Key Point
The ironic message of Revelation is that a slain Lamb defeats a dragon. He conquers sin and brings eternal life to a fallen world. He alone is worthy to take the scroll of God’s will and carry out its directives because he was slain and with his blood purchased for God people from every tribe and language and people and nation.
The Scroll and the Lamb
In Revelation Chapter 5 we are in God’s throne room in the presence of God the Father surrounded by four living creatures, angels, and 24 elders. You might want to listen to Episode 28 about God the Father for more detail on God’s throne room described directly before this in chapter 4. We see that God the Father has a scroll in his hand. A Lamb appears, approaches the Father, and takes the scroll from his hand. You might want to refer back to Episode 31 Jesus: The Lamb Prior to Revelation for an Old Testament background on the Lamb. Then everyone there starts worshipping and praising The Lamb. What does all this mean?
Roman Will Scroll
It is possible that this scroll is similar to a Roman will. Roman wills were written on both sides. The outside of the scroll was a summary of the contents inside, like a table of contents in a book today. The inside of the scroll would have contained the contents of the will, contract, or a deed. It would be a legal document that state the responsibilities of each party involved and the consequences or penalties involved with failing to carry out the directives of the contract.
The roman will explanation seems to track along well with what we see take place in Revelation Chapter 5 but I think there is an even better explanation found in the scriptural roots of revelation. Revelation makes hundreds of allusions to the Old Testament. Some of the books it references most are Ezekiel and Daniel. Ezekiel and Daniel both mention a scroll and I personally think the scroll in Revelation Chapter 5 is the scroll mentioned Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3 and in Daniel chapter 12.
Ezekiel’s Scroll
God had given Ezekiel a command to speak to the people of Israel. The message was that they were a house of rebels who had rebelled and sinned against God. This was not a one time transgression but a pattern repeated over and over for centuries. We know that because it says that they were acting just like their fathers had before them. God is loving and forgiving and slow to anger but at some point justice must be served.
God presented a scroll to Ezekiel and spread it out before him. It had writing on both the front and the back. This symbolized that the scroll was chock full of God’s message to Israel. Ezekiel was commanded to eat the scroll so that he would be full of it also. It was as if he needed to internalize God’s word before he could relay it to the people of Israel.
God wanted Ezekiel to give Israel both a warning to the rebellious and hope to the faithful. He wanted the rebellious to repent from their continual sinning against him and make a change for the better. If they did not then God would judge them and sentence them to lamentation, mourning, and woe. He also was giving hope to the faithful that he would deliver them. God told Ezekiel that some people would listen and others would not. However, regardless of whether they listened or not, Ezekiel’s job was to deliver the message.
Daniel’s Sealed Book / Scroll
The prophet Daniel described this same scroll in Daniel chapter 12. He was told that a time of unparalleled trouble was coming. However, he was also told that everyone whose name was written in God’s book would be delivered. He said that many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Daniel could talk about the basic idea of God’s plan but without any details about how and when. He could tell you about the scroll but its contents were were top secret. God told Daniel to seal the book/scroll, until the time of the end.
Seals and scrolls are not really familiar to us in modern times so let’s talk about them. In ancient times, a king would write a message on a scroll and melted wax would be poured on the edge to seal it shut. However, the purpose was not merely to keep the scroll shut but also to prove who had sent the message and to make it tamper evident.
The king would press a metal seal with his unique insignia into the melted wax before it hardened to prove it came from him and him alone. If a scroll arrived with a broken seal the recipient would know the messenger had read the top secret information.
Combined Meaning of The Scroll
If we combine the messages of Ezekiel and Daniel’s scrolls we see that God was showing them that at future time, which only he knows, he will judge those who remain unrepentant of their sin and he will deliver those who remain faithful to him. The details of both messages would be declared top secret and sealed up until the time of the end when it will be announced very, very, very publicly.
The Scroll in the Hand of the Father
In Revelation chapter 5 John shows us God the Father sitting on his throne surrounded by four living creatures, angels, and 24 elders. We’ll talk about who these are in upcoming episodes. However, for right now they are extras and God and Jesus are the main characters.
In his right hand God the Father was holding the scroll of lamentation, mourning, and woe he had shown to Ezekiel. It was sealed up with Daniel’s seals. In fact, it had seven seals. The number 7 symbolized that it was completely sealed.
