Perelandra

Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 5 both speak of “4 living creatures”. 

Ezekiel 1:5 (ESV)

And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had a human likeness

Revelation 5:6 (ESV)

And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Is this a coincidence, or are these two passages referring to the same 4 creatures? 

In both places, the 4 creatures seem to be attending to the presence of the Glory of the Lord.

Psalm 1
BOOK ONE
The Way of the Righteous and the Wicked

1Blessed is the man[a] who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2but his delight is in the law[b] of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

3He is like a tree planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers.
4The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.

5Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

At first this looks like another: “yeah yeah, the righteous will see Glory and the wicked will perish.” First of all, shame on me because that is not a boring message nor is it one we can see or preach enough. It is not only that, but when we dive in, there are some promises in here for us:

Verses 1 and 2 read like the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12, “Blessed are…” and like the Beatitudes, it contains a promise for the Christian: You will not be “in the way of” sinners. You will not be associated with them. You will not be in counsel with them. The positive to this is: If you aren’t going to be in the counsel of the wicked, then you must be in the counsel of the Body of Christ, the Church!

Verses 3 and 4 contrast the righteous with the wicked:
The righteous man bears fruit and is steadfast and his “leaves do not wither”. This is complemented by Matthew 5:13:

13″You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Your leaves will not wither, you will not become “unsalty.” You will retain the flavor of Christ in your life and live for Him.

Verse 5 is a judgement and a proclamation. The wicked will not stand the judgement; he will be blown away in the wind of it like a fallen leaf. There’s something else going on here: It says in the second part of verse 5, “nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;”. This is telling us that there are imposters among us who will be counted as wicked in the judgement. They do not know Christ. Who are these people? Can we distingush them or is it enough from God’s Word to know that they are there? Here it only tells us that we have imposters, not how to identify them.

Verse 6: MORE PROMISES! “The Lord knows the way of the righteous”. I read this and hear, “The Lord has a PLAN for the righteous.” He knows the way because it is HIS WAY.

The wicked do not follow the “straight and narrow” path that leads to righteousness. Theirs is the path to destruction, which is why the chapter ends with verse 6, sadly (it seems, at first) as, “but the way of the wicked will perish.” Interesting how it says “The WAY of the wicked.” and not just “the wicked will perish.” It doesn’t say, “The wicked will perish but more wicked will replace them and they’ll keep perishing”. It says that the WAY of the wicked will perish. The wicked path to destruction will not survive the judgement either.

Eventually there will be only one path, and that is the “Way of the Righteous”.

Chapter 1

Paul opens verse 1 with “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus…” He doesn’t say “THE Apostle.” Because the latter half of the NT is littered with the Pauline letters, I tend to think of Paul as “The Apostle.” We say, “The Apostle Paul”. Does anyone say, “The Apostle Matthew”, or “The Apostle Bartholomew”? Paul acknowledges that he one of a group of Apostles.

The letter is addressed to Timothy, “My true child in the faith.” Timothy was one of Paul’s many converts. Timothy is in Ephesus. The heading before v.3 is “Warning Against False Teachers”. and I home in on these two verses.

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine,
4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship[a] from God that is by faith.

This looks and feels like the same warning as in Revelations 22:18-19:

18 I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book,
19 and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Don’t add to the Bible, not through anecdotes, not through the Apocrypha, not through known history (Josephus and the like), and certainly not through frail human logic. God’s Word is sufficient and it stands alone:

Hebrews 4:11-12

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Another focal point is 1 Timothy 1:5:

5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The goal behavior is love. This love come from these three things:

1. Pure heart.
2. Good conscience.
3. Sincere faith.

Paul states that there are those Ephesians who do not have a pure heart, or a good conscience, or a sincere faith, who either aim for the goal with the wrong instruments (those 3 mentioned above) or with something else entirely. We can carry that forward to the modern day and say that those very same people exist in our churches today. Paul says the discussions of these people are vain (self-serving). Paul confirms this thought in 1 Corinthians that knowledge puffs up, as well as the command that love, not self-serving knowledge, is the real goal behavior:

1 Corinthians 8:1-3

1 Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge.[a] Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
2 The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.
3 But the man who loves God is known by God.

1 Timothy 1:8-10 tells us that if you are righteous, then the law is not for you. Concerning the Law:

1. If you can not keep the law, you need help in order to be righteous.
2. If you can keep the law and do so, then you are righteous and do not need the law.
3. If you claim the shed blood of Jesus for your salvation, you are righteous and do not need the law.

Those who need the law for righteousness are exactly those who do not keep it.

I don’t know if we can say enough about verses 12- 17. Paul sheds all acclamations that might fall on him here. He lays all claim to fame at the feet of Jesus Christ:

12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
17 To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.[d] Amen.

Paul (nee Saul) was not a nice man (Acts 8:3):

3 But (A)Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and (B)dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

Paul stakes his claim to being the chief of sinners in 1 Timothy 1. He confirms his unworthy status throughout his writing:

1 Corinthians 15:9

9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

Ephesians 3:8

8To me, (A)the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to (B)preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable (C)riches of Christ,

And Paul had a great appreciation for Salvation that was his and that he took to the Gentile world:

Romans 2:4

4Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Ephesians 1:7

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Ephesians 3:16

16that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

And perhaps his greatest statement for the need of a people for salvation, Romans 9:3:

3For (B)I could wish that I myself were (C)accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen (D)according to the flesh,

So great was his longing to see his countrymen saved as he was, here is Paul stating that if it were possible/feasible, he would trade his salvation (submitting himself to eternal hell) for that of the Israelites. Is there a stronger statement in God’s Word that tells us that the Israeli nation will not share in our Salvation simply because of their birth?

Paul finishes Chapter 1 strong, encouraging Timothy to “wage the good warfare” (v.18). He again points out that those who do not keep the 3 above mentioned values of pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith lose their way. Paul uses a strong (for today’s language) word in saying that they “have made shipwreck of their faith.” Then he calls out Hymenaeus and Alexander, presumably members of the Ephesian church who Paul has “handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Paul hasn’t given up on them, but he acknowledges that they are in for a hard learning experience. Hopefully they learned their lesson and returned to the Ephesian church stronger in Christ for their weakness in the flesh.

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6