saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that has been slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
The scene is heaven's throne room, and the Lamb who was slain has just opened the book of God's purposes. Countless angels now name Him worthy of seven things — and the reason for all seven is His death.
Heaven does not praise a vague greatness. It praises a title — and that one word shapes the whole book:
This title is dear to our hearts. It is almost entirely connected with the book of Revelation. It is surely meant to show the special character in which the One who bears it is presented there. Noticing this may give a useful key to that wonderful book. It may be "called the book of the rights of the Lamb." Certainly, all the details and principles of its prophetic part are tied to this title. … He alone is declared worthy to receive the whole tribute of the universe and to become the centre of its universal praise.
The list is not random. Its length is the point:
Notice also that they proclaim the Lamb worthy to receive seven things. That is, He is worthy to receive all things. It is the ascription to Him of all possible exaltation, dominion, and blessing.
Each item in the list has a history in human hands, and each one changes hands here:
Man has perverted power to his own ends. It will come into Christ's hands to carry out God's will. Man has abused riches to advance unholy plans and selfish desires. They come to Christ, for the service of God. All the millionaires' millions, all the wealth of mines, all the resources of the earth will come to Christ. He will manage them according to God's will. Wisdom will be at His disposal… Strength — long used to crush the weak — will be His. Honour has long gone from man to his fellow man; God will give it to Christ. Glory has only been stained by corruption and lust in the fallen creature; it will find its right centre in the Person of the Lamb once slain. Blessing was lost only when entrusted to sinful Adam or any of his race; it will be put into the hands of the Second Man, the last Adam, where it will never, never fail.
The One heaven crowns is the One earth condemned, and that contrast runs through the whole list:
Men have paid homage to one another, and dishonoured the Lamb. They have enthroned man, and crucified the Lamb. The day is coming when all will see that the Lamb alone is worthy to receive all power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, and blessing. He alone is worthy to receive them all, for He alone will use them for the glory of God.
The angels praise beside the elders, who stand for the redeemed. The two groups do not praise on the same ground:
But there is a great difference between this worship of the angels and that of the elders. The angels look at His "obedience unto death." They acknowledge that it is as the slain Lamb that He is entitled to receive glory and blessing. But they say nothing about redemption. For the angels, the central object in the cross is the perfect obedience shown there. For the elders, it is the redeeming work accomplished there.
Writers also note the difference in how the praise is offered: the angels say their praise, while only the redeemed can sing it (Edward Dennett).
For now, believers hold His worth quietly, against opposition on every side. That will change:
How the heart's joy grows at the thought of that day! Then the worthiness of the Lamb will no longer be a secret carried weakly in the heart of the saint, contradicted and denied on every side. Evil will be removed by the hand of Power. Every eye will gaze upon His beauty, every heart will acknowledge His claims, and every voice will echo back His worthy praise!
- Slain. Heaven gives one reason for His worthiness: His death. He is the Lamb who was slain, and that title governs the whole book.
- Sevenfold. Seven items means all items. Every possible exaltation, dominion and blessing goes to one Person.
- Reversed. Man has abused power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing. Each one passes to the Lamb, who will use them for God.
- Sung. The redeemed sing of redemption. The angels speak of His obedience unto death. One chorus, two grounds.
- Soon. Faith confesses His worth now, against contradiction. Then every eye and every voice will confess it in the open.
And every creature which is in the heaven and upon the earth and under the earth, and [those that are] upon the sea, and all things in them, heard I saying, To him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and might, to the ages of ages.
Revelation 5 has been building to this. A sealed scroll waits, no one worthy is found to open it, and then the Lamb who was slain takes it. Verse 13 is where the answer breaks past every boundary. Not just the worshippers, not just the angels — everything that exists joins in.
The praise spreads outward, and the last circle has no edge. One writer points to how these voices praise, and to the numbers they use:
The angels and then all created things praise the Lamb without addressing Him personally. The praise of the angels is sevenfold. The praise of every creature is fourfold — four being the number that indicates universality in creation. Men judged the Lamb worthy of death and led Him to the slaughter. The angels declare that He is worthy of all glory in sevenfold completeness. Every creature sees the Lamb joined with Him who sits on the throne, inheriting all blessing, honour, glory and power.
What triggers it is one act — the Lamb taking the book:
The chord is touched, the keynote sounded, and heard at last in heaven. If the Lamb takes the book, every creature responds with joy in the hearing of John, since right now the whole lower universe groans in sorrow because of Adam's sin. Why should they not rejoice if God and the Lamb unite to deliver?
The voices here are not only human. The Psalms already sang in the same key:
The praise here is clearly not simply human. It is like the bursts of praise in the Psalms: "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; the world and those who dwell in it! Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity" (Ps. 98:7-9).
Another writer traces the change back to the moment Adam sinned:
At the moment of Adam's sin, the creatures became groaners after deliverance in the ear of the Spirit (Rom. 8). Now the Lamb is owned as "Lord of the world to come," and as about to take His kingdom. In the ear of that same Spirit these groans turn into praises. The prisoners of hope get bright pledges of a glorious deliverance.
The phrase sounds ominous. One writer takes it as part of the waiting creation, not as the world of the damned:
We must carefully distinguish every creature "under the earth" here from the different word used in Philippians 2:10. The phrase here, I take it, means the things beneath the earth's surface, living or lifeless. In the vision they anticipate their deliverance from corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Of course they cannot share the freedom of grace that we enjoy. But when we are in the glory, that will be the pledge of their own glorious change, soon to follow. The words in Philippians mean the beings of hell, who must bow with every knee at the name of Jesus.
John hears this in a vision set before the seals are even opened, so the song runs ahead of the events:
Verse 13 is therefore anticipative. Our Lord spoke the same way when the seventy disciples He had sent out reported that demons obeyed them in His name: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:17-18). It has not happened yet, but it will happen before the millennium… And this is clearly not eternity being anticipated either, for then there will be no sea (Revelation 21).
Yet the song is not empty. One writer describes what that first moment set going:
It was like striking a keynote that would never stop vibrating, until the glory of God and the Lamb filled the furthest bounds of creation… From the first event that was a link in the chain, the end is welcomed. This is the mind of Christ.
The verse names the throne and the Lamb together in one act of worship. One writer answered from it whether Christ Himself should be worshipped:
Tell me I am not to worship Christ: you take away the only Christ I know. I have no other. There is only One I adore and worship, with a thankful heart that owes everything to Him… All the angels of God are to worship Him, and every knee is to bow to Him… The One sitting on the throne and the Lamb are joined together in Revelation 5:13.
- Cause — The chorus begins the moment the Lamb takes the book. Redemption, not power alone, unlocks the praise of the universe.
- Reach — The angels praise in sevens; creation praises in fours, the number that covers everything. Nothing is left outside.
- Reversal — The creation that groans under Adam's sin is heard singing. The same Spirit who registered the groan registers the joy.
- Timing — The song is anticipative. It is heard before the seals open, before the kingdom comes, and it is not eternity, since there is still a sea.
- Result — One worship goes to the throne and to the Lamb together. So Christ is to be adored, not just admired.