These are elders and therefore so creatures worthy of esteem. In fact, they are worthy of so much esteem that the Lord has placed them on thrones. Moreover, so esteemed are they that their thrones are positioned before God. Yet when they hear the heavenly declaration accompanying the seventh trumpet, they all fall off their glorious seats onto their faces to worship God. “On their faces” denotes a posture of humility as well as a willingness to serve their God and king. So great is this God that these twenty-four creatures know themselves to be as nothing, under his feet, ground upon which he could walk. If creatures of such esteem respond in this way to the declaration of heaven’s loud voices, how much more should creatures of earth respond in worshipful humility!
16 And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God,