It was now time for those seals to be opened so God’s judgement of the unrepentant and deliverance of the faithful could begin. This is the time of the end that God told Daniel would be coming at some point. Those whose names are written in God’s book will be delivered. The rest of the world would continue to rebel against God and would keep transgressing against his will to their own harm.
Justice is Necessary
Justice might seem harsh but it is a necessary cleansing. The much harsher reality would be if injustice were allowed to continue indefinitely. Eventually God’s just nature requires that a price be paid for breaking his commandment to love God and love people. Remember God told his people not to take revenge on their own because he said vengeance was his. They did not need to be vigilantes because the true judge would get justice for them in the end. Proverbs 20:22 says “Do not say, “I will repay evil”; wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.” This will be the time that God makes good on his promise of justice.
Think about it like this. We cook food that we would not want to eat raw because it has viruses and bacteria in it that would make us sick. After the food is exposed to heat it is free of contaminants and safe to eat. In fact, the food tastes much better after being cooked than when it was raw.
How about another way to look at it? Jewels are a big part of the heavenly city. The only way to make jewels is by heat and pressure. Sometimes hard things have to happen to common elements before there is a transformation to the truly great.
Justice is God’s way of cleansing the world of sin so that we can get to the wonderful New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation chapters 21 and 22. That world will be pure and much better than the one we live in now. Opening the scroll of God’s judgement upon the unrepentant is part of his kingdom coming and his will being done which Jesus told us to pray would happen.
Who is Worthy to Open the Scroll?
The problem was that at first no one was worthy to open the scroll. A mighty angel called out “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” No one answered the angel. The four living creatures, the angels, and the 24 elders were all only creatures created by someone else. The one to open the scrolls needed to be a Creator. No one was worthy!
At this point John began to weep loudly. Think about this from his point of view. In order to have God’s kingdom come as a perfect and sin free city, sin had to be eradicated. God’s judgement contained within the scroll was the only way to do that. You can’t have a city made of gold and jewels if criminals are running around stealing all of it! If no one could open the scroll, God’s will would be thwarted. John had spent his entire life preparing himself and others to live in God’s kingdom and now it isn’t going to happen?!?! That would be a disaster!
Who could open the scroll and who could dispense judgement? They would need be someone with a title of spiritual authority. They would need to have been a man. To judge someone you need to have walked a mile in their shoes. They would need to have a perfect record of never once sinning in their entire life or their judgement of others would not be valid. In short, the only person who could open the seals of the scroll would be Jesus.
Wait just a minute though, Isn’t Jesus forgiving and loving? He absolutely is but he is also exactly like the Father who is completely just.
Think about his encounter with the woman caught in adultery. He agreed with the pharisees that she was guilty. He even said that whoever was without sin could cast the first stone at her. Luckily for her they all had sinned so no one could stone her. Jesus himself could have but he said she was forgiven. Throughout history Jesus has been focused on showing grace and forgiveness hoping people will take the extra chance to follow him.
However, at the Day of the Lord, a switch will flip and all former chances to change direction and follow God will be over. It will simply be that we are either on God’s side or on the side of the dragon. At that point, there will only only judgement for those who choose the dragon over God.
Remember that we said in Episode 27 about the Trinity that the Father has the will and the Son carries it out? That is what will happen with the breaking of the seals and the opening of the scroll. The Father’s will is to bring about justice and the Son will carry out God’s will as he dispenses justice. Does that sound odd? It’s scriptural. Because Jesus has been in our shoes yet never sinned he is the only one who can, and must, cast the first stone so to speak. He is the only one who is worthy to do a completely necessary cleansing to bring about the kingdom of God.
At this point, one of the elders responds to John’s loud weeping and tells him “Weep no more; behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” However, Here is where we get an interesting plot twist.
John turns to look for a mighty Lion and he sees only a Lamb looking like it had been slain who has somehow come back to life! There is a message behind this bait and switch. Both the Lion and the Lamb are roles of Jesus and both are part of his true nature. However, since this is the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we are being given a glimpse into what part of his nature Jesus wants us to focus on as the source of first his and then our victory over sin. Let’s look into the Lion and the Lamb further so we can understand this better.
