October 8th, 2022

During the month of October, we will be looking at the connections between the four living creatures—an important part of the LORD’s throne—and the four gospel accounts—an important part of Jesus’ life. If you have not read the writings of the previous couple of weeks, that may be helpful.

Each one of the gospel accounts covers the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, but each one does it in a different way. To many people, it seems that this variety is simply due to the writers having various resources to pick from, or perhaps that the writers were simply writing to different audiences. While these two things may be true, they are historical issues that cannot be proven without some solid evidence. A more literary (and theological) answer may be that these four writers wanted to show to all types of people both the authority and the glory that come from the four living creatures that make up the LORD’s throne.

A throne is usually made out of dead things, maybe some wood, precious metals and stones. But that is not the case with the LORD’s throne. That special throne is made out of four creatures that are alive, and these living creatures are important ones. Each creature has at least one particular strength, and these strengths may be shown in the historical presents that are in each gospel account. These are the verbs that would normally be in the past tense, but this time they are given in the present tense.

A throne shows the authority and the glory of a king. And the four living creatures show the authority and glory of the LORD in King Jesus. And the historical presents within the four gospel accounts show the authority and glory, in other words, the ramifications that Jesus had on earth when he lived, died, and came back to life. And those actions have ramifications to this day, even though they happened about two thousand years ago.

MATTHEW AND MAN

The first gospel account, the Gospel according to Matthew, has usually been connected to the living creature of a man.

What is a man? So much could be said in answer to that question. In the creation account, man is given some special authority. We therefore can expect some authority to show itself in the historical presents within this gospel account.

There is also some advanced intelligence compared to the animals. This may be seen in the very first words of the first man, when the woman was first brought to him. He said the following (in a somewhat-literal translation):

This, the now, bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh; to this will be called a woman; specificity, from a man was taken, this [Genesis 2:23].

What is not obvious from the translation is that the word ‘this’ is not only the first and the last word, but in the Hebrew, it is also the middle word, the seventh of thirteen.

Within the Gospel according to Matthew there seems to be a pattern of the historical presents in the first few chapters. The following are all the historical presents within the first few chapters of this gospel account (in a somewhat-literal translation; and an attempt was made to keep the quotations as short as possible; if you would like to look at another translation of the scriptures, the New American Standard Bible is highly recommended; there the historical presents are indicated by asterisks; here the historical presents have been given in bold):

APPEARS
2:13 And they, having departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph….

2:19 And Herod, having died, behold, an angel of the Lord appears according to a dream to Joseph in Egypt….

ARRIVES
3:1 And in those days John the Baptist arrives, proclaiming in the wilderness of Judea….

3:13 Then Jesus arrives from Galilee at the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

ALLOWS
3:15 And Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow now, for thus it is fitting to us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allows him.

TAKES AND SAYS

4: 5 Then the devil takes him into the holy city, and he stood him on the wing of the temple, and he says to him….

4:8-10 Again the devil takes him into a very high mountain, and he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, “All these things to you I will give, if, falling, you will worship me.” Then Jesus says to him, “Go, Satan; for it has been written, ‘The Lord God you shall worship, and to him only you shall serve.’”

4:11 Then the devil allows him (to leave), and, behold, angels came and ministered to him.

In the historical presents that follow, the one word translated into ‘he says’ predominates—and this should be expected for the living creature of a man. Jesus speaks, and he speaks as one with authority. Here are only some of the verses that have this characteristic—there are a lot more—but it may be helpful to see how there is some authority to what is being said, usually by Jesus, but by others as well. When people follow the instruction of someone else in authority, they too have received some authority in some way. Here are the locations of the rest of the ‘he says’ historical presents, up to the Transfiguration:

4:19; 8:4, 7, 20, 22, 26; 9:6, 9, 28(2x), 37; 12:13; 13:28, 29, 51; 14:8, 17, 31; 15:12, 33, 34; 16:15
There are a few historical presents in other words as well. Here are two of the first ones after the historical presents above (and, again, they are in a somewhat-literal translation):

9:14-15 Then the disciples of John come to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast? And Jesus said to them, “The sons of the bridechamber cannot mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come with the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.”

15:1-3 Then some Pharisees and scribes come to Jesus from Jerusalem, saying, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat bread. And he, answering, said to them, “And why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

The similarities between these two passages should be noted. At the end of the second one, there is a statement from the disciples, asking Jesus if he knew that the Pharisees were offended by what he said. And after this event, Jesus withdraws to the far north, to the region of Tyre and Sidon. The eventual trial and execution of Jesus are hinted at with these events. And that is a significant point when dealing with the ramifications of Jesus.
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To look at all the historical presents will not be easy because some gospel accounts have a very large number of them. But hopefully these few have been helpful. And, as was said above, there is the New American Standard translation that can help you to see some of these living words.