Revelation 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Probably the best sense for these two stones is this: the transparency of the quartz, jasper, stone would depict purity, and the sardius stone of that time and that region was a very deep, violent red colour, probably signifying justice. The throne seems to emanate purity and justice, attributes of God. As a jewel catches the light and sparkles, so the perfections of God appear like great jewels. Both are used for illustration’s sake, as if the glory of one alone was not enough.There was also a rainbow, which in the Bible, all the way from the time of Noah is a symbol of promise, attached to something that God had promised. In the Old Testament it is a sign of the covenant. God the Father makes a covenant with God the Son to save a vast host. If Christ will go and suffer and die for them, then they will be redeemed by the Spirit, and God will watch over them, save them, keep them, empower them all the way to the end of the journey, and the rainbow signifies the beauty and wonder of his promises to us. This sign was the Lord’s pledge to Noah that he had made a covenant with him and with every living creature, that he would not again destroy the earth with a flood. This was necessary because men would continue to provoke God with their sin; there would be no less reason afterwards for destroying the earth than there was before the flood. Yet God would restrain his anger and the sign of this would be the rainbow. The rainbow is a sign of mercy, a sign that although our God is a consuming fire, he is also the God of great patience who desires to save sinners. We might have nothing but fear for God and no hope at all, but the presence of this sign gives us hope. The rainbow is like an emerald, a precious jewel. We are protected from his pure holiness by his mercy, expressed in the covenant of grace which the rainbow symbolises.