And I saw on the right hand of him that sat upon the throne a book, written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who [is] worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?
A sealed scroll rests in the hand of the One on the throne. Before anyone opens it, a herald puts a question to the whole created order. Everything that follows in the book of Revelation waits on the answer.
Strength is the first thing said about this angel. One writer takes the three places his voice searches — heaven, earth, and under the earth — as marking the whole universe.
The angels "excel in strength" (Psalm 103:20), but they use their might only in instant obedience to the will of the Creator... All angels are strong, but there are measures, and ranks, and orders among them. There are prominent angels among their fellows, such as Gabriel and Michael. The loud voice of one of those angels of power reaches to the furthest bounds of the universe. It searches "the heaven," the dwelling place of God; "the earth," the dwelling place of men; and "underneath the earth," the home of other intelligent beings. Those three terms mark out the extent of the universe. Everywhere and to every being the angel's voice reaches.
The angel is not looking for a scholar. Opening this scroll means setting its contents in motion.
We must bear in mind the true meaning of the opening of the book. As soon as the seals are broken, events begin to happen. So the great significance of the angel's question is not who can explain what is written — a simple matter by comparison — but who can bring to pass the events foretold?
One writer notes that the question names two acts, and not in the order you would expect:
The universe in all its parts does not hold one being able to disclose and carry out the counsels of God... "To open the book" and "to break its seals" are two separate actions. The natural order would have been to break the seals first, and then open the book. But the point of the angel's proclamation is to open the book so as to unfold its contents. The breaking of the seals is the carrying out of those contents, as in Revelation 6... No one answers the challenge. The undertaking required moral worth and a proved capacity not found in any created being.
The angel does not ask who is strong enough. He asks who has the standing — and that rules out every creature, however glorious.
No mere creature can meet God on the ground of worthiness, or lay claim or title to anything in His presence. The brightest and highest beings in God's creation have nothing except what they have received. They have no beauty except what God has put on them. They have no righteousness except what their Maker formed in them. Worthiness has to do with having accomplished something that earns it. The spotless angels, mighty in strength, who surround the throne of heaven, have no title to anything; everything they have is a gift.
The challenge goes out to every creature, and nothing comes back.
A strong angel appears on the scene and cries with a loud voice, challenging, as it were, the whole universe. There was no response to the challenge. In truth, there was not one, from Gabriel downwards, of all God's creatures, who had the qualification needed to undertake the task.
Only after that silence has run its course does the answer step forward:
What creature could open these seals? None anywhere. But the strong angel proclaims, and the Lord Jesus comes forward to answer the proclamation. He takes up the challenge after enough space has passed to prove the powerlessness of all others.
What is in this scroll? One writer warns against reading it as judgment alone:
We must not limit the book to setting forth the judgments of God. It does indeed present these judgments in all their solemnity, and most of the book describes the judgments that will fall on Christendom, Israel, and the nations. But once judgment has cleared the world of all evil, the book goes on to present the vast system of blessing that God has purposed to establish on the earth. It is for the glory of Christ and the blessing of man.
- Question. The angel does not ask who can explain the scroll, but who can bring its contents to pass.
- Everywhere. The cry searches heaven, earth, and under the earth. It reaches every being there is.
- Worthy. Worthiness rests on something accomplished. Creatures own nothing but what they were given, so the word rules them all out.
- Silence. Nothing answers; the pause is long enough to prove that all others are powerless.
- Answer. Christ steps forward to the unanswered challenge. What He opens ends with evil cleared away by judgment and blessing established on the earth.
And no one was able in the heaven, or upon the earth, or underneath the earth, to open the book, or to regard it.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And *I* wept much because no one had been found worthy to open the book nor to regard it.
John stands in heaven before God's throne, watching a sealed scroll that no one can open. A call has gone out for someone worthy, no one in the whole universe has answered, and John breaks down in tears.
The scroll holds God's plans for the earth. It is the legal document that hands the inheritance to His Son.
This book, sealed with seven seals, is the book of the inheritance — the book of the investiture. It describes the means God uses to put Jesus in possession, and His ways in judgment, full of patience to the end. The basis of it all is the right of redemption that falls to Jesus. Jeremiah, in chapter 32, tells us how people bought an inheritance. They wrote it in two books, one sealed and the other open. The sealed book is the contract of the inheritance God will give to the Son. Who can unroll the events that will invest Christ with the inheritance of the earth? No one but Christ Himself.
