Judgments From Heaven Rev, 15:1-8
Revelation 15 · Vern Peterman · Jul 28, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 40
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262245383870

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. As we continue through our study of the book of Revelation, there's a couple of things that I thought would be good to kind of lay out. One is we're proceeding, as you well know, verse by verse. We're explaining one verse at a time, and the intent here is that once we're through with this, if somebody comes up to you and they're wondering, well, what does this mean? You can sit down and just open the pages, and for the next four weeks, you'll just explain to them in detail. what all these words mean, right? Beyond that, it's certainly our hope, you know, as we're going through here, that more than just, okay, I got all the charts down and the Greek words just right, it is certainly our hope and intent that this is an assistant to you in every way, and you're growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, okay? So let's turn to the Lord's passage here. First, I want to answer a couple of questions that came up last week, and you know how I love those questions. You know, those are dear. So, all right.

So, question one is in Revelation 14.20. How about the blood of the horse's bridles and that blood being a distance of 200 miles? Is that literal, figurative, what? Okay? Good question, isn't it? Okay? What's that talking about? Okay.

Now, we have actually some good indicators from the text itself, and so I want us to take a look at that, because this has, I think, a pretty definitive answer, one that we can stand on. So let's take a gander here. First thing is, remember we showed this picture, and this is kind of a drawing, if you will, of what a wine press would have looked like in those days.

Because the end of chapter 14 talks about this wine press, and it makes Numerous references that clearly tie that passage to Joel chapter 3 and So one of the things we want to note this word winepress shows up twice here in John's reference here and So he lays it out So the angel swung his sickle to the earth. This is verse 19 and swung a sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for a distance of two hundred miles." Or it'll have it in stadia measures in some of your translations.

But notice that John's twice referring to this winepress here. You notice how this winepress was constructed. They typically would not have have this such that you could even get the juice up to your armpits or a horse's bridle or any kind of similar height. It was lower and the idea is that you would get the juice coming out before the juice came anywhere near that height.

One of the other things that we know is that, and I have a reference here, Genesis 49.11 actually makes use of that terminology that shows that this juice coming out of the grape is described as the blood of the grapes. a number of the varieties of grapes, not all of them by any means, but a number of them actually have a very strong red color and actually looks like blood there as the grapes are being stomped to get the juice pressed out of it. The other thing that becomes clear is that the language in Revelation 14 here at the end is they're actually throwing the clusters of grapes into this wine press. This is not gentle treatment. This is not the usual treatment, frankly. but they're casting them in, using that word ballo, which is where we get our word ball, and they're throwing the grapes into the wine press, okay, where this wine press is a picture of God's judgment.

And that splattering, you know, with their stomping of the grapes would sometimes splash the juice up higher. And so that was fairly typical with a strong colored juice, to have that splattering going up to a level about the horse's bridles, okay? Now, here's an interesting passage that comes out of Isaiah, and this is a passage about the Lord's wrath, and this is Isaiah 63, 1 through 3, and one of the same things that we see coming out of here is here is this expression of the Lord treading the winepress, and that splattering of the garments stains the garments up to a high level, again, up to about the level of the horse's bridles.

There's one other thing, and so we also see not only from here, but also just the topography of Israel, the idea of having fluid flow up to the level of a horse's bridles for 200 miles is kind of hydraulically impossible. So this is an indication, it just means blood is being splattered, that it's an extensive splattering.

This is a picture from the wine press, not the intent that you'd have some distance of 200 miles, where blood is actually of a liquid height up to this 200 mile distance. See the difference there? It's a splattering with the idea that this tromping of the grapes in the wine press is intense, but not an indication that for 200 miles you have a liquid level of blood. See the difference there? And the wine press comparison that he makes fits perfectly well as well as this passage here in Isaiah 63 It's not intended to mean just fluid flow like a big vat, but just the splattering goes on up that high.

Something else to take a look at, right at the end of that verse, we have this expression of, you know, 200 miles or 1600 stadia in some translations. And this line that you see here, this red line, that's 200 miles long. And very interesting, there are three areas that are described as being part of the judgment of these these nations that come against Israel, those areas on the north are Armageddon, right up here. At the south are around Basra, and at Jerusalem in between. And so if you put those three areas together and draw a scale of miles between them, what do you have? About 200 miles.

