Come Up Hither

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” – (Revelation 4:1)

Let’s compare the Scripture above with two others:

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” – (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” – (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)

I do not think that there can be any doubt that Revelation 4:1 is a wonderful picture of what is known as the rapture, which is actually the “catching away” or raising and resurrecting of all believers on the earth. In Revelation chapters two and three we have the seven letters to the churches in Asia Minor. Once we get to chapter four, there is no longer references to churches, because all of the believers of the Church Age have been removed from the earth and are now in Heaven. The focus in the Book of Revelation from chapter four on is the Nation of Israel. At this point in the prophecy, God is now turning His attention back on the nation of Israel and will remove their blindness, because “the fullness of the Gentiles” has come in. (Romans 11:25)

I look forward to the day when the Lord will come and take me home to Heaven, and I believe that day will be very soon. However, I am not just waiting for the rapture, I am “occupying” till He comes for me. God wants us to stay busy for Him right up until He returns for us. I want live my life today with the sense of urgency that His return is imminent, yet I must be working and planning and building as if the day of His appearing is yet many years away. Peter tells us that the reason He hasn’t come for us already is because that He is long-suffering, “not willing that any should perish”. There are still a lot of folks who need to be saved, and it is our job to reach them before it is too late. Paul said that he desired to be in Heaven with the Lord because it was “far better”; but he also said that it was needful to remain on the earth until he had finished the work that the Lord had for him to do.

I can’t wait to get to Heaven, but there is still a lot of work to do here on the earth. Let’s get busy. Maybe if we will finally get serious about the commission the Lord gave us, He will take us home sooner.