Interpretation Helps for Revelation 4, 6-8

More interpretation helps, thanks mostly to the People's Bible:

• In Revelation 4:7-8 the four living creatures represent all living things in God's creation.
• In 4:9-11 the 24 elders represent all believers.
• The opening of the seals in Revelation 6 pretty clearly shows the different judgments of God. The third seal is kind of tricky (verse 5-6). This represents famine.
• In the seventh seal/judgment in 8:1-6, the angel with the golden censer is either a regular angel or Jesus himself (since Jesus is described as the "angel of the LORD" in the Old Testament and this angel's work could be interpreted as serving as mediator of prayers). The incense, then, could be Jesus' or the Holy Spirit's intercession. When the angel takes the censer and fills it with fire to throw it down to earth, the fire symbolizes God's wrath. This is the start of final justice for the saints--what we'll read about tomorrow.

I also want to do a quick run through of the symbolism of numbers in Revelation (People's Bible, pp.5-6) since numbers are used pretty frequently and intentionally in this book  to communicate a specific message:

• 3 - represents God
• 3.5 - see seven; 3.5 is half of seven (also note that 42 months or 1,260 days is 3.5 years and 3.5 days is half of a week)
• 4 - represents the created world--the earth and all people
• 6 - see seven; six is one short of seven and represents incompleteness and imperfection
• 7 - the sum of God's number, 3, and man's number, 4, represents God's gracious interaction with the world
• 10 - the number of completion, an amount designated and limited by God
• 12 - the product of God's number, 3, and man's number, 4; thus, the result of God's gracious work among man, that is, the church