God’s Sapphire Throne
Imagine what God's throne would look like. The Bible says that Moses and the leaders of Israel actually saw it. After God declared his Ten Commandments from Mt. Sinai to the people of Israel and instructed Moses in the other civil laws to be enacted, he told Moses and seventy other Israelite leaders to ascend the mountain to meet with him. Moses recorded what they saw in Exodus Chapter 24:
Exodus 24:9-10 Then Moses went up, also Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under His feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity.
A magnificent sea of transparent sapphire sprawled outward beneath God. Ezekiel recorded similar observations. After describing four heavenly creatures, Ezekiel was shown God’s fiery throne of sapphire:
Ezekiel 1:26-27 And above the firmament over their heads was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it; and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the appearance of fire with brightness all around.
Ezekiel 10:1 And I looked, and there in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubim [angel], there appeared something like a sapphire stone, having the appearance of the likeness of a throne.
Very similar to Moses' description of a transparent sapphire plane in Exodus, John, the writer of Revelation, described what appeared to be a blazing sea of glass spread before God’s throne:
Revelation 4:6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.
Revelation 15:2 And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.
Before his rebellion against God, Lucifer walked among “fiery stones”:
Ezekiel 28:14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
It would make sense that these fiery stones were the same flaming layer of sapphire and sea of glass described by Moses and John. In close proximity to God, Lucifer, as the covering cherub, once walked this sea of burning sapphire emitted from the throne of God. Moses, Ezekiel, and John were probably describing the same wonder in their own words. Encircling the throne of God lays a transparent expanse of blazing blue sapphire.
Interestingly, the Israelites were advised to string blue threads on the tassels of their clothes to help them remember God’s commandments:
Numbers 15:38-40 “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the Lord and do them, and that you may not follow the unfaithfulness to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
After God proclaimed his Ten Commandments, he gave Moses two tablets with the ten commands written on them by his own finger (according to Deuteronomy 4:13 only the Ten Commandments were on these tablets, not the judgments given in Exodus 21-23):
Exodus 31:18 And when He [God] had made an end of speaking with him on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Deuteronomy 4:13 So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
God gave Moses these tablets, which suggests they were not cut from rock on this earth, but rather from his very throne. This is why the Israelites were advised to wear blue threads on their clothing - the blue thread paralleled the blue sapphire the Ten Commandments were extracted from. Imagine God’s sapphire throne and the sea of glass emanating from it. The Ten Commandments were cut from this sapphire expanse and written by God’s finger. Far from arbitrary rules inflicted upon people, His Ten Commandments are the very consistence of his eternal throne. God’s commandments explain his character to humanity.
True Freedom
It may still appear that God’s commandments are confining since they are intended to limit one’s actions. Let’s consider the alternative to obeying God:
Genesis 4:7 Sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin.
Proverbs 13:21 Evil pursues sinners, but to the righteous, good shall be repaid.
Proverbs 29:6 By transgression an evil man is snared,
Jeremiah 5:25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have withheld good from you.
Ecclesiastes 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are fetters. He who pleases God shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be trapped by her.
Romans 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
Disobeying God is not freedom, but rather a prison. Sin traps, entangles, and leads only to ruin. In mercy God gave his commandments that through obeying them people might be free from the destruction brought on by sin. His law does have boundaries, but these boundaries should be seen as a fortress of protection rather than a confining prison. The Law of Liberty is designed to be freeing:
Psalms 119:96-98 I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad. Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies; for they are ever with me.
James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
Psalms 119:2-5 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart! They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways. You have commanded us to keep Your precepts diligently. Oh, that my ways were directed to keep Your statutes!
Psalm 119:44-45 So shall I keep Your law continually, forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.
Real freedom is found in obeying God. In God's kingdom his laws will no longer feel restrictive or hard to follow. Through Jesus, God promises to write his law on the minds and desires of his followers now, and through the Holy Spirit God instills this desire to obey. Then, in distinct clarity, all who wish to will perceive God’s character in person and the freeing nature of his commandments will be fully understood and embraced. In God's kingdom freedom will find its ultimate expression.
Hebrews 8:10-13 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
1 John 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
Revelation 22:1-5 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face and his name will be on their foreheads [their thoughts]. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
Life apart from the way of God is hardly life at all. The attractions and excitements, the ambitions and promises the world offers lose their shine very quickly. There is no lasting benefit to be found in even the smallest thought apart from God's will. True happiness is found in loving God and obeying Him.
Click here to see more of how God's law plays into the big picture of earth's history, or click here to read about the most misunderstood of the Ten Commandments.
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