Okay? So we'll go into that in more detail as we study this and look at the specific battles that are involved. But in terms of the mathematics, it all works out. Exactly. Okay. It fits the picture. And so if we get the specifics as we will in weeks to come, we'll see that that 200 mile distance is not just some sort of a far-flung guesstimate, but that it fits exactly what the Bible describes is going to take place. We'll see that in more detail later. Oh, one more point.

Can't leave that, right? Some people I've heard say, well, hey, horses, bridles, they're not going to be taking horses to fight some battle against the Jews. Well, maybe not. It's possible that John is using a figure of speech that in today's modern terms we'd have to translate. Could be.

But before we jump to that conclusion, here is a picture released by the U.S. Department of Defense from the war over in Afghanistan. Those are U.S. soldiers in circles. What are they on? Horses. Sorry that it isn't more clear, but perhaps the U.S. Department of Defense intended it that way.

Anyway, we want to make sure that our interpretation doesn't either lock in on a technology that's currently what we see and say that's it. We also don't want to exclude some technology. Just frankly, we need to let scripture say what it says and where we are not able to nail it in on a technology to leave it be and just let scripture say what it says and let it stand there. Make sense? Okay. Now, that's the first question. Next question.

Can we know for sure about every detail in the Book of Revelation before the Tribulation period actually begins? Someone asked that question. Or will some things have to wait for those who will go through it to be certain about the fulfillment? Now, there are some things that are spelled out in Revelation about which we can be certain in advance, and that's why we're studying it. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any point, would there? While that's true, there are also things that even though we have the ability to interpret, there are things that will wait for that particular time before we can be specific. There are some things that will simply wait until the time when it comes to pass before we can nail it down.

For example, I don't think that we can say at this point in time in history exactly who the Antichrist is. I've heard people make all kinds of guesses. It's going to be one of those things where people are going to guess all over the place and it's probably speculation at best. But those people living through the Tribulation who are reading God's Word will have no question about what it is, about who the identity of the Antichrist is. It will become very clear. The same thing here, I don't believe we can really nail down who the two witnesses are. We don't have enough information. But those living through the tribulation period will have no doubt about who those two witnesses are. See that?

So there are some things that we'll simply have to wait until that time, and for those things, we can go as far as the scripture lays it out, but we will just simply have to say, We won't be here on planet Earth during that period of time, and we have to leave that level of unknown and uncertainty for those who live during that time to apply. They will be able to spell it out specifically. Okay, now, as we go into the chapter 15, just to kind of keep the big picture in front of us, this was a chart that I started off with some months back. We started in the middle of September last year.

Just to keep in mind that the book of Revelation passes between heaven and earth, back and forth. This syncopation back and forth, it confuses some people. But if we just remember that what John is trying to do is he's saying, here's what's happening on earth, but don't forget, all this has a heavenly source and a heavenly significance. And so this syncopation, this going back and forth between heaven and earth, goes on through the book. It's not to confuse us, it's simply John's giving different scenes.

It's an earthly scene and a heavenly scene, an earthly scene and a heavenly scene. And what these red arrows are telling us today, we're going entirely, in chapter 15, the shortest chapter in the whole book, we're going entirely to a heavenly scene. This will describe things taking place in heaven, and the entire chapter stays in the heavenly scene, okay?

Another thing to point out before we move on, you could call this chapter the Of God chapter. And the reason is, here you have eight verses, and there are five places where it has something of God. And what do I mean by that? The first verse, for example, talks about the wrath of God. The next verse talks about the harps of God, etc., on down to verse 8, where it talks about the glory of God. And before you write too much, remember this little code here that tells you it's on your handout, okay? Then, as we go through this, we look at that. Our position in Christ is of God, too, isn't it? It's of God. Let's read verse 1.

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. Now, in going through this, you read another, and you thought, that must be the Greek word allos, and it means another of the same kind. If that's what you thought, you're right. Very good. Now, this is the third and final sign in heaven that we're going to read about here in the book of Revelation. The first two were given in chapter 12. Now we are in chapter 15, and so he brings up this sign, but he adds some description to it.

