The Seraphim: Part 2: The Throne
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Isaiah 6:1, 2, (NKJV)
In Part 1 of this series on Isaiah 6 we saw there is a deeper level of truth revealed underneath this historical account of Isaiah’s vision. By seeing Isaiah as representing in type a believer living in the end times, a wonderful prophetic vision for God’s true church begins to emerge.
As always, one way God’s deeper revelations in the Word begin to emerge occurs when we see outward things as types of inward realities. We saw in Part 1 that King Uzziah represents pride and that pride blocks our ability to see the Lord.
Folks, the only way we are going to see deeper into the Word and experience more of Jesus’ presence in our lives is if we humble ourselves before the Lord. We are naturally prideful by nature. In fact pride, I believe, is the very core of that evil Adam nature we all inherited. If you think that has been done away by the blood of Jesus, you are right. However, we have to appropriate that blood in our daily lives.
So…with pride out of the way, this believer typified by Isaiah, sees the Lord. Not that he literally sees him with his physical eyes, but he begins to experience and know God’s presence. The first thing he becomes aware of when he has this new and deeper relationship with God is that God is sitting on a throne. (If you are new to allegorical types, please understand I am in no way changing what happened historically but am only seeing the Holy Spirit’s deeper message for those of us living in these end times as revealed in a type.)
There is another place in Scripture where a believer sees the Lord and the first thing he becomes aware of is that God is sitting on a throne. This is seen in Revelation 4:
After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne (Rev 4:1, 2).
First we need to understand what “after this” is referring to. The preceding chapters in Revelation revealed the churches being judged by Jesus Christ where he praised them for some things and admonished them for others. Our application spiritually for this is that God is going to seriously judge our churches in these end times before Jesus can come to us in the way described in the following verses of Revelation where the door is opened in heaven and God begins to show him heavenly things. So we see that in Isaiah 6 there was a judgment implicated in the death of Uzziah as I explained in Part 1 of this series that had to take place before Isaiah could see the Lord.
(Like Uzziah, we as believers in the end times must undergo a judgment by God before we also can see God seated on his throne. Those of us who have eyes to see can see a judgment going on all around us as seen in the serious trials many are experiencing in the world and also in the church. If we have oil in our lamps these trials will drive us more and more into the arms of Jesus. If we have no oil in our lamp we will flounder with all that is happening.)
With this understanding we can’t help but ask the questions, What is this throne in heaven? What does it look like? Why is the throne the first thing they see? Knowing the answers to these questions is vitally important for understanding a very exciting and wonderful thing God has reserved for you, dear Reader, something that was never before possible for believers in all the past ages to know and experience.
The Throne
Since this revelation only comes to light when we view it inwardly, we have to understand that the throne represents something in us. The presence of God rests upon his people, and I intend to reveal here that in this way we are his throne. We know by faith that he is with us, but with our recognition of the throne, as only God can reveal it, we know of a surety he is with us because we continually feel his presence in a tangible way.
The following are a few verses that are clues that a throne may at times represent a person:
The Lord has “…prepared his throne for judgment” (Psa 9:7). Are we not the ones God is preparing for judgment since we are to judge the world? (1 Cor 6:2)
“…God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness” (Psa 47:8). Can a piece of furniture be holy?
A woman blesses the king by saying “…the king and his throne be guiltless” (2 Sam 14:9). Can a throne, as a piece of furniture, be guilty or innocent of anything?
“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Matt 25:31). I believe the church is the throne of his glory that he will sit upon. He will be in us judging the world when we, his body, are joined with him, the head, at the second coming.
Solomon’s throne is described in detail in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles. There must be a good reason for the Lord putting this information in our Bible. First it would be helpful for us to understand that three kings in succession, Saul, David, and Solomon represent different degrees of maturity and expressions of worship of churches. Each king reigned for forty years. Saul represents the church with an outward form of religion but lacking true inner worship. David is the church with a heart to love God but at the same time at war. Solomon represents the church in peace and at rest in God’s love and wisdom.
The only throne described in the Bible is Solomon’s, so it must have something to do with a church in peace and at rest in God. When the church is in this blissful state, so is every believer in that church. We have always been on the throne of our life, but now Jesus is seated there with us because every blockage to him being there has been removed. We have become one with him even as he prayed we would in John 17. Jesus is now the head of this church because all look to him and follow him in everything.Let’s look at the description of Solomon’s throne and see how it might metaphorically represent a person. First we’ll look at this description in 1 Kings:
Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold. The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays on either side on the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps: there was not the like made in any kingdom (1 Kings 10 18-20).
