F O O T H O L D
READING
96 A MAJESTIC VISION
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PRAY 'Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty.' Help me to worship you as
you deserve.
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READ Revelation 4:1-11.
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THINK Try to write down how
you feel after reading the words of chapter
4.
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FOCUS A tapestry has two
sides: there is the front, which everyone
sees, and which tells a
story in pictures. But if you look
behind, at the reverse side,
you see a confusion of different
coloured threads with no
shape or design at all. The Christians
to whom John was writing
must have felt that life was like the
reverse side of a tapestry;
evil powers were active in the world
and Christians were being
persecuted for the faith, and nothing
made sense. So the Lord
says, in effect, 'I will show you the
proper side of the tapestry
of history - the scene in heaven,
where god's rule is supreme
and his will is perfectly obeyed'. If
we are sometimes tempted to
wonder what is really going on in the
world, we should remember
that we can only see the reverse side
of the tapestry; but there
is another side, and that is where the
meaning is to be understood.
1. GOD ENTHRONED (1-6). The
twenty-four 'elders' probably
represented the whole
'church', the total people of God (twelve
Old Testament patriarchs
plus twelve New Testament apostles).
They are seated as victors
already - and so, in a sense are all
Christians (Ephesians 2:6),
even though we may be suffering on
earth.
2. GOD WORSHIPPED (7-11).
The four living creatures can be taken
to represent the whole of
creation. If we see the world of nature
as it really is, we see it
as full of the life and power of God.
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PRAY Meditate upon verse 11
and then make it your prayer today.
