Good evening, and welcome to E Bible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is the study #1 of Revelation of chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:1:
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
And now we are progressing in our study of this Book of the Bible, the last Book of the Bible before God would complete his divine revelation. And the apostle John is continuing to be shown a vision from God, as God is giving him insight into the kingdom of heaven. And so, John sees in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne…and who is seated on the throne, but God himself, eternal God?
And, again, in the Bible, to be seated or to sit upon the throne, would, of course, point to ruling. God is ruling over all. And as He sits upon His glorious throne of heaven, John is given a glimpse to see this picture and he sees in the right hand of God – the right hand of Him that sits upon that throne – “a book written within and on the backside,” a book “sealed with seven seals.”
Now let us first think of the right hand of God, the right hand of the one sitting upon the throne. As we have learned a long time ago, everything in the Bible is important. There are no “filler statements.” There are no throw-away remarks. God does not just speak words to fill space. Everything that He communicates to us in His word, the Bible, is extremely important and valuable, and is given to us. It is designed to teach us about the person of God and His Gospel: about His word. And, here, we want to take a look at the “right hand.”
Now we find a verse in the Gospel of Mark 16:19:
So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.
Now this is a very common statement in the Bible and we find it made several times: Jesus is found at God’s right hand. It says in Romans 8:34:
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
And you can find this kind of verse in several books of the Bible: Jesus is at the right hand of God. Now we also read in the Psalms, in Psalm17:7:
Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
Now that is saying something slightly different; God saves by His right hand. And when we look at all the many references to the right hand of God (and that is the location where Christ ascends to), we can only conclude that the right hand of God is a place. It is language that describes Jesus Himself and He is the Saviour. He is the one that brings salvation to those that He chooses to save and God saves by His right hand. The right hand is a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now in our verse in Revelation 5 (and I will read it again) in Revelation 5:1:
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
So, he does not see Jesus at the right hand of God – that statement is not made. But rather a book is in the right hand of God, in the right hand of the one seated on the throne. Well, of course, that makes us interested in that book. We want to learn: “What is the significance of the book that is in the hand of God? Does God read? Why does He have a book in his hand?”
Well, we can only discover the answer the same way we discover any truth in the Bible: by first going to God and asking him for help and guidance, and then by following the methodology that God has established for coming to truth and that is by searching the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and seeing what else the Bible says about the book. The Greek word that is translated as book is the word biblion.
Now there are a couple of different Greek words that are close to one another in the concordance: biblios and there is biblion. This one is the Greek work biblion and let us see how this particular word (Strong’s 975) is used in a few places in the New Testament. Let us start with Luke 4:17:
And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
And this book or scroll is given to the Lord Jesus Christ and then He opens it to the Book of Isaiah, where these scriptures are written, and He begins to read them. Now that means that the word book (found twice in verse 17) is referring to a portion of the Bible, as Isaiah is a Book of Bible and biblion is, therefore, describing a Book of the Bible.
It says in John 20:30:
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
Christ did many things that are not recorded in John’s Gospel (the fourth Gospel) or in the Bible. Not everything that Jesus did in His lifetime or during His period of ministry was included in the Bible. God selected the information He wanted us to know and, based upon this verse, we would have to say that He left some things out. Now I say “some,” but the Bible tells us in another place that if everything were written…well, it says in John 21:25:
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Now that is an incredible statement, but a true statement; if everything that Christ has done…and remember that He is eternal God and if God were so pleased, He could go into such detail, into such depths of knowledge concerning any one topic or a few topics and it would take just enormous volumes of writings to write it all down. But God, in His wisdom, determined to give us a Book that we could somewhat contain in size. And it is a Book that can fit in our hands, the Bible, which is made up of 66 individual Books that God moved certain men of old to record and write, so that we have this one Book or the whole of the Scripture, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.
We know from studying this Book that you can take a verse and you can speak about a verse (depending on God’s good pleasure in how much he wants to open up to our understanding) for hours; sometimes a verse may open up a doctrine and it is just full of information and that doctrine leads you to hours, upon hours, upon hours, of study.
Men have written about the teachings of the Bible – about a verse here and a verse there. And they have written commentaries and theological writings; and preachers have preached upon the Scriptures, literally, for thousands of years; and libraries are full of books that men have written in which they have basically only touched upon certain teachings of the Word of God. It is really in our day – in these last days in the time of the end – that God has opened the Scriptures.
Can you imagine if they had been opened throughout history, from the very beginning, how much more men would have been able to write? And yet, even with their limitations they wrote a great many things. Of course, the problem with man’s writings is that it is faulty and error-prone and there are many things written that are untrue. But when God writes it is perfectly true and according to His word; if everything should be written, “even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written”; and it just really encourages us.
If anyone thinks, “Oh, I have studied the Bible and I am getting a little tired of it;” well then, you need to go study the Bible again because there is no end to the riches and of the treasures of the Word of God in this life. We are probably not studying very diligently at all if we think we have studied at all. Maybe – no, not maybe – but, definitely, we have just scratched the surface and casually studied the Bible.
Just pick any place in the Scripture – any Book you want – and begin to slowly and carefully and very deliberately look at each verse, and look up each word and see where it leads you and you will soon find that one Book of the Bible can occupy months, and even years, of your time (if you are doing it in a very careful way). And after you have done this maybe for a couple of years with one Book, you will look back and discover, “Oh, now when I read that again there is something else that I did not see before, something else I did not realize, something else I learned.” And that is how the Bible is.
And, of course, when we get into eternity future we will have the Lord Jesus Christ in person, in His eternal glorious bodily form, and we ourselves will be equipped with new resurrected bodies and souls. And there will be no “filter problems,” such as those our sin causes in this life, so we will be perfect students sitting under the perfect teacher. And we will certainly be interested in every word that comes forth from the mouth of God and it will be nourishing us in spiritually feeding us for evermore.
And if you think it is wonderful (and the child of God does think this) to learn a single truth or two in a Bible study, or even to be reminded of a truth that we had learned previously…and we’re thankful. It is always a joy to the believer to learn a Scripture verse that he had difficulty with before and those are joys that God has given us in this world.
Well, can you imagine? When Jesus Christ teaches now, as He directs us through His spirit and we follow His methodology to compare Scripture with Scripture as the Holy Ghost teaches, it is a relatively slow process (again, due to our limitations bodily, and so forth) and those limitations will be removed in eternity future. And we can just go directly to Christ and hear His expounding of His word of Himself and everything we hear we can trust implicitly. We can trust it wholeheartedly. We know it is truth. And so we will learn at a rapid rate and it will be (in eternity future) just one of the tasks that God will give us to do, whatever that is, besides worshipping Him and praising Him and doing His will forever more.
One of the things that will make eternity glorious is the fountain of knowledge that will never cease to flow from the throne of God, from the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be everlasting drink and bread to the people of God, so that we will just grow incredibly in the knowledge of God. And, so, we have something extraordinarily great to look forward to as we think of the eternal future that awaits each true believer.
Well, we also find the word biblion in Revelation1:1:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:
And then a little further along in this same chapter we find this statement in Revelation 1:10:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.
And it continues naming the churches. So God told John, “What you see, write in a biblion.” Again, Isaiah was written in a biblion. The forth Gospel, which we call John, was written in a biblion. In Hebrews, chapter 10, we find this all encompassing statement in Hebrews 10:7:
Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
And this is a quote from Psalm 40:7:
Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
And, of course, this is Jesus who is speaking. He comes and “in the volume,” in the whole of the Bible; the Bible is ultimately that Book, the Book that God warns against adding to or subtracting from, in Revelation 22:18-19; if you add unto this Book – this biblion – you will have “the plagues written herein” added to you.
So, as we look up this word, repeatedly, it points us back to the Bible, to the Word of God. So, then let us go back to Revelation 5:1:
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
Now remember we saw that Jesus is identified with the position of the right hand of God, but it is not said to be Jesus, but the Book (the Word of God, the Bible) which is in the right hand of God. And, obviously, we can see the connection, since Jesus is the “Word made flesh.” He is the one that is written about in the Book: “in the volume of the book it is written of me.”
So, basically, and in essence, the Book, the Bible, is completely identified with Christ, or Christ is completely identified with the Bible. And, so, as Jesus is at the right hand of God, so in the right hand of God is a Book. It is that Book – this holy Book, this divine revelation of God, this wonderful, beautiful, glorious writing that came forth from the mouth of God that he has granted mankind – that He has revealed to His people.
But why does it say that the book is “written from within and on the backside”? Now most books – all books – are written within (if you obtain a book, especially today), but in ancient times the writings would be written on a scroll and it is closed and you have to unravel it, unroll it, and then you can read it as you hold onto the scroll. And today we have hardbacks and paperbacks and these are the covers that the book is bound in, and you have to open the book and inside the book, within the book, you find the writing and the subject matter. And it is also true today that on the outside you can find some writing that gives you a few details about the nature of that book. But, for the most part, in just about all cases, the writing is within.
And, so, here, with this book in the hand of God, it is a book that can only be the Bible; it cannot be any other book. God is not interested in any other book. What other book would He have in His right hand, seated upon His throne in heaven? Does he have a geometry book, a math book or a science book? No. There is only one book God is interested in, and that is the Book of God, the Bible. And that Book is “written within and on the backside.” In other words, it has writing within and without. It has some writing on both sides of the scroll, so you could read some things on the outside and some things on the inside.
So why is that? Why does God refer to His Book that way? Well, I think we can understand it if we understand that the Bible, the Word of God, is said to be a twoedged sword in Hebrews 4:12:
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
It is quick; that is, it is alive. The Bible is twoedged: it cuts two ways. It is able, by God’s Word, to save and God accomplished His salvation of sinners in the day of salvation, and it is able, according to God’s will, to judge. The Bible has been judging mankind since the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden when man rebelled and transgressed the Law of God, or the Word of God, the Bible.
And, so, the Bible is a twoedged sword to those that hear it: “The savour of life unto life” for God’s elect, and “death unto death” for those who are not His elect, the unsaved of the earth. And this writing on both sides reminds us of that.