The throne was made of ivory which speaks of the purity (white) of the natural man (ivory comes from an animal, something natural). It is overlaid with gold which metaphorically speaks of God because of its value and purity. So thinking of this as a person, we see this person has a life of purity and has put on Christ.
Another indication this pertains to a person is the number six. Six is the number of man, man having been created on the sixth day. The word “steps” in Hebrew is interesting because it is defined as, “elevation; a journey to a higher place” (Strong’s 4609). So we see that this person has a life of purity (ivory) and has put on Christ (gold) by way of a spiritual journey (six steps) that elevated him/her spiritually to the seat of the throne, which I will explain shortly.
The Top
“…and the top of the throne was round behind:”
This throne has certain characteristics of a human body that will be revealed as we look at the meanings of the Hebrew words used here. The first body part seen here is the head which is found in the word “top.” “Top” in Hebrew means head. This head is round. Round means in Hebrew “to revolve.” Isn’t that exactly what our head does when we are seated? While our body remains stationary, our head moves left and right and up and down. It revolves.
Behind
This word “behind” actually means behind; so how does that fit in here? Why is the head behind? Our spiritual body is behind our natural body. I stated earlier that the throne is the spiritual side of our being. To be more specific, it is our spiritual body. Just as my natural body has a head at the top, so does my spiritual body. You cannot see the spiritual body but everyone has one. When this natural body dies, the spiritual body, which looks just like it, is released into the spiritual world. In these end times, God will be awakening and maturing our spiritual body as part of the process of bringing us into the fullness of Christ with a fully redeemed body.
Stays
“…there were stays on either side…” The Hebrew word for stays is yad and it is most often translated as “hand.” It is translated “hand” 1,359 times. The next usage of yad is the word “by” used only 44 times.
We can see that yad is definitely the word for hand throughout the whole Old Testament. So very clearly we see here that this throne, this person, has hands. The hands are on either side of the seat. So what is the seat?
Seat
The Hebrew word for “seat” is shebeth, which can also be translated as “abode” or “dwelling.” This is the trunk of the body where our true dwelling place is in our heart, the most important organ of the body. We don’t think of our self as being in our hand or any other appendage of the body. We feel our self as being in the trunk of our body and in our heart, the seat of our emotions.
Footstool
We cannot have a body without feet. These are notated in the description of the throne found in 2 Chronicles 9:18:
The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was attached to it (NIV)
The word footstool is mentioned seven times in the Old Testament. Every place but here it is comprised of two Hebrew words, one meaning stool and the other meaning foot. But a different word is used here in 2 Chronicles and this is the only time it is used in the whole Bible. It is kebesh and is defined as “a footstool (as trodden upon).” We tread upon the ground, or the floor, with our feet. It even says that this footstool was attached to the throne. This is the only place in Scripture where a footstool is attached to anything. This is a clear indication to me that the footstool mentioned here was clearly to be viewed as an allegorical type of our feet.
So there you have it—a description of a throne that is clearly describing a human body when looking at word definitions, usages, and allegory as identified by Scripture. This body is pure (ivory,) covered with Christ (gold,) has a head (top) and hands (stays), a trunk (seat) and feet (footstool). The six steps also indicate this is a person as six is the number of humankind. This is a spiritual body as indicated by it being behind.
And one more important fact about this throne—it was high and lifted up. This body (throne) we are talking about here is high and lifted up. It is high and lifted up because it is a spiritual body. This body is in heaven. Our physical body is on earth. In this way we can be on earth and in heaven at the same time.
We saw in Part 1 of this series that Isaiah represents a believer living in the end times who has an experience with God, an inward reality that is depicted outwardly in an allegorical picture. This person has died to pride. The only way this can happen is if we take up our cross daily and follow Christ which results in our death to self. Only he who loses his life for Christ will save it.
Once we have died to self, the pride (Uzziah) that blocks our ability to know God in a deeper way is done away. Immediately we become aware that Jesus is with us in a discernable, tangible way because we feel him resting upon us. Specifically he is resting upon our spiritual body which is attached to and just behind our natural body.
I know this is true because Jesus came to me in this way in 1997 and has been showing this truth to me in many places in the Bible ever since.
In Part 3 we will uncover the exciting truth revealed in the fact that his train filled the temple.
