How Will the Kingdom Come?
REVELATION 4:6b-11
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
who was and is and is to come!”
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11 “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.”
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
These mysterious four living creatures are found in Old Testament heavenly visions (e.g., Isaiah 6 and Ezekiel 1). They are some kind of heavenly creature that just praises God, and all the eyes around them mean that, from a heavenly perspective, there is nothing hidden.
9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 11 “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.”
How cool is that? These heavenly rulers—over what they are reigning the Bible doesn’t tell us (solar systems? universes? time? light?)—these angelic heavenly rulers are immensely powerful. In fact, later in the book, John will twice make the mistake of trying to worship an angelic messenger. These are powerful, glorious creatures. And yet that’s the point—they are creatures, not the Creator. And they get off their thrones and cast their crowns before the throne to show that any authority and glory they have is merely given to them by God. They are creatures, and so they worship the Creator.
We’ll see as the vision unfolds that one of the marks of the Beast is that it claims worship for itself, but only God is worthy of worship. This is one of the reasons John knows the Beast is evil.
The question, however, is this:
John has come from earth into heaven, and in heaven he sees God’s will perfectly realized—it is a place of beauty and peace and joy. But earth isn’t like that. How will the Kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven?
We have to read on to find out.