4 Around
the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four
elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. (Revelation
4)
I do not know
how to explain it, and yet it seems that deeper things need sharing as much as
higher things. There’s just something about this verse that keeps telling me
how the church is represented before and around the throne of God. And,
yesterday, God seemed to use the awareness of loss in this earthly life to
enhance the picture of what is presently happening in heaven, and what is
waiting for any of us who will one day get there.
I often hear
the complaint that there doesn’t seem to be much justice in this earthly
lifetime. People seem to get away with everything they do wrong. Men wonder how
to be fathers when they weren’t fathered. Women wonder how to be mothers when
they weren’t mothered. Adults wonder how to grow up when there never seem to be
any grown-ups in the church to give the personal attention they feel is so
necessary to the maturing process. And
then, we come to elders and the famine seems all the more glaring.
No matter what
it may have been like for anyone else, my life has been characterized by a
shortage of elders. I consider the men who have gone through my children’s
lives, and realize that there were no elders among them. I look in the mirror,
and wonder how to become something I have never seen, except in stories.
But then I
come to the throne-room of God and marvel at this one precise sentence breathed
out by God. It fits every believer of every time in every situation. You grew
up without a father? Look to the heavens, there are twenty-four elders around
the throne. You grew up without mentoring? Look to the throne-room of God and
see your mentors ruling and reigning with Christ. You were failed by every man
you have ever known? Look into the paradise glory of God’s presence and see
twenty-four men, sitting on thrones, with clean hands and pure hearts, wearing
priestly crowns, and be assured that your Father on the throne is fully aware
of you, and your needs, and your condition.
I fear to
think of these elders with names, or to separate them into dispensations of
time or covenant. I fear to detract from their gift by adding words to this
book. There is a reason that God wants it on the hearts of his children that
there are twenty-four elders around his throne, sitting on thrones, clothed in
white, wearing crowns. Look at what they do every time the four living
creatures announce the glory of God’s holiness. See them fall down before this
glorious throne of God, throwing down their own crowns in reverential
submission to the far greater throne, and far greater crown.
The message is
clear: those who know God best bow down to worship him. They do not complain
about his injustice, his tardiness, his favoritism, his partiality. They do not
denounce his sovereignty, or berate his majesty. They do not question his
promises, his integrity, or his covenant. They know him far better than
ourselves, and yet judge nothing negative against him. He has earned from these
elders such worship that can only be expressed as: “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and
power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were
created.”[1]
We have
twenty-four elders telling us that, if we really knew the God on the throne,
and we really saw him without the sarky filters that blind and deceive us, we
would fall on our faces before him in wonder at his steadfast love and
faithfulness radiating from a throne founded on eternal justice and
righteousness.
In the
meantime, we meditate on God’s word, and we let the words of Revelation 4
permeate our hearts and minds. No matter what things look like here in this
earthly lifetime, there are twenty-four elders around the throne of God
representing us to the Father, and so overwhelmed by his glorious care of his
people that they find their greatest joy in continually worshiping the unending
source of their joy.
Let the
testimony that these elders are so wonderfully resting in the pleasures that
are at God’s right hand forevermore give you hope that the wisdom of God in any
step he is asking you to take today is worthy of worship by those who see him
best.
From my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Revelation 4:11
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