There is something similar (not exactly the same) in the book of Zechariah, chapter 5, where we read about the “flying roll.” Now the “flying roll” would be a figure of the Word of God, the Bible. It says in Zechariah 5:2-3:
And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. 3 Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
And, again, notice “this side” and “that side,” and those that are guilty of sin – guilty of breaking the law of God – are cut off by this flying roll on either side: the two edges of the Word of God, the Bible.
Well, we are going to end the Bible study here. LORD willing, in our next study, we are going to look at the seals of this Book in the hand of God that is sealed with seven seals. And then this will lead us into the rest of chapter 5 and the following chapter – as those seals are removed – and we wonder: Why does God make such a big deal about the Lord Jesus taking off the seals from the Bible? Why was it necessary to be victorious before He could be the one to remove the seals and why only He can take off the seals?
Good evening and welcome to eBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #2 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to begin by reading the first few verses:
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
I will stop reading there. Here we find this vision into these amazing things that are going on in the kingdom of heaven – in God’s throne room – where He is seated upon the throne and He has a book in His right hand. We saw in our last study that the book must be the Bible. It can only be the Bible. The right hand of God is that which identifies with the Lord Jesus Christ and so, too, the Bible completely identifies with Christ.
And we read in Psalm 17:7:
Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
And God saves by Christ. But further than that, we know that how God saves by the Lord Jesus Christ is accomplished through his Word, the Bible: “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17)
So we are right on track. We are very much understanding this correctly when we realize that the book in the right hand of God is a figure of the Bible. Yes, but Jesus is the “Word made flesh,” and we really cannot separate the Word of God from the Lord Jesus Christ; they are inseparable.
And so, here, that Book is written within and on the backside and we understood that this points to the two edges of God’s Word. It is able to cut both ways – to life or death, to judgment or salvation.
And then the verse says, at the end of verse 1, this mysterious book in God’s right hand was sealed with seven seals. And we are not surprised to find the number seven, as we have already come across that number a few times in the study of the Book of Revelation and we will come across it several more times. It is a number that identifies with perfection.
And this Book, the Bible, is sealed with seven seals and God is the one who has sealed it. And what this sealing of the Book has done is that it has closed or shut the Book, as we read earlier in our study of Revelation, back in Revelation 3:7:
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
God shut up this Book by sealing it. And He closed it. He cut off mankind’s ability to read and understand it and that is what we saw in verses 3 and 4, where it said:
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
God shut the Book and man could not open the Book. Only God Himself – only Jesus, the one who possesses the key of David – can open what has been shut. Only He can shut and no man can open and, so, we find that the Bible was shut up. It was sealed with a perfect seal, with seven seals.
Now do we read anything else in the Bible about this sealing of the Scriptures? Well, the first thing…let us just look at the word sealed, and then we will look at a couple of places where the Word of God is in view. It says in Matthew 27:66:
So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.
I just wanted to read this to help us visualize something that is sealed, so that we get a good idea of exactly what God is talking about when He says that He uses seven seals or that He sealed this Book with seven seals.
When Jesus was in the tomb, the Jewish people were concerned and they came to the Roman authorities – to Pilot – and they desired a watch. They got their request and they went and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone and setting a watch.
They made absolutely sure that the stone was in place; there were no cracks; there was no way out. This is the only entrance to the tomb: “Let us seal the stone.” They were trying to keep the Lord Jesus dead, which, of course, is an impossible thing for them to have done. There is no way they could have done this. This is man sealing something up, not God. And God is the one that opened up the tomb and brought forth the Lord Jesus Christ. He brought him forth from death and resurrected Him.
And so the sealing of the stone did not mean anything, as far as that was concerned. But we do understand what sealing means. It means to “keep it shut” or to “keep it closed up,” and do not let anyone enter the sepulcher; or in the case of the Book, the Bible, to not be able to open it – that they might look thereon and read thereon – and see what it had to say.
Is that not really an incredible thought? God has spent hundreds and hundreds of years, literally hundreds of years, as He began to bring revelation to Moses and have it recorded in written form. He began that process with Moses and He used Moses to write the first five books of the Bible. And then over, well, we know Moses would have accomplished that by 1407 B.C., during that 40-year wilderness sojourn because Moses died in 1407 A.D., and then God would complete the process of writing the Bible by the end of the first century A.D., so it was around fifteen hundred years (and that is a very long time) in which God moved “holy men of old” to record His word precisely, exactly as He wanted it written, without error or mistake; and He compiled the book, the Bible.
And, really, the Lord went to great lengths to have historical occurrences happen in the way that they were written about in Scripture, to move prophets, like Jeremiah, to prophesy and then write it all down. And when someone would dare take that writing (as the king of Judah did) and destroy it and burn it in the fire, it was God that told Jeremiah to write it down again.
It was very important that it be recorded for the sake of God’s elect; for mankind. And God went to painstaking lengths to complete this process, to safeguard this process and to make sure that His word was completed and not added to or subtracted from. Then He watched over it, throughout the many hundreds of years of the church age, so no one could violate it or add something to it. He preserved his word.
The Word of the Lord is preserved by God and it is watched over. We do not have to worry that it is lacking some Book or chapter or verse or even a single word. We have the complete Word of God, which is watched over by God, so that we have exactly what He wants mankind to have.
And God did all this, and yet at the same time He seals it up. (Repeat) He seals it up. It is almost working against Himself, we might think. Why would he go to such trouble and to such lengths to have this great work, this wonderful declaration that comes forth from the very mouth of God, and why would God have men give up their lives and sacrifice their lives for His Word, only to then seal it up with seven seals so that no man could look upon it?
Well, let us first see where the Bible does tell us this. In Daniel chapter 12, in verse 4…and this is a Book in which God gave that man a great deal of end time information; there is no question about that. The time of the end is referred to in the Book of Daniel. It says in Daniel 12:4:
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
So, there it is. There it is. And to make sure we did not miss it, it says in verse Daniel 12:8:
And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
Once again, God instructs Daniel to go his way, “for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.”
Now this lets us know that the writing of the Bible was sealed even in the Old Testament days. It was sealed even as it was being compiled, even as God was filling it out and completing His word. And, here, He is using Daniel as a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is using Daniel as a figure and He is using this prophesy – the revelation given to Daniel – as a figure of the whole Book, the Bible.
And God’s instructions are to: “Go they way, for the words are closed up and sealed till (until a point in time) the time of the end.” And it is not directly stated, but it is definitely implied that once you do reach the time of the end, then the Word, this Book, will be opened. And that is why back in verse 4, it said, “seal the book even to the time of the end: Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be increased,” because at the time of the end, it was God’s plan to open the Book.
That is why the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, at the very end of divine revelation that God had put together and brought together in this volume of the Bible, that God speaks of a Book in the right hand of God that is sealed with seven seals and unable to be opened. No man, it says there, could open the book. The Bible was a sealed Book.
And is it not just incredible? It really is amazing for us to consider that God did this. Why would He work things out this way? Why would He trouble Himself in recording His own words and then prevent men from properly understanding them?
Well, let us go to another few verses in the book of Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 29, where we also will read this idea of the Bible being sealed. It says in Isaiah 29:10:
For JEHOVAH hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
Now, here, we find that God has indicated that it is as though men are asleep when the “vision of all”…and the word of God is likened with visions in many places; the Book of Isaiah itself begins with God stating that He is giving a vision to Isaiah, the prophet, so the word vision identifies with the Bible. So “the vision of all,” the Book of the Bible, is sealed and that means it is as though men are asleep and their eyes are closed and they cannot read and understand; they cannot comprehend.
And this is the figure the Lord Jesus Christ picks up in the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24:
Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
Notice that it says “while men slept”? The picture here, when we put it all together, is that the Bible was sealed and that is the equivalent of men sleeping all throughout the New Testament church age. And yet the gospel was going forth; Christ is the sower, sowing good seed; the enemy is Satan sowing tares amongst the wheat, and this was happening within the churches and congregations; and it is not until the time of the end, in the harvest, that anything was done about this. And it was at the time of the end that God said to Daniel, in Daniel 12:4:
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Up until that point when the church age ended and the great tribulation began in May of 1988 – and 1988 was the 13,000 year of earth’s history – it became the time of the end. Judgment began at the house of God upon the churches and congregations of the world. At that same time, God determined to open up the Book, the Bible – to open up the Scriptures – to begin revealing truth that had been sealed from all time.
No man had ever known the things that God had recorded in His Word. As it says in Revelation 5: “No man is able to look thereon,” and to read and to understand.” Who can take a bound book, a book that is sealed, and tell you its contents? Oh, obviously, Isaiah told us, no one can do that – not the learned or unlearned; no one can understand a book that they cannot open. It must be opened, then (it must be) read and then you can understand.
But God worked it out so that no man could open it until the end time of the great tribulation, which means that all seven seals had to have come off at the very beginning of the great tribulation. Well, why does it mean that? Why could not one or two of the seals come off? And then in 1994, a couple more are taken off? And then on May 21, 2011, a couple more seals?
No, because seven seals were around the Bible. And if you take off six of the seals, but one seal remains, that means the Book is still sealed, and you cannot open it. In order to open it, you have to take off all the seals that have been binding it and sealing it. You can remove just one seal, but it is still sealed; you can take six seals off and it is still sealed. It takes all the seals to come off before the Book is open.
That information will be very helpful to us as we move further into our study of Revelation, as we will not be deceived into thinking that certain things are happening at various points in time. No, what God is saying is that the Bible became unsealed all at once at the beginning of the great tribulation, when the world reached the point known as the time of the end. We have been living in the time of the end for many years now, since 1988.
Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #3 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to begin by reading from Revelation 5:1-5:
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
We have been looking at this picture that God has given us, as He is giving the Apostle John information concerning His throne in heaven; and the LORD is seated upon His throne and he has in His right hand a book written within and without, that is sealed with seven seals.
Then it says in Revelation 5:2:
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming…
The word proclaiming is the same Greek word that is often translated as preaching, so he is proclaiming or preaching with a loud voice:
Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
Let us take a look at this strong angel before we continue looking at the rest of this information. Who is the strong angel that the Apostle John saw that was proclaiming with a loud voice and asking the question, “Who is worthy to open the book?” (Then there is a response given a little later in the chapter.)
We find that the angel proclaiming this is God Himself. It says in Revelation 18:8:
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong *is* the Lord God who judgeth her.
