Revelation 4:2 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Immediately I was in the spirit:— This phrase signifies to be under a strong and supernatural impulse, caused by the miraculous operation of the Spirit of God, acting on the imagination in such a manner as to open extraordinary scenes, which had not any exact, external archetype; and it is much illustrated by the view presented to Ezekiel, when he sat in his house among the elders of the people, who probably saw nothing but the prophet himself, as one in a trance or extacy, or whose thoughts were so attentively fixed as to be insensible of what passed around him. We are not therefore to imagine, that the Person sitting on the throne, or the four living creatures, or the four and twenty elders, were real beings existing in nature, though they represented, in a figurative manner, things which did really exist. And though it is possible that aerial scenes might, by divine or angelic power, have been formed, it seems much more probable that all which passed, was purely in the imagination of St John. This will keep us, in our interpretation, clear of a thousand difficulties, not to say absurdities, which would follow from a contrary supposition; namely, that there is in heaven an animal in the form of a lamb to represent Christ; that there are such living creatures as are here described, &c. This observation is made once for all, and may be applied as occasions present. The representation of the throne of God in this verse, is very agreeable to several descriptions of the ancient prophets, as Isaiah 6:1-3.Ezekiel 1:26; Ezekiel 10:1.Daniel 7:9.