Every Knee

If you are reading along with us each day (www.lifejournal.cc),  you are being overwhelmed with imagery that is hard to picture in your mind.  I saw someone try to draw a picture of these images.  I believe they did a poor job.  Somewhat the point of the scenes is that we cannot conjur this stuff up.  It is beyond us and being described in a way that is to help understand on our level what is way beyond our level.  It is almost like when I child asks, 'where do babies come from?' and we answer 'From mommy's tummy.'  Enough is said to satisfy their curiosity...for a time.  Well, when we talk about the work of God in the midst of the historical setttings of Ezekiel, or the scene of heaven in Revelation 4, those images are beyond us.  It is written in a way to give us the idea that is much beyond anything we have ever seen.  The word 'like' is used a lot in the book of Revelation because the only way we can grasp the scenes is to compare with something we would be more familiar with. Even with that I believe 'not the half has been told.'
Revelation 4 is the beautiful scene of the majestic throne of God. It is a glimpse of what heaven is like.  Or at least it tells us what the focus of heaven is.   There are a lot of strong scenes in Revelation and that is due to the stronger message that is being shared through the pictures that are drawn.  We see a clear one today.  First there are 4 creatures that have different faces and sets of wings.  These are similiar to the images in Ezekiel that are described as cherubim or angels but those in Ezekiel have four faces.  The wings remind us of the cherubim as well in Isaiah 6.  Therefore based upon that, we see these as angels.  However, it is a little bigger than that.  When we look in their faces we see the face of a lion (the king of the wild), the face of an ox ( the king of the domesticated), the face of an eagle (the king of flying creatures) and the face of a man (representing humankind).  Therefore they represent not only all of heaven but also all of earth. We also see 24 elders who are commonly understood to be representing the twelve tribes of Israel of the Old Testament and the twelve apostles of the New Testament.  These are around the throne and represent the church of Jesus Christ, both saints of old and new, around the throne of God.  Now see the whole picture: what are all these doing?  The creatures are saying Holy, holy, holy, and the elders are 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." (Rev. 4:11)  This reminds me of Philippians 2: 9-11-Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The message today:  You better be getting good at worshiping the King because that is what Heaven is all about.  Don't you want to excel in heaven?  Well, practice worshiping the Lord here and now.  I bet when you get there, you will be glad you did.  Have a great day worshiping the Lord!