That word strong is the same word that is used to describe this angel or messenger in our verse in chapter 5. It is a strong angel, and, of course, God is all powerful and almighty; He is the Omnipotent One and He is strong. We also find this statement in Revelation 10:1:
And I saw another mighty angel…
The word mighty is also a translation of the same Greek word.
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow *was* upon his head, and his face *was* as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
Now there is no question as to who this strong angel is in Revelation 10:1. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one that identifies with the rainbow in the Bible. He is the one that is identified with the sun. He is said to the “Son of righteousness,” and the Bible says in Psalm 84:11 that the Lord God is a “sun and a shield.” And, also, Christ, as it states there, has feet “as pillars of fire.” The pillars of fire identify with the Lord Jesus experiencing the judgment and wrath of God for the sake of His elect.
Notice also in Revelation 10:2:
And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and *his* left *foot* on the earth,
Now in our passage in Revelation 5, God is the one that is on the throne and in His hand is a book that is sealed and in Revelation 10 this strong angel has in his hand a “little book open.” There is a difference because this is said to be a “little book” and I do not want to get into that right now; but the fact that it says it is “open,” literally, it should read: “And he had in his hand a little book having been opened.” It is, therefore, referring to the Bible during the great tribulation and during the Day of Judgment because that is the only time the Bible has been open. Otherwise, it would be sealed.
But right now, we are just trying to identify the strong angel and it clearly is the Lord Jesus. In Revelation 18, it says in verse 20:
Rejoice over her, *thou* heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast *it* into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
The mighty angel is judging Babylon and Babylon here is a picture of the world. Now God has not assigned that task for an angel to perform. God is the Judge. Christ is the Judge. Jesus is the mighty angel that is condemning Babylon; that is, bringing the judgment upon the world at the time of the end.
Well, let us go back to Revelation 5:2:
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
God’s people have always realized that we need God in order to understand the Bible – that apart from God there would be no proper understanding of the Scriptures – and this verse is confirming that truth: “no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth.” You cannot find a man anywhere that will have the ability, the power or the authority to open up the Book. No man is able to even open the Book – to remove the seven seals that God has placed upon it.
And remember what God says in a few places in the Bible – that what He has shut, “no man can open,” and He shut up His word, the Scriptures, as He said in Daniel 12: “Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.” And then “knowledge will increase,” because at the time of the end it would be unsealed; and that would imply that the people of God would understand it: first of all, that they would read it and then that they would be able to understand it and comprehend it. But all of the time that it was sealed up, no one had any ability to understand the things of the Bible. God tells us in 1st Corinthians 13:9:
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
This is a true declaration concerning the entire church age; the people of God in the churches (Christians, whether saved or unsaved, whether wheat or tares) all “slept,” as it says in the Matthew 13 parable; and Isaiah 29 indicates that it is as though men sleep when a book is sealed. This means that all during the church age those in the churches had partial understanding and they declared what they understood; therefore, they prophesied in part or partially. They had some things correct – they were given some truth concerning the Lord Jesus and the Gospel of the Bible – but there was much that was not given them or revealed to them because it was not the time. You have to wait until the time of the end.
Now why did God do that? We asked that question in our last study. God had His own purposes and reasons. Of course, it was extremely wise of Him. We know that because He does everything wisely; He does everything with infinite wisdom and so it was according to the wisdom of God that He would only reveal partial truth.
Now one reason we can quickly see as to why it would be necessary for the LORD to seal up or close up information about the time of the end – information that would deal with the end of the church age, the great tribulation, the date for judgment day and which would deal with the period of time we are now in during this Day of Judgment. Christ indicates in John 16 that he had many things further to communicate with His people, but he would not do so at that point because He did not want them to be burdened. Let me read that verse because it is very helpful, in John 16:12:
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
God is concerned about the burden He would place upon His people if He gave all the information at once – if He just wrote it in more plain language, or if He had opened His people’s eyes to these truths early on, or if Christ would have explained them early on to His disciples and the disciples then explained it to those that followed them, and so on – then they would be carrying a burden of knowledge that we would be here for centuries; it is only the first century and the time of the end will not come until the 20th century when the great tribulation begins; and then the actual end of the world will not occur until the 21st century.
Oh, my, what a burden! Not only do they have to carry the burden of living the Christian life, but that expectation which God did allow His people to hold to in their partial understanding: “Perhaps the LORD will come in my lifetime. Perhaps the LORD will come in my generation or my son’s generation.” God permitted that, even though it was incorrect, in order not to overburden His people.
But, here, in John 16:13, Christ says:
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, *that* shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
There God lays down His end time program. It is very similar to what the LORD said to Daniel hundreds of years before the coming of Christ: “Go your way, Daniel, the word is sealed til the time of the end.” Well, now, in the first century A.D., Jesus is basically saying the same thing to His disciples: “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” He is saying, “I do not want to overburden you, but go your way, and the Holy Spirit will come and show you all truth.” And when would that be? Would it be in Acts 2 with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost to begin the church age? No, there was not all truth revealed at that time, but it would come at the time of the end, as we read in Mark 13:10-11:
And the gospel must first be published among all nations. But when they shall lead *you*, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
Now, there again, Jesus is saying that the Holy Ghost will speak, but when is the Holy Ghost going to speak? He is going to speak “in that hour” and the hour identifies with the great tribulation which is typified by one hour.
It is really amazing (in Mark 13, in the verse we just read) how the God of the Bible encourages the reader to study the Bible diligently and to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed;” the same God who says, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all;”
The same God that encourages us to give attendance to reading, to continue to seek the truth, to pray for wisdom and to study, study, study…and, yet, how could it be that this same God says, in Mark 13:11: “Take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate,” concerning the end of the world “in that hour;” and the Lord is giving admonishment to not think of it beforehand and to not premeditate.
Just about everyone did not hearken to God concerning this instruction. All of those in the churches and congregations continued to try to figure out the time of the end and they developed scenarios and end time commentaries; eschatology was developed by all sorts of individuals – this is what the Bible teaches about the end – and many of them differed from one another and they were all saying contradicting things. And all of them, without fail, were wrong. It is really incredible how wrong all of them are (and were) in the things that they developed concerning the teaching of the Bible and the end of the world.
They were wrong because they could not know. That is why the Lord says: “take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate” (concerning the great tribulation and concerning His coming) because the Bible was sealed, and no matter how studious or how intelligent or how learned anyone might be…remember what Isaiah 29 said about the learned man? Let me just refer to that because God puts it better than any man could. It says in Isaiah 29:11:
And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which *men* deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it *is* sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.
No man could read the Book that was sealed. Who can read a book that is sealed? And if you cannot open it to read it, you certainly cannot comprehend it or know it. That is the Lord’s point, so wait until the time of the end, until “that hour,” as it says in Mark 13:11:
… but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.
How is that possible? God is telling us that what we receive in that hour, we are to speak, but what we say is not coming from us, but it is coming from the Holy Ghost. Now, first of all, since he is referring to “that hour” of great tribulation which comes at the end of the world, long after the Bible was completed, how can the Holy Ghost speak? The bible is clear that God will not break the barrier of the supernatural; He will not add to or subtract from His word; He will not give a dream or a vision or divine revelation in any form, so how can He speak? And what He speaks, He will give us and we are to speak; and then we are to realize that it is not us that really did the speaking, but the Holy Ghost. How can God do that?
The answer is, actually, not that difficult. In 1st Corinthians 2, we read a verse that explains God’s end time program and tells us exactly how He intends to give information to His people in the time of the hour of the great tribulation when the Bible is unsealed, and how they are then to speak it, and also how it is evidently from Him and He takes full responsibility for what is being said. It says in 1st Corinthians 2:13:
Which things also we speak…
Well, there it is again. It is the child of God that is opening his mouth and speaking and declaring things.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
That is the solution to Mark 13:11 – that God will move within His people to will and to do of His good pleasure and to approach the Bible in the way that He has instructed them with the methodology that He has laid out for them, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual,” and as we do so – as we are carefully going about that – we will come to truth and understanding, because at the proper time at the time of the end, God will take the seals off the Book, the Bible, (all seven seals all at once) and now, suddenly, the Bible will be an open Book; it will be as though you can read it and understand it and comprehend it; and we will know: “The wise will understand.” None of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand, as God says in so many places, and as He says in that verse in Ecclesiastes 8:5:
Whoso keepeth the commandment shall feel no evil thing: and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment.
Now, by God’s grace, we have discerned the time of the great tribulation and we can lay it out; we have discerned the time of judgment day beginning on May 21, 2011, and now we have discerned judgment – the nature of the judgment of the Day of Judgment. God is giving His people that understanding and the ability to comprehend what He has done.
So we are at the time of the end; the seals are off the Book, the Bible, and now we are able to read and understand what no previous generations has been able to understand. It has nothing to do with intelligence. It has nothing to do with diligence. (Those things factor in but it is not the cause of it.) It is only a result of living at the time of the end. That is where we are. We are living in the Day of Judgment and living in the time when the Bible is now open.
This is actually a wonderful time; and it was necessary for God to do this so that He could open the Scriptures to reveal, for instance, the end of the church age, to get His people out of the churches, and to send forth the Gospel from that position in order to save a great multitude of sinners in the world (apart from the churches and congregations). God, in His wisdom, has decided to work things out this way.
And now we find we are coming down to the last few details for Him to reveal – the last few bits of information that have been closed up and sealed. Even though all of the seals were removed at the beginning of the great tribulation, it has been God’s program and His pleasure to reveal the truths, here and there, as we have gone along in the great tribulation and now in the Day of Judgment.
Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #4 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:5:
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Now we need to back up one verse to see why the Apostle John was weeping and it says in Revelation 5:4:
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.
When we look up the Greek word that is translated here as weep (and it is also the same word in verse 5 when one of the elders says unto him, “Weep not”), this word is often used in connection with death. When the young girl had died and the Lord said to the mourners, “Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth,” and that is the same word. It is the same word used in connection with the death of Lazarus while he was in the tomb. The majority of times when this word is used it involves weeping and death; somehow, the crying, the weeping, is related to death.
