09.12 | Come Up
Revelation 4
‘After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.”’
Revelation 4:1
There is one great question that lies at the heart of Revelation:
If Jesus has already won, why is the world such a mess?
In the First Century the Church was asking this exact question, as they testified to a Jesus who had destroyed death and every power of darkness at the Cross, and yet their daily, lived experience in the world of the Roman Empire was challenge. People still got sick. People still experienced poverty. People still died. In these early years of the Church, Christians were savagely persecuted. As in parts of the world today, becoming a Christian could be a literal death sentence.
Nearly two millennia on, our question has not changed. We proclaim the greatest victory of history, and yet our lives are always marked by challenge, and our world continues to groan under every kind of mess and pain we can imagine. How do we hold together what seem like the competing realities of Jesus victorious and a world in such pain?
Revelation offers us perspective into exactly this question.
Today’s reading takes us to the starting point. And it begins with a surprise.
Because when we ask a question, we naturally ask the question from where we are. From our circumstance, our vantage point, from where we are standing.
And yet, Revelation 4 begins to answer the question, not with an angel or God coming down, but with the invitation of John to come up.
Come up here, and I will show you…
As John is lifted into the heavenly vision of Revelation 4, he sees and hears wonders beyond words. He sees the throne of God Himself, surrounded by the rainbow, and a community of worshiping and crowned elders. He sees the power of God, manifested in thunder and lightning from the throne, and the torches of fire, and the living creatures. The imagery draws together deep themes from the Old Testament story: a rainbow of promise from the story of Noah and the flood;1 gathered elders as on the mountain of Sinai at the giving of the Law;2 four living creatures, such as those seen by Ezekiel3 and heavenly beings who cry ‘Holy’ as in the vision of Isaiah.4 We find that all the technicolour vitality and variety of the earth is manifest around the throne of God (or perhaps better to say that we see echoes of the vitality and variety of heaven made manifest in the earth), and that the most potent images of creation all find their purpose and source and focus in Him.
And John hears, amidst the thunder of God’s presence, worship. He hears song. He hears words that name and elevate the glory and majesty and power and worth of the Living God poured out in this place.
And, as we spend a little time in the awe of this vision, we find an invitation is being offered to us. For when we bring our questions, we usually are asking God to come down to where we are to answer them.
And yet, Revelation 4 offers us an alternative.
Come up.
Come up and see. Come up and hear. Come up and worship, for truly worship is the act that replants our feet in the heavenly courts and repositions our focus with heavenly perspective. For all insight and all revelation comes from this place—to see His glory and His might and His beauty, and then to re-see the earth from this place and perspective.
Are you frightened by what you see in the world? Are you opposed? Are you suffering? Are you discouraged?
Come up, my friends. Join the song. Worship. That we may look upon our suffering and waiting world with heavenly eyes.
Reflect:
Worship teaches us to see. How does worship feature in your regular life? How might your perspective change if you began to see your life and the world around you from the vantage point of heaven?
Pray:
Father God,
The source of the most indescribable, powerful, and all-consuming
Love,
Consume me in the wonder
Of the heavenly vantage point.
And yet Father,
My eyes are so often drawn
To the noise of the earth,
And there, I forget:
I forget Your throne,
I forget Your power,
I forget Your love.
But Father,
Bring me up again,
Teaching me to stand in worship
That joins the song of heaven,
That before I speak questions,
I may learn to cry
Holy, holy, holy,
And that I may truly
Learn to see.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Joel 2:18-3:21 | Psalm 141
Genesis 9
Exodus 24
Ezekiel 1
Isaiah 6