8:3
The primary focus here, and in the whole of the book of Revelation, is the centrality of the glory of God and of the Lamb. However, that is not all that is important. Here we see emphasis on the prayers of the saints. When we are under extreme pressure our prayers can seem incredibly weak and insignificant. How can my pathetic prayers do anything? Well we see here that our prayers do do something. Our prayers are offered up “on the golden altar in front of the throne”.
8:4
The incense and prayers go together, and they go up before God. God hears our prayers and our prayers influences what happens. This is not a matter of “changing God’s mind”. God is sovereign, but our prayers have effect. We might not be able to work out how our prayers can be influential and God be absolutely sovereign, but we should not lean on our own understanding. God does not have a problem with this, so neither should we! We should just pray, because we have been commanded to pray, and encouraged to pray.
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