And, here, we wonder, “What is the seriousness? Why is the Apostle John weeping just because this book is sealed? And it says that the reason he is weeping is “because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon,” or “to see,” because that word “to look” is more often translated as “to see;” that is, “because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to see.” Now, of course, verse 5 tells us: “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.”
We will see as we get more into this verse that it is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ; He is able to do that which no man previously was able to do. No man any where – no matter where you looked for a man – was able to open and read and see the writing of this sealed book. So John is weeping and the LORD is giving comfort and saying, “Weep not.”
And then it goes on to say in Revelation 5:6-9:
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
So there is no question. Jesus is able and worthy to do what man could not. And we understand from many other places in the Bible that it would take a sinless man in order to offer up the proper sacrifice for sin; it would take a perfect man, a man without any blot or any transgression. And, also, it would take a God-Man because not only would he have to offer up himself for one other individual but for a great number as “the stars of the sky for multitude,” the Bible says; and all of their sins and all of their guilt and all of the weight and burden of their filthy deeds would be laid upon one Man, and one Man only, the Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal God, JEHOVAH, the Saviour of His elect people. And no man was even able to begin to go about performing that tremendous atoning work on behalf of others; no one was qualified to do this but Eternal God, who entered into the human race to make manifest what He had done from the foundation of the world. Eternal God was the only one who could do it and the only one worthy.
But what does all that have to do with the sealed book? And it does have to do with the sealed book and that is the real puzzle here – that is the real question, because we know the book is the Bible. And we know it was God’s plan to seal up the word till the time of the end. And, here, we find that Book in the right hand of God and sealed with seven seals. The question was asked in verse 2, “Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?” And that is when the Apostle John (writing under the inspiration of God as he is being given this vision) begins to weep because no man was found worthy.
Oh, but there is one; yes, there is one: the Lord Jesus. And we understand and we quickly see that this is all referring to the atonement; it has to do with the death that Christ died on behalf of His people, for the sake of the elect.
But what we are not seeing too clearly is how that atoning work of Christ identifies and relates to that sealed Book of the Bible which would be sealed until the time of the end? Why is it necessary for Jesus to be found worthy in order to open the Book? And why could no man be found that was worthy to open the Book? This is the curious thing about this passage and, really, about this whole chapter: God is making a very big deal out of the fact that the Lord Jesus was qualified to open the Book and did open the Book of the Bible.
It is not a small matter and that means that we should never think little of what God has done in unsealing the Scriptures in our day, at this time of the end. This is an incredibly important thing in God’s program; this is not a minor thing, not an obscure thing or an unimportant thing. But it is very major. It is a tremendously important aspect of God’s program of salvation and judgment. It is tied to the worthiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is tied to His atoning work, that God, in the process of time according to His timetable of times and seasons for this world – would open up the seals that had bound the Holy Book, the Bible, at the time of the end. And it would take a worthy Saviour, a pure and perfect Saviour – the Lord Jesus – in order to accomplish this.
We want to think about this and since we are going verse by verse, we will have plenty of time to think about this and pray for wisdom and spend a little bit of time dwelling upon it, because this is the overriding emphasis in Revelation 5: the worthiness of the Lamb. And because He was worthy, this permits Him to open up the Book, the Bible.
Well, let us read here in Revelation 5:5:
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:…
First of all, we have to correct this because, literally, the verse should read: “one out of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.” The word one is here, but the word “out of” is not translated in our Kings James. Yes, there were twenty four elders and when we read “one of the elders,” we think that one of the elders is speaking to John. But it ought to read “one out of the elders,” and that is a very important distinction because it says in Revelation 5:6:
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…
So the Lamb is in the midst of the elders and it says in verse 5, again, and “one out of the elders saith unto me, Weep not.” Now God is one. He is the sovereign One. He is the eternal deity and the Almighty and the number one identifies with him; He is in the midst of the elders and Christ is the Lamb, so He is the one that is responding to the Apostle John.
And that figures, because it is God who comforts His people. It is God who soothes our souls and our troubled minds when we are weeping and when we are downcast. It is the LORD that speaks a word to encourage our hearts and, so, too, here:
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Now the phrase “Lion of the tribe of Juda” is pulled all the way from the Book of Genesis. It says in Genesis, chapter 49, when the sons of Jacob were gathered together before him and he began to address each one of them, prophesying before them, and it says in Genesis 49:8-12:
Judah, thou *art he* whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand *shall be* in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him *shall* the gathering of the people *be*. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes *shall be* red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.
Well, here, in this passage Judah is spoken of as a “lion’s whelp.” It is a prophesy referring to the Lord Jesus that would come forth from the tribe of Judah. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. These are the words that Jacob spoke long ago before his death in Egypt, as he said these things to his son and to Judah himself; and it is pointing to the Lord that would come through the loins of Judah (in the sense that he was a son of David through Mary) and will be born into the tribes of Judah many centuries from this point.
And “The sceptre” (and a king rules with a sceptre) “ shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver” (and who is a lawgiver but the Judge) “from between his feet, until Shiloh come.”
And, here, also, Shiloh is a reference to Christ. So Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and He is the one that is spoken of in Revelation 5:5: “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda.” Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy given by Jacob in Genesis 49.
And it goes on to say: “the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book.” And David also was of the tribe of Judah and Christ is one of his descendents (not through his earthly stepfather Joseph but through his mother, as the father of Jesus is God Himself, as Christ was conceived and born of a virgin), so the “root of David” is a reference to the fact that Christ came forth through the descendents of David, as we read in Isaiah 11:10:
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse…
(Now it says “Jesse,” but Jesse is the father of David, so it may as well say “a root of David.”)
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, *that* the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people…
And it begins to speak of God’s salvation program: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse.” This is referring to Christ. There is a follow up statement in Isaiah 53:1-3:
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of JEHOVAH revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, *there is* no beauty that we should desire him. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of JEHOVAH revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, *there is* no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…
It continues on and every statement found in Isaiah 53 is wonderfully describing Christ Himself. He is the one that came up “as a root out of a dry ground.” The word root is referring to the Lord. Now we may as well look at Matthew 13, as we are looking at these other verses, because it helps us to understand it more clearly (when you do a word search like this), and it says in Matthew 13:20-21:
But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
And that is it (for that person): “I am going away. I am returning to the world. I am going back to the church. I am getting away from these teachings that are so troubling to me. I cannot bear the problems, the difficulties and the persecutions they bring.”
But no matter what the reason is, the real reason he is not enduring during the time of testing or tribulation is because “he hath not root in himself;” and we can very definitely understand that to be a reference to the Lord Jesus, the root of Jesse, the root that springs up out of dry ground. He (the unsaved individual) has not the spirit of Christ within and, therefore, he is not equipped and simply not able to endure. And this is why God says in Matthew 24 that the one that “endures to the end shall be saved.”
He is not saying, “Everyone, just hold on with white knuckles and just grab a hold and use all your strength and make sure you stand fast.” No. When God says of the ones that “endure to the end,” He is indicating those that have a root in themselves. They, therefore, will endure because Christ is within; it is not a matter of their strength, their willpower, their stubbornness, their steadfastness, or their faithfulness. It is only a matter of who is within them and without the root within, they will only endure for a period of time – and that period of time can be different from one unsaved person to the next, but the qualifier is a period of time; for some, it is very quick and, for others, they may hold on for a while, but, finally, they have no root and they will not endure. God is certainly making sure of that in this severe day of testing that we are presently in.
Once again, we see in our verse in Revelation 5:5:
And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
He “hath prevailed.” It is speaking of a past event – that Christ has prevailed from the foundation of the world. He entered into the human race and He submitted Himself to testing when Satan tested Him for forty days; He submitted Himself to testing throughout the period of His ministry; He submitted Himself to punishment a second time (even though He was not bearing sin), and in all these things, He was victorious and He overcame any and all efforts to oppose Him and the kingdom of God. The Lord Jesus hath prevailed.
This word prevailed is the same word that we encountered, time and again, in Revelation chapters 2 and 3 regarding the churches, when the Lord would say, “He that overcometh,” in each one of the addresses to each one of the churches. This is the same Greek word that was translated as “overcometh.” It has to do with being victorious and prevailing, as it is found in John 16:33:
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Or, (we could say) “I have prevailed over the world.” He has already won the victory. Christ has already defeated the enemy because He did it from the foundation of the world; He did it before the world even began.
And, here, this glorious, victorious work of the Saviour – the atonement work that He did for the sake of all whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life – is being called up and brought to remembrance because if not for that, no one would be able to open the Book and no one would be able to open loose the seals. And if that did not happen, then God’s end time program would not have come to pass; God would not have been able to save a great multitude during the time of the Great Tribulation; God would not have been able to complete His salvation plan because the great majority of individuals predestinated to salvation were to be born and live during the “little season” that came right at the end of the world.
So it was absolutely necessary that the Lord “hath prevailed.” And, of course, if Jesus did not prevail, not only would the Book not be open, but there would be no salvation program at all during any period of history. When we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look more at this idea – this connection that God makes with the opening of the Bible at the time of the end and the atoning work of the Lord.
Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #5 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:6:
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
We are continuing to look at this glorious vision that God has given to His servant John on the island of Patmos (we read way back in Revelation, chapter 1) in the Day of the Lord or the Lord’s Day. So we are not surprised as we read the Book of Revelation that there is much to say about judgment because the Bible often speaks of judgment day as the Day of the Lord.
Here, in Revelation 5, we have seen that the Lord is seated upon His throne and there was a book that is written within and on the back side and sealed with seven seals and there is a “strong angel” or Messenger, who is God Himself, proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book and loosen the seals thereof?”
And it was revealed that no man was worthy – no man could be found – to loose the seals of this book. But after the Apostle John began to weep, one out of the elders (who would have been Christ, again) said unto him, “Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book.” That word prevailed is a word that is often translated as overcome. He hath overcome – He has been victorious to open the Book and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain…
So the “Lamb as it had been slain” was “in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders” and, of course, we know exactly who the Lamb who had been slain is referring to, as we read in the Gospel of John 1:29:
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
And it also says in John 1:35-37:
Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples; And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God! And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
There is no doubt who is “the Lamb of God.” It is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Lamb and it says in our verse in Revelation 5, there stood a Lamb in the midst, of the throne, the four living creatures and the elders. Now we are not surprised by that because, of course, Christ is in the midst of the throne of God. He is eternal God; He is Emmanuel, “God with us.” He is the everlasting Father; there is no separating them, so He is in the midst of the throne.
