I remember a friend of mine suggesting that a waiting till after your death to give people you love something you want them to have is not the best way. If you wait till they get it from your will, in many cases, they must pay an inheritance tax on it. Besides, you don't get to express your esteem in person. He said, it's better to give it to them while you're still alive. The gesture is much more personal and the gift is not tainted with grief.
Scholars of the Kings of Judah and Israel struggled for a long time to add up the years. The Bible was clear about how long kings reigned and when certain things happened, but the numbers did not add up. The numbers indicated a much longer time.
Until one man looked at the culture and figured out that the kings did not wait till their death to pass on the throne. As a king got older, his son would begin reigning along side ... they call this a co-regency. This is well illustrated by the work on the Temple between David and Solomon. As David aged, Solomon took more and more responsibility, though David did not step down. David gathered materials, but it was Solomon who ultimately built the Temple. It was a joint plan.
This paints a picture for what is happening in Revelation 5. God is not stepping down from the Throne, not even close, but His Son is stepping up to rule by His side.
The scroll
Ancient books were written on scrolls. The longest were about the length of Genesis or Exodus, written on one side. Any longer and the stress of it's own weight would tear the papyrus, so very long books were divided into multiple scrolls. Only private documents were written on both sides and sealed.
In John's time, a seal, say on a will or a deed, was meant to be opened only by the witness who sealed it. A Roman will was sealed by 6 witnesses, so it could be opened only if the 6 seal holders were there.
This scroll is the testament of God ... the deed of ownership for His Kingdom. When this document is opened, the great plan of God will come to fulfillment and the purpose of creation will be fully revealed. It contains judgement, but also reward. As the seals are opened, momentous things will happen, but they cannot happen if the document remains closed.
When we read the events associated with the opening of the seals, we shudder, they are cosmic and catastrophic. And though it is true that terrible things will happen, when all is said and done, the establishment of the Kingdom of God will reach its ultimate fullness. We may find the path to that establishment frightful, but it is God's faithful and righteous path and it is our ultimate hope.
This is why John wept. In these days of persecution, John is exiled to this wilderness island for his faith. He longs to worship God in peace. All his companions in Christ have been murdered for their ministries. He longs for the torture to be over. He knew Jesus, but he has said and done much on faith and he longs for a day when faith will be vindicated.
Today, Christian men, women and children in Sudan are sold into slavery. Some buy the slaves and free them, but they are only kidnaped and sold again. In China, North Korea and Mongolia some Christians are tracked like criminals and imprisoned for practicing faith outside the limitations of government regulation. Even in Vietnam a person must be a part of the regulated church or be harassed. A few militant Muslim countries will not allow Christianity to be practiced at all, on pain of death.
Even in this country, we shake our heads at the law which does not allow the ten commandments to be posted in a courtroom, all the while also knowing the basis for that law is an Anabaptist idea that allows us to worship freely, keeping government interference out of the church, not forcing us to have a flag in our sanctuary. Some delight in the eviction of faith from the public arena, others try to live within the law and find ways to incorporate their faith. Ultimately, only God knows which is which. The trade-off gives us freedom, but it also limits us and we hope for a day, some day, when the Kingdom will reach fulfillment and no artificial boundary will separate Church from State, because the State will be God's kingdom.
When will God's people be so enamored with Him that the paltry happiness of this life will hold no power over our longing for the eternal and overwhelming joy
• of being in His presence
• experiencing the immediacy of His will
• enjoying the fullness of His kingdom?
When we have reached for a vision of God's love and goodness that extends beyond our mortal grasp, we may find a day when, like John, we weep to see it happen. I do not like the song that talks about people being so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. We cannot be too heavenly minded. The more heavenly minded we are the more earthly good we will be, because the more we will grasp the value of God's compassion and find our will aligning with His. Our retreats into the spiritual are meant to draw our hearts away from this corrupt, fallen life and look forward to the ultimate salvation of eternal life with Him. We value His will above all else. We begin to take in the paradox:
The lion who is a lamb
When John weeps, one of the elders comforts him. I am taken by the paradox. If the elders are the 12 apostles and representatives of the 12 tribes of Jacob, is John also one of the elders? Does he recognize the elder who quiets his grief? He points out a lion is stepping up to take the scroll.
Why a lion? It is a reference to the prophecy of Jacob himself:
You are a lion's cub, Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness--who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations be his. (Genesis 49:9-10 TNIV)
In Judah was the seed for incredible power and greatness. Of course, on one level, this prophecy was fulfilled with David who was an incredible national leader. However, in this Lion who is approaching the throne of the LORD is also of the tribe of Judah, of the line of David ... a king above all kings.
However, when John looks up, he sees not a lion, but a lamb; a very unusual lamb. In the vernacular of apocalyptic literature, John describes what he sees in symbolically charged terms. He has seven horns and seven eyes. Just like the seven lamps before the throne, the center of the Lamb's kingdom is described in His appearance. The Churches Revelation is addressed to are symbolized in this reference to 7: those 7 centers of the work of the Holy Spirit in the world through His people.
What is more, this Lamb is fatally wounded. Later, the nature of His wounds is clarified. The injuries that brought on His death were the price paid to redeem people from all over the world for God's kingdom.
This lion ... this lamb is Jesus Himself. Jesus who embodied both power and humility and commanded His followers to do the same:
... whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:44-45 TNIV)
As John looked up and saw the lion who is a lamb he would also have been reminded of John the Baptist who identified Jesus with the sacrificial lambs at the Temple. But this lamb was more than a temporary covering for the sins of a few:
John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29 TNIV)
This lamb was slain as a sacrifice for every tribe, language, people and nation. The days before Easter, especially Good Friday, commemorate Jesus' suffering.