The question was not who is strong enough. It was who is worthy, and that one word rules out every creature.
This question then uncovers a solemn fact. No one in heaven, on earth, or under the earth had any worthiness or title for such work. No one was even fit to look at the book. No mere creature can meet God on the ground of worthiness, or lay claim or title to anything in His presence. The brightest and highest minds God ever created have nothing except what they received. They have no beauty except what God put on them. They have no righteousness except what their Maker formed in them. Worthiness rests on real merit, actually accomplished.
John searched the crowd of the redeemed. The greatest names in Scripture were there, and not one of them qualified.
In God's right hand John sees a book of judgment, but also of blessing reached through judgment. If no one can open the book, how can the judgments take their course? How can the blessings be reached? Searching through all the crowds of the redeemed, John could find "no man in heaven" worthy to open the book. Many great saints were there — Enoch who walked with God, Abraham who talked with God, Moses whom God buried, and Elijah whom God caught up. All are there, but none are worthy to open the book. Then John searches through earth. If he can find no man in heaven, it is little wonder he finds no man on earth. Still less does he find anyone under the earth worthy to open the book or even to look at it.
The tears are not what a reader might expect. John was not relieved that judgment on evil had stalled. The thought that it might never fall at all is what horrified him. The quotes keep the older wording "wept much"; the ESV reads "began to weep loudly."
In the vision John wept much. He took no pleasure in the thought that judgment on evil might fail because no one was worthy to carry it out. The very reverse: it outraged his feelings to imagine that it should fail in this way. We know that "because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil" (Ecclesiastes 8:11). It would be a crowning disaster if it were never executed at all, and John might well weep at the thought of this.
Writers have judged those tears in two ways.
Some have called John's tears "the weakness of the creature." But weeping much is sometimes the expression of weakness and just as much the expression of a right and godly feeling. Someone has remarked, "Without tears the Revelation was not written, and without tears it cannot be understood."
The weeping does not last. The elders around the throne do not join in, because they already know the answer John has yet to see.
However much we may weep on earth, weeping will not do for heaven. John is the only man who ever wept in heaven. He wept much, but he was not allowed to weep long. At once one of the elders said to him, "Weep not." Elders understand the mind of heaven, and they do not weep. They see how hopeless all men's doomed efforts are, but they are in the secret of God. They know that if the task is too great for man, there is One who is both able and worthy to open the book.
- The book — a sealed contract of the inheritance for God's Son. Nothing moves until someone opens it.
- The word — "worthy" means merit actually earned. No creature, however bright, can claim a title in God's presence.
- The search — John looks through heaven, earth and under the earth. Even Enoch, Abraham, Moses and Elijah come up short.
- The tears — John weeps at the thought that evil might never be judged. Writers call his tears godly feeling, not weakness.
- The stop — heaven does not weep, because heaven knows the answer. An elder says "Weep not," for One is able and worthy to open the book.
And one of the elders says to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion which [is] of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome [so as] to open the book, and its seven seals.
John weeps because no one in creation can open the sealed scroll. Then an elder speaks. The answer is a Person, named by two titles and one verb: Lion, Root, and "has conquered."
Notice who answers John. It is not an angel.
One of the elders answered — not the angel, notice, but one of the elders. Only these have the intelligence of God and of His ways. He said to John, "Weep no more."
Not everyone reads John's tears the same way.
Some have called John's tears "the weakness of the creature." But if "wept much" is sometimes the expression of weakness, it is just as much the expression of a right and godly feeling. As one writer said: "Without tears the Revelation was not written, and without tears it cannot be understood."
The title reaches back to Jacob's dying words over his sons. Scripture is answering itself across the centuries.
The metaphor carries the majesty and power of wild beasts on earth. Jacob compared Judah to a lion. One great chain runs through all Scripture. The Holy Spirit who spoke by Jacob on his deathbed now speaks through John. He reveals that, rejected as He may be on earth, heaven owns the Lion of the tribe of Judah as the One in whom all God's purposes centre.
The title carries more than raw force.
"The Lion of the tribe of Judah" is a glorious title. It means human majesty with no stain on it, and Royalty that is really royal. In it is the wisdom that stoops to conquer. In it is the power that subdues all enemies. It lifts those who love righteousness out of all oppression and depression.