And we are also not surprised that He is in the midst of the four living creatures because the four living creatures are a representation of the glory of God. They are also a type and a figure of God; and, again, Christ is God so, of course, He is in the midst of the four living creatures.
And, as well, He is in the midst of the twenty four elders that were round about the throne. In chapter 4 these cast their crowns before the throne of God; and these twenty four elders typify all of God’s elect from all time: twelve representing the Old Testament saints of God and twelve representing the New Testament saints of God. There are twenty four in all which represents the fullness of all those whom God had saved. The number “12” is further illustrated later in the Book of Revelation when we get to Revelation 21 and we read about New Jerusalem descending down from heaven from God and, again and again, the number “12” is spoken of in regard to its foundation, its gates and its walls, and so forth. The number “12” identifies with the elect, with the complete city of God and the fullness of all of whom God saved out of the Lamb’s Book of Life; all of whose names were recorded by God from the foundation of the world and all of those that Jesus died for from the foundation of the world.
And we need to discuss that because Revelation 5:6 is saying that the Lord Jesus, spoken of as a Lamb, stood “as it had been slain.” Now most people, as soon as they read that, think of the cross in 33 A.D.; that is when Jesus was slain (they believe). That has been the traditional teaching of the churches throughout the church age: Christ died on the cross for the sins of His people.
And, of course, Jesus did die on the cross; no one is disputing that, but when we read of the “Lamb of God,” the Lamb is a reference to the sacrificial offering of God on behalf of those He intended to save. For instance, in Genesis 22, we read of the time when God commanded Abraham to offer up his son, his only son Isaac, and Abraham was obedient. He took his son and the wood and was about to offer him as an offering to God and he raised the knife to bring it down to slay his son; and he did that (the Book of Hebrews tells us) because he accounted God was able to raise him from the dead, if he did follow through; he trusted God and God moved in Abraham to perform this deed – to do this good work. But God interrupted Abraham and it says in Genesis 22:7-8:
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here *am* I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where *is* the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.
And that is exactly what happens and before Abraham can bring down the knife, God stops him and he is shown a ram caught in the thicket. And, yet, the statement here should not be overlooked or missed, when Isaac says, "Where is the lamb?” and Abraham says, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb.”
That is exactly what God did. He Himself, eternal God, the Lord Jesus (as it says in John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was Go.” And it says in John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.”
It is Christ, the Word, who was with God and was God, and they are one; the Father and the Lord Jesus are one. We cannot understand it; it is mysterious. It is beyond our ability to comprehend how God can be One God and He is (there is not two or three or more). “Know, O Israel, the LORD thy God is one God.” There is One God and, yet, He reveals Himself as three Persons. And Christ, the Son, was made flesh and entered into the human race to demonstrate and to show forth and to reveal what He had done from the foundation of the world; and it was at that point (the foundation of the world) that He made payment for the sins of His people. We are not making that up; that is what the Bible says in Revelation 13:8:
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him…
And this is referring to the beast during the time of The Great Tribulation.
…whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
When was the Lamb slain? Well, God just told us: “from the foundation of the world.” Before God created the world, the universe and before He created man and before the fall of man (and before the need of a Saviour, in that sense), God laid the sins of all that He would save on the Lord Jesus and He died for them at that point, from the foundation of the world, and made payment in full. The Bible is clear that this is the point at which all the sins of all those that God saved were paid for. Then Jesus entered into the human race, born of the virgin Mary in 7 B.C., and later when He went to the cross He was demonstrating what He had done and He did suffer a second time, but He did not make payment; there was no need for Him to pay for sins already paid for. His one and only offering of Himself for the sins of His people was completely satisfactory; it was not wanting anything at all, where He had to complete it in some way. No, it was a perfect payment for the sins of each one that He died for, so the Bible tells us that Christ was “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
Now in Revelation 5, Jesus is the Lamb who stood in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders, God’s elect, and He stood “as a Lamb as it had been slain.” And, so, this is indicating that the Lord Jesus, from the foundation of the world, has been identified by God as the sacrificial Lamb, the one who made offering. But, if that is so, what are the twenty four elders doing there? Well, we have to realize that this is a vision that is teaching us certain truths. Were all of God’s elect with God from the foundation of the world? Well, yes, in the sense that all their sins were paid for and the Lord Jesus now had guaranteed that they would eventually, in time, be redeemed and they all would end up as one with Him and the Father in the kingdom of God.
… a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
Now the “seven eyes” reminds us, once again, of the four living creatures that had eyes before and behind. It indicates the all-seeing nature of God, the perfection of God’s ability to see and understand all things: “…all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Nothing is able to be hidden from him, no matter how hard a man might try. Nothing is able to be covered over so His all-knowing gaze will not see it or understand what happened, but everything is known unto God.
What about the “seven horns?” We would expect a lamb, as the Bible indicates, actually, a ram to have horns (like the one that was caught in the thicket) and it says in Genesis 22:11-13:
And the angel of JEHOVAH called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here *am I*. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only *son* from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind *him* a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
There was the lamb that God provided and that lamb, of course, points to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world – the only Saviour that is able to save a sinner from sin was the Lord Jesus Christ. Only through Him can an individual enter into heaven and live for evermore.
We can see how the horns relate to the ram – to the fact that God speaks of Christ as a sacrificial animal. Let us just look at how the word horn is used in the Bible. It says in Psalm 18:1-2:
I will love thee, O JEHOVAH, my strength. JEHOVAH *is* my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, *and* my high tower.
JEHOVAH is the “horn of my salvation.” You know, that statement does not stand alone. Remember in the New Testament in the Gospel of Luke where Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, was so thrilled when God had finally opened his mouth, and we read in Luke 1:64:
And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue *loosed*, and he spake, and praised God.
And then in Luke 1:67-69:
And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed *be* the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
The “horn” can be used to blow like a trumpet and, actually, in the Book of Joshua when they were dealing with Jericho, God uses the same word horn there. So it has that aspect to it, but they would also use a horn like the prophet Samuel. We read in 1st Samuel 16:1:
And JEHOVAH said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
And then in 1st Samuel 16:13:
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of JEHOVAH came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up, and went to Ramah.
Now we can see a little bit more clearly what God is doing here – why it is that he would have a horn filled with oil in order to anoint David king. Of course, David is a great type of Christ, but he also is a true believer and we understand from Psalm 18:2 and Luke 1:69 that God references a “horn of salvation” that can only be the Messiah, the Saviour Jesus Christ. He is the “horn of salvation.”
And when someone is anointed with oil in the Bible (whether we read it in the Epistle of James or whether we read about this anointing of David), it points to the Holy Spirit. Remember in Matthew, chapter 25, with the ten virgins? The five wise virgins had oil in their lamps and the five foolish virgins did not, indicating that the five wise virgins possessed the Holy Spirit which enlightened them to understand the word of God, the Bible, while the foolish were left in darkness and ignorant (even though they possessed lamps – the Word – and they had the Bible also), but it did not help them without the oil to enlighten their eyes, without God to show them the truths hidden in His Word.
So the horn carries the oil: Christ’s salvation brings the Holy Spirit. It is through the salvation that Jesus has provided for His chosen people that they are anointed. Let us see that again in 1st Samuel 16:13:
Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of JEHOVAH came upon David from that day forward.
It is as though here is God’s salvation and the oil is taken from the “horn of salvation” and applied to David, in this case, and the Holy Spirit enters in; and now he has received from the oil of salvation the spirit of God. This is really a wonderful picture that God gives us.
You know, this is also why we read concerning Satan in the Book of Revelation that he has horns. It says in Revelation 13:1:
And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
And a little further on in verse 11:
And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.
Now we know that Satan is the great impostor. He comes looking like Christ, as an angel of light and his emissaries as ministers of righteousness. And that is why, here, as the beast, he has “two horns like a lamb,” but how does he speak? Does he speak the words of eternal life? No. He spoke as a dragon. And how does Satan speak? Satan is a liar and the father of it.
And this is revealing to us God’s end time program of loosing Satan, as he entered into the churches as the man of sin and as the beast to rule over the churches and congregations. They continued to be called Christian churches; they did not change their name to the “house of the beast”; they continued to call themselves the house of God. They did not change their name to the church of Satan; they continued to call themselves the church of Christ. Yet they were completely under the power and authority of Satan, at the allowance of God, as God utilized the devil in loosing him to bring destruction upon the unfaithful churches and congregations of the world.
And, so, the horns were also part of the sham as Satan tries to mimic Christ and tried to pretend: “Oh, we have salvation. We have salvation readily available. You can “accept” Christ and become saved. You can speak with tongues which is evidence of salvation. You can be baptized in some of my churches and that is good enough for salvation – just quick and easy and plentiful salvation – and it is just abundantly available in every church in the world.”
And it is all a lie. During the time of the Great Tribulation, there was no salvation there. These horns were empty of oil, we could say. They looked like the true Gospel, but they were not the true Gospel. It is only Jesus Christ – the actual Lamb of God, the genuine Lamb of God, the genuine sacrificial offering of God Himself for the sake of His people – who possesses oil.
And that oil was poured out all through history wherever God’s elect were found born into the world; they were anointed with oil from the “horn of salvation” at some time before they died. And all the “oil” to anoint those individuals has been poured out because God has saved them all – all have been redeemed; all have had the saving, atoning work of Christ applied to them.
And, here (in our verse), God pictures the Lamb standing in the midst of the throne, in the midst of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders “as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes;” that is, having the fullness of salvation, as the Lord Jesus is the very essence of God’s salvation, so within Him is the perfection of the salvation of God.
Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #6 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to begin by looking at Revelation 5:6:
And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
We were looking at this verse in our last study and we progressed to the last part of the verse where it says: “having seven horns and seven eyes.” This is describing the Lamb who is Jesus Christ. It goes on to say, “which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” Now the phrase “seven Spirits of God” is found a few times in the Book of Revelation and we have already gone over it a few times. In Revelation 1:4 it says:
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace *be* unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
The Apostle John is writing to the seven churches and the one that is giving him the divine revelation and sending it to the churches through John is, of course, Eternal God who is described as the one “which is, and which was, and which is to come.” It is pointing out His everlasting nature.
