REVELATION 5
Read Revelation 5:1-14
The vision that John has been given continues in Chapter 5, but this time the emphasis is on redemption. In Chapter 4 John saw God sitting on a throne with all of creation worshipping him. Now he, and we, see that God is holding a scroll and a mighty angel is crying out, “who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll”. What is this scroll? What is written on it that no one is worthy to open? It will transpire that what is written is God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. John seemed to instinctively know this for he wept because no-one could be found who was worthy. We can see here a kind of acted out drama of the New Testament message. No-one is worthy to be saved by the Lord; all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). That is why John wept; the future is hopeless. No-one can be saved because no-one is worthy.
There is, however, good news. The elder tells him not to weep because there is one who is worthy after all, and it is the Lion of Judah. Here we have another Old Testament reference in which Revelation abounds. The Lion of Judah is a messianic symbol of one who is to come from God to save his people with the lion representing God’s power, strength and sovereignty. So, John turns expecting to see a strong, powerful lion, but what does he see? Not a lion, but rather a lamb, and furthermore, a lamb that looked as if it had been slain. Not a vision of power and strength, but a picture of weakness.
With hindsight and a knowledge of the Gospel story we can see very clearly that this is a picture of Jesus. John the Baptist referred to Jesus as ‘the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). All of these elders and strange creatures worshipped the lamb because, as they sang in worship, “you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God” (v9), and this is a great summary of what Jesus did on the cross for us all. Oddly, the lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, but we recognise by now that the language of Revelation is symbolic. We are not expected to see a lamb with seven eyes and horns. The number seven again represents fullness, completeness, perfection. The horn in Hebrew writing represents strength and power. The passage is telling us that Jesus is perfectly strong and powerful and is all-seeing – he is God!
This worshipping of Jesus by the elders and the creatures tells us exactly who Jesus is. Only God is worthy of worship (Luke 4:8, 1 Chronicles 16:8-32) and he we are in heaven itself. Not only is God on the throne receiving worship but so is the lamb who was slain. Therefore, the lamb, Jesus, is on an equal footing with God the Father.
Jesus’ death on the cross redeemed God’s people from slavery to sin and death and has given them access to eternal life. Worthy indeed was the lamb who was slain!