The second title says something a family tree cannot say. A descendant comes from David; a root is what David himself came from.
He is described as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Offspring of David, the One who as Man descended from David. But He is also the Root of David. He is the One who was before David, and the One David came from. In short, He is the One who was from all eternity.
Why name David here, and not Moses or Abraham? Because these chapters are about a throne.
David stands for Royalty. Moses stands for Law. Abraham holds the Promise. Now these two chapters (4 and 5) have as their main subject the kingdom rights and glories of Christ. They speak again and again of thrones and crowns, and that is what marks out this magnificent part of Revelation.
Everything turns on one word in the elder's answer. Older translations read "has prevailed" where the ESV has "has conquered."
The elder does not only say that He is worthy. He says, "He has prevailed." That little word "prevailed" (conquered or overcame) is bound up with the whole subject of the chapter. It is the victory of Jesus by His blood. The Lord Jesus always had personal worthiness to take the book. But suppose He had received and opened it on the ground of His own worthiness alone. What good would that have done us? The book would have stayed sealed to us.
He won that victory as a man, and that is why God's secrets now reach His people.
If He had not prevailed as Son of Man, not even as Son of God could He have opened the secrets of God to His people. He goes up and takes the book, and then praise flows out.
The next verse springs a surprise, and it shapes how we read the title.
John had heard of a Lion, but when he looked, it was a Lamb. He expected the symbol of power. Instead, before them all stood the picture of most holy suffering and rejection... The Lord of glory has become a Lamb, and we must know Him as such if we are to profit by Him.
- Tears — John weeps over a sealed book. That is right feeling, not weakness: Revelation was not written without tears, and cannot be understood without them.
- Comfort — the answer comes from an elder, not an angel, because the elders know God and His ways.
- Lion — the title reaches back to Jacob's deathbed words over Judah. It means royal power that subdues enemies and lifts the oppressed.
- Root — He is David's source, not just David's descendant. He was there before David, from all eternity.
- Prevailed — worthiness alone would have left the book shut for us. He conquered as Son of Man, and God's secrets flow out. Then John looks and sees a Lamb.
And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God [which are] sent into all the earth
John is told that the Lion of the tribe of Judah has won, but when he looks he sees a slain Lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. In one picture the verse joins a death to a throne, and weakness to total power.
What John hears and what he sees do not match.
John had heard of a Lion, but now that he came to look, it was a Lamb. He expected to see the symbol of power. Instead there stood before them all the picture of the holiest suffering and rejection. This was the image of Christ even on the throne, in all the glory of heaven — One struck down, innocent and offering no resistance, "a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain." He is clothed with perfect power; the seven horns surely mean that much... But the One who has all the power and wisdom is the Lamb. I believe all our blessing rests on that blessed truth.
The words "as though it had been slain" describe someone still marked by His death. John of all people knew what he was seeing. (Where the writers quoted below say "in the midst of the throne," the ESV reads "between the throne and the four living creatures.")
He had stood at the foot of the cross and watched the Lamb suffer. He had seen Him when men pierced His hands and feet... And now he is carried up to heaven. There, in the very centre of heavenly glory, he sees "in the midst of the throne … a Lamb as though it had been slain." He sees the Lamb in His glories — JESUS with the wound marks in His hands and feet, the only Man in all that eternal glory who will bear any trace of the sorrows of time.
The blood is why He prevailed, and those marks no longer speak of weakness:
It was by the blood that Jesus prevailed to open the book. The cross is so precious to God that He has moved it, as it were, into His own blessed presence in the midst of the throne of heaven. There the Lamb is seen "as though it had been slain" — not now in weakness, but in power, and in all the perfection of understanding and wisdom.
The numbers and images here are a language, and the rest of Scripture teaches it.
The number "seven" means divine perfection... The seven horns mean power. All through Scripture a horn is a symbol of power, whether of an individual or of a kingdom.
The verse explains the eyes itself. They are the seven Spirits of God, which ties what Christ knows to the Spirit and spreads it over the whole earth.
While God's praises as Creator ring out, Christ is "in the midst of the throne" in His own essential glory — the glory of God. But when the subject is government and judgment on earth, He steps forward in His derived human glory as the Lamb that had been slain. He is now clothed however with perfect power, shown in the seven horns. He has perfect knowledge and wisdom, pictured in the seven eyes... For Christ, as man, receives from the Spirit the knowledge and wisdom of God, and so He discerns everything throughout the whole earth.
