Lesson 26: An Awe-filled Worship

Revelation 11:15-19
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.”
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,
17 saying, “We give thanks to You, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for You have taken Your great power and begun to reign.
18 The nations raged, but Your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding Your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant was seen within His temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

One of the great lessons to us from these verses is that worship of God is not now, nor will it ever be, conditional on circumstance. In chapters 8 and 9 we saw the first six trumpet judgments from God’s statement to Adam and Eve that sin results in death. Each of the trumpet-judgements we have seen so far have been Jesus lifting His hand of protection from this earth, and allowing the things people are wanting to have to happen! In Colossians 1:15-17 we read, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”


In the last statement of these verses – “in Him all things hold together” – we read a truth which many people do not want to understand. A simple science lesson tells us that an atom is made up of elements (electrons, protons and neutrons) that repel each other; they would rather not be together. So how is it that these basic elements of all that exists do not simply come apart? “In Him all things hold together!”

Recognizing this truth is the cause for worship of Him, and is exactly what we read in these verses. We who are with Him in Heaven when all these judgments take place fully understand Jesus’ perfect goodness, and that these terrible judgements are simply Him removing His hand of grace and mercy from the earth so that the consequences of humankind’s own will can be seen clearly. Do the people understand this? We will see the answer to this in a later lesson.

*How have you seen God’s judgment in your life, and how did it cause you to worship Him?