But it also says, “and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;” and that puts the seven Spirits of God on an equal plateau with Eternal God Himself and that lets us know that “the seven Spirits” is another name of God; it is another description of the Person of God, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. In Revelation 3:1, it says:
And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars…
The “seven stars” are the seven churches, we read back in Revelation 1. And this is Christ writing to the church in Sardis and, of course, writing to all seven of the churches. And He possesses the “seven Spirits of God,” because the Holy Spirit is Eternal God; Christ is Eternal God; the Father is Eternal God. They are one.
And it says in Revelation 4:5:
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and *there were* seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
We went over this and we spent a little time with this verse when we were studying chapter 4. The “seven lamps” identify with the “seven candlesticks,” and remember back in Revelation, chapter 1, we read (concerning Christ) in verses 12-13:
… I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks *one* like unto the Son of man…
“In the midst of the seven candlesticks” or in the “midst of the seven lamps” is Christ. The way God speaks of Himself is just beyond us sometimes and beyond our ability to fully comprehend. He is just infinitely greater than our minds are equipped to handle. And in this case, He is referring to Himself – His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ – as “seven Spirits” because it represents the perfection of the Holy Spirit, the perfection of the Spirit of God.
In Revelation 5:6, these “seven horns and seven eyes,” (which the Lamb which had been slain has) “are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” This would mean that the seven eyes and horns are an expression or extension of the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit carried the Gospel message, the message of the atoning work of the Lamb of God into the world; and God, here, is highlighting that truth.
Let us move on and read Revelation 5:7-9:
And he came…
(And this was the Lamb that had been slain.)
And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
And who was seated upon the throne? It was Eternal God. And who is the Lamb taking the Book? It is Eternal God. Let me continue reading in Revelation 5:7-9:
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Now in these three verses, we are being given a view of something extremely wonderful, as God is picturing it. Of course, this is just language that God is using to describe spiritual truths and we are not to think there was a (literal) lamb with seven horns and seven eyes; or that this mysterious, unusual lamb took a book from God who was seated upon some grand throne in the kingdom of heaven; or that there is an actual book. All of these things teach us various truths concerning the salvation and judgment plan of God and concerning the work of Christ the Saviour, and so on.
Now one thing that God is emphasizing here that could get “lost” because of all the other glorious things that are going on is that the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, took the Book, as it says in verse 7: He came and took the Book out of the right hand of Him. And then it says in verse 8 that He had taken the book and it was at that point when the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the Lamb. And then in verse 9, it says: “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book.”
So there is actually a very strong emphasis on the fact that Christ, the Lamb of God, took the Book. As we saw before, this Book is the Bible, the word of God, and this Book was sealed with seven seals. This was the first step, the first action, the first movement toward removing the seals – that is, taking possession of the Book.
And that sort of surprises us because the one taking the Book is the Lamb, the Lord Jesus, the Word made flesh and the very embodiment and personification of the Bible. Why is God stressing in this way that Christ, the Lamb, is taking the Book and, therefore, is in possession of the Book the Bible? He has always been The Word. Remember John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And, yet, God is putting His finger on this particular action: the first step toward removing the seven seals.
And all we can say which could possibly help us to understand this is that the Bible is the word of God and identifies with Christ, but the name of Christ as the Lamb is greatly magnified in the Book of Revelation. The name Lamb appears twenty nine times in the Book of Revelation; this is more than in any other Book of the Bible. Even in the Old Testament when they would be offering the lamb as a sacrificial animal and the reference would be to the animal being offered in sacrifice, the most references to a lamb is found twenty eight times in the Book of Numbers (of course, the deeper spiritual meaning would point to the Lord), but in Revelation the Lamb is mentioned twenty nine times; and in each case it is referring to Christ who has done the saving work in performing the atonement and He has been victorious as we read here in Revelation 5.
This is the first time the Lamb is being mentioned, but it will not be the last. Now the Lamb will take center stage; God will repeatedly direct our attention back to this name of Christ because He is the victorious one; He has accomplished, performed and finished the sacrifice from the foundation of the world and now the Bible becomes His – it is a Book now that completely identifies with the Lamb of God. It is in His possession and the atoning work which Jesus performed had set in motion all of God’s program to save His elect and had set in motion God’s entire salvation plan and it is now under the full power and authority and control of the Lamb. He has taken the Book of the Bible and it is now belonging to the Lamb of God.
I think that is probably why God is emphasizing this to the degree that He has; the emphasis is really on the name, the Lamb. The Lamb now possesses the Book, the Bible and because He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world and because He has overcome and has died for the sins of His people and was resurrected from the foundation of the world to be called the Son of God and to be given this name means that the beautiful work of the Bible in redeeming these elect ones, these blessed ones, in every generation will be carried out throughout the history of the world.
Let us go back to Revelation 5:8:
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb…
Now I just want to make a point of this and I want us to take note that what is going to happen in the verses that follow (even in this very same verse) is happening with the “four living creatures” (that are a representation of the glory of God and of God Himself) and the twenty four elders, (which typify the elect) together; that is, what one is doing, the other is doing; so when we read that they fell down, they all fell down. Yes, God, who is represented by the four living creatures, is falling down before God, before the Lamb, Jesus Christ. And every one of them – the twenty four elders as well as the four living creatures – has harps and golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints. And when verse 9 says, “And they sung a new song;” yes, the four living creatures are singing – Eternal God is singing, saying, “Thou art worthy to take the book.”
They are singing praise to the Savior, to the Lamb of God. “…and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” And, again, this is all continuing the same thought from verse 8: that the four living creatures and the twenty and four elders are doing this in unison. That means the four living creatures are also praising the Lamb for redeeming them to God. Now that is something that we have never previously considered – or at least I have not – that God is praising God for redeeming God. Well, that is something I do not want to quickly go over and we want to spend some time carefully looking at that, so we are going to save that for the next study or the study after that, depending on how we progress through this. But keep that in mind, as we are reading these things, that it is the four living creatures with the elect (typified by the twenty four elders) that are doing these things and proclaiming these things.
And they “fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints.”
Let us look at the harps that every one of them has. We are going to look at a few verses because the harp is a very interesting instrument in the Bible. In 1st Samuel, chapter 16, we read of David before he was made king (he had already been annointed but Saul was still king of Israel and David had not yet ascended to the throne), and we read in 1st Samuel 16:23:
And it came to pass, when the *evil* spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.
Is that not strange that David would chase away an evil spirit by playing the harp? I am sure that Saul greatly appreciated this. This was before David had slain Goliath and before Saul was so envious that he could not think straight concerning David. David’s playing the harp was “medicinal” for Saul and it helped his psyche and he was very pleased when David would play the harp.
Well, let us also look at 1st Chronicles, chapter 25, where we read something more about the harp in 1st Chronicles 25:1-3:
Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was: Of the sons of Asaph; Zaccur, and Joseph, and Nethaniah, and Asarelah, the sons of Asaph under the hands of Asaph, which prophesied according to the order of the king. Of Jeduthun: the sons of Jeduthun; Gedaliah, and Zeri, and Jeshaiah, Hashabiah, and Mattithiah, six, under the hands of their father Jeduthun, who prophesied with a harp, to give thanks and to praise JEHOVAH.
Now that word prophesied is joined together with the word harp. David established these sons of Asaph and of Heman and we do read in the Psalms of the Psalms of Asaph and I think at least one Psalm of Heman. Their sons were to “prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals.” Those are three different musical instruments and it was God’s purpose that they would play and the word of God considers their playing as prophesying. You know, that is what true believers do – we declare the word of God; we share the truths we have learned from the Bible and, spiritually, that is prophesying. Therefore, there is a link between playing a harp and prophesying and that maybe helps us understand why the evil spirits departed from Saul when David (who is a type of Christ) would play the harp: there was prophecy taking place and prophecy is the sharing of truth of the word of God.
In Psalm 49 we read something that helps us understand more about harps; in Psalm 49:4:
I will incline mine ear to a parable…
Of course, the Bible is likened to a parable. Jesus is the Word and Jesus said that “without a parable,” He did not speak, teaching us how to understand the Word of God, the Bible: we must look for the deeper spiritual meaning. So we are not surprised that Psalm 49 is making mention of this. “Let him who has ears to hear, hear.”
Then it goes on to say in verse 4:
I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Now this is what is known as Hebrew parallelism; that is, the first part of the verse is restated in the second part of the verse, but some of the words are changed: “I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying…” The dark saying would be synonymous with parable.
“I will open my dark saying upon the harp.” And is that not exactly what prophesying is? Prophesying is when we come to the Bible and, by God’s grace, He opens up our ears and eyes to understand His Word and then we share it. We are spiritually prophesying. This is why it says in Acts 2, “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (in the last days). They will share the things that God opens up from His Word.
Well, we actually have a few more verses to look at and I do not want to rush through these because we are going to see something significant and important for our present time, as we come to understand the spiritual meaning of the world harp and those that play upon the harp. And it will also help us, sorrowfully, to understand a little bit better what God is doing today in the Day of Judgment.
Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #7 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:8:
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
In our last study we were looking at what the Bible has to say about harps. We saw that David played on a harp before King Saul and it soothed Saul’s mind and relieved him of evil spirits.
We saw in 1st Chronicles, chapter 25, in verse 3, that there was language about prophesying with a harp.
We also went to Psalm 49:4:
I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
So, in those Scriptures we have seen how the harp relates to declaring the Word of God – it relates to prophesying; and true believers spiritually prophesy when they share the truths of the Bible and when they declare the Word of God.
And, therefore, spiritually, sharing truth from the Bible is related to sharing the Gospel and it is related to bringing forth the Word of God, as God moved His people “to will and to do of His good pleasure” and sent them into the world in the day of salvation to sow seed. In a sense, they were playing the harp, if we look at it in that light and with that “figure,” they were prophesying the Word of God.
We also find in the Psalms another couple of verses that agree with this idea. It says in Psalm 71:22-23:
I will also praise thee with the psaltery, *even* thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel. My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.
