.
- (1) These are identified as "clothed with white robes (stole) which are white because they have been washed "in the blood of the Lamb" (7:14 and 22:14).
- (2) The angel says they are the ones who came out of "the Great Tribulation" (7:14 and Daniel 12:1).
- (3) They are dressed like those at the triumphal entry (palm branches in their hands) and they speak as those at the triumphal entry ("Salvation to our God" is very much like "Hosanna" -- "Save we pray"; Mark 11:10).
- b) Revelation 15:2 -- those who had been victorious over the beast ... standing on the sea of glass mixed with fire ("standing upon" may be a metaphor for "being victorious over the beast").
- c) Daniel 7:10-14 compared with Revelation 7:9 and 20:15.
- 2) As a sea of glass (a "glassy sea")...
- 3) Like unto crystal.
- b. The issues.
- 1) The "as" before "sea" means "like" or "resembling".
- 2) The "sea" issue in the New Testament and in Revelation 21:1 is an image of a huge and deadly environment for all who breathe air.
- 3) The "sea" concept is found in 22 texts in The Revelation...
- a) 4:6 is the first.
- b) All of the other references up to 15:2 refer to the "sea" upon the earth; but 15:2 returns us to "as a glassy sea", but now it is mixed with fire and those who triumph over The Beast are standing upon it. And after 15:2 we are returned to more references to the sea of the earth.
- 3) The reference to "crystal".
- a) The only other reference to "crystal" in the New Testament is in Revelation 22:1 where the river of the water of Life, "clear as crystal", comes from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The idea here may be "clear", but it also might be "gleaming brightly" as ice with the sun bouncing off of it.
- b) There are four Hebrews words translated by "krustallos" in the Septuagint. One means "clear ice" (Numbers 11:7), another means "ice fragments as hard frost blowing in the wind" (Psalm 147:17), a third means "a sparkle" with the possibility of a fiery element like a flame (Isaiah 54:12) and the fourth means "thick clouds" (Psalm 148:8).
