Revelation 4:6

A sea of glass like unto crystal; chap Revelation 15:2; an expanse of crystal-line clearness and splendor. It answers to the "paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness," Exodus 24:10; and to the firmament "as the color of the terrible crystal" on which the throne of God rested, Ezekiel 1:22; Ezekiel 1:26.

Four beasts; rather, four living creatures. The word in the original is different from that applied to the persecuting beasts in chap Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13:1; Revelation 13:11, etc. The agreement between these four living creatures and the cherubim of Ezekiel's vision, chaps Revelation 1:10, is so remarkable, that we must suppose that in both cases the same thing is represented. In both places they appear as the immediate attendants upon God's throne, of which in Ezekiel they are the bearers; in both places they have the same four faces, only that in Ezekiel each has all the four, while here they are distributed one to each; in both places, moreover, their bodies are full of eyes. In their six wings, and in their ceaseless cry, "Holy, holy, holy," they agree with the seraphim of Isaiah. They seem to represent all the created powers and agencies by which God administers his providential government over the world; which are all pervaded by his omniscient Spirit, and stand ever ready to do his bidding; which all show forth his praises, and execute with unerring certainty his high purposes.

Full of eyes; representing their ever wakeful vigilance and discernment of God's will. In Ezekiel they and the wheels by them are all pervaded by the one Spirit of God: "Whithersoever the Spirit was to go they went; thither was their spirit to go," chap Revelation 1:20. None of God's creatures are omniscient, but his omniscience directs all their movements.