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.
and made them to our God kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth.
The song around the throne moves from the Lamb's blood to what that blood bought. Two questions sit in this verse — who is the song about, and where will the reign happen?
The elders sing about a company on earth, not about themselves. Their own service explains why.
The elders do not sing of their own redemption, but that of a people on earth. Their priestly service was on behalf of others, so here their song is of the redeemed then on earth. They sing and celebrate the blessing of others, not their own. How unselfish! How free from jealousy!
Older Bibles read "us" and "we" here, so commentators differ over the right reading. One writer settles for "them" on the evidence of the copies, yet still ties the song to the redeemed themselves.
Though most manuscripts do read "us", a few copies leave it out — and the next verse supports those few. There the reading is certainly, "And have made them to our God, kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth." … Who should care so much that men were redeemed to God by His blood, were made kings and priests, or should reign over the earth, as the redeemed themselves?
"Kings and priests" is not one honour said twice. The two words face opposite ways.
In kings, you have the expression of power from God downward; in the priests the privilege of approach to God upwards. As priests we approach God; as kings, we reign over the inheritance.
The words "a kingdom and priests" reach back to an offer God once made to Israel. That offer carried a condition.
Israel was promised, on condition of obedience, "you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6). They failed to obey. Levi's special priesthood came in as the result of that failure. And since the priests belonged to this failed people, not even they could pass inside the veil. Grace has now given us as Christians that access to God which was denied to them.
Several writers argue for "over the earth" instead of "on the earth". Their case rests on how the Greek preposition works with words of ruling.
As far as the usage shows, with words of authority or rule the Greek word epi marks the sphere ruled over, and en marks the place where the ruler lived. … In the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, for example, en usually marks where the king lived, and epi the sphere he ruled. So the true rendering is "over," not "on." … The thousand-year reign is heavenly, but it is over the earth. Israel and the nations do not reign there; they are the ones reigned over.
This is more than a fine point of grammar. A heavenly reign still has a real centre of government on earth beneath it.
Jerusalem will become the capital seat of government on earth in the coming age of blessing (Jer. 3:17). The Jewish people, then all saved, will take the headship of the nations. But the heavenly saints shall reign "over" the earth, not on it. … They are not subjects of the kingdom; they are kings.
The tense matters. Even in heaven, in front of the Lamb, the singers put the reign in the future.
Their language is, "We shall reign," and not "we reign." They are waiting, just as the Lord Jesus Himself is waiting. They wait for one thing to happen: that His enemies be made the footstool for His feet.
And the ones who reign are people, not ideas. Some have tried to reduce the coming kingdom to the triumph of good principles.
It is written "they shall reign" (Rev. 5:10; 20:6); and I cannot confuse principles with persons. If we suffer, we shall reign. We are not principles. When we suffer, is it so that principles may reign? It would be a strange reward for me when I suffer to say that it is so that my principles may reign a thousand years.
The elders' song is not reserved for heaven.
Their new song (5:9) speaks of Christ's person ("you are worthy") and of Christ's work ("you were slain"). It also speaks of what His work has done for God ("you redeemed to God") and for us ("made us … kings and priests; and they shall reign over the earth"). Each of these four themes of the new song is already part of Christian worship today. In this sense the new song has already begun.
- Blood — the song's whole basis is the Lamb slain; every title in this verse is bought, not earned.
- Made — God offered Israel this place on condition of obedience, and Israel lost it. Grace now gives it: a kingdom and priests to God.
- Two directions — kingship is power flowing down from God; priesthood is access going up to God. One gift, both directions.
- Over — the reign is heavenly in place, earthly in sphere. The redeemed are not subjects of the kingdom; they are kings with Christ.
- Shall — the verb is future even in heaven. Real people, not principles, wait with Christ Himself for the day His enemies are put under His feet.
And I saw, and I heard [the] voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and their number was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands;
John has just watched the Lamb take the sealed book, and heard the redeemed sing a new song about it. Now the view widens. A second voice joins in — a host so large that John can only count it in thousands upon thousands.
Angels appear here for the first time in this heavenly scene. One writer asks why the previous chapter says nothing about them.
How is it that no angels appear in Revelation 4? And why do we have them in Revelation 5? God's ways that Scripture speaks of always have the wisest reason behind them, and the Spirit encourages us to ask humbly and with trust. Here is what it seems to point to. The Lamb takes the book into His hands and prepares to open the seals, and this marks a change of administration. Up to that point in time angels have carried out God's power for Him. When judgment was in view, or any other unusual act of His, angels were the instruments.
The numbers here are not a count. One writer notes what this crowd knows, as well as how large it is.
Here we have an indefinite, uncountable number of angelic beings who seem well acquainted with the history of the sorrows of the Saviour.
The order of the words in the verse matters.
Notice that these myriads of worshipping angels form, if we may put it that way, the outer circle of the heavenly hosts. They are around the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders. By His indescribable grace, God brings the redeemed, who are in Christ, into a nearer place than created beings that have never fallen from their perfect state as creatures! This is a well-known truth, but how little we grasp it in power.
Another writer adds what else marks the difference.
There the angels are "around the throne and the living creatures and the elders." That is, they form an outer circle, and so stand further from the throne. They do not sit on thrones or wear crowns on their heads, as kings and priests to God. God keeps those honours for the redeemed alone, since He has not put the world to come under angels.
The elders sing. The angels answer, but they do not sing. Commentators treat that difference as more than a matter of style.
In the response of the angelic hosts to the song of the redeemed they say, whereas the elders sing. This is more than a difference in words. Angels know the Lamb, but they cannot say "He was slain for us." We know Him in a deeper, fuller, more personal way than angels do. He died for us, not for them. So the difference: we sing, they say. Angels are never said to sing. Notice, too, that the elders in their song speak straight to the Lamb, while the angels, in keeping with their place and service, use a more distant form of address. The elders sing to Him; the angels speak about Him.
Another writer traces the difference to the angels' untroubled history.
Their peaceful lives never change, and sin has never touched them, so they have no varied tones for melody. The harps we will have above are tuned down here, where the Davids, marked out by their sufferings, are the sweet singers of Israel. This is the wonderful and eternal fruit of earth's sorrow, though by God's grace alone: the redeemed among men will be the choir of heaven!
Being outside the inner circle is not the same as being far off.
Redemption has therefore added to the angels' praise. It is not to the Creator only. And in this new praise, a new element of blessing, a new grasp of God, has entered their hearts. They are nearer, though in this outside circle, than they have ever been before. In truth, though in some sense outside, our earthly idea of distance fails to carry the thought. There may be larger and smaller measures of understanding, but real distance between the creature and the Creator is the one impossibility in heaven.
- Change — when the Lamb takes the book, the administration changes hands; until then angels carried out God's power.
- Circle — the angels stand around the throne, and around the living creatures and elders. That places them in the outer ring.
- Nearness — grace has set redeemed sinners closer to the throne than beings who never fell.
- Song — the elders sing to the Lamb; the angels only speak about Him, because they cannot say "He was slain for us."
- Gain — redemption enlarges even angelic praise. They praise Him for redemption, not creation only, and stand nearer than ever before.
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.
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.