Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 4-8.
Yesterday I wrote that it is important that we pay attention to the symbolism in the Book of Revelation. Today, my first thought was, “Why are there 24 elders?” I tried to do an Internet search to see what others had thought and all I found were people discussing WHO those elders were. While I can understand some people wondering who they were, I don’t think that who they are is important (if it was, John would have given us more information about that). So, I then looked up what significance the number twenty-four has elsewhere in the Bible. I found that David had divided those responsible for music in the Temple into twenty-four divisions and that the priesthood had also been divided into twenty-four divisions. It also occurred to me that twenty-four is twice twelve. Twelve being the number of tribes of Israel and the number of Apostles whom Jesus called while He was on earth. Which leads me to conclude that the twenty-four elders appeared in this vision to remind us of the importance of worshiping God (the twenty-four divisions of musicians and twenty-four divisions of priests led the people of Israel in worship).
Then we have the scroll sealed with seven seals. Now seven is the number of divine perfection. Which explains why only the Lamb was worthy to open the scroll, because only the Lamb shared in divine perfection. Seven also carries the idea of completion. The Children of Israel marched around Jericho for six days, then on the seventh day they marched around Jericho seven times with priests blowing on seven trumpets. So, when the seventh seal was opened, revealing the completion of God’s plans for this world, seven trumpets were blown. When the seventh trumpet was blown it indicated the completion of God’s perfect plan (although we do not get to that point in today’s passage).
So, let us worship God as His perfect plan moves to its perfect completion.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.