through their ministry (1 Chron. 24:3–19), and twenty-four groups of singers prophesy with harps, lyres, and cymbals (25:1–31). Revelation uses the number twelve and its multiples symbolically; in the heavenly city are the names of the twelve tribes and the twelve apostles (Rev. 21:12, 14). These twenty-four elders are probably to be understood as the heavenly representatives of the Old Testament and New Testament saints. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder (4:5).