Sunday School Notes: Revelation 4:9-11

⁹ And when the living creatures will give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting upon the throne, to the one who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders will fall down before the one sitting upon the throne and they will worship the one who lives for ever and ever, and they shall throw their crowns before the throne saying, ¹¹ “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You Yourself created all things, and on account of Your will they were [i.e., they have come into being] and they have been created.”

Last time John introduced us to the four living creatures who stand before the throne singing the praises of the one on the throne, declaring his eternality and sovereignty. Chapter four finishes up with the response of the twenty-four elders to the song of the creatures.

John tells us that “when” the creatures praise the one on the throne, the twenty-four elders fall down and worship him. But notice that I’ve translated this with the future tense (“when the living creatures will give glory… the twenty-four elders will fall down…). The Greek manuscripts are split on this, whether it should be a future tense or whether the translation “whenever the living creatures give glory… the twenty-four elders fall down…” is more appropriate. I don’t know of any translations that use the future tense, and instead translate it in the present. But is it “when” or “whenever”? And if not “whenever” why use the future? On the first question, “whenever” gives the impression that this is not happening continuously, which is not what we were told in 4:8. There, John said the creatures do not stop praising, but carry on day and night without ceasing. Because of that, I think “when” is probably what John originally intended, not “whenever.” Why the future tense? The fact the future seems a bit odd would explain why a later copyist might change it to a different form that’s less difficult to translate. But the future can be used in the sense that when x happens, y happens afterwards. But isn’t that better expressed with a present tense? Perhaps the future lends itself to the timelessness of the picture. The living creatures continue ceaselessly with their praise, and when they do this, the elders respond, and will respond–now and always. John is at pains to emphasize that this is not a temporary situation, not just because he says the creatures engage in ceaseless praise, but by the fact he says more than once that the one sitting on the throne lives for ever and ever. I think this plays into his main point, which we’ll come to soon.

More important than the nuance of the tense, however, is what this scene means–what it tells us about the one on the throne, the creatures, the elders, and us. I noted a parallel with Isaiah 6:1-3 here, where we see the six-winged seraphim giving praise to the Lord on His throne saying, “Holy, holy, holy,” and then we moved on to discuss the three aspects of the creatures’ praise: glory, honor, and thanks. When we give glory, we extol the virtues of someone else, making much of them, and focusing upon them. This is distinct from honor, where we give the person respect, obedience, and deference. Giving thanks is how we acknowledge a debt we owe to the person for their grace, help, or kindness. All of these are appropriate expressions of praise and worship to the Lord. We are to make much of Him and less of ourselves, we are to accord Him honor, respect, and obedience, and our hearts should be overflowing with thankfulness on account of His bountiful love and grace so eloquently expressed on the cross.

We’ve already discussed the fact that the four creatures represent the created order, and the twenty-four elders represent the Old and New Testament saints (i.e., believers–God’s covenant people on both sides of the cross). Here we see the all-encompassing nature of heavenly worship: all creation along with the people of God sing His praises and acknowledge His power and sovereignty. Romans 8:19-22 reminds us that the whole of creation fell, not willingly, when we fell. This is a fallen world, and even the most wonderful and glorious aspects of creation are but fallen shadows of what they will one day be when creation is no longer tainted by sin. Creation groans and longs to see that day. But the redemption enjoyed by creation in general is not the same as the redemption enjoyed by God’s people. There will be no “saved” dogs, cats, or horses in heaven. These creatures cannot know God as Savior, although they are under His sovereign domain. This strikes at the pagan worship of nature and animals. The Hindus may worship the cow, but here we see the cow rendering worship to the Lord. The Egyptians might worship cats, but in this scene the cat is subject to the One on the throne. Many in our day worship trees, the sun, and even man himself–perhaps the most prevalent religion in the Western world. But in the heavenly throne room, there is only One who receives worship, and even the creature with a face like a man understands that.

Notice, though, that there is a difference between the praise of creation and the worship of God’s people. Creation acknowledges give Him glory, honor, and thanks, but the elders fall down before the throne. This is not to say they don’t join in with ascribing glory, honor, and thanks to the Lord, but there is a deeper intensity to their worship. The act of prostration is a form of humility. In many cultures, bowing or curtseying is a way to show honor and respect. The idea behind this is one of lowering oneself and elevating the other person to demonstrate their superior standing in your eyes. Full prostration, lying flat on the floor, is the most extreme way of showing total and utter subjection to someone. You can’t get any lower, and you can’t make them any higher. I think this is the Spirit-born expression of worship in the hearts of God’s people. We know that one day, “every knee will bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). That doesn’t mean all creation is saved, but that they will all one day recognize the Lordship of Christ, and bow the knee to him. They will not, however, be rendering the kind of worship that the twenty-four elders are giving in Revelation 4:10.

