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.