Until now the Lamb has been sitting. He stands here, and the change of posture means something is about to begin.
The "Lamb standing" between the throne and the elders is the first step towards taking the inheritance. He is about to take to Himself His great power and reign... But John sees that the time of patient waiting has ended. The Lamb leaves the "throne" and the "right hand," and stands ready to act. Standing means readiness to act; sitting speaks of a state of rest.
Power alone does not give the right to open the sealed scroll. That right rests on a price paid, and the picture behind it is a lost inheritance bought back.
The seven horns express perfection in power; the seven eyes are the perfection of the Spirit who sees all... Boaz had to redeem Elimelech's land, and Ruth is a picture of the redeemed. Jesus, the true Boaz, the only mighty One, redeems Ruth, His own people, and the land of Elimelech, the earth. What gives the Lamb the right to use all power is that He has paid the ransom to God. God had, as it were, lost the inheritance. But the Lamb has bought it back for God.
- Slain — The cost came first. A death marks out the One at the centre of the throne, and those marks stay with Him forever.
- Standing — The waiting is over. He rises from sitting because He is ready to act and take the inheritance.
- Seven horns — Complete power. A horn stands for power all through Scripture, and seven stands for perfection.
- Seven eyes — Complete wisdom, named as the Spirit of God, so nothing on earth escapes Him.
- All the earth — The reach matches the price. He paid the ransom for the lost inheritance, so He takes the scroll and rules the world He bought.
and it came and took [it] out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
No one in the universe could open the sealed scroll in God's right hand. Now the Lamb steps up to the throne, takes it, and settles forever the question of who holds the future of the earth.
Two pictures meet in one Person. One writer ties each title to a different part of the act:
As the Lion, Christ is able; as the Lamb, He is worthy to open the book. So He can take the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Taking the book means that the supreme moment for which angels and saints had waited has at last come. The time of the patience of Jesus is past; the time for action has come.
Many read the scroll as a legal document. It is the deed to an inheritance, and only the rightful redeemer may open it:
This book, sealed with seven seals, is the book of the inheritance — that is, of the formal handing over. It describes the means God uses to put Jesus in possession, and His ways in judgment, patient to the end. The right of redemption that falls to Jesus is the basis of it all. Jeremiah, in chapter 32, shows the purchase of an inheritance written on two books: one sealed, the other open. The sealed book is the contract of the inheritance that is to be given to the Son. Who can unroll the events that will give Christ the inheritance of the earth? No one but Christ Himself. Who has a right to do it? He alone — the Redeemer, who has bought it. By His blood and by His power He can claim and deliver everything as His own.
Commentators differ here. One writer keeps redemption as the theme but avoids the legal picture. He notes that "when the seals are opened there is no proving of title or declaration of it: but the redemption itself proceeds by orderly steps to its completion."
Notice whose hand the book comes from. The Lamb had refused power from every other hand:
Jesus would not take power from the god of this world (Matt. 4:9-10), nor would He take it from the heated desire of the people (John 6:15). He waits to take it from the hand of the God of heaven and earth, from whom Adam received it long ago. Only from that hand could He receive it righteously. And as the Lamb here acknowledges God on the throne as the source of power, so God on the throne acknowledges the Lamb as the one He appoints to hold power.
This act in heaven is God's answer to the state of the earth:
What a moment for heaven this was! On earth all was confusion and corruption. Man, energised by Satan, was dominant. Remember, we are speaking of the future. He rejected God and demanded divine honours for himself. Who could step into such a scene and curb the power of evil? Who could re-assert God's authority, govern the nations righteously, and fill the earth with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea? The answer is given here. It is the slain but now exalted Lamb; and He gives the pledge of what He is about to do in taking the book out of the right hand of God.
One writer measures the size of the act by the size of the response in heaven:
It must be something momentous to move the heavenly host. Perfhaps very small events move us here on earth. But in heaven, in the place of glory where everything is perfect, it takes something vast to command widespread interest. But when the Lamb took the book, all heaven was moved to worship... They are so glad that He has come into His own. They are so glad that He has the chief place in heaven, and that no one else is found worthy to undertake this work.
