They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “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]
Because the
book of Revelation is such a concise and condensed summary of all the rest of
Scripture, it is fascinating to consider God’s choice of words in describing
what he revealed to John. It is as if every word awaits the cursor of our minds
to right-click and discover what other wonders are waiting to be revealed to
those who wait upon the Lord.
With that in
mind, I was drawn to consider why the wonder-filled worship of the twenty-four
elders focused on, “for you created all
things, and by your will they existed and were created.” Such a short collection
of words has to be the ultimate summary of worship, and the very best thing for
the church to hear from these elders during discouraging times of persecution.
Since the book
of Revelation is not a generic glimpse through the windows of heaven, but a
determined, strategic revelation of God to Jesus’ servants, there has to be a
way that our worship of God as Creator will get us through anything the world,
the flesh, and the devil strategize against us. In fact, the focus on God as
Creator does exactly that.
Throughout
Scripture, the number one enemy of God is idolatry. It is the consistent theme
of revelation from one end of the Bible to the other. No matter how we describe
it, and no matter how much the red dragon is behind every idolatrous
expression, the fact remains that we are always serving either God or idols.
The
foolishness of turning to idols is that “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and
served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”[2] Every
single idol is a created thing. It does not matter whether it is an idol-figure
created by a master-sculptor, the worship of chemical-induced experiences (drug
addictions and alcoholism), the worship of the human body (ours or someone else’s),
the love of money and the coveting of all the things we want to buy with money,
or any other way we would describe the golden calves that replace God, all
idolatry is the worship of something created rather than worshiping the
Creator.
Times of
persecution increase the temptation to worship the creature rather than the
Creator. Early Christians could save their lives by worshiping the Emperor.
Daniel could be spared the lions’ den if he would worship the king. Stephen
could be spared martyrdom if he would worship the religion of man, and the men
who created it. Christians of our day would be spared persecution if they would
worship in religions created by creatures, rather than stand firm in the one relationship
with God that gives everlasting life.
While there is
much more that could be said about this, the summary declaration of the
twenty-four elders, the “kingdom and priests”[3]
of God Almighty, is a testimony to you today that God alone is worthy “to receive glory and honor and power.”
Do not be afraid of creatures or created things, nor give them your worship.
Instead, “…whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”[4]
After all, “…you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that
you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light.”[5]
From my heart,
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 4:10-11
[2]
Romans 1:25
[3]
“and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall
speak to the people of Israel.” (Exodus 19:6) “and
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him
be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (Revelation 1:6); “and you
have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall
reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5:10)
[4]
I Corinthians 10:31
[5]
I Peter 2:9
No comments:
Post a Comment