by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
“And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald<\/em>” (Revelation 4:3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
He who sat on the throne “was like” jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. How was He like <\/b>that? We think of the beauty of these stones. It is thought that these are colors of clear crystal, red, or scarlet depicting royalty. Rich in glory and kingly appearance.<\/p>\n
The glory of a rainbow around the throne reminds us of the rainbow covenant of He Who is in charge of the world. When God destroyed the world by a flood he made a covenant to never destroy the earth with a flood again and set the rainbow as a reminder of that covenant (Genesis 9). God has a throne set in beauty, glory, and covenant assurances to His people.<\/p>\n
Go up with John in this vision and see that the One in charge of all things is beautiful, kingly, and dependable with His promises.\u00a0The “emerald” is the brilliant green of Spring’s hopeful colors of life. So, down here we may see the gloom of death, winter’s dying grays, but when John comes up in vision to see the magnificence of heaven’s throne, there is beauty, hope, refreshing life.<\/p>\n
The bigger picture excites the souls of the saints and gives hope for great days ahead despite the gloom of things in this season on earth. It is “but for a season” and works for us a “far more exceeding weight of glory<\/em>” (II Corinthians 4:16f). Look to Jesus out of this winter gloom, see the glory and beauty of the author and finisher of our faith. You will be glad you got heaven’s perspective instead of looking through worldly eyes.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Terry Wane Benton “And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald” (Revelation 4:3). He who sat on the throne “was like” jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. How was He like that? We…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1253,90,102],"class_list":["post-65996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-glory","tag-god","tag-revelation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52322,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-purpose-of-the-new-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":65996,"position":0},"title":"What is the purpose of the new earth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I know God creates all things for a purpose. God created the earth to be inhabited. Isaiah 45:18. What is the purpose for the new earth if we are not going to inhabit it? Thank you. Answer: \"But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60898,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-kind-of-flood\/","url_meta":{"origin":65996,"position":1},"title":"What Kind of Flood?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Edwin L. Crozier via Gospel Power, Vol. 15, No. 1, Jan. 6, 2008. I have heard Bible believers debate the flood. I use the term \"Bible believers\" loosely here because some of these so-called believers can't seem to accept the Bible for what it says. Genesis 6:17 says, \"I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/05\/flood.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3266,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/heaven-will-be-even-better\/","url_meta":{"origin":65996,"position":2},"title":"Heaven Will Be Even Better","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 14, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Roy Diestelkamp In song songbooks by many congregations is the old hymn: \u201cFor The Beauty Of The Earth.\u201d The first verse says: \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cFor the beauty of the earth, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For the beauty of the skies, \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For the love which from our birth \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Over and around us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66027,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/earthly-politics-versus-the-almighty\/","url_meta":{"origin":65996,"position":3},"title":"Earthly Politics Versus the Almighty","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever\" (Revelation 4:9). In John's vision \"up here\" he sees the living creatures giving honor, glory, and thanks to God on the throne, and he\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49451,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/since-only-males-were-circumcised-how-did-females-enter-the-old-covenant\/","url_meta":{"origin":65996,"position":4},"title":"Since only males were circumcised, how did females enter the Old Covenant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 14, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother, This question came up in a recent Bible study. We were covering the book of Romans, the last few verses of chapter 2. Circumcision came up. 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We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65996\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}