The Lamb takes the book with His servants in mind:
Why did He go and take the book? Because He wanted to communicate to His servant John, and to His servants down here, what would take place after the saints are taken up to heaven — the destinies of the earth down to the end. Oh, how blessed for John and for us, His servants!
- Worthy — the Lion's strength makes Him able, the Lamb's death makes Him worthy; the same Person holds both.
- Deed — many read the sealed scroll as the contract of an inheritance. Only the redeemer who paid for it may open it, though commentators differ on that picture.
- Given — He refused power from Satan and from the crowd, and waits to receive it from the hand on the throne.
- Timing — the taking marks the end of Christ's patience and the start of His action over a world in confusion.
- Answered — heaven is hard to move, yet it worships the moment the book changes hands, and the Lamb opens the book's contents for His servants.
And when it took the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints.
The Lamb takes the scroll, and heaven falls on its face. What follows is not silence but harps and golden bowls — and the verse tells us what fills the bowls.
He has not opened one seal yet. No judgment has fallen. Heaven bows first, and the order matters.
There is both worthiness and competency in Him to unfold the counsels of God. "Behold, I have come to do Your will," whatever it might be. The Lamb in the glory is the centre of worship. Notice, they worship before the seals are opened.
In the previous chapter the worship was for creation. Here the ground has shifted.
Now redemption was in question, and so the Lamb is the Object of worship. All gladly honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Indeed the Father refuses honour supposedly offered to Himself if the Son is not honoured.
What the elders hold in their hands tells us who they are.
The elders in heaven have harps and golden bowls full of odours, "which are the prayers of saints," This shows that they act as priests (Rev. 5:8)... They are doubtless the redeemed, including both Old and New Testament saints.
The number twenty-four reaches back into Israel's worship.
David first brought in the harp, setting apart the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for songs in the house of the Lord. These singers, like the priests, were divided into twenty-four groups. So the reference is clear, with that measure of difference which marks this book. Priestly and choral service are blended here in perfection.
Commentators differ on whether both companies hold the harps and bowls, or only the elders.
The two objects are not decoration. Each stands for a part of priestly work.
Priestly praise (the harp) and service (the bowls) are here united... "Golden bowls" mark their value and prove the high and holy service for which they are used. "Full of incenses." It is not one perfume, but many. The fragrance is full and varied. The "incenses are the prayers of the saints." Prayer on earth is incense in Heaven. We sometimes think our prayers are worthless. Ah! it is not so. God in His own matchless way and rich grace values our cries and pleadings, and they rise to Him as incense.
The elders are already in heaven, already singing praise. So whose prayers fill their bowls?
But who are those "saints" that pray? The elders, or the church, were in heaven, and in full choir of praise. Whose prayers then are these? They come from saints who will suffer when the church is above... They are in the place of adoration and praise, whereas prayer implies need. If they have to do with prayers, they are the prayers of others, not their own.
Another writer stops short of naming them, and still reaches the same conclusion.
Scripture does not tell us how the prayers of the saints are presented through them, or who these saints are. But this much is certain: the glorified saints do not need to pray. So we may well conclude that these odours are the prayers of the saints on earth.
There is a limit to this priestly work. Set it beside a later scene in chapter 8.
Notice here, that when the saints (Rev. 5:8) act as priests, they add no incense at all — it is privilege enough to have such a place, but they can add nothing. The odours are the saints' own prayers on earth. Here (Rev. 8:3) the Angel-High Priest adds much incense to give effect to the cry of the saints.
The bowls are full. That fullness says something about every prayer that ever seemed to go nowhere.
There are things His people suffer from that He never forgets. All their prayers are treasured up before God — their tears are put in His bottle and treasured up. What! the sorrow I have forgotten, has God written that down?... Not only does God remember my prayer; He puts it away on His own throne. It is like the pot of manna He wanted laid up, kept as a trophy of the way He carried His people through the wilderness... Is that said of the prayers of saints? Yes, not one of them lost.
The storing has an end in view.
Many of these saints left the world as martyrs. They praised a God who did not step in to rescue them from their enemies. Their prayers, at times, seemed unanswered and even unheard. At last their praise will be justified and their prayers answered.
- The Lamb first. Heaven worships the moment He takes the book, before one seal is opened. He is honoured for what He is worth.
- Priests, not angels. The twenty-four elders answer to Israel's twenty-four groups of priests. Their harps and bowls mark them out as the redeemed at priestly work.