He says it is massive and marvelous or wondrous. It's of a nature as to stimulate wonder. This is an incredible sign, he's saying. Before you saw some signs, this is an incredible sign. You might use in today's vernacular the word awesome. This is an awesome sign. This sign consists of seven angels.

These are the ones who have the seven last plagues. These plagues are mentioned again in chapters 15, 16, 17, and 21. So these are not going to be a let go here just because they're mentioned here. These last plagues, I'll just quickly list them here.

We'll be proceeding into them next week in more detail. But this is just to give us a general idea of what these are. They're listed in order, just with a brief description for now. But we need to understand ahead of time that they are going to be devastating beyond imagination.

We brought up the fact not too long ago that the trumpet judgments, the second series of judgments, frequently use this fraction, one-third. These judgments do not. These are global. These are massive in scope, okay? These judgments that are about to come upon the earth.

Now, I've heard some say that the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven bowls all happen at the same time, that they're really describing the same thing. And I think there's some reasons why we need to dismiss that. One is 15.1, it says that these seven plagues are the last. So it implies a sequence.

We'll read it again in Revelation 21.9. It says the seven plagues are the last. I think they're the last. This is never said of the seven seals or the seven trumpets. Further, the seven trumpets are just begun by the opening of the seventh seal. So there's a sequence implied there. You don't get to have the seven trumpets until that seventh seal comes about. So there's a definite laying out of sequence that takes place from one to the next. It isn't right to just chop it and make them all parallel.

Now, this is a good place to pause for just a little bit as we go in here and try to get some nuggets, if you will, out of the Greek text. First one is this word, it's finished or filled up or fulfilled, you'll see it in verses 1 and 8. In the Greek word there is teleo, it means brought to completion. That's the idea. In other words, bring it to a point of completion. That'll be the first thing. These seven last plagues, in these the wrath of God is finished, is brought to completion. It's completed, made to come to an end, done.

Now, the next word is typically translated, something like, or as it were. And this word shows up again in verse 2. It is very commonly found in the book of Revelation. Why? It's used to compare something that is unknown and unfamiliar by means of something that is familiar. So John will say, something like. As it were, he will use that phrase, and this is no different. It's the Greek word hos. The next one, we have an English word stan, which shows up in verse 2, which we're going to see here shortly. The Greek word behind that is histemi.

It means to be established or to set in place. And in verse 2, it's in the perfect tense. And remember the perfect tense, and here it's a passive voice, but the perfect tense means that it's a completed action with ongoing results into the future. The fact that it's a passive tense means that the establishing was done to them, it wasn't their establishing, okay? So they were made to stand by God. It was God's doing, God's accomplishment that made them stand there.

Okay, so let's take a look at what verse 2 describes for us. I saw something like a sea of glass, something like being a comparison, right? I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who had been victorious over the beast in his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God."

Then John said, and he saw, which he said before, right? He said, I saw. He said that dozens of times, but we need to keep hold of the idea. John says, I saw, because of this fact. He is a witness from the very start he used legal terminology at the very beginning of this book to spell out that he was stating this as Legally valid Testimony as fact this is what he saw he's saying it not just as a sort of a general You know that's kind of what I had in mind, but he's saying it as personal testimony. This is in fact truth Okay now John uses this Greek word, you know, Hoss, a number of times, and so he's making this comparison.

He says, what I saw was like a sea of glass mixed with fire, mingled. Okay? We've talked about the sea of glass before, and I'm sure you remember that, right? John mentioned that sea of glass back in Revelation 4.6. So, When you look at it back there, he mentioned it being like crystal.

Remember, as we talked about it then, glass in those days was not clear like we have the ability to make today. They didn't have clear panes of glass that you could look through. The glass was smaller panes, the glass tended to be more bubbly and rippled on the surface, and it tended frequently to not be clear but more milky or colored. So that's why John used the comparison before, like crystal, so we get this idea of smoothness, because that was the only way he could convey, here's this idea of smoothness. So when we think of glass, we automatically think of that. He had to clarify it, okay? Here it is mixed with fire, which is conveying, here's judgment that's involved, okay? Now, notice something here.

The ones who are martyred out of the tribulation period are called victorious. And that should bring a very important point home to our hearts and our minds. From the standpoint of the world, think about the world's position on this. From the standpoint of the world, they just killed one of these believers. So from the world's standpoint, who won? From the world's standpoint, the world just won. We got rid of them. We nailed them. They're gone. The world thinks they won. What does God call it? God calls it victory. How about that? God calls it a spiritual victory.