• The betrayal of those He loved
• The condemnation of those entrusted to lead the people in their spiritual and civil lives
• The physical abuse of those with physical power but no reason to torture
• The nailing of His hands and feet to rough wood, and his hanging to suffocate in the heat of the sun
• The mockery of those who heard Him teach and saw Him heal
• Seeing the grief of those who loved and followed Him
The wounds of the Lamb were more than physical, they were emotional, spiritual, and social. And because of that, His embracing of death ransomed the life of all who would come to Him. This son of Judah's influence goes beyond the nation of Judah and its immediate surroundings and extends to the ends of the earth.
• He is worthy
• He steps up
• He takes the scroll of the LORD
And the room is taken with music:
The songs
At this stage the lion who is a lamb becomes very passive. He does not immediately start opening seals and unrolling the scroll to read it and release the will and the kingdom of God into existence. Instead He calmly stands beside the LORD of all the universe while everyone else recognizes who He is and what is happening.
These recognitions take the form of three songs sung by three groups. They are poetic descriptions of what each of those groups experience in the Lamb who receives the scroll. They expand and build on each other, spreading outward like ripples on a pond, like sound from a drum, like light in the morning.
The first group: the creatures and the elders
As Jesus steps up to the right hand of the LORD, he receives the scroll, and immediately everyone in the immediate vicinity bows down to Him. These elders are the entourage of God. These creatures are those whose sole existence is to announce the praises of the LORD, the King who sits on the throne. The very act of them bowing before the Lamb identifies Him as much, much more than a hero about to do what nobody else could do. He is a person who is what no other person could be ... the equal to the LORD Himself.
In their song, the central symbol of the worthiness of the Lamb is His redemptive death. He made the way possible for the peoples of the world to enter the Kingdom. He did more than make His followers subjects, He endowed them with power and with spiritual significance, so the testament and deed to the kingdom contained in the scroll are His by right.
The Lamb is worthy in His past deeds
The second group: the citizens of Heaven
As the elders sound the harps in their hands, the song spreads out from the immediate area of the throne room of God. It echoes and vibrates into the expanses of the heavenly realm where all the angels live and do the LORD's bidding. All the angels sing.
How many angels? All of them. If you were ever wondering how many angels there are, this is their exact number:
thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand
In other words: tens of millions
John was not trying to give an accurate count. He was describing what he saw and heard. What he saw was a crowd that must have looked like the entire population of this country gathered into the space of a single gaze. What he heard must have been the voices of the largest choir imaginable, all singing the praises of the Lamb who stood at the right hand of the LORD with the scroll in His hand.
Their song is one of reward. The first song spoke of what the Lamb did. The second song speaks of what the Host of Heaven is giving Him now as a result:
• power
• and wealth
• and wisdom
• and strength
• and honor
• and glory
• and praise!" (Revelation 5:12 TNIV)
Think of this like a commencement on a cosmic scale. The graduate represents three things:
• the past (all the study and hard work she has invested)
• the present (the diploma and honors she receives at his graduation)
• the future (the potential prosperity and success represented by the past achievements and the present recognition)
This song, sung by the millions of angels of heaven represents that second recognition. But the Lamb does not hold a graduation diploma, but the Will of the LORD, the deed to the Kingdom.
The Lamb is worthy of present glory
The third group: all creation
As the song grows and spreads, it reaches out to the corners of all creation.
• Everyone in heaven
• Everyone alive on earth
• Not just those in one place, but those in the farthest reaches of the sea
• Not just people, but the creatures of the heavens the earth and even the fish
• Everyone dead and "under the earth" in Hell itself
Every voice ever made by the Creator of the Universe sings the praises of the Lamb. They also expand their song to sing praises to the One who sits on the throne. Just as the worship of the creatures and the elders declare the unified equality of the King and the Lamb, the voices of all creation and all history raise to praise their unified identity.
Also, just as the first song was about Jesus' past accomplishments, and the second song was about His present recognition, the third song is about His future. All creation offers praise not just at the moment, but for ever and ever.
Imagine what John is trying to describe: the building of music and sound to a crescendo of song that includes every voice ever conceived. It is a music of praise that cannot be surpassed, cannot even be imagined. It is as if John were saying, not only could the world not contain the books written about Him, the air could not contain the songs He deserves.
This is the high point of the scene. Nothing else can be sung or said. All that can be spoken has been spoken. Now the creatures simply affirm it:
Amen — It is true — So be it
and the elders wordlessly bow down and worship.
This chapter embodies the scandal of Christ
Most other religions could tolerate the Christian faith if it were not for the ideas insisted upon in this chapter. The one God on the throne in Chapter 4 is palatable to many who are not Christians, even affirmed. But Jesus the Messiah, lamb of God — equal with God, worshiped as God by all creation, and the only one worthy of the place, not so much. Others who worship One God do not recognize this additional facet of God. Those who worship multiple gods cannot accept His exclusive place.
But this is the one we serve. This is the One who receives our willing praise as we sing.
Accustom yourself in your prayers to this declaration:
• I have faith the LORD God
• I have faith the LORD Jesus Christ
In both cases, the word LORD indicates the identity of the one we serve. He is one with the Father. Those who saw Him, saw the Father.
He alone is worthy of the claim
The Lamb who was slain
Is the Lion who will reign
