Revelation Chapter 4
VERSE 9, 10 and 11 “ 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.”
“Briefly stated, the message here is that “when [ever]” the four beasts glorify God in voice and song, the twenty-four elders also join in the melodious refrain. They do not sing ceaselessly with endless rhythmic regularity or vain, monotonous repetition; but rather, the four beasts and the twenty-four elders are ever vigilant, always alert, to give commensurate and periodic praise, whenever and wherever appropriate, to the varied acts of Deity—particularly to those related to the earth (see Isa 6:3), to those that affect the destiny of nations and shape the course of history. Indeed the saying is true!—prophecy is history written in advance, and history is prophecy fulfilled.
It is interesting to note that the autocratic rule of the twenty-four elder’s man-ward is absolute and inflexible. Their role God-ward, however, is one of suppleness to the divine will and pleasure, as demonstrated by the submission of their crowns before the throne. This subservience is quite in order, for the elders (or books of the Old Testament), representing the prophetic utterances of the Lord, owe their regal posture and legal authority to “Thus saith the Lord” in the first place!
The highly figurative imagery of this scene—depicting the harmonious and admiring consent of both the attributes and the canon of ancient Holy Writ to the righteous acts of Jehovah, accompanied with their exuberant, reflective joy in the realization of the perpetuity of the divine office and the consequent eternal assurance of divine grace—lifts the Christian’s heart and thoughts above, to a level of sublimity, and is truly a fitting prelude to the throne scene drama of Chapter 5.” (The Keys of Revelation)
Verse 9 “Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever.”
“There is a CHANGE OF TENSE in the Greek here. It is implied in the better English translations. Verse 9 shifts to the FUTURE. This verse (along with verses 10 and 11) LOOKS FORWARD TO THE TIME WHEN THE PLAN IS COMPLETED and the testimony of the attributes and the prophecies will openly give praise to God because ALL will then understand:
AND WHEN [EVER]: in that future time –
THE LIVING CREATURES GIVE GLORY AND HONOR AND THANKS TO HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE:
Once the peaceable kingdom is set up (and the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea), all of God’s attributes will come into focus to the world who then will look backwards in time to see the interlocking functions of God’s character imprinted on history.
THEN the testimony of these living ones will show the glory (the Jasper-stone brilliance, clarity, and purity), the honor (the understanding of the permission of evil will show that God’s dealings have been honorable), and the thanks (the praise that everything has worked together for good).
WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER:
This little phrase is laden full of promises to come. In essence it is saying, “What He has done UP TO THIS POINT, now manifested to show how much glory, honor, and thanks, we owe Him, is ONLY THE BEGINNING. FOREVER AWAITS US!”
Verse 10 “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.”
THE TWENTY-FOUR ELDERS: The totality of the testimony of all the prophecies
WILL FALL DOWN BEFORE HIM WHO SITS ON THE THRONE AND WORSHIP HIM: An act of worship. Once the prophecies are all fulfilled, their accuracy is a tribute, worship, to Him Who gave them. Thus they WORSHIP HIM.
WHO LIVES FOREVER AND EVER: (see verse 9)
AND WILL CAST THEIR CROWNS BEFORE THE THRONE:
This is a visible acknowledgment demonstrating that the authority (crowns) of prophecy was from God (2 Pet. 1:19-21.) The 24 CANNOT do this UNTIL the prophecies are FULFILLED, thus the verb WILL CAST: This is part of the verses 9 -11 context —all future.
There is a kinship in this expression with Eccl. 12:7. In that text the “spirit returns to God who gave it,” that is to say, when men die, the privilege of life returns to the Giver. When the prophecies die (are fulfilled), their authority to predict (crowns) also returns to the One who gave it. Thus the symbol of casting crowns before the throne is saying, “We have finished our charge.
Verse 11 “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.”
SAYING: This one-verse benediction is the epitome of all of the words of the prophets. It acknowledges God as the WILL and the SOURCE of all things and the only rightful possessor of ALL Glory, Honor, and Power.
NOTE: It is altogether possible that this fourth chapter exists to help us keep a perspective. Revelation is about Jesus. Yahweh is very much out of sight in most of the book (even in most of the New Testament.) This chapter, however, along with Chapter 5, shows that, while Jesus is the center of focus for the entire age, it was Yahweh Who placed him in this focus. The God of the Hebrew Scriptures IS NOT out of the picture! He is still supreme. He made the plan; He possesses the attributes; He gets the credit. But for now, (in Chapter 5), He hands over great authority to the Son —even as was summarized in Rev 1:8. (See comments on same.).” New Albany Notes on Revelation
Thus we conclude Chapter 4 and will proceed to Chapter 5 in our next post.
