Everyone
Today’s passage: Revelation 7:9–12
Focus verse: Before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9)
Immediately after John details how many people from the tribes of Israel receive the seal of God, he describes a great multitude, a throng too large to count. Given the context, we can assume they’ve also received God’s seal on their foreheads.
This throng includes people who hail from every nation around the world. They represent every tribe, each race, and all languages. It’s comforting to know that salvation through Jesus is available to everyone.
These people stand before the throne of God and Jesus. Dressed in white robes—signifying their pure standing through Jesus—they hold palm branches in their hands and wave them in a physical display of worship before their Lord.
Then they praise God with their voices, crying out that salvation belongs to Father God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, Jesus his Son.
With this testimony given, the angels around the throne, along with the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures, affirm the words of these people.
They fall prostrate and worship God, confirming the people’s witness with a hearty “Amen!”
They give God praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and strength forever and ever. Then they confirm their worship with another “Amen!”
This glimpse of heavenly adoration can serve to inspire us to worship our Lord more fully today, with awestruck wonder.
Let’s imagine ourselves in this supernatural setting. We stand before Father God and Jesus, his only Son. Clad in pure white robes we wave our palm branches in rhythmic adoration as we worship our Creator and Savior.
Then a multitude of angels, the twenty-four elders, and the four living creatures join us to confirm our praise. They fall before the Almighty in reverent worship.
What a glorious future awaits those of us who follow Jesus and remain true to him.
Questions:
- Do we truly believe Jesus’s followers will come from every tribe, nation, and language group?
- How do we react to Jesus’s followers from other cultures or backgrounds?
- How well do we do at accepting everyone in our church, especially who are different from us?
- How can we use this heavenly imagery to better inform our worship of God today?
- How can we better ascribe to God praise, glory, wisdom, thanks, honor, power, and strength?
[Discover more about worshiping God for his salvation in Revelation 12:10 and 19:1. Read about worshiping Jesus with palm branches in John 12:13.]
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Read more in Peter’s devotional Bible study, A New Heaven and a New Earth: 40 Practical Insights from John’s Book of Revelation.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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