HIM THAT SAT ON THE THRONE

For a book so full of action, there is a great deal of sitting in the Revelation! Of these twenty-seven instances, five speak of warrior angels sitting on horses, chapters 6 and 9. Three times it is Christ riding forth to war on His white charger, 19.11,19, 21, portraying the swift execution of justice.

After a long wait that elicits the cry, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?’, 6.10, heaven’s armies are deployed to bring judgment to a planet whose ground, soaked with the blood of martyrs, cries for vengeance: ‘From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias’, Luke 11. 51. But earth is stained with blood ‘that speaketh better things than that of Abel’, Heb. 12. 24, a murder for which the power brokers of Babylon have never repented. God will not hold them guiltless.

Three references are to twenty-four elders on thrones, representing the whole priestly house, 4. 4; 11. 16; 20. 4. They would seem to represent all the saints because they sing a song whose lyrics are recorded: ‘Thou art worthy ... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth’, 5. 9-10. How amazing that Christian shopkeepers and taxi drivers will soon be wearing crowns and sitting on thrones, governing the universe with God! See also 3. 21.

In three remarkable verses, 14. 14, 15, 16, the Son sits on a cloud representing the ‘wrath of God’ that ‘abides’ over the head of the unrepentant, John 3. 36. No elders sit there - only the Creator ‘who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind’, Ps. 104.3. The scene describes His cloudburst of judgment.

The other citations of sitting, except wicked ones to be deposed, 17. 3; 18. 7; 19. 18, refer to the Lord on His royal throne and on His judgment seat. How majestic He is! How well He bears the glory! Earth’s kings stand agape. All creatures bow. Men lifted Him up on a cross but God lifted Him up to a throne. Long live the King!