God, Not Caesar, is Lord

Worship is a central theme not only in chapters 4 and 5, but throughout Revelation. Accompanying and interpreting God’s triumphs, scenes of heavenly worship break out repeatedly at critical junctures in the remainder of the book (e.g., Rev 7:11-17; 11:16-18; 15:3-4; 19:1-8). For the churches of Roman Asia, worship is both a political and a religious act. The worship of the one true God in heaven is set in sharp conflict with the idolatrous worship of the beast on earth (Rev 13:4, 8, 12, 15; 14:9, 11; 16:2; 19:20), which is embodied for John’s Asian readers by the pervasive imperial cult. When the community sings Revelation’s songs of worship it declares that God, not Caesar, is Lord. The beast’s throne may appear to be mighty and eternal, but it cannot survive; it is but a whimpering parody of God the Almighty’s sovereign rule. This is a note that John’s readers, whether threatened by Roman power or tempted through their own compromise to honor the beast, need to hear like a trumpet’s blare. —Dean Flemming, Contextualization in the New Testament, 278