Further, the elders “cast their crowns” before the throne. These crowns represent two types of crown we see in Scripture. There’s the victor’s crown, won for us by Christ, as mentioned in Revelation 3:11. And there’s also the “crown of glory” given to the faithful as a reward for a life lived in Christ’s service (e.g., 1 Peter 5:4). Neither of these crowns are earned because of our own work. The victor’s crown is given to the believer on account of Christ’s victory over sin and death; we did nothing to deserve this. And the life well-lived is only possible because Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit guiding us, chastening us, and empowering us to live faithfully for the Lord. We claim credit for neither, and in Revelation 4:10, God’s people acknowledge this fact by throwing their crowns before the throne. This act is a graphic demonstration of our dependence upon the Lord for all we are and all we have, recognizing that we are recipients of an incomprehensible grace.

This show of submission does have some parallels in ancient and modern culture. Prostration before an earthly ruler is still practiced in parts of the world, and there was a practice among the pagans where kings would remove their crowns as an act of loyalty or submission to a greater king or ruler. So John is not only seeing an amazing picture of our position before the Lord, but there is a message here to all earthly rulers, and to those Christians suffering under their oppression. The power of mortal kings is limited both in scope and duration. They rule a particular piece of land, and they do so for as long as good health and peace permit. The Lord, however, is an eternal king whose dominion covers all of the created order, and to whose power even earthly rulers will bow the knee. They will surely pay for the suffering they inflict upon God’s people. And God’s people can take comfort in the fact that the Lord of all is truly sovereign. No-0ne need fear the power of mortal rulers when one’s trust is in the immortal and all-powerful King of the universe.

As if to press this point further, the song of elders in verse 11 begins with the words “Worthy are you, O Lord and our God.” This echoes a divine title used by Roman emperors. Indeed, the title “Dominus et Deus Noster” (Lord and Our God) was used of Domitian, the emperor who was in power at the time Revelation was written (if you subscribe to a mid-90s AD date for Revelation). In other words, people may have called Domitian “lord and our god,” but there is only One who truly deserves that title, and one day Domitian will bow the knee to Him.

The song of the elders is reminiscent of Nebuchadnezzar’s song in Daniel 4:34-35, where the king acknowledges the Lord as the One who is worthy to receive glory, honor, and power. The Lord doesn’t receive glory, honor, and power because He needs them. Rather, we ascribe glory, honor, and power to Him because He is worthy to receive them. I think we, as good, humble Christians understand this idea. Whenever we are praised for something we’ve done well, part of us is grateful for the recognition of the time, effort, and talent we expended to do that thing. However, we also want to acknowledge that anything good in us is not of our own doing, but is a work of God, so it’s God who really deserves all the credit. That’s why Christians struggle to accept praise. The Lord is never in this situation. This is not a dilemma for Him, because He is worthy to receive the praise and the credit. Domitian may have accepted the title “O lord and god,” but he wasn’t worthy to receive it. Only the Lord, the true God of all is worthy.

No reason needs to be given why the Lord is worthy of worship, nevertheless, the elders’ song gives a reason, and again, it presents a stark distinction between the nature of God’s power and authority and that of man’s. “For You have created all things,” the elders sing. The Lord is worthy because He is the creator of all that there is. No emperor or earthly authority of any kind can compete with that. The song goes on to say that all things exist “on account of Your will.” So all things exist because God made them, and they only exist because God wanted them to be. Unlike the pagan gods, or even the gods in the ancient Mesopotamian creation stories, who create on a whim, or to compete with other deities, the Lord created with His own plan and purpose in mind. There is nothing random or arbitrary in creation; there are no “maverick molecules” in the universe (as R. C. Sproul likes to say). All of creation was made by an intelligent, purposeful Creator, who has a reason for all that He makes and all that He does. Again, this should give comfort to those who suffer and go through hardships. These are not accidents, but are part of the Creator’s design for our lives. And He has a good purpose that He is working out through all that happens to us (Romans 8:28).

I noted that in Revelation 3:14, Jesus describes himself as “the true and faithful witness, the beginning [or source] or the creation of God.” If we put this with what we’ve just been studying, we see that all things were made by God, and Jesus is the “source” of God’s creation. Yet another affirmation of Christ’s deity.

Verse 11 closes by saying that all things “were and have been created.” This isn’t a redundancy, but is expressing two different ideas about creation. First, that creation didn’t simply come into being at a point in time, like the Divine Watchmaker who winds up the watch and leaves it alone. The tense of the verb here is imperfect, not aorist (êsan not eginono in the Greek), which speaks of continuous action. The Lord didn’t simply create all things, but He sustains all things too. Without God’s sustaining grace, holding all things together, making all the laws of the universe (as far as we understand them) work, the whole of reality as we know it would collapse. Such is our dependence upon Him.

The second idea is in the use of the passive verb–what theologians call a “Divine Passive,” which is a way of ascribing an activity to God without naming Him explicitly. Creation came into being because God brought it about at a point in time. As Genesis 1:1 indicates, there was a point in time when there was nothing but God, and then God created the heavens and the earth. This point led into a brief discussion of creationism, which we’ll have to take up sometime as a separate topic.

To sum up, we have in this passage a clear statement that God is sovereign over all things, that it’s by His divine will that all things exists, and it is by His divine power and grace that all things continue to exist and hold together. This should also bring comfort to God’s people, knowing the extent of His power and the depth of His control. There’s nothing we can face that is unknown to God. There is no power on earth that can compete with God’s power. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Next time: We’ll begin chapter 5!