The Four Living Creatures: Part 3 A Picture of the Pastor from the Elector Bible
And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back.
The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever,
the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:
“You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:6b-11)
Verse 7: “The second living creature like a calf.”
The first characteristic of the faithful teacher and church servant is a bold and joyous courage in the midst of persecution. This was indicated by the first living creature, who was like a lion. Now, we move on to the second characteristic of the faithful teacher and church servant. He is like a calf or an ox.
The Elector Bible says that the ox indicates that “servants of the church shall be hardworking and shall be untiring in their office.” The corroborating verse is 1 Timothy 5:17-18:
Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.
The ox was the original threshing machine. Farmers threw bundles of their grain into the threshing floor. They were spread as uniformly as possible over the whole area to a depth of about a foot. Then cows, calves, sheep, and donkeys tramped the grain out of the straw and chaff.
Sometimes, a row of cows or donkeys were yoked together by a pole bound to their horns and necks. They would be walked in one direction for a while and then reversed. While they worked, they were not muzzled. They were free to eat what they had stomped out.
St. Paul tells us that this is about servants in the church. They are worthy of their wages. They should be able to eat the fruit of their labor in the word and in doctrine. While God is concerned about the humane treatment of animals, He is more concerned with the humane treatment of His servants by the church.
But this presupposes that the pastor is actually laboring and not lazy. A laborer needs to work or he doesn’t get paid. The ox must tread out the grain or there is no meal. This is true of those who labor in earthly callings, just as 2 Thessalonians 3:10 says. How much more true is it of church servants!
What can we learn about work from this? First, read Hosea 10:11 and 12: “Ephraim is a trained heifer That loves to thresh grain . . . Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.”
The work of treading out the corn was pleasant and easy. Like Ephraim, we should enjoy and love the work which God has given us. The Apostle John says: “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” (1 John 5:3) I pray that you enjoy and love the work of the ministry.
Second, we should learn that, while we work hard and are untiring, we should also work smart. Our work is intellectual work. The apocryphal Sirach tells us what we pastors need:
The wisdom of a scribe cometh by his time of leisure: and he that is less in action, shall receive wisdom. With what wisdom shall he be furnished that holdeth the plough, and that glorieth in the goad, that driveth the oxen therewith, and is occupied in their labours, and his whole talk is about the offspring of bulls? He shall give his mind to turn up furrows, and his care is to give the kine fodder. (Sirach 38:25-27)
We pastors need leisure. Leisure isn’t binging Netflix. Josef Peiper has written a wonderful book on leisure, which everyone should read. (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1586172565?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback) But here’s a quote we should contemplate:
It is possible to pray in such a way that one does not transcend the world, in such a way that the divine is degraded to a functional part of the workaday world... then it is no longer devotion to the divine, but an attempt to master it.
Pastors are praying men. Pastors are scripture men. But this can very quickly become witchcraft. We can seek to master the divine. We can make our Bible readings functional by only reading for the next Bible class or sermon.
This is the temptation. Leisure gives us the space to appreciate and love God’s Word because it is God’s Word. Just like we don’t love our wives as a means to an end, we should certainly not love God’s Word or His work as a means of our employment or as a means to fame.
Third, how do we do this intellectual work? Two authors help us with this. The first is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. His character Sherlock Holmes primarily does mental or intellectual work. Sherlock cries out:
My mind rebels at stagnation. Give me problems, give me work, give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere. I can dispense then with artificial stimulants. But I abhor the dull routine of Existence. I crave for mental exaltation.” (The Sign of the Four)
But how does Sherlock accomplish this mental work? Listen to this description. Holmes tells Dr. Watson, "It is quite a three-pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."
He curled himself up in his chair, with his thin knees drawn up to his hawklike nose, and there he sat with his eyes closed and his black clay pipe thrusting out like the bill of some strange bird. I had come to the conclusion that he had dropped asleep, and indeed was nodding myself, when he suddenly sprang out of his chair with the gesture of a man who has made up his mind, and put his pipe down upon the mantelpiece. (The Red-Headed League)
Pastors know that the work we do isn’t often evident. People say: “Oh, you only work 1 hour a week.” But even men like Doyle understood the nature of mental work. Sherlock’s mental work, while it looked like sleep, was incredibly practical in catching criminals. How much more practical is our intellectual work, which saves and enlightens souls?
The second author is Herman Melville. In chapter 62 of Moby Dick, he writes concerning harpooners: “To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooners of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out of toil.”
A pastor must be rested and calm—rising from rest rather than exhaustion—to perform his critical task with complete success. Isn’t this what Psalm 46 says: “Be still, and know that I am God”? (Psalm 46:10) How about Isaiah 30:15: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
There are many books that can help you focus your productivity as a pastor so that you work both hard and smart. Theodore Graebner’s book “The Pastor as Student and Literary Worker” is great. “Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Work and Wealth” by Doug Wilson can also help.
But above all, the pastor must first take heed to himself. He must receive the rest which Jesus gives. He must find the quietness of mind and the contentment which comes by knowing what Christ has done for us. It is only by the rest of the soul that a pastor can work hard and tirelessly by treading out the grain.
In our next section, we will look at the third characteristic of the pastor from Revelation: the pastor as a man.