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.
And the four living creatures said, Amen; and the elders fell down and did homage.
The scene in Revelation 5 builds through widening circles of praise: the redeemed, then the angels, then every created thing. This verse is where it lands. Two responses close it: a spoken "Amen," and a silence in which nobody says anything at all.
Verse 13 is the praise of creation itself. One writer reads it as a preview of what the Redeemer's work will do for a world still in bondage.
The circle of praise expands further still. Heaven, earth, and sea say together with joy, "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" This looks ahead in prophecy to the complete deliverance of the whole creation, which has groaned in bondage so long, as the fruit of the Redeemer's work. The four living creatures respond with their deep "Amen," and the twenty-four elders fall down and worship.
The living creatures and the elders do not do the same thing. One writer calls the elders the heavenly saints, and shows why their response goes deeper than agreement.
Countless angels join in acknowledging His death. But it is the place of the heavenly saints to enter into the sense of what that death achieved — yes, and into the deep joy, God's joy, in the blessing of others, and not merely their own. The four living creatures set their seal to it and say "Amen"; but the elders fall down and do homage. They did not merely give their assent to it all — their hearts went along with it. That is always their place.
Earlier in the chapter the elders sang out loud. Here John records no words from them at all. One writer builds a lesson on that contrast.
This passage is very suggestive. (The best critics omit the last seven words of verse 14.) We gather from it that worship may come with the words of the lips. In verse 12 the crowned elders said with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb." Or worship may be silent, as in verse 14. There, after the "Amen" of the living creatures, the elders simply "fell down and worshiped."
Another writer explains why worship can go beyond words.
Worship is the soul taken up with its glorious Object — the Father and the Son — and it may be beyond all possible expression. "The elders fell down and worshiped." What they said, if anything, we are not told.
Older English Bibles end the verse with "Him that lives for ever and ever." Both writers say those words do not belong here. One explains why they spoil the passage.
The words added in our version, "Him that lives for ever and ever," have no authority behind them, and they spoil the passage. In this chapter the worship does not go to God as Creator, or as the Eternal. It goes to God seated on the throne of judgment, and to Jesus as the slain Lamb, to whom God has entrusted the judgment.
The ESV, like these writers, ends the verse at "worshiped."
The elders have thrones and crowns of their own. The verse leaves them face down on the floor — and that, one writer says, is not a demotion.
John saw elders in heaven. They left their thrones and their crowns and threw themselves down before the throne and before the Lamb. There they were in a higher place than when they sat crowned in their places.
At this point in the book, the Lamb has not opened a single seal. Yet the song celebrates results that are still future.
The song and the responses that go with it look ahead. They celebrate the themes of the thousand-year reign and of eternity, and speak of them as already accomplished. The slain Lamb is the object around whom all are gathered. In the Person of the Lamb we have the firm guarantee that God will display all His purposes in glory. So, before the work takes place, faith cries out in triumph, "It is done."
- Amen — the seal. The living creatures do not add new praise; they set their seal on creation's praise and agree with it.
- Amen — the echo. The elders go further than agreement: their hearts go with it, and they fall down.
- Amen — the silence. Verse 12 is worship with a loud voice; verse 14 is worship with no recorded words at all. Both are worship.
- Amen — to the Lamb. Without the added words, the homage goes to God on the throne of judgment and to the slain Lamb together.
- Amen — before the fact. The seals are still closed, but the whole scene sings as though the work were finished, because the Lamb Himself is the guarantee.