Revelation 11:16-19 And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell on their faces, and worshipped God,… I. IT IS A LIFE OF WORSHIP. 1. The persons who are worshipping are described as twenty-four elders. They are the Universal Church, the blessed of the old covenant and of the new; and yet, as persons and representatives, are portrayed as leaders of the heavenly worship. 2. Their dignity. They are "before God," i.e., in His immediate presence, and sit upon thrones. They are said also to have crowns (Revelation 4:10). This is a picture in which vision, repose, kingly power, and victory each has a place. 3. Their worship. Observe, it is an act — they "fell upon their faces and worshipped God." Sitting upon thrones, contemplating God, was their habitual condition; but worship was the active expression of their sense of the Divine majesty. They offer Him inward and outward adoration. II. IT IS A LIFE OF THANKSGIVING. 1. This arises from the clear realisation of their indebtedness to God for all. Gratitude is apt to be chilled by the sorrows, the sufferings, and the uncertainties of this present life. When it exists in the soul it has to struggle with life's burden, and its expression is like the transient rays of light which pierce the cloud that darkens the landscape. But the song of the redeemed is called forth by the sight of the Giver, and the dark problems of earth are solved in the light of heaven (John 13:7). 2. It arises from the possession of "the gift of glory." Grace is more precious than all the gifts of nature; but glory is greater than grace, as the flower is more than the bud. The consciousness of having "attained to the true end of their being elicits from the worshippers the anthem of thanksgiving with a fulness and a sweetness in the heavenly Jerusalem with which the songs by the waters of Babylon could never compare. 3. It arises from a deeper sense of unworthiness than can ever be felt on earth. What was the casting of their crowns before the feet of the Most High but a protestation that their excellence and their victories were due to the grace which He had vouchsafed to them? 4. It was a corporate oblation of thanksgiving — "We give," etc. Each has his own joy, and each can enter into the joy of all. III. WHAT DIVINE PERFECTION DID THEY HYMN? THE ETERNITY OF GOD. 1. This perfection belongs to God alone. He alone is without beginning. This is the root-distinction between Creator and creature. He is, in the language of Daniel, "the Ancient of days" (Daniel 7:22). He is from Himself; with Him is "the well of life." None other is self-derived. He alone possesses His life without succession, unchangeably (iota simul). 2. Every creature has a beginning. "The creature is from that," says St. , "which is as yet not." As being is a base of all gifts, so creation is at the root of all worship. The realisation of God as the Beginning and End of our being is essential for worship. The elders grasped the difference between Creator and created. They offered Him, their God, "glory, and honour, and praise." Why? "Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created." Here every one and everything we see is created and transient; the line between eternal and temporal is clearly marked where the Eternal makes Himself known and seen. IV. LESSONS. 1. The importance of worship as a preparation for the heavenly life. 2. The spirit of thanksgiving should enter more fully into our religion, which is sometimes lacking in brightness, trust, and unselfishness. 3. The contemplation of the eternity of God, "Thou art from everlasting," produces many fruits. There is a certain delight in the contemplation, as in regarding some vast and magnificent object, as the heavens or the sea. Then the thought of an eternity in the future, of the endlessness of human life, must stir within us hopes and fears — "hope of glory," and fear of missing it. Such a conception will always create in us a sense of the littleness of things present, in comparison with things eternal. (Canon Huchings, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, |
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