Remember when I mentioned bizarre symbols and garish imagery?! The rest of Revelation 4 does not disappoint.

If we were writing a movie trailer for this chapter, I’d hire someone with a deep, deep voice to slowly read “A person appearing as jasper and rubies. Four living creatures covered entirely by eyes! The floor was a sea of glass! A rainbow like an emerald circling the throne!”

But let’s not allow the strange depictions to throw us off the scent of what is really going on. The important thing is that whatever these creatures and images represent, this is what they are doing:

“Day and night they never stop saying:

‘Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God Almighty,’
who was, and is, and is to come.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.’ ”
Revelation 4:8b-11

 

What’s important for us to know is that in God’s throne-room, God is always being worshipped. Even those worthy of being in this room (can you imagine?!) fall down before “him who sits on the throne” in order to “worship him who lives forever and ever.” They do not discuss their credentials or status but lay their own crowns before the throne.

And they are singing—or at least chanting—worship. Day and night, without stopping. They declare that God is holy, almighty, ever-existing. They declare that God is worthy to receive all glory and honor and power, for it is God who created all things and it is in God that we have our being.

Can you imagine being invited to peek into this room? Just reading this makes me want to lay on my own face in awe and worship.

Questions for reflection and discussion:

  • What do you notice in this room?
  • How can we, still on earth, learn about a right posture of worship before God through the “unveiling” of heaven in this chapter?
  • Can you take a moment to join these creatures in worshiping God?

Church Reading Plan: Isaiah 6; Hebrews 13