So in verse 22 it says: “I will also praise thee with the psaltery, *even* thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp.” Singing with the harp is akin to praising God with truth. So this definition that the Bible gives for the harp is fairly certain; we can see how the Bible is defining the figure of a harp as “prophesying the Word of God.”
And this becomes important for us today when we read in Revelation 18 where God is describing in that chapter the Day of Judgment that we are presently living in and going through. And we read in Revelation 18:20-23:
And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast *it* into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft *he be*, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee…
With each one of these statements God is declaring that He has removed the Gospel from the world. Of course, we can see it very definitely when we read, “And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee,” Babylon (Babylon representing the kingdom of this world which includes the churches), “and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee:” That is, when the Bible is read or when it is heard with the physical ears, the voice of Christ will not be heard spiritually, as Romans 10:17 says, “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” God has to grant spiritual ears to hear: “Let him that heareth, understand,” is a common statement we read earlier in Revelation. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
In the Day of Judgment God will remove the Holy Spirit from granting “ears to hear” and, therefore, the voice of the bridegroom (Christ, the Word of God) and the voice of the bride, as God’s people are still in the world in the Day of Judgment and still living on the earth and they still may speak forth the Word of God, but the voice of Christ and the voice of the elect “shall be heard no more at all in thee.” It just means that there will be no spiritual “ears” to hear granted to any dead sinners – they will not be regenerated by the Spirit of God and enlightened in their eyes and having their ears opened to understand the things of God any longer; all that is done and finished and over. It is the day of God’s wrath. So, all of these statements are synonyms describing the very same thing.
And Revelation 18:22 says:
And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee;
Notice that there are four musical instruments and four represents universality. This is something that is happening all over the earth. The sound of the musical instruments, as they represent the declaration of the Gospel to the world, “shall be heard no more at all in thee.” And, again, no one will be given “ears to hear” the harping of God’s people – the piping, the trumpeting – any longer.
I just want to look at one more verse before we continue in our study of Revelation 5 and that is in Isaiah, chapter 24; and we have gone through this chapter, verse by verse, and Isaiah 24 is a chapter that (unmistakably) is describing God’s judgment on the world, not on the churches. As a matter of fact, I would recommend that you read the whole chapter and you will find the “earth” mentioned, time and again. For instance, in Isaiah 24:4:
The earth mourneth *and* fadeth away, the world languisheth *and* fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
And, then in Isaiah 24:5-6:
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
Now how can anyone read this and think it is discussing the churches? We do not find that as the subject matter at all. It is God’s wrath on the earth – on the world. And Isaiah 24 uses very similar language to chapters we might find in the Book of Jeremiah as God describes His judgment on Judah, which in turn would point to His wrath upon the churches during the Great Tribulation at the time of the end when “judgment begins at the house of God.”
And the language is similar because the judgment is similar: it is the same cup of God’s wrath; first, the cup was given to the people called by His name and they drank of the cup of the wrath of God and that wrath had to do with the removal of the Holy Spirit, the putting out of the light of the Gospel and with the silencing of the harps, as we saw in Revelation 18 (and that would also apply to the churches).
Well, now, with the emphasis upon the earth, we read in Isaiah 24:7:
The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merryhearted do sigh. The mirth of tabrets ceaseth…
(The tabrets would be a timbrel, another musical instrument)
… the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.
And there God is saying something that is a tragedy. It is extremely sorrowful that this has come upon the earth. It is the time when God has shut the door to heaven and it is the time when “the joy of the harp ceaseth.”
Now we have looked at several verses following the Bible’s own “recipe,” following God’s methodology that He would have us to follow in coming to truth: Look up a word and search it out, comparing scripture with scripture. And as we have done so, we searched out the word harp and we have been able to come up with a Biblical definition and we understand that word; it has to do with declaring the Word of God – with prophesying. And now in this chapter that has to do with God’s judgment upon the earth, we read: “the joy of the harp ceaseth.”
The prophesying is not said to have ended here. We are still sharing information from the Bible. We are still sharing truth with one another. God has commanded us to feed sheep and how can we do that unless we speak the truth of the Word of God? We do not know who the sheep are and, so, we have to share the truth far and wide. We have to send forth the Word of God as far and as wide as we ever did before, for the very same reason, because we did not know where the elect were that were to be saved – we did not know where the sheep were that were lost and must be found; and now we must send the Word of God into the far reaches of earth in order to feed the sheep. We do not know who those sheep are and we do not know where they are, exactly. And, as a result, we will be speaking forth the Word of God, but “the joy of the harp ceaseth.” (repeat) The joy…
The Bible tells us that when one sinner repenteth, there is joy in heaven: joy in salvation. God and the angels in heaven would rejoice when a sinner was redeemed and when he received a new resurrected soul and the blood of Christ had been applied to his heart. But now the joy of prophesying, the joy of the harp, ceaseth. We continue to share truth, but no sinner anywhere in the world – in any country, in any city, in any town, on any street, in any house – will “hear” the Word of God that is being proclaimed which God’s people are sending forth in order to feed sheep. And even though it is truth and even though it is faithful to what the Bible says, it will not spark a “new heart.” God’s Word will not create in them a “new soul.” They will not be born again and, therefore, there will be no joy in connection with playing the harp, spiritually; there will be no more salvation. This is a grievous thing, but it is the nature of the day we are living in.
Well, let us go back to Revelation 5:8:
…the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
It is very interesting how God connects this idea of the “golden vials full of odours.” The word odours, here, is also translated as the word incense. For instance, in Luke 1:8-10, Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, it is said that his “lot was to burn incense…at the time of incense.” And it is the same word that is translated as odours. And God says that these golden vials full of incense are the “prayers of the saints.” In other words, God is making a connection and establishing a relationship between the “golden vials full of odours” and the “prayers of the saints.”
Now, as far as the “golden vials,” this is the only place (that I could find) where the “golden vial” has to do with incense: that it is full of incense (and that being related to the “prayers of the saints.”) This same Greek word is translated as vial eleven more times; it is found twelve times in the New Testament and it is always translated as vial. Yet, all the other times it is found has to do with the “vials full of the wrath of God.”
It says in Revelation 15:7:
And one of the four beasts…
(And that is the same “four living creatures” we are reading about in Revelation 5.)
And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever.
Then it says in Revelation 16:1:
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
And in Revelation 16:2:
And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth…
Then all the vials are poured out. Then it says in Revelation 17:1:
And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
In every other instance that this word vial is found, it has to do with the wrath of God. The vials are “full of the wrath of God” and they must be “poured out” and they must be emptied. And it is unusual. It makes us wonder. What is the connection (if there is any) between a golden vial of incense that is likened to the prayers of the saints and the golden vial that we find everywhere else that is full of the wrath of God?
Well, there actually is a connection that the LORD establishes between the “prayers of the saints” and His “wrath.” We find in Revelation 8:3:
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense…
And that word incense is the same Greek word that is translated as odours in our verse in Revelation 5. And, here, it is incense and it is the same word as used to refer to Zachariah, whose “lot was to burn incense.”
… and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer *it* with the prayers of all saints…
Well, there again, we have the golden vial full of odours likened to the prayers of the saints in Revelation 5, and here we have a golden censor that this angel or messenger is given “with much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” So, there is certainly a relationship between these verses and Revelation 5:8.
And then in Revelation 8:5:
And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast *it* into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
We can see how the golden censor is involved with “much incense that it should be offered with the prayers of the saints.” And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, begins to ascend up before God (verse 4) out of the angel’s hand and the next thing we know, the angel takes the censor and fills it with “fire of the alter” and that would typify wrath and anger and fury. It is the wrath of God because God is “a consuming fire.”
Now the censor that was previously identified with incense and the “prayers of the saints” is now filled with the “wrath of God,” and, therefore, we can relate the golden vial full of odours or incense, the prayers of the saints, with golden vials full of the wrath of God that are being poured out in the Day of Judgment.
But, again, why does God make this tie-in? Why is He joining the two together? Well, it depends on what the saints have been praying. What have the saints of God…and “saint” is just another way of speaking of a holy one and it is not some “special” individual that has achieved a status of “super holiness” and, therefore, a church elects him to sainthood; that is not a saint. Actually, it is very possible that many of those people had not even become saved. No, a saint is anyone – anyone at all – that has become saved. The thief on the cross (who was a dirty, rotten sinner and never did anything in his life that a church would consider worthy, or even remotely worthy, of sainthood) was a saint in God’s sight, once he became saved. Everyone who is elect and has the blood of Christ applied to them and has become redeemed is a saint.
And what have the saints of God been praying? We are told in Revelation 6, when the seals are taken off the Book, it says in Revelation 6:9:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
This is describing those children of God that have been redeemed and have gone to be with the LORD in heaven. In their cases, they do not have their resurrected bodies as yet, so it is “the souls of them,” apart from their bodies; in their spirit essences they are dwelling with God. And the prayer goes up: “How long, O LORD, until you bring about the day of vengeance and until you avenge our blood?” From the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the blood of God’s people has been, as it were, crying up to God out of the earth for vengeance, for God to bring justice and “balance the scales” that His Law demands, because man has greatly sinned against God and has tormented and afflicted and brought trouble to the people of God all through the many days of their pilgrimage upon the earth.
Remember what we read in II Thessalonians 1:5-6:
Seeing *it is* a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
You see, it is the day of recompense – actually, the year of recompenses – for the sake of God’s holy temple and for the sake of His people. Their prayer has ascended up to God and He has heard, just as the LORD heard the prayer of the Israelites in Egypt over the centuries that they were in cruel and hard bondage and there was no deliverance; but God heard and in the set time and at the appointed time, He sent a Deliverer and freed His people and brought them out of Egypt.
Likewise, God has heard the cries of His people (in our day) and He has freed them from spiritual bondage, but there is also the matter of answering their prayer…well, we will have to discuss in our next study how it is that God’s people would pray such a thing We will look at that because it is very important that we properly understand that before we continue with this very interesting chapter in the Book of Revelation.
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #8 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are currently reading Revelation 5:8:
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four *and* twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
We were looking at the last part of verse 8 in our last study regarding the golden vials full of odours. We saw that the Greek word translated as odours is also translated as incense. We also saw how God makes the tie-in with the “prayers of the saints.” In addition, we saw that the golden vials referred to here are only mentioned with the incense and prayers of the saints, but in every other place we find golden vials it has to do with the wrath of God: the seven vials full of the wrath of God.
