Oh, what a sight to see!

From the top of the Empire State Building, you can see several states and take in an unbelievable view of the huge metropolitan area. At 14,000 feet above sea level, Pikes Peak in Colorado offers a spectacular vista – the great plains to the East, the majestic Rocky Mountains to the West. I will never forget standing in a sea of men on the Mall in Washington, DC at a PromiseKeepers event. More than a quarter of a million men sang praise to God and then fell to the their knees in silent prayer. What a sight!

Nothing, however, compares to the scene described by John in the 4th chapter of the Revelation. “Come up here,” John hears Jesus say. And, caught up in the Spirit, he sees a vision of the Throne Room of God. What a sight to see! Reflecting from a great expanse of crystal, like a ‘sea of glass,’ John sees the Being on the Throne ablaze with Light, fiery red. A glowing aura of emerald green surrounds Him. Twenty four thrones surround His Throne, where elders representing the People of God offer up their worship to Him. Amazing winged creatures pour out a refrain of “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Eternal!” amidst flashes of light and thunderous rumblings. So, what do we do with these images?

More to the point, what do such images do to us?

John’s vision has but one goal – to bring the reader to awe! The average Christian is woefully impoverished when it comes to worship! Say, “worship,” they think singing several devotional songs, or perhaps raising their hands, or maybe offering a prayer. There’s nothing wrong with those things and they are a kind of worship, but true worship is birthed by a vision of God that is terrifying, that evokes the same kind of awe from us that Isaiah felt when he glimpsed the Throne! Don’t miss the point of John’s vision by reducing it to its component parts. Instead, stand back and gaze on it. Embrace the Mystery!

Dr. Don McCullough wrote a book bearing the title, The Trivialization of God, in which he encourages us to recover our sense of the Transcendent God, who is wholly Other. Our highly individualized faith in a ‘personal Lord and Savior’ results in a Jesus who is ‘just like me’ and strips the Lord of the Heavenly Armies of His majesty, reducing Him to the status of being our Big Buddy! Yes, we do have a friend in Jesus.

But, this is not the only way that God is revealed to us. The awesome and terrible Being glimpsed by Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John is equally real. But, we reject that revelation because we cannot reduce it to our explanations and therefore it frightens us. We tame God to fit in our boxes. No wonder we find it so hard to abandon ourselves to His care, to trust Him with our life and destiny. No wonder our holiness is so shallow, our ethical behaviors so questionable. There is no fear of the Lord among us.

Ponder the vision. Step back, as you would from a painting done by a master, and take in the whole, without criticism. My prayer is that the Spirit will make it so real, you will be reduced to silence, incapable of anything short of awful admiration.

"At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
(Revelation 4:2-11, NIV)
Amen and amen.