“Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. “And the four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!’” Revelation 4:6-8.

The above has been included for context; this post will examine Revelation 4:8b-11. Revelation 4:8 is also shown in its entirety in the preceding passage.

“And they do not rest day or night, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8b.

“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty! Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee …Holy, Holy, Holy, All the saints adore thee, casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee …Holy, Holy, Holy, tho’ the dark-ness hide Thee, tho’ the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see.”
“Holy, Holy, Holy” by Reginald Heber (1783-1826), composer, John B. Dykes (1823-1876).

The closest the dictionary comes to describing the word holy in reference to God is, inspiring fear, awe; as to the holiness of men the meaning is one of, saintly; godly; pious; devout.

None of this even touches the meaning of God’s holiness since no man has been in His presence and seen it in its unfiltered glory; yet those who have had a glimpse were changed for life. Isaiah upon seeing God on the throne could only say the following.

“…Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5.

And Job after hearing God speak from within a whirlwind could only say the following words.

“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6.

If you read the accounts of Jobs righteousness, you will see what a holy man he was, Job chapters 29 and 31. One would only hope to be able to say such things of themselves, he was a great man, and this was his downfall.

In time Job began to believe that his own righteousness commended him to God. Job had begun his walk well enough with God through faith in God’s imputed righteousness and not his own.

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…” Romans 4:3-5.

If it could only be understood by all, God is so holy that it is impossible to please Him with your good works, or to put it this way, you cannot work your way to heaven.

“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.

Job had forgotten that his good works came out of his relationship with God, not out of his own nature.

Modern Christianity has fallen into an even greater trap than Job had; today we cannot even imagine what the characteristics of holiness are, filth of every sort, blasphemy, profanity, even sexually explicit profanity is so common today that we hardly notice it.

The church is of little help for it speaks of neither holiness nor hell, but rather to accept Jesus as your Savior have a good life and go to heaven.

Some Christians even live a careless Christian life because Jesus loves you, and anything they esteem as good is mistaken for holiness.

Try to imagine a holiness scale from zero to one thousand; where would you be on that scale, nine or ten? Where would the greatest evangelist be, thirty?

Angels have never sinned and have always been holy, so perhaps seven hundred? And God is holiest of all since He created everything, so He has to be one thousand on the scale!

But there are several things wrong with the scale, most important of which is that for God there is no top end, the scale goes to infinity, God is infinitely holy.

As for you, me and the evangelist we do not register on the scale since we had no holiness to begin with; our holiness was lost at the fall with Adam and Eve.

You cannot get the toothpaste back in the tube it was lost. Only God, through the shed blood of Christ can impute holiness to us and that will only be fully realized in heaven.

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation if Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16.

God’s holiness is so pure and sinless that the mind cannot grasp it; it is one of absolute and infinite purity and moral perfection. This holiness is such an integral part of God’s personality that it, quite naturally, affects all of His works.

Just as an artist, poet or musician can be recognized by their work without a signature, so God’s holiness is part of His creation.

“God is holy and He has made holiness the moral condition necessary to the health of His universe. Sin’s temporary presence in the world only accents this. Whatever is holy is healthy; evil is a moral sickness that must end ultimately in death. The formation of the language itself suggests this, the English word holy deriving from the Anglo-Saxon halig, hal, meaning, ‘well, whole.’”
A.W. Tozer, “The Knowledge of the Holy” (this is an excellent book).

The mind reels to think that the seraphim in Revelation 4:6-8 who are possibly the same ones mentioned in Isaiah 6:1-8, even after about 2700 years still fall before Him and cry out “Holy, holy, holy!”

What so captivates them that they still cannot remain silent?

“Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!” Revelation 4:8b.

The “Lord God Almighty”:

“He who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.” 1 Timothy 6:15b-16.

“Who was”:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.

“And is”:

“…for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me…” Isaiah 46:9b.

“And is to come”:

“And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.’” Acts 1:10-11.

“Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying: ‘You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.’” Revelation 4:9-11.

At this point a very realistic question may be coming up in your mind; we are going to do this forever?

We imagine ourselves in this heavenly throng worshipping God; several hours later you look at your watch and think, how long is this going to go on?

Obviously, it is time to start thinking outside the box; think back to what was or is to you the most beautiful natural sight you have ever seen; God created that.

Was the sight or sound (smell?) for that matter, full of bright colors/tones that overwhelmed the senses with their beauty? Why should we suddenly think that God painted heaven with drab gray tones?

Truly this sort of thinking comes from the devil. He knows you have never seen the place, so why not make you think it is a place where people float around on clouds and play harps. All the while we would be looking down on some austere, boring God? That would be my idea of hell.

To begin with, God created us to be His companions. This being the case, it would follow that He would have created us with a need for Him, just as He has created us to be His sons and daughters, which is His true desire.

Since the majority of us have never experienced a perfect mutual love in a perfect relationship; that is to say that on some occasions our companion will disappoint us, as we will them, we cannot conceive a perfect relationship.

Here is something that may come close to illustrating what it would be like to be in the very presence of God.

You may remember a time when you were young and had one of those warm and fuzzy dreams about some boy or girl you had a crush on in school. This is not about an x-rated dream, but rather innocent holding of hands or kissing, even just sitting together.

Too soon you were awakened and the moment was ripped away; yet for hours or perhaps a day you walked around on a pink cloud desiring only to relive the moment.

What if being in the presence of God, in the midst of continual worship and ethereal music is a reality of the warm and fuzzy, would you be looking at your watch?

“Therefore my Heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Sheol [the abode of the dead], nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption [Christ rose from the dead]. You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:9-11.

“You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Revelation 4:11.

This last verse is very powerful and comes from the heart; something that does not often happen while we are here on earth, but then to see the majesty of God in heaven will rip the words from our souls.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:1-3.

There is coming a day when “we shall see Him as He is”, and we will realize how pitifully small our worship has been and we will call out, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power”.

There will also be the stunning realization that we are actually standing in the presence of the creator of the cosmos and that our very existence is by His will; there will indeed be the true worship of God the Father and our precious Savior Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” Romans 5:1.

Revelation 4:8b-11 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-26-16, updated on 6-12-22.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.