The God of Revelation

When I was a kid, my pastor did a whole series on the book of Revelation.  There were charts and long explanation of the terrible surprises the end of the world held. I always thought of it as a very complex puzzle – figuring out which metaphor spoke of which country to come and how those countries would either conquer or be conquered. So I said to myself that, ‘It’s all going to work out in the end’ and forgot about it. Since the book was so laced with complex allusions and seemed to require a mastery of a diverse number of texts from others books, it seemed best left to the experts.

However, it turns out that the point of the book of Revelation is not to give us a roadmap to future events. It certainly does speak of the future, but primarily it tells us about the mind of God. Chapters 4, 5 and 7 place us in God’s presence where we see Him seated on a throne. Again and again the book of Revelation comes back to this place – a room or site where at the centre this throne of God sits. He is surrounded by powerful angels and magnificent creatures. From there He conducts the symphony of Revelation. The purpose of the book is to show us that ultimately God is in control of the world and that he will bring a victory over the pain and evil powers by changing earth literally into heaven.

From this room we learn about God – not so much that we learn a lot of complex theological concepts, but that we get to sit in the room with John, and if we quiet ourselves we can feel what he felt and experience some part of God. To understand the throne room is to understand something about God.

The first thing that strikes you about the throne room is that it is marked by power. John says that he hears thunder and sees lightning in 4:5. Anyone who has lived in the country knows that feeling of awe one gets from a thunderstorm. There is the ‘boom’ that comes from the skies and rolls out through the miles, making you glad you were not right under it. Something in that speaks of the greatness of the creator. Here John notes that the thunder was not overtop of the room but actually proceeded from the throne. That one detail alone would have made the apostle terrified to approach the seat of this Being.

The second thing that strikes you about the throne room is that it is marked by victory. Anyone who has suffered through an injustice can tell you that life on earth isn’t fair and that they hope there is some kind of reckoning. They might be powerless to right the wrong done them but hope that God is not. As we read through Revelation we come to its famous judgements made by the Lord against the world. They are not the random temper tantrums of a two year-old but the measured judgements of an objective God. These are followed by the great Day of Judgement at the end of the book.

No doubt these events are terrible and vast, yet they assure us that God is not casually indifferent to the acts of violence and various evils people commit or suffer from. The throne room is the place where justice is dealt out against these wrongs and those who suffer are remembered. When someone wrongs me I am tempted to hit back even harder but God is the perfect judge.

Finally, the throne room is characterized by worship. God isn’t the only inhabitant of the room. In fact it is filled with a myriad of angels, stately humans called ‘elders’ and four mysterious creatures. Perhaps spurred on by these sights of glory and power the inhabitants call out continuous praises to God. Even though I have read the book many times the worship of these creatures never fails to move me. They are so stark and beautiful. I will include one here as a closing to the article. May we come to the point where we can accept the awesome sights of the book and sing with them.

Revelation 5:11-14 (NASB95)
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

By Jason Gayoway