by Beth Moore
Money. The Laodiceans had it. They were in the lap of luxury and didn't think they had a care in the world. Little did they know that Christ was walking among their lampstands.
The last portion of Psalm 62:10 speaks a good word to the Laodiceans and us. "Though your riches increase, / do not set your heart on them." I live in a city that never expected to be known for the collapse of one of the biggest financial empires in America. We learned the sobering lesson that billions of dollars can be lost as instantly as hundreds. We cannot set our hearts securely on riches no matter how vast.
In Matthew 13:22 Christ addressed another wealth-related issue readily recognizable in Laodicea. He told of the person who received the Word then allowed "the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth" to choke the fruitfulness out of it.
Beloved, wealth by itself is not the issue. We serve a God of infinite wealth who can distribute the riches of the world any way He sees fit. Our troubled world certainly needs resources in the hands of wise people.
The problem is the deceitfulness of wealth. Two of my precious friends have not been deceived by wealth. Frankly, I never knew they were wealthy until someone told me. I've served in the same church with them for several decades and have never met less pretentious, more generous people. They are constantly involved in inner-city and foreign missions.
I'm convinced their only attitude toward their resources is that of stewards over a trust. While others in their position might have locked themselves behind gates and pretended much of the world wasn't starving to death, they threw themselves right in the middle of it. The Laodicean church could have used my friends! This wealthy church somehow didn't grasp the principle in Luke 12:48: "Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required" (KJV).
3. This brings us to our final point: The Laodicean church was self-deceived. Their worth was so ingrained in their wealth that they honestly saw themselves as utterly independent. We "do not need a thing." Famous last words. Beloved, I'm not sure any of us get away with "not needing a thing" for long. Certainly the kinds and intensities of our needs differ from season to season, but I don't expect God to risk our growing an independent spirit through sustained sufficiency. Of course, I don't know this for a fact because I can't remember having one.
The older I get and the more my eyes open to the facts of life and ministry, the more my list of needs exceeds my list of wants. For instance, I need to have an active, effervescent daily relationship with Jesus Christ or I'm sunk. I need my husband's blessing. I need my coworkers. I need my church family. I need a friend I can trust. These are just a few necessities of life to me right now.
You see, one reason we readily give (through lives that matter) is because we, too, need. Taking stock of both our contributions and our needs helps guard us against self-deception. Sadly, the Laodiceans had needs, too. They just didn't recognize them.
Christ had a stunning response to the Laodicean deception. "You say, `I am rich' ... But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17). One of my worst nightmares is to think I'm rich when Christ knows I'm poor and my estimation of myself is higher than His. Notice how Christ's address to Smyrna stands in stark contrast to Laodicea's: "I know your afflictions and your poverty-yet you are rich!" (Rev. 2:9).
How grateful I am that Christ had a remedy for the Laodiceans! Their self-deceived indifference had not deemed them castaways. Christ wrote the Laodiceans a three-part prescription. His first prescription was gold refined in fire. Peter gives us a clear idea of what Christ meant. Peter wrote of "your faith-of greater worth than gold" (1 Pet. 1:6-7).
Christ's second prescription to Loadicea was "white clothes to wear." The black wool fabric for which Laodicea was famous was the fashion rage all over that part of the world. He suggested they trade their fashions for purity. Ouch.
Jesus' final prescription was salve to put on their eyes. Remember my telling you the Laodiceans could boast almost anything? Not only was the city a marketing center and financial capital, it also housed a well-known medical center. Ever the marketers, they were best known for Phrygian powder that was used to make salve for eye conditions. All the while, they were blind as bats and poor as beggars. I've been both.
One thing I've learned about God is that He is faithful in every way. He is faithful to forgive, redeem, bless, and provide. He is also faithful to chastise when His child won't readily turn from sin. Yes, the Laodiceans had a prescription, but Christ had no intention of letting them wait a month of Sundays to get it filled without consequences.
My head is spinning from all we've learned through our tour of the seven churches. I wish I could hear what truths most stand out to you. I offer mine in closing: Christ has invested everything on earth in His church. He willingly fills her, frees her, purifies her, and restores her, but He never takes His eyes off of her. Lives are at stake. Church matters. Bride, snake yourself ready.
Chapter 44
THE THRONE ROOM
Day and night they never stop saying:
`Holy, holy holy
is the Lord God Almighty,
who was, and is, and is to come." (Revelation 4.8)
Next we get to approach the very throne of God through the vision extended to John in the fourth chapter of Revelation. If we had any idea who and what we approach when we go to the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16) through prayer and communion with God, our lives would change dramatically. I am convinced we would fall on our faces far more often, and we'd pray with far more substance and certainty.
As you and I prepare to read Revelation's description of the throne room of God, please keep in mind that John related the completely unfamiliar through the familiar. Imagine escorting an Indian who had never ventured farther than the most primitive part of the Amazon to tour state-of-the-art technology at NASA. When he returned to his fellow tribesmen, how would he describe jets or rockets? He'd probably have to begin his illustration by using birds as an example and try to stretch their imagination from there. Likewise, throughout much of Revelation, John employed known concepts to express images beyond our understanding.
Christ's revelation to John shifts dramatically as chapter 4 unfolds. In chapters 2 and 3, the earth-focused spotlight of the Spirit cut through religious appearances, revealing the best and the worst about the seven churches in Asia Minor. In Revelation 4, the spotlight swung back to the origin of all illumination as Christ summoned John heavenward in Spirit to behold the divine.
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, "Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this." At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne. (Rev. 4:1-3)
Heaven was awhirl with activity, yet all attention centered on an occupied throne. God jealously guarded His majestic transcendence by an absence of detailed description. John simply describes the splendor of the One seated on the throne like brilliant gems.
The jasper known to John's world can be pictured something like a diamond in ours. I wonder if John saw something like light reflecting in spectacular displays off the prisms of a diamond-like object. The carnelian stone was a blood-red form of quartz that could symbolize access to the throne the one and only way: through the shed blood of Christ. The emerald green of the encircling rainbow could easily symbolize God's eternal covenant with those who receive His life. When the scales of humanity peel away from our eyes and we behold heaven, I believe we will see colors as never before. Perhaps only the crystal sea will be clear.
"Before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal" (v. 6). Oh, how I praise God for the crystal sea! Micah asks the kind of questions that come to mind with this scene.
Who is a God like you,
/> who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. (Mic. 7:18-19)
The throne of God is beyond anything we can imagine, yet Hebrews 4:14-16 tells us that because of our great High Priest, Jesus, we can approach it with confidence. God wants us to "receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need" (v. 16).
First John 1:8 tells us none is without sin but because Christ became our atoning sacrifice, we need never fear approaching God with our confessions. In the imagery of the throne room, I like to imagine God the Father catching those confessions in the palm of His mighty hand and casting them into the sea. What sea? Perhaps the one most conveniently located right in front of His throne. No matter how many confessions are made, this sea is never muddied by our sins. Rather, as God casts them into the sea, I like to imagine our sins instantly bleached into utter nonexistence, swallowed in the depths of crystal-clear waters.
Are you a deep-sea fisherman? Are you tempted by guilt, condemnation, and unbelief to dredge up old sins and agonize over them? Satan constantly volunteers to be our fishing guide and provides a handy lure to cause us to doubt God's forgiveness. How successful has he been with you?
I certainly have done some deep-sea fishing in my lifetime. What a waste of time and energy! If we're fishing in the right sea, our line will always come up bare. Anything we think we're seeing on the end of that line is a vain imagination. We won't even catch an old boot. Let's consider giving the enemy one instead.
Scripture includes several visions of God's throne room in beautiful consistency. One appears in Isaiah 6:1-5 and another in Ezekiel 1:22-28. What relief to know the throne is never depicted without Someone sitting on it! God never vacates His throne. He is never off duty. His sovereignty is never usurped. He is unceasingly praised. The three-fold acclamation of God's holiness or perfect "Otherness" significantly occurs only in the visions of the throne room.
Exodus 26:33 distinguishes between the Holy Place
and the Most Holy Place
in the Old Testament tabernacle. The Holy Place
was the room where the priests ministered before the Lord on a daily basis. It was the location of the table of shewbread, the lamps, and the altar of incense. Behind the veil was the Most Holy Place
, which the high priest entered only once a year and with fear and trembling. The Presence of God dwelled between the cherubim on the atonement cover of the ark in the Most Holy Place
.
The original rendering of the term Most Holy Place
actually repeats the original word for "holy' for emphasis. The original wording for the Holy Place
could be translated "the Holy' and the Most Holy Place
, "the Holy Holy."
Scripture characterizes some things as holy, others as holy holy and yet another as holy holy holy. I wonder if the following explanation could be plausible: the places where God's people serve and minister before their God might biblically be characterized as once holy. In other words, as saints, we are set apart in our service to Him as holy, but an even holier interaction exists. The places God agrees to meet with His people on earth through reverence and genuine worship might be characterized as twice holy. True worship is the most holy experience we can have on this earth. But one day, when our feet leave their last prints in this soil and we approach God in His glorious heavenly abode, we will stand before the three-times holy. We will join the seraphim who cry, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty!" The word seraph means "to burn." Surely the closer we come to God's true Presence, the more we will burn with passion!
Perhaps like me you often look for the distinctions or contrasting inseparabilities of the Holy Trinity. Let's discuss what part of the Godhead may be depicted on the throne in these three revelations in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Revelation.
Before you immediately assume God the Father as the occupant of the throne or no distinction at all, please read Revelation 5:6.
Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. (Rev. 5:6)
I don't believe the revelator meant us to picture Christ standing up on a chair. Our familiarity with a throne is entirely related to a piece of furniture. Though God is most assuredly sitting in an actual seat of authority, the word throne seems to encompass the center from which He presides with all authority. I am very intrigued that Ezekiel's vision describes "a figure like that of a man" (1:26) upon the throne, and, according to John 12:41, Isaiah saw Jesus' glory when he beheld the vision in Isaiah 6.
Ordinarily the man-like descriptions in the Godhead are attributed by most scholars to Christ. According to comparisons of Daniel 7 and Revelation 5, both the Father and the Son inhabit the throne room. Could it be that in the Old Testament God wanted most to reveal Christ and in the New Testament Christ wanted most to reveal God? I think it's quite possible and very like each of them to shed light on the other.
Return your focus to Revelation 4. Beloved, the fixed point in John's vision is the same immutable point in the entire universe. The center of all existence is God upon His throne. John had the hair-raising, perspective-changing opportunity to do something all of us secretly wish we could do. For a little while recorded in Revelation 4 and onward, he got to see life from heaven's perspective. In his description, he implied something tremendously profound: everything else in existence is most accurately described only in its relationship to the throne of God.
Before we discuss our nearsighted vision (2 Pet. 1:9), never lose sight of the fact that God looked upon His prize creation and liked us very much. Look carefully at Revelation 4:11, which clearly states that God created us by His will.
You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created and have their being.
God's thelema ("will") is an expression or inclination of pleasure; a want or desire that pleases and creates joy.' In other words, He created us because it pleased Him. Our attitudes and actions don't always please Him, but creating us, loving us, and redeeming us give Him great joy.
Much of humanity's trouble stems from our naturally insatiable self-centeredness. We often see ourselves as the center of the universe and tend to describe all other components in reference to us rather than God. The human psyche almost invariably processes incoming information in relationship to its own ego. For example, if the news forecasts an economic slump, the natural hearer automatically processes what it could mean to self.
While this response is natural, in perpetual practice this self-absorption is miserable. In some ways our egocentrism is a secret lust for omnipotence. We want to be our own god and have all power.
Our first reaction might be to deny we've ever had a desire to be God, but how often do we take immediate responsibility for handling most of the problems in our midst? How often do we try changing the people we know and feeding our control addiction with the drug of manipulation? Simply put, we try to play God, and frankly, it's exhausting.
No wonder God never sleeps, nor does He slumber (Ps. 121:3)! Those of us who are redeemed are also given what 1 Corinthians 2:16 calls the "mind of Christ." Life takes on a far more accurate estimation and perspective when we learn to view it increasingly through the vantage point of the One who spoke it into existence.
Think of some of your greatest challenges. Picture them. Then go back and stamp the words "before the throne" before each of those challenges.
The heart of prayer is moving those very ki
nds of challenges from the insecurities and uncertainties of earth to the throne of God. Only then can they be viewed with dependable accuracy and boundless hope. Close your eyes and do your best to picture the glorious seraphim never ceasing to cry, "Holy, holy, holy!" Imagine the lightning emitting from the throne, and hear the rumblings and the thunder. Picture the elders overwhelmed by God's worthiness, casting their crowns before the throne.
I ask you the following question under my own tremendous personal conviction: Do we think God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, can manage our lives and our problems? Oh, beloved, fight the good fight of faith! Approach the throne of grace with confidence! Our God is huge.
Chapter 45
THE LAMB
I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy…..
Then I saw a Lamb.... (Revelation 5:4, 6)
I want to cry with John, and we haven't even begun the lesson. Oh, how I long for the day when we will sit at the feet of the true Rabboni and hear Him expound upon His own Word, just like the two on the road to Emmaus. "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27).
I cannot help but weep! If we could only grasp the perfections of Scripture, holding up the Word like a large, brilliant diamond. Only in the spray of colors cast by the prisms of the old covenant can we tilt the diamond to see the new. The Bible is a divine masterpiece, dear student! A progressive unveiling of marveling mystery and astounding consistency. Find a good seat in the auditorium. Our study takes us before a stage where the most profoundly consistent concept in Scripture is fully unveiled.