“Write the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this” (Rev 1:19). These were the Lord’s instructions to John in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In Revelation 7, John describes a great multitude, standing before the throne of God–so many that they cannot be numbered. Though they are from every nation, tribe, people-group, and language, they are crying out in a unified voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Rev 7:10)
Their robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb.
“Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.” (Rev 7:15)
To be sheltered is to be covered or protected. For millennia, human beings have worked to provide shelter for themselves with caves, branches, bricks, shingles, steel, and whatever else they believed could shield them from the elements and their enemies.
With that in mind, take the time to meditate on the precious truth revealed to John about the men and women who have “come out of the great tribulation” and have now been gathered–washed, sanctified, justified by the blood of Jesus–to their Creator.
He who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
To be sheltered for eternity with the presence of God himself… nothing on earth can even begin to compare!
But this precious revelation ought to prompt a serious realization in our hearts today: those who are sheltered by his presence in eternity will be those who yearned for, loved, sought, worshiped in, and disciplined themselves for the sake of his glorious presence during their brief time on this earth.
I cannot ignore him now and expect the shelter of his presence in eternity. In fact, we’ve already been warned that those who do not obey him “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thes 1:9).
So here’s the question for the day: when all other shelters have passed away–the people, the reputations, the companies, the bank accounts, the resources, the governments–and time is no more, what will be revealed about where my heart has been seeking shelter all along?