And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. -- Revelation 5:11 (KJV)
The singing starts small. Four living creatures and twenty-four elders, harps and golden vials, a new song about a Lamb and His blood. Twenty-eight voices.
Then John hears the ring behind them. Many angels, round about the throne — and he gives up counting in the middle of his own sentence. Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands. That is a man reaching for the largest number his language holds and then piling more on top because the number will not stretch far enough.
The circle keeps widening. “Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them.” Under the earth is in that list. By the end of the sentence nothing is standing outside it.
Read that carefully, because it is easy to make it say more than it says. John is recording a confession, not counting the saved. The new song two verses back belongs to a narrower company, and it says so in its own words: it thanks the Lamb for a people bought with His blood. Only the bought can sing that line. Verse thirteen is wider than the song. Everything will give Him glory, and Scripture says so plainly. It does not say everything belongs to Him.
Which leaves the words, and the fact that yours are already spoken for. “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” You are going to say something along those lines. The only part still open is whether it comes out of you as a gift or as a verdict.
That is what an ordinary weekday is for. Nobody watching, nothing required, the day half done, and a man says it anyway — early, while saying it is still something he chose.
What has He heard from you lately that you were not asked to say?
