The Book, The Lion, The Lamb

The Book, The Lion, and The Lamb

By

Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.

OPENING: - Over the past few weeks, I have been teaching out of the Book of Revelation. I started with the Connection Between Genesis and Revelation, then I taught about Philadelphia the Raptured Church, followed by A Look into Heaven. Today I want to deal with The Book, the Lion and The Lamb. Chapter 5 is an awesome chapter because it ties the plan of God all together, we the church have been raptured as indicated by God saying to John Come up hither Revelation 4:1 we see the failure of mankind and realize the only hope we ever had, now we shall see what is to take place or the things to come.

PRAYER: -

SCRIPTURE: - Revelation 5

Verse #1: - “And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals”. We can’t go pass the 1st verse just yet because it is packed with vital information that pertains to the rest of the chapter. It opens with And I saw this is John describing what he sees and what we shall see once we are Raptured in the right hand of him that sat on the throne - This is God sitting on the throne in Heaven, remember in chapter 4 John saw God in all His glory on the throne, here He is holding in His Right Hand (Right Hand indicates Power & Authority) a Book (scroll). This book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. Now this is very significant because normally a scroll had writing on only one side. A scroll with writing on both sides pictures a complete message. The whole book (scroll) has writing on both sides. Therefore, God’s complete message is ready to be revealed.

Let me explain this book (scroll) because it is different than what we think of today. The ancient books or scrolls of Israel were sheepskin rolls that would be rolled to a certain point and then a seal would be placed on it, then it was rolled a littler further and another seal was placed on that portion and that would continue until it was complete with normally 6 seals and then 1 final seal over the entire scroll. When the 1st seal would be broken it would reveal a certain portion of the book and so on until the final seal would be broken and then the entire book would be unrolled and revealed.

In Ezekiel 2:9-10 we read that in Ezekiel’s vision he is given a scroll that has writing on both sides (within and without). Verse 10 ends with these words “written in it were lamentations, and mourning, and woe”. This is an indication of what is within this book here in Revelation 5. And it is sealed with seven seals. Seven is obviously very prominent in the book of Revelation, it is God’s number and speaks of perfect completion. The seven seals also would have been recognized by John's readers within the Roman world because it was the custom of the Romans to seal their wills seven times to prevent unauthorized entry.

Another interesting fact is Hebrew title deeds required a minimum of three witnesses and three separate seals, with more important transactions requiring more witnesses and seals so the seven seals show the importance of this book.

WATCH THIS: - Hebrew title deeds as well as title deeds today are very important. Anyone who has bought a house, or a piece of property is familiar with a title deed. Properly executed, a deed establishes legal ownership. In fact, the modern term “Title Company” commonly refers to a business that makes it their specialty to research, secure and officially record ownership titles. What is true in the modern world was equally true in the ancient world. Property laws in ancient law codes, like the Code of Hammurabi, describe accounts of sales, receipts, and deeds even to the point of authenticating the document through a notary. Even an ancient buyer had to be sure of the seller’s title!

In scripture, we encounter such a title deed in Jeremiah 32:6-16, when God instructed him to purchase a piece of property from his cousin Hanamel. The sealed title had to be preserved from any changes, to remain sacrosanct - regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered with. So, understanding that the book (scroll) with the seven seals is title deed to earth sealed with the perfect and complete number seven of seals that once broken will reveal the conditions for the rightful owner to take possession.

Another fascinating aspect of this book (scroll) with the seven seals is this scroll is what Daniel was told to seal up until the time of the end Daniel 12:4 & 9. Revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ in Daniel’s time it wasn’t time for Jesus to be revealed or what events will take place during the tribulation, so the book was closed and sealed until the end. Here in the end, John’s sees the book (scroll) that was sealed it was never revealed while Jesus was on earth, it was never revealed in any other scripture so up to this point we don’t know what Daniel’s vision and prophecy ends with, but here in Revelation it will soon be revealed.