Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, dear ones.
Becki agreed to join me in about 15 minutes to do another walk/jog excursion. It’s still rather dark out there at present. At least it’s dry with a clear sky…and frosty.
Is something wrong with me? I think Max may have wondered this morning from his bed in the studio. I not only read Revelation 5 out loud—I shouted it—especially as the drama built. Then when I printed out a hard copy of this devotional to present to Becki along with her morning tea, I had her read it out loud. Oh my! Whatever is wrong with me kind of went wrong with her too—and she started shouting. Whew! Quite honestly, I quite like the fact that we’re both messed up!
Here goes another day. May yours be blessed (and messed up).
Love, Dad/Ray.
There sure is a lot of singing and praising going on in this chapter. Three songs by three different groups are recorded. I don’t know if the first song causes the second song, and the second causes the third, but there is definitely a succession with expanding volume and intensity that reaches a mind-boggling crescendo in the third. (1) The first song is presented by a comparatively small group of 24 elders, all playing heavenly guitars (harps) around the throne of God. I sure wish I could buy one of their CDs. (2) The second song engages a huge number of angels. They are described as “thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand,” all encircling the throne. Just for the fun of it, I punched 3,000 into my calculator to represent the “thousands upon thousands,” then multiplied that by 10,000, and again by 10,000, making the angel choir to be roughly 300 billion. That’s BIG! Talk about a musical extravaganza! But wait—there’s more! (3) The last song is bigger yet—engaging ALL CREATURES EVERYWHERE IN ALL TIME. Awesome! As I consider the scope and magnitude of this dramatic finale, the words of Paul in Philippians 2:9-11 come to mind: “Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and every tongue confess (and sing) that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
So what’s the cause for all this singing and praising? I can only assume that these beings are experiencing a spontaneous combustion of divine revelation—making them to see and know more fully what we only see and know in part. They all recognize the marvelous master plan of the Almighty that focuses on humans and their gracious redemption from sin and destruction by the substitutionary death and shed blood of the Lamb.
The last verse of the chapter reads: “The four living creatures said, ‘Amen,’ and the elders fell down and worshiped” (v.14). Question: Who could possibly witness this scene and just passively sit there?