Worship the God Revealed in the Four Living Creatures

When I was a teenager, the film Finding Nemo came out, and the whole family went to see it, and my grandad said, “you’re going to see the film that’s set in an aquarium”. Now, if you’ve seen Finding Nemo you’ll know that it does include an aquarium, but that the majority of the film is set in the southern ocean and that the aquarium is only a small part of what’s on display in that film—namely the vast aquatic cosmos that is the Great Barrier Reef.

And in the same way as the temptation might be to look at the aquarium in Finding Nemo and focus just on that, then in Revelation 4, the temptation may be to look at the four living creatures and be so amazed by them in and of themselves that we forget the God who created them. Don’t do that!

Revelation 4, middle of verse 6: ‘on each side of the throne, four living creatures.’

So, it is not just the Holy Spirit who works for God, but the Holy Spirit employs workers—angels—and they include four living creatures in particular. Living creatures who we’ve met before in the Bible. End of verse 6— ‘They’re full of eyes, in front and behind,’ which represents the omniscience of God, which is brought about by this means—of these creatures who serve him—elsewhere called cherubim.

Listen to how they’re described…

Verse 7: ‘the first living creature like a lion’. That represents power in God’s work.

Verse 7 again ‘the second living creature like an ox’. That represents industriousness in God’s work.

Verse 7— ‘the third living creature with the face of a man’, now this face is important because it reflects who they serve—something of who God is, is reflected in these creatures.  

And then—verse 7 one more time—the fourth living creature ‘like an eagle in flight’ —that proves that there is swiftness an liberty in what they do for God.

But there is more to their appearance in verse 8: ‘the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, full of eyes all round and within, day and night they never cease to say: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’’

They serve the one who is represented on that throne who we’ve already met, but they also serve the one is one who is to be mentioned in the following chapter… the Lion-Lamb, Jesus.

But before thinking about him specifically, do not miss this—verse 9-10— ‘whenever the living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne.’

So, this is heavenly reality: the Father and the Son are being praised, glorified, and honoured, and presented with thanks by the four living creatures, by the whole of the church in every age. And this honour that they are given is never taken for themselves, but their crowns are cast before them—their crowns are worthless compared to the privilege of knowing this God…

Verse 11: ‘Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’

Remember, in the same way as the temptation might be to look at the aquarium in Finding Nemo and focus just on that, then in Revelation 4, the temptation may be to look at the four living creatures and be so amazed by them in and of themselves that we forget the God who created them. Don’t do that!

But the purpose of the living creatures is to work for God, and the reason we’re being shown them is not so that we can be amazed by them, but rather that we can be amazed by the God who made them, and what is revealed about him in the way he has made them and what they do for him.

So do appreciate the power of God, the industriousness of God, the character of God, the freedom and liberty in all that God does, represented in these powerful, majestic creatures who serve him—his mercy and his omnipotence, praise and the glory in the worship that they give.