Why, then, is God’s continued preservation of “all things” in creation mentioned before his act of first beginning to create them, since the reverse order would be more logical? It is done as it is to emphasize preservation because the pastoral intention throughout the book is to encourage God’s people to recognize that everything that happens to them throughout history is part of God’s creation purposes. The hymn from Dan. 4:35–37 is alluded to because it emphasizes not merely God’s sovereignty over creation but that all things have been created to serve his purposes and especially that he unswervingly accomplishes his will through all history without any possibility of being thwarted in the process. His people must trust in this fact so that, even when they experience suffering, they can rest assured that it has a redemptive purpose and is in accordance with his will. But how does God carry out his plan on behalf of his people? Ch. 5 explains how: through Christ’s death and resurrection and that Spirit which God gives to his followers.
Encouraging God's People
Why, then, is God’s continued preservation of “all things” in creation mentioned before his act of first beginning to create them, since the reverse order would be more logical? It is done as it is to emphasize preservation because the pastoral intention throughout the book is to encourage God’s people to recognize that everything that happens to them throughout history is part of God’s creation purposes. The hymn from Dan. 4:35–37 is alluded to because it emphasizes not merely God’s sovereignty over creation but that all things have been created to serve his purposes and especially that he unswervingly accomplishes his will through all history without any possibility of being thwarted in the process. His people must trust in this fact so that, even when they experience suffering, they can rest assured that it has a redemptive purpose and is in accordance with his will. But how does God carry out his plan on behalf of his people? Ch. 5 explains how: through Christ’s death and resurrection and that Spirit which God gives to his followers.
G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 1999), 335–336.