And I think that's something for us to take a look at. What we frequently, as human beings, from a human perspective, might be inclined to call defeat, God doesn't. God's perspective on what constitutes victory may be very different from what this world calls victory. That's an important insight, isn't it? Because we may at a point in time get discouraged. We may at a point in time say, boy, I sure lost out on that one. But it may be like this, very valuable to ask the question, what's God calling victory here? Should I get discouraged about this? Or is in fact God had a victory here, and I'm not recognizing it as that? See the difference? This is God's perspective on the loss of life of these martyrs.

He calls it victory. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, 57, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And they were talking about a guy who had been left for dead and beaten and had gone through all kinds of difficulties. And what does he say? Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The beast and the image and the mark and the number of his name, these will take the Saints out of the earth, and God calls that victory.

Now let's take a look at some more insights coming out of the Greek text there. The English word in verse 2 is translated victory over or victorious over. This is translated from the Greek nekaoek. Literally, these words mean victory from. The word ek is actually from is the typical and literal sense. In verse 2, this preposition ek is repeated with the definite article in front of each noun. And actually, the King James does the repetition but calls it over when the actual Greek is really communicating this as a from in front of each one. I mean, it's like emphasis. It comes across real strongly.

And what we see here is there's this victory from the beast and from his image, okay? These have victory from the tribulation by being taken out from it, that is, in the midst of it. This contrasts to church-age believers who are kept from, different verb, kept from the hour of testing. You see that difference there? I could put it in a diagram this way.

For church-age believers, our hope is to look at the rapture for both those, by the way, who have died in the Lord, as well as those who live when the rapture takes place. Scripture points out that the rapture, then, is this hope that we're looking forward to, and this tereo-ek, to keep out from that hour of trial that's coming upon the whole world. The word here, nekao-ek, victory from, from in the midst of. What do they do? They are martyred and taken out by martyrdom. different situation. So church-age saints are in a different situation from the tribulation saints.

There's a couple other passages there you can take a look at to make the comparison. Last thing about that verse, and I do this by way of remembrance, is just what a harp looked like in those days, because he makes mention of this harps of God. And we've seen this picture before, but just kind of keep it in our minds what that looks like.

Now, verse 3. Verse 3 tells us this, And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty, righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Now, you notice here, John refers to two songs. First one is the Song of Moses, and the second one he refers to is the Song of the Lamb. Now these aren't just one song with two names intermingled. It's actually two separate songs. Each has the word song separately, and the definite article is in front of each one. So it identifies those as separate. The Song of Moses is clearly laid out in scripture, but it's not repeated here, perhaps because of its length. That's in Deuteronomy 32, 1 through 43. It basically consumes the chapter, Deuteronomy 32.

This is a song which glorifies God. It's a song which also speaks of the Lord's deliverance of the Jews from the hand of Pharaoh and how the Lord provided for them after that. It tells of all that God has done. It glorifies the Lord. The Song of the Lamb, on the other hand, is given here in Revelation, so we're seeing at least a portion of it, and that's what we read here in the rest of verses 3 and 4. The Song of the Lamb is not about our position in Christ as church-age believers, because these martyred saints are not church-age believers. Different deal. They are tribulation saints coming out from, they're coming out from a time which anticipates the earthly reign of the Messiah.

See that? It's anticipating the earthly reign of the Messiah. That's why it says, all nations shall come and worship before thee. That's the character of the millennium, the earthly reign of the Messiah. Why these two songs? Why have a song of Moses and a song of the Lamb? Why bring it up? Why now? What's the importance of these? Well, let's take a look here.

The song of Moses praises God for delivering Israel from certain destruction by Pharaoh just before Israel went into the Promised Land. The Song of the Lamb praises the Lamb for His soon beginning to reign over the earth from Israel, having, just like in the previous, delivered Israel from Israel's enemies. Remember how the Song of Moses talks about Israel being delivered from Pharaoh. Here's the Song of the Lamb. Again, Israel is delivered from enemies right during this last half of the tribulation period.