- Two hands, two acts. The harp is praise; the golden bowl is service. The bowl's contents are named for us: incense that is the prayers of the saints.
- Prayers not their own. Prayer implies need. Saints already in heaven have none left, so the incense rises from saints still on earth.
- Nothing wasted. God stores every cry before His throne and answers every prayer at last. The saints add nothing of their own — the place itself is privilege enough.
And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
Heaven's throne room holds a sealed scroll that no one can open, and a Lamb who steps forward and takes it. The song that follows tells us why He alone has the right, and it raises a question commentators still weigh: who are the redeemed it sings about?
An old law in Israel stands behind this scene.
In Israel there was a rule for buying back the inheritance, and also the heir or the person (Leviticus 25). If either an Israelite or his possession had been sold, it was his relative's duty and right to ransom him and it. Now Jesus has proved Himself our kinsman in both ways. The Son of God became the Son of Man, and so showed His kinsman nature. He died to purchase us and our inheritance by blood, and so showed His kinsman love... His blood as the Lamb slain gave Him the title to it. His strength as the Lion of the tribe of Judah must now give Him possession of it.
Why could heaven not sing this song before? Sin changed what praise must rest on.
Now that sin has come into the world, the creative glory of God is not enough, nor even the way He governs the world. Suppose He is to be glorified in some way other than pure judgment of His enemies. Suppose merciful goodness is to be shown in a world like this. Suppose a new song is to be sung in heaven. Then there must be redemption — and not by power only, but by suffering and blood.
Older translations read because where the ESV has for. Either way, the song traces His worthiness to one event.
As the Lion of the tribe of Judah He acts in power, but as the Lamb He was slain. Here the carrying out of God's plans of grace and glory goes back to the cross as its basis. "Because You have been SLAIN." Without the cross, Christ would have entered spheres of glory alone. Without it there could be no redemption for sinners. The cross is the grandest counsel of eternity and the grandest fact of time.
Does this mean the whole human race will be saved? One writer answers with careful distinctions.
There is no redemption of the race, but of persons out of it... Purchase is universal, and means a change of ownership. Redemption is special, and refers to a change of state. "Redeemed to God" — then we are His... Israel's redemption in the past was carried out by power; the redemption of sinners out of the race is by blood.
What divides people here divides them no longer there.
They may speak many languages on earth, but they will sing the one new song in heaven. They may belong to many nations, but they have only one Lord.
Redeemed people have always sung. So what makes this song new?
The praying time is over, the singing time has come... Until now the ransomed of the Lord had been on the way to glory, singing songs of redemption. But those songs looked forward to victory and the reign of glory. They were songs of hope. With the taking of the book their hopes will all be fulfilled, and the songs of hope will be changed to songs of victory... All heaven is occupied with the Lamb — "YOU are worthy," "YOU were slain," "YOU ransomed," and "YOU have made."
Some translations read "redeemed us"; others leave the pronoun out. Commentators differ on what that means. One holds the singers are still the redeemed, kept out of view:
The word "us" should probably be left out. Still, if so, the ones meant are the redeemed, represented by the twenty-four elders. They stay in the background, because they celebrate the worthiness of the Lamb rather than their own blessings in redemption.
Another argues the singers are praising God for a different company altogether:
The elders are so completely at rest about themselves that they can be taken up with others... They are speaking about the saints whose prayers they were offering... They show that in taking the heavenly saints above, He had not finished with His rich mercy. Even while He was judging, He would have a purchased people, who were to share the glory of the kingdom as a royal priesthood.
One difference between angels and the redeemed shows up here.
The angels, as has often been noted, say their praises; they do not sing them. It is only those who are redeemed, as Scripture everywhere shows, who can put their praise into song.
- Slain. The song gives one reason for the Lamb's worthiness, and it is not His power but His death.
- Worthy. His blood gave Him the title to the inheritance; His strength as the Lion will give Him possession of it.
- Bought. Purchase changes who owns you; redemption changes your state. God takes persons out of the race, not the race as a whole.
- Sung. Creation's glory drew worship; only redemption drew a song. Angels say their praise; the redeemed sing it.
- New. Songs of hope become songs of victory the moment the Lamb takes the scroll. Every line points to Him: You are worthy, You were slain, You ransomed, You have made.