Worship in the throne room
Worship in the throne room is the answer to the issues laid out in the letters to the churches. Why — and how — does this scene become the introduction to all the plagues that follow?
The background and context
The verse at the end of the previous chapter already mentioned the throne room of God, but the links run deeper: the throne room section echoes phrases from the first three chapters that address the situation of the church.
| Topic | Letters | Throne room |
|---|---|---|
| Reception of authority | in the promise of the Morning Star given to the overcomers in Thyatira | For the Lamb to receive the scroll, as well as honor and glory |
| Overcomer | Laodicea receives a promise to sit on the throne | The Lamb overcame (death) and is worthy to open the scroll |
| The seven spirits of God | In the letter to Sardis | The description of what is before the throne and the description of the eyes of the Lamb |
| The saints white clothing | Conquerors clothes white clothing in Sardis, and Jesus’ offer to Laodicea | White clothing of the 24 elders |
| Saints seated on thrones | Promise for the overcomers in Laodicea | Situation of the 24 elders |
| Saints have crowns | As promised to Smyrna and reality in Philadelphia | as in the picture of the 24 elders |
| Image of an open door | In the reality in Philadelphia and in the wish of Laodicea | As the introduction to the throne room |
| Voice like a trumpet with rapture in the Spirit | Start of the vision regarding the churches | Start of the vision here in the throne room |
These parallels give the Church a vision of their own spiritual reality, and a model for how to follow Christ’s example. The reality shown in this vision is part of what the church is meant to act upon.
Daniel 7 offers a striking parallel to chapters 4 and 5 of the Book of Revelation:
| Topic | Daniel 7 | Revelation 4-5 |
|---|---|---|
| Introduction phrases | Daniel | Revelation |
| Throne in heaven | Daniel | Revelation |
| God sits on this throne | Daniel | Revelation |
| The description of God | Daniel | Revelation |
| Fire before the throne | Daniel | Revelation |
| Heavenly servants surround the throne | Daniel | Revelation (24 elders, 4 living beings and angels) |
| Books before the throne | Daniel | Revelation |
| Books are opened | Daniel | Revelation (the Lamb is declared worthy to open them; the opening itself begins at 6:1) |
| Divine (messianic) figure approaches throne to receive authority | Daniel | In Revelation (as description, because Jesus bought them from all nations which all give him praise) |
| The scope: all peoples, nation and tongues | Daniel | Revelation |
| The seer’s distress when seeing the vision | Daniel | Revelation |
| The seer’s reception of heavenly council from one of the throne servants | Daniel | Revelation |
| Saints given authority to reign over a kingdom | Daniel, not only twice but three times | Revelation |
| Concluding mention of God’s eternal reign | Daniel | Revelation |
Although the parallels are extensive, you can easily see that the order of events differs between the two passages. (The saints’ shared reign, promised here already, is often connected to the thousand-year reign of Revelation 20 — how the two relate is a separate, debated question; see premillennialism, postmillennialism, and amillennialism compared.)
This scene also recalls the image of the angelic council, as in
- the calling of Isaiah, or
- the decision about Ahab's death.
Why is worship the answer?
The problems in the churches can be grouped as follows:
- wrong doctrine leads to wrong behavior (Pergamon, Thyatira),
- wrong self-evaluation leads to wrong actions (Sardis, Laodicea),
- wrong priorities lead to meaninglessness (Ephesus),
- very difficult circumstances increase the risk of giving up (Smyrna, Philadelphia).
For all of them, worship is the answer:
- The more we know and understand the original — God himself — the less we are swayed by false teachings.
- When we know God and worship him as he truly is, we understand ourselves better and see where we need him.
- When we find our place in relation to God, our priorities fall into place: if God is not first, everything else ends up in the wrong place.
- When we put our trust in God and walk faithfully with him, we are not easily shaken, because we have found something unshakable.
The throne room
John’s first impression is the glory of God — so potent that it’s impossible to see God directly. When Moses asked to see God's glory, he could not — but God let his goodness pass by and proclaimed his name: merciful and gracious, yet one who will not leave the guilty unpunished. God's glory holds mercy and justice together. So we should read the judgments that follow from the viewpoint of this same glory: real mercy, held together with real justice.
The second detail worth noting is the rainbow. This is a reminder of the covenant with Noah: God promises never again to destroy all life by flood, sealed with the rainbow — following his earlier pledge that seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, would never cease. There are no demands placed on Noah in the flood covenant itself. This detail casts its own light on the nature of the plagues that come out of the throne room: there are judgments, but they are limited.
The last detail is the sea of glass, which carries three associations:
- God's glory in heaven and on earth during the Exodus,
- Israel's crossing of the Red Sea during the Exodus,
- the bronze sea in Solomon’s temple (its construction).
The sea is also the place of evil and is linked with evil people — so the sea of glass is a picture of congealed evil.
Taken together, the sea of glass signals that God is close to his people and protects them. The saints will still be present during the plagues, but God will be with them and shield them through it.
That’s the theme running through this whole scene: every series of plagues, every announcement, originates in the throne room. This is the central place in the book, which is why it matters so much to understand it.
Looking ahead at the coming events, we see that:
- the seals cause tremendous trouble, but their purpose is to expose Satan's wickedness, to save as many people as possible, and to hasten the end of time;
- the trumpets expose the false things that people rely on — the fifth and sixth trumpets reveal that the real cause of the trouble is people's reliance on demons;
- the bowls are where God lays everything bare to warn people away from deception, showing in the sixth and seventh bowls the end of the beast and its followers.
The worship
In the ancient world, the temple — itself a reflection of the heavenly throne room — represented the whole world. God is at the center, and everything around him finds its place in relation to him.
Creation is one traditional reading of the four creatures, already described by Ezekiel:
- the lion, ruler of the land animals,
- the ox, strongest of the domesticated animals,
- the man, ruler of creation,
- the eagle, ruler of the air.
But Ezekiel’s own parallel vision explicitly names this class of being as cherubim (Ezek 10:20) — the highest order of angelic throne-attendants. Both readings have real support: the four creatures may represent all created life gathered in worship, or they may be the cherubic beings who lead that worship, or both together.
They are joined by the 24 elders, echoing the 24 divisions of priests, the 24 Levitical gatekeepers, and the 24 permanent worshipers that David established — but also evoking the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles as the foundation of the Church. (Some interpreters instead take the elders as members of the heavenly council — an angelic order rather than redeemed humans; the identification is debated. But the priestly and Davidic-worship echoes make the representative-of-God’s-people reading the more natural fit here.) Israel and the Church, in other words, should be seen as one entity despite all their conflicts. The Church, at its core, is defined as a church of worship.