So there is a parallel between the two. In both cases, Israel is either entering or in the land. In both cases, there is a deliverance from the enemy that's either taken place, in the case of the Song of Moses, or is going to take place, or in the process of taking place, with the Song of the Lamb. You see that? So that's why these two are different, but have a parallel.

There is a deliverance and a praising the Lord for that delivery and what He has done, and what is going to take place in this case of the Song of the Lamb during this millennial period. Let's look at verse 5 and verse 6. After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened. And the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. So John is giving a sequence here. He's following the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. John is next seeing this scene in Revelation 5-8. The next part of the sequence.

We've read about the heavenly temple before, this temple in heaven. Revelation 11-19 is where we also saw the temple being opened. We read about angels coming out of this heavenly temple in chapter 14. So we've read about this before. And just by way of remembrance, and this is a picture you've seen before, this is kind of an angular view looking down on a model of the earthly temple as it was constructed during the time of Christ.

And this would be the general temple area. This would be the holy place, and it would have the very holiest activities that would be going on, and the priests would be involved in that, and once a year there would be in the very most holy area called the Holy of Holies, there would be an entrance of the priest there. This area, not the major temple area, but this area is called the Na'as Temple. And that's the word John uses here repeatedly. He uses it four times in four verses. And this is this holy temple area, this part of the temple that is most holy.

Now what about this tabernacle of testimony? What's that all about? What's that worth? The entire temple and the earlier tabernacle and its ceremonies and sacrifices were a testimony and a witness to the grace of the plan of God and Jesus Christ the Savior. All of it, all of the temple, was centered around being a witness to what God had in mind through Jesus Christ. And everything that they did in the temple was in foreview of what God was going to do through Jesus.

Now, when he talks about a tabernacle of testimony, that word testimony is really witness. It's saying, this is the character of God, this is what God has done, this is what God is doing. Symbols that was present there in this now off this Special temple area and we've looked at this before this was the Ark of the Covenant memory We talked about it before and they made movies of it and you know got all carried away with this movie And one of the things that's kind of interesting was talking last night about it. Even this is not just a box full of Jewish memorabilia, okay This isn't just a sort of a hope chest, okay, and It's got things in it that are a testimony to God's character, to His faithfulness, to His grace, to His holiness. So even the things that were in this temple were testimony, were witness. So that's why this is a tabernacle of testimony. And this is just one example.

We could spend all day on it, but we better not, right? Right? Okay, just checking. Don't let me go. Anyway, here we go. Now, so as we see here, this is a place that speaks of God's character. This is a place that speaks of what God has done and testifies to His faithfulness to carry out what He has promised He is going to do. Make sense? So this is a tabernacle, a dwelling place that has in everything that is in it, in everything that is done in it, witness or testimony about God. The whole temple speaks of it, and especially this naos, this holy place in the temple.

Let's look at verse 7. Oh, before we go there, one more thing. I almost skipped it. Terrible. One of the things to take note of, when we were looking back before, We talked about the temple being opened, the heavenly temple. Think about this. Here on earth, when Jesus Christ came the first time, do you remember when he was crucified, do you remember what happened to the temple in Jerusalem, to the curtain? The temple curtain was torn, and by the way, that curtain was several inches thick. We're talking not something that a couple priests could yank on and split in two. The curtain was torn.

The earthly temple was opened because all of a sudden you had, because of Christ's death, it meant access. It meant the outpouring of God's grace. We're about to see something different here. This is not the outpouring of God's grace. This works the other way. The heavenly temple, not the earthly temple, the heavenly temple is opened and what pours out?

Wrath. And the wrath is because they have rejected what God did the first time. Christ in the first coming opened that temple curtain for the purpose that grace might be shown and there might be access to the presence of God. Now, because of the absolute and abject rejection of that grace that's been offered, now the temple opening means something entirely different. See that?

Now we can read verse 7. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. We've seen these four living creatures before, and they are often, but not always, described as being with the 24 elders. Both these living creatures and the elders are often described as worshipping the Lord together, and we saw a lot of that in chapters 4 and 5 as we went through it. But it continues on in other chapters, too. But there is a contrast, and here's where the contrast shows up. Even though we see them frequently worshipping the Lord together, here, the 24 elders are not involved in bringing about the judgments upon the earth, but here we see the four living creatures, who are angelic beings, directly involved in bringing the judgment upon the earth. You see that out of here? They are the ones that present the golden bowls full of wrath. So the four living creatures are involved, the elders are not. Now scripture doesn't say why these 24 elders are not involved in delivering wrath upon the earth. It doesn't spell it out.

