Revelation 4:8

8. Six wings Like the seraphim of Isaiah 6:2; which with two of their wings covered the face in reverence before Jehovah; with two, their feet, as a decorum; and with the intermediate two they flew. John, however, makes no such distinction; the six wings apparently symbolize intense activity in obeying the behests of the Creator.

About him A period should be put after wings, closing the sentence. Him should be struck out, and the reading should be: around and within (the wings) they (the cherubim) were full of eyes. In Revelation 4:6, their bodies were described as full of eyes before and behind. Here they are described as to their wings; which wings were also full of eyes; both around, that is, on their outer side, and within, that is, on their inner side, coming in contact with the body when closed, and revealed to John’s eye when expanded. So are these cherubim most swift, as is symbolized by their six wings; and most divinely perceptive, both in their nature, as symbolized by their many-eyed bodies, and in their activities, as symbolized by their many-eyed wings. These living beings represent, not merely the animal kingdom, but also the very structure of the earth, and all things known under physical philosophy. This is shown by their number four, which refers to the cardinal points, and so to the physical system. The term ζωον implies that the whole mundane system is, as Hengstenberg terms it, “inspirited.” The Spirit of God is the soul of nature. The whole is impregnate with his all-wise power, and is thereby enabled to move by the law of its true development. Each and every particle of matter thereby sees, with divine eyes, which way to move to incorporate itself into an organism; and so physiology and generative races are possible. Each chemical element sees how to act to carry out God’s prescribed affinities, and with all its six wings hasten to be in exact time. And so it is that matter and motion, under rule of intelligence, form a systematic universe.

The living beings and the elders are here both present at the throne in this day of the divine levee, because the purpose of the day is to unfold the future of both the living world and the living Church. And to the eye and ear of faith, the creation and the Church are a perpetual choir, offering an endless anthem to the Creator.

They rest not A faulty translation, as suggesting weariness in the truly tireless. The literal Greek is, they have no cessation no pause in their movements, no silence of their hymn. Day and night creation moves in rhythmic measures, and day and night the universal Church rolls up its trisagion.

Saying It may seem strange to some that it is not the Church, but creation, that first offers its praise to God. Not so thought the psalmist, ( <19E510>Psalms 145:10,) “All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee.” There is a desperate pessimism at present infecting our age, which finds in creation no proof of the goodness of God. The blessed faith of our Bible teaches a more benign philosophy. It holds that this is, on the whole, the best possible system, and beholds the world rejoicing in its existence and blessing its Creator. The permission of moral evil, and the partial production of natural evil, are methods and means of producing a higher result than could have existed without them.

Holy, holy, holy This trine ascription (called the trisagion, or thrice-holy) is based on Isaiah 6:3, but carried out to a New Testament and trinitarian completeness. The trinality is emphasized by the thrice-three of the entire verse. Stuart remarks that he would not “rest” or “risk” a leading doctrine on this verse. But there is no “risk” in corroborating the proof of the trinity derived from a whole body of texts, making three a number for the divine by this, which is perhaps a crowning instance.

The word holy, thrice uttered, cannot well be applied to the three persons severally, as is shown by the fact that the second and third three in the verse cannot. It is the repetition of intensity. The divine holiness, omnipotence, and eternity, are sublimely recognised by the creational representatives.