Revelation 4 kicks off with John seeing and hearing a bunch of crazy stuff:

• Four creatures full of eyes, six wings, and the faces of a lion, calf, man, and eagle (Rev. 4:7, 8)
• A throne surrounded by a rainbow with the appearance of an emerald (v. 3)
• Lightnings, thunderings, and voices everywhere (v. 5)
• God sitting on the emerald throne, appearing like a jasper and sardius stone (v. 3)
• Twenty-four elders on twenty-four thrones, clothed in white robes with golden crowns on their heads (v. 4)

And all day and night they worship God together, crying out “Holy holy holy!” (v. 8)

This was quite a sight for John to see. And not surprisingly, every part of this vision had been witnessed before—in the Old Testament.

It’s lifted almost verbatim from Ezekiel 1. The Book of Ezekiel is about a man (Ezekiel) born to be a priest and serve in the temple. However, due to the sins of his unfaithful countrymen, Ezekiel is exiled from the land and all his dreams of ministering before the Lord was dashed… until God appears to him in Babylon and reestablishes his calling. While the physical temple will be destroyed and the unfaithful scattered, Ezekiel will nonetheless serve God and His people as a priest.

The rainbow throne, the crystal, the many-eyed, multi-winged creatures… all of them appear in the opening chapter of Ezekiel—the book of the exiled priest without a physical temple.

But that’s not the only priestly imagery in the book. The emerald, jasper, and sardius stones all appear in Exodus’s instructions concerning the priests’ attire—as well as the robes and the golden crowns (Exodus 28, 39).

Even the lightnings and thunderings come from Exodus 19—at the base of Mount Sinai, where God calls all of His people to be a kingdom of priests before the Lord.

And right in the middle of all this priestly language are the twenty-four elders—the twelve tribes of Israel and the twelve disciples—representing the entirety of God’s people before and after the resurrection, united as one to serve before the Lord as that kingdom of priests God called for at Mount Sinai.

Later in Revelation, the temple will again be destroyed. Those who should be God’s people will instead rebel against the Lord and be scattered once again. Hopes for God’s faithful will seem dashed.

But don’t lose hope. God doesn’t dwell in a temple made with hands (Acts 7:48). And even in exile, God still dwells among His people. Even without a physical temple, God’s people stills minister as kingly priests in the true temple—the Church.