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.