Both of these ideas came together in Revelation 8:3-5:
And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer *it* with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense,*which came* with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast *it* into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
And, again, here the censor which was identified with “much incense” and the “prayers of the saints” in verse 3 is now filled with “fire of the altar, and cast into the earth.” It is an expression of the wrath of God and in the remaining verses of Revelation, chapter 8, it describes God’s wrath upon the churches and congregations. Then in Revelation, chapter 9, it transitions into God’s judgment on the world. It is God’s judgment program – the end time program – of the pouring out of God’s wrath and, yet, it is related to the incense, which in turn, is connected to the prayers of the saints.
Now last time, we asked the question: Why does God make this kind of connection? We saw when we went to Revelation 6 that the prayers of the saints has everything to do with vengeance. It says in Revelation 6:9-10:
And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
It is a cry for vengeance and these particular saints that God is describing here are in heaven. It is referring only to their souls and we know the Bible teaches us that at the moment of death the soul of a true believer (a child of God) goes to be with the Lord in heaven while his or her physical body goes into the ground to await the redemption of the body, the day of resurrection. So these are the souls of those that are in heaven.
But God also tells us about those that are on the earth and their prayer to Him in a parable in the Gospel of Luke, in Luke 18:1-8:
And he spake a parable unto them *to this end*, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
In this very interesting parable the Lord is giving us encouragement always to pray, (to continually pray) and not to faint. And, of course, this is needed encouragement in our day, as we go through this severe trial of living on the earth in the Day of Judgment. This parable actually has special application to God’s people that are alive at this point in time.
The widow woman is a picture of the elect who is going to a judge; it happens to be an unjust judge, but through her continual coming, she is said to “weary” him, so he grants her request. God is saying, “Here what the unjust judge saith.” And if he is brought to action by the continual coming of this poor widow woman (and this judge has no concern for her and he has no concern for her request; he has no concern for the “rightness” of it at all), imagine God’s concern for His elect and God’s interest in their prayers; He loves them and has great concern for everything they are going through and here they are coming to Him day and night, night and day, beseeching Him and praying to Him. And what is it they are praying?
Are God’s people living on the earth at this time praying to God, “O, Lord, come and smite the wicked! Come and destroy the earth! Come and bring fire to burn all of the wicked!” No – God’s people are not praying that way. Praying that way would go contrary to what the Bible tells us. The Bible tells us in Leviticus 19:18:
Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I *am* JEHOVAH.
If the Law of God says, “Thou shalt not avenge,” and if the people that are alive upon the earth are commanded to “love thy neighbor” and not to seek their evil or to seek their destruction or to seek their hurt or harm in any way, then how can God liken the prayer of the elect to this vengeance? (“And shall not God avenge his own elect”?)
If the statement is made that God is seeking to avenge His elect, does that not mean that the elect are crying out to Him for vengeance? And the answer is, no. God’s people, the true believers, are crying out this way: “Oh, Lord, how long? How long before you fulfill your Word? How long, O Father, before you bring all of your wonderful promises to fruition? How long before the glorious expectation of a new heaven and new earth is finally answered and becomes reality? And this present earth, necessarily, and this present universe, necessarily, must be destroyed for you to bring all these things to bear. O, Father, we wish no ill and we wish no harm to come to any others; we do not want you to destroy the unsaved because that means you would be destroying some of our own family members and some of our neighbors and we desire the very best for them.”
We are not praying that God would come and take vengeance and destroy them, but what prayer has God impressed upon us to pray for our fellow man at this time? Well, He has taught us to pray, “Having had mercy, have mercy.” So we pray that way for all those outside of the churches and congregations. As for those who found themselves within the churches, where there was no possibility of salvation and then in the day of transition to judgment upon the world, we realized this and, yet, God still permits us to pray that the “cup of His wrath might pass from them.” So we desire the very best possible thing that God permits us to desire for these poor people; and we pray for our neighbor that we know was in a church (while God was saving outside of the churches) and now they are in a position where God is not saving anyone, anywhere. Yet, we desire their good and we pray, “O, Father, if it be thy will, may your cup pass from our neighbor and may you pass the cup from them?” Just as Christ prayed this prayer while He was drinking of the cup of the wrath of God in the Garden of Gethsemane, we can pray that prayer. We continue to pray for the very best for the people around us.
Yet, we cannot deny that we have the desire that God’s kingdom come and that the Lord Jesus Christ come and come quickly. And, as we have this desire and as we pray, “O, Father, fulfill they Word and bring to completion of all things in thy Word,” this would mean that God would come and take vengeance and He actually has done this; He has begun to take vengeance on the unsaved inhabitants on the earth, as He has brought about the Day of Judgment and it is now only a matter of completing this judgment period and then, finally, destroying the people He never saved and destroying this corrupt creation and then creating a new heaven and a new earth.
Well, you see the prayers of God’s people in heaven also cry out, “How long, O, Lord, holy and true?” And what are they crying for? They are crying for the completion of God’s salvation plan. They are still beseeching the Lord that He would bring about the redemption of their physical bodies, the resurrection.
So God’s people on earth are beseeching the Lord to fulfill His salvation plan and to bring them into His glorious kingdom and God’s people in heaven are beseeching the Lord to complete the salvation that He has begun; He has saved their souls, but their bodies are still lying in the ground and seeing corruption on the earth; and that body must be redeemed and become one whole personality, perfect in body and soul; the salvation of God must be completed. So all of God’s elect are praying to God that He would finish what He has started and complete His salvation program for this world, which, in turn, ultimately means that He must complete His judgment program as well.
So the prayers of the saints ascend up before God and the golden vial full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s elect, are turned into the seven golden vials that are filling up the wrath of God and they must be poured out as the world experiences Judgment Day. And, finally, at the end of the pouring out of those vials, the prayers of the saints will have their final answer – God will hear. He will complete His entire program for this world.
Well, let us go back to Revelation, chapter 5, and we will move on to Revelation 5:9:
And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Now, again, in verse 8 when the Lord had taken the Book and the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down, they are the ones that are singing the song together and they are the ones that are saying (together), “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals.” And they are the ones that are declaring, “for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” And, immediately, we wonder: How can the four living creatures sing this particular song when they are a representation of God Himself and of His glory? We understand God praising God; God is worthy of praise, certainly, but how can God sing a new song that declares: “for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us (as if God had redeemed God)?
Well, we have to remember what we find in the Gospel account when the Lord is speaking of separating the sheep and the goats and He makes the statement that “I was naked and you clothed me and I was hungry and you fed me,” when He was commending the individual that did this. And they asked Him, “When did we see you hungry and do these things unto thee?” Let us go there, just to make sure that I say it right. It says in Matthew 25:37-40:
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed *thee*? or thirsty, and gave *thee* drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took *thee* in? or naked, and clothed *thee*? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done *it* unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done *it* unto me.
Now all of those statements identify with bringing the Gospel, the Word of God, which redeems the sinner – that saves the sinner from his sins and brings salvation. So when the King (representing Christ) says, “When ye have done unto these…ye have done unto me,” that means that it is as though Christ Himself was redeemed by the actions of these true believers. But the true believers were carrying out the command of Christ; they were going forth at the beckoning of Christ; they were performing these “good works” by the will of Christ as He moved in them “to will and to do of His good pleasure,” that they might perform the doing of it. So, really, we have God redeeming God.
That is what we see here in Revelation as the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders (which typify all the elect). “And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.” So, there is no real difficulty once we understand that what is done to the people of God, God likens as done to Him.
Now let us look at this phrase: “And they sung a new song.” And we find, from time to time, references in the Bible to a “new song.” It says in Psalm 40:1:
I waited patiently for JEHVOAH; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, *and* established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, *even* praise unto our God: many shall see *it*, and fear, and shall trust in JEHOVAH.
Now this does have some application to Christ Himself in a Messianic way, but it also pictures the believers that, likewise, were under the wrath of God and, therefore, spiritually in the condition of being in a “horrible pit,” we could say. When God saves us, He sets our feet upon a rock (upon the Lord Jesus) and He puts a “new song” in our mouths – praise to God and many see this transformation of the sinner and they also fear and come to trust the LORD.
This is how God has worked in the world. He saves one individual, as the Lord Jesus said to Nathaniel, and you shall see “the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.” And that is a mysterious sort of statement, but it is actually pretty simple in its meaning: when God saved a sinner, they were spiritually transported into the heavenlies to be seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, and then they were immediately transported back to earth, and commissioned with the great commission to go forth with the Gospel that others might, likewise, experience the same transformation. So, “many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in JEHOVAH” because God commissions His people (once they are saved) to be messengers of the Gospel. That whole process was in action in the day of salvation, but we have come to the end of that program of God – it is no longer the day of salvation. So for an individual that was saved, finally, at the end of God’s salvation plan for this world just before He shut the door to heaven, it is as though they ascended to the heavenlies, spiritually, but they were never commissioned, so they never “descended” on the Son of man; and when we get to Revelation 11 we will see that this is the case: that is why it speaks of those that “ascended,” but it never refers to them “descending” back again.
Let us also look at Psalm 96 regarding the new song, in Psalm 96:1-2:
O sing unto JEHOVAH a new song: sing unto JEHVOAH, all the earth. Sing unto JEHOVAH, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day.
And it says in Psalm 98:1-2:
O sing unto JEHOVAH a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. JEHOVAH hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.
In both of these places, singing the “new song” is quickly identified with salvation. The person that experiences the salvation of God sings the “new song,” and we find same wording in Revelation 14:1-3:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty *and* four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps: And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred *and* forty *and* four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Here, we find many of the same ingredients as in Revelation, chapter 5, as these 144,000 are singing a “new song” before the throne where God is seated and before the four living creatures and before the elders. The 144,000, it goes on to tell us in verse 4, are the “firstfruits unto God.” They represent all of those saved throughout the New Testament church age, from the period of 33 A.D. through 1988 A.D. – 1,955 years. These are pictured by the 144,000 and they all sang the “new song;” that is, they were saved and the thing that they sing about is their salvation. God likens it to singing a “new song.”
We find something similