What is worshipin Revelation?

By definition worship means to show reverence and adoration (in my case, to God). We go to worship when we attend services at our houses of worship, our churches, our synagogues, our temples, our mosques. We actively participate in worship through reading of the holy scripture, through prayer, through singing, through liturgy. We proudly declare what denomination or tradition we represent, and we say our worship is at whatever time it is on Sunday.

We are not the first ones to worship; there are examples of worship throughout the Bible. From the earliest mention of the act of worship in Genesis 22 (when Abraham walks with Isaac up the mountain after telling his servants they would be going up there to worship), all the way to the final book of the Bible (yes, Revelation references worship) worship is sprinkled all through the Holy Scriptures.

Have you ever really read Revelation as a book of worship? Revelation is typically pigeonholed into Apocalyptic literature, and thus it carries the weight of the eschatological passage describing “the end of the world as we know it” (thanks to REM for that 1987 song).  However, Revelation is so much more than just the end. Did you know that every time God or Jesus speaks in Revelation, worship breaks out?

Don’t believe me? Check it out for yourself. In Revelation 4, there are four living creatures and 24 elders who break out in worship. … Revelation 5 reveals Jesus (the Lamb) as he opens the scroll and all of creation join in worship to God and to the Lamb. Throughout Revelation, we find John, the angels and other heavenly beings all responding to divine pronouncements and actions through the act of worship.

It got me to thinking about how I respond to God in my own life.  

Do I break out in worship when I get an answer to prayer? When I see the “fingerprints” of God (for lack of a better way to describe God shaping someone or something) do I fall prostrate in humble adoration or throw my hands up in worship shouting hallelujah? How about when God’s answer is a resounding “No!” Do I worship when God says, “No?”  

I wish I could say that in all these ways I had chosen to respond through worship, but all too often I may mutter a halfhearted “thank you” or even express my frustration that the response I received is not the response I that I wanted. Looking back on how I have lived my life, I can honestly say that I have not fully lived my life as worship to God.

I invite you to re-read Revelation, and let God reveal this to you: our lives were and are intended to be lived in worship. The end times will come, when? Only God knows that. But in the meantime, perhaps we could try living into the scripture from Revelation 1:3, which says: “God blesses the one who reads the words of this prophecy to the church, and He blesses all who listen to its message and obey what it says, for the time is near.” (New Living Translation)