5. And one from among the Elders said to me “Don’t Cry. Look, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome to open the book and loose its seven seals.
And I saw in the middle of the throne, and the four Lives and in the middle of the Elders, a Lamb standing as it had been killed, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth.
And He came and took out of the hand of the one sitting on the throne
And when He received the book, the four Lives and the twenty-four Elders fell down before the face of the Lamb, each having a Kithara (Harp) and gold bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And singing a new song saying
“Holy is the One who has received the Book and is worthy to open its seals, that was slain and purchased to God through his blood out of all nations and languages and people and ethnicities,
and has made them to God a Kingdom of priests and they shall rule (do their king thing) on the earth. Revelation 5:5-10
v 5 see Rev. 22:16. in Genesis 49:9 we see Judah, the tribe from which Jesus was born, is the Lion of the tribes. Jesus is the prophesied Root of Jesse, spoken of in 2 Samuel 7:4-17.
v 6 This Lion who now appears as the Lamb is the center of everything in heaven (Genesis 22:8; John 1:29, 36; Rev. 7:17; 14:10, 15:3, 19:9, 21:22, 23; 22:1, 3). When Jesus entered heaven He apparently took the wounds of the price of redemption into glory. After the resurrection, his disciples didn’t even recognize Him, possibly because of these scars (Luke 24:13-32; John 20:11-16, 25-29; 21:11-14. Horns are a symbol of power and kingship (Psalm 75:10; Daniel 7:7-8, 20-24; 8:3-7, 20). Seven is the number, again, of perfection, or completion. For the Seven spirits see 1:4.
v 7 This scene is similar to several in the OT & NT. Deuteronomy 33:2; Ps. 144:11; Lam. 2:3; Matt. 25:34.
v 8 Yes, it looks like we’ll have harps with which to worship the Lord in heaven (2 Sam 6:5; 1 Chron. 15:16, 28, 25:1-6; 2 Chron 5:12; Neh 12:27; Rev 14:12, 15:2). Incense appears many times in Scripture, usually associated with prayer (Exodus 30:1-10; Lev 16:12; 2 Chron 26:16-18; Luke 1:5-23; Rev. 8:3-6; Psalm 141:2; Matt 6:10-11.
v 9 Why does the earth need to be redeemed? The earth belongs to God (Exo. 9:29; Deut. 10:14; Ps. 24:1) and was given to man to care for and rule over (Gen. 1:27-29; Psalm 8, etc.). But. . . Luke 4:5-8 shows us that to Satan now belong all the glory and power of all the kingdoms of the world. Apparently as sin entered the world, Satan took control (history, and many current events, seem to demonstrate the truth of this). Satan, also known as Lucifer, and by many other titles, was cast down from heaven because of his rebellion, but has set up his own kingdom among men on earth (Ezekiel 28:11-19; Is. 14:4-23). We are in dire need of a Jubilee from the tyrant’s ownership of the earth. We need a redeemer to return the earth to its rightful owner (Job 19:25-27; Ruth, Lev. 25:9-13), and to again rule over every nation (Dan 3:29; Acts 2:1-11; 10:24-35; Rev 14:6).
This concept of redemption is tied up in the jubilee law. God established that the land would continue as an inheritance to the family to which it was given (Josh 12-23). The rule was that if land was sold in difficult financial times it was to be returned to the original owner in the year of Jubilee. The Jubilee year came every 50 years. So if you bought land in Israel, it was really a lease, with a maximum of 49-year duration, with no option to buy. The closer the jubilee, the less the land cost. If a property was to be handed to another family member, or if it was “sold” (leased) to pay a debt, a redemption price was to be paid by the “kinsman redeemer” (Ruth 3). Jesus is that Kinsman Redeemer. He paid the price for this earth about two thousand years ago.
Why is blood the price? The debt that put the whole earth in hawk is sin (Rom. 5:12-19; 6:16). The covering, or atonement, or price for sin is death (Gen. 3:21-24; Rom. 6:23).
Love Song for the Redeemer
Have you ever sung a love song?
Okay, everyone has sung a love song, even if you’re simply singing along with a song playing on some broadcast or podcast or telecast or live performance. I mean have you every REALLY sung a love song? Have you sung a song to you beloved because you were so in love that the only way you could express yourself was to sing? There are some emotions that are simply expressed and communicated most effectively through song. The same parts of the brain are stimulated by the sound of a sigh, or a baby’s cry, or a well-trained voice with a spinning vibrato. The limbic system, and all the systems connected to it, is stimulated, bypassing some of the more critical and analytical portions of our reasoning, but also invigorating them. We feel through music, and that stimulates our thinking. It seems in heaven we will still have this instinct. We will have some emotions too deep to simply state with words. We’ll have to break into song.
Have you ever been loved, I mean really loved, by someone you loved in return, by someone who was willing to leave everything and do anything in order to show his or her devotion? Jesus has loved each of us, and all of us, that way. He showed His love by leaving heaven to be among us, walk in our dirty streets, and die on our filthy cross. Who has paid that kind of price for you? Maybe nobody but Jesus. The benefits to us of His sacrifice will continue into eternity, where even in heaven the very real option of our destruction was contemplated.
We live in interesting times, and the possibility of the end of humanity looms large on the near horizon (I’ve made a list of 7 disturbing world trends if you’d like to follow that here: https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-unchanging-gospel-in-a-changing-world-ken-henson-sermon-on-224962?ref=SermonSerps ). The Bible teaches that Satan comes for nothing but to steal, kill and destroy. He has taken this world captive since the Fall, and his final goal is to see our annihilation. This was what the Elders and Living Creatures were considering-the idea that the world was sold into slavery and death, and no one was worthy to take the inheritance away from Satan and restore the earth to its rightful Owner. But Jesus was worthy. And He was worthy because He paid the purchase price of the earth with His own sinless blood.
The Elders and the Living Ones were inspired. They took a collective breath and sang out a song that must have moved the whole court of heaven.
CS Lewis described the creation of Narnia with a song. And in that description he implies a similar event took place at the creation of our universe.
THE Lion was pacing to and fro about that empty land and singing his new song. It was softer and more lilting than the song by which he had called up the stars and the sun; a gentle, rippling music. And as he walked and sang the valley grew green with grass. It spread out from the Lion like a pool. It ran up the sides of the little hills like a wave. In a few minutes it was creeping up the lower slopes of the distant mountains, making that young world every moment softer.
Lewis invests about five pages describing the song, and ends with this
Many animals sat up on their hind legs. Most put their heads on one side as if they were trying very hard to understand. The Lion opened his mouth, but no sound came from it; he was breathing out, a long, warm breath; it seemed to sway all the beasts as the wind sways a line of trees. Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky which hid them the stars sang again; a pure, cold, difficult music. Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children's bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying:
"Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters."
With this, Lewis agrees with the testimony of Scripture. As God said to Job
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?
Tell me, if you understand.
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy? Job 38:4-8
Now, in heaven, at the possibility of an eternal work of redemption for all of humanity, the heavenly host sings. And that brings us back to where we began.
The host of heaven in the presence of God seems like an extended love affair between the Lord of all Creation and His creatures, Him loving us, and we loving Him. But unlike earthly love where, people argue, being in love can only last a few years at best, after which we settle into a more subdued endurance of the beloved, we are capable of being completely in love for eternity. I believe the in-love experience is a taste, a foretaste, of what we were designed for in heaven. We experience the brief earthly ecstasy of love so that we are drawn to the eternal exuberance of enjoying God’s presence forever.
When was the last time you sang a love song to our LORD?
Prayer for Today
Father,
You are my prayer. You are my song. You are the air that I breathe, and my inspiration. You breathed life into Adam, you continue to breathe life into me, and to all those on this faithless planet.
Open our eyes to see You. Lift up our hearts to praise You.
Open our ears to hear You.
Transform our lives to glorify You.
In the name of the One who inspires every true love song, Jesus
Amen.