But let me ask you this, does it make sense to think that there's a reason for that, maybe a couple of them, that 24 elders being the glorified church are described, every time we read of them, as being focused on the Lord Jesus Christ. They are constantly focused on the Lord, so focused that we don't see them involved in carrying out these judgments. The flip side of that coin, the other side of the coin, is that, is it possible that the Lord said, no, I'm not going to have them involved, because then they would be involved directly in the judgments coming upon people, maybe even whom they knew. And the Lord, in His graciousness, says, no, I won't do that. I won't have them involved with that. Scripture doesn't spell that out specifically, so that's something that's kind of an observation that's interesting. We'll have to leave it to the Lord for the full answer to that question. Now, verse 8.

And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Now, this idea of the temple in heaven being filled with smoke is kind of intriguing, isn't it? I mean, it's kind of amazing.

But because when we think of the glory of the Lord, because it explicitly mentions the glory of the Lord here, when we think of the glory of the Lord, we typically think of brightness, radiance, that that somehow comes to mind. Here's something different, though. And let's let's take a look at it. Notice. We've got some other passages and they show up up to this point in the Old Testament that talk about the smoke or cloud in the tabernacle or the temple. And so these passages here, Scoot that over a tad. There we go. These passages here give indication of the same kind of thing in the earthly temple, or the tabernacle. And notice this quote from 2 Chronicles.

Then the house, the house of the Lord, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled the house of God. Okay, this was on the earthly temple. So here now you see a description of what takes place on earth.

Now we see in Revelation this heavenly parallel. We see a similar description in the heavenly temple in Isaiah 6-4. So this isn't the unique passage that refers to it. It's very similar in that sense to the Isaiah 6-4 passage. Now, notice the bottom line is, what's supposed to go on in the temple is there's supposed to be priests doing things in there, right? That's the Jewish context, is priests do things in there. And even what we have read so far in Revelation, we see angels that have been given assignment to do things in there. And yet, what do we find here?

This smoke, this cloud is so intense, so pervasive, it can't even go in there. It just takes over. Notice, here's the priests. They have assignments. God's given them the assignments, and yet they can't even carry it out because the smoke here is so intense. It's so all-consuming that they can't even go in and do the things that are their duty. It's kind of amazing, isn't it?

Now, is it also amazing that Paul writes twice in 1 Corinthians that church-age believers are God's temple right here and now. Right now, we're God's temple. That shows up in 1 Corinthians 3.16 and 17, and 1 Corinthians 6.19. And if you look at those passages, here's what comes out. Paul exhorts in each case to recognize that we, believers, are his temple. We are his dwelling place, and he even underscores that point.

Could it be that His glory in us is such that He desires that there be room for no other? Could it be that His glory, which He is so marvelously sharing with those who believe, overwhelms any other presence, any other duty, any other activity, any other apparent priority? Isn't that amazing to think about? The Lord has marvelously and awesomely and unfathomably designed things such that we as church-age believers in beholding Him would share His glory. And here is this amazing insight coming out of this Revelation passage, that that glory totally takes over to the point that nothing else can even occupy or go about in that temple.

I think that's something to take a look at here. As we look at this passage, it's more than just something happening in heaven that's somehow distant and far removed. I think it's an intentional picture. The glory of God is not an incidental. It's not a me-too kind of thing. Do you see that? God intends for it to be all-encompassing, pervasive, dominant. Let's pray. Lord, we do give you thanks that as we look at this heavenly scene, indeed, it shows your sovereign. Indeed, it reveals your character at a great many points. It shows your love for us. And Lord, as the final of God, it's the glory of God.

And Lord, that is what you have designed that you would share with us, which is beyond our ability to fathom, and yet you've clearly stated that that's the way it is. And Lord, we ask that you would teach us what that means in our own hearts and lives, in practical terms, that nothing else would displace it, that nothing else would crowd it out or say, me as well, but your glory might dominate and predominate and consume all. I just pray that you would teach us now and teach us this day and this week. In Jesus' name, Amen.