The Lion
In Genesis 49:9-10 Jacob compared his son Judah to a lion cub and prophesied that kings would come from his ancestral line. This prophesy came true. David was from the tribe of Judah and he started an ancestral line of kings. Jesus was a direct descendant of David which meant that he was from the line of kings. However, being the Root of David meant that, since Jesus was God the Son and through whom all things were made at creation, he was also the source of the line of David. Basically he is both the creator and the descendant of David. That’s pretty mind blowing if you think about it.
Certainly Jesus’ role as the Creator is an extremely important part of who he is and so is his role as the true and ultimate king who was descended from the line of David. Of all the roles of Jesus, it would be understandable that people would focus on these above some of the other roles. We like to be identified with kings, warriors, and military victory. Think about it, are there more sports teams with carnivores as mascots or herbivores? Even the herbivore mascots are tough animals like bulls. I can’t think of a team called the Slain Lambs. It’s cool to be strong.
My friend Mark Bell reminded me that the pharisees and Jewish leaders wanted the Messiah to be someone who would lead a military revolt to free them from Roman occupation at the point of a sword. They misinterpreted scripture because they had an agenda for what they wanted it to say.
They wanted the Messiah to be a military hero who would free them from roman oppression and make Israel the most powerful nation in the world. It frustrated them that Jesus refused to play this role, here on earth anyway. His kingdom was not of this world but a coming one.
The Lamb
What the Pharisees and Jewish leaders did not want to focus on was the Messiah being like the suffering servant in Isaiah. Hearing about the Messiah suffering and dying in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 were inconvenient to their agenda. Their version of the Messiah wasn’t supposed to be humiliated and sacrificed like a Lamb to the slaughter for the sins of others.
They didn’t want a Lamb who preached that people should love God and love their neighbor to the point of laying your life down for them. Ironically, Jesus the Lamb defeated sin and death by dying on a Roman cross rather than by killing Romans as everyone was expecting.
Since the focus in Revelation chapter 5 shifted from the Lion to the Lamb let’s read Isaiah 53 to learn more about the Lamb.
Isaiah 53
Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7
He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11
After he has suffered,he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
Now let’s keep reading Revelation 5 to learn more about what it says about the Lamb and what he is doing.
The first thing we notice about the Lamb is that it had been slain. It had been killed already. However, death could not hold him. The Lamb is standing up because it had been resurrected. A slain Lamb sounds weak but this one will show unbelievable power very soon!
The second thing we notice is that the Lamb has seven horns with seven eyes. As we said before the number seven symbolizes completeness. Horns symbolize power so having seven horns means that the Lamb is all powerful. The seven eyes might mean that the Lamb sees and knows everything.
Whatever the Lamb looks like it is even more surprising about what he does. He approaches the throne of God the Father and takes the scroll from his hand!
Revelation 5:8
8 And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people.
They began to worship the Lamb as God the Son in the same way they had been worshipping God the Father in chapter 4. By the way, I love the way our prayers are symbolized as incense rising up to God.
Let’s talk about that new song of worship now.
The New Song
9 And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
10
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
This Lamb is the God the Son, the hero, the main character, the star of the show for the rest of the book of Revelation!
Key Point
The ironic message of Revelation is that a slain Lamb defeats a dragon. He conquers sin and brings eternal life to a fallen world. He alone is worthy to take the scroll of God’s will and carry out its directives because he was slain and with his blood purchased for God people from every tribe and language and people and nation.
| Just As I AM Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come! | |
| 2 | Just as I am, and waiting not To rid my soul of one dark blot; To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
| 3 | Just as I am, though tossed about With many a conflict, many a doubt; Fightings within, and fears without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
| 4 | Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind; Sight, riches, healing of the mind; Yes, all I need, in Thee to find, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
| 5 | Just as I am, Thou wilt receive, Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; Because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
| 6 | Just as I am, Thy love unknown Has broken every barrier down; Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone, O Lamb of God, I come, I come! |
Invitation: Come to Jesus the Lamb just as you are
Roots
Revelation 5
Ezekiel 2-3
Daniel 12
Revelation 10:8-10
Genesis 49:9-10
Isaiah 53
Psalm 22
Proverbs 20:22
