“The One enthroned in heaven laughs…”

OK, I admit I’m a little clueless.  Well, really clueless.  You see, I’ve never seen them before, up close, in person.  I’ve only seen them in the movies, or in an encyclopedia somewhere.  And part of the problem is that I live in a country where they don’t exist, not officially anyway. I’m talking about thrones.  In the US we have presidents, not kings or emperors (although they may act like that sometimes).  I have never stood in a throne room — ancient or modern — or the inner chamber of a king or queen.  I have never experienced the sense of grandeur and royal splendor by gazing on the seat of national sovereign power, the throne.  Fortunately, the Bible was written for people like me who frequently come up short in so many ways.

The psalm we appeal to for help is that first famous Messianic song showing the incredible distance and difference between God and man — Psalm 2.   “The One enthroned in heaven laughs” but not because the heavenly court jester just cracked a good joke.  Hardly.  He laughs because of the absolute futility and fruitlessness of the rebellion “the kings of the earth” launch (v.2).  It is a laugh of, “You’ve got to be kidding!”  They “take their stand…against the Lord and against his Anointed One.  ‘Let us break their chains and throw off their fetters’” they say.  Technically it says they know that the Lord (the Father) and his Anointed One (Christ) rule from heaven.  It is their chains and their fetters.  Makes me wonder if they have finally acknowledged the deity of Christ, all the more revealing their rejection of him.  Hmmm…

Either way, the One enthroned does something amazing—he installs his Son (v. 7), his “King” on “Zion, my holy hill” (v. 6).  Where do kings sit?  On thrones, of course.  Thus, the Father officially receives and inaugurates the Son to share his throne.  How many monarchs have you heard of do that?  Further proof is found when Jesus spoke to the believers of the Laodicean church: “To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I over came and sat down with my Father on his throne” (Revelation 3:21).  Notice first that Jesus is at home at the Father’s throne.  Secondly, he says that we will be as welcome at his throne as he is at his Father’s.  Can you get your mind around that?

Can we make too much of the fact that it appears that both the Father and Son have their own thrones?  I spoke with a fellow one time in our living room about whether God was Unitarian or Trinitarian in nature.  One thing he kept referring to was this multiple thrones issue in Revelation, and that the one God wouldn’t have three thrones.  Thus more than one throne would indicate there are multiple gods, which is pure fiction.  We can answer the question in two ways, the first dealing with thrones the way Jesus dealt with the description of the Father’s “house”.  In Luke 2 while still a minor under Joseph and Mary’s care, Jesus said to them in the temple, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” (v. 49).  But as an adult, he quoted Isaiah 56:7 in Mark 11:17 as personalized: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”.  Just days later, he said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms…” (John 14:1).  It seems that exactly whose house it is apparently is indistinguishable.  Ditto with the throne.  Secondarily, houses and thrones are simply metaphors — accurate metaphors — that correctly communicate truth to the minds and hearts of fallen, earth-bound, spiritually sightless people who need concrete examples.

So the Lord and his King rule from heaven’s throne.  And in their ruling, they judge.  That is what the rest of Psalm 2 is about.  Likewise in Isaiah 40, where the Sovereign Lord (v. 10) “sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers…He brings the princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing…” (vs. 22-23).  He has the authority, the magnificence and the power to rule without question or complaint.  And of all people to share the Father’s throne, it is Jesus, to whom the Father “has entrusted all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22).  Imagine that: the one who is mercy and kindness incarnate, love in verifiable action within our sight, the sinless God-man who died for us, that sits on the throne!  If anyone has the right to judge, it is he.  And to him alone the Father entrusts ruling over and judging the lives of everyone.  What a choice!  What a judge, he who is installed in Zion!

Have you similarly enthroned Jesus in your heart, and installed him to rule in your life day by day?  Are you overcoming enough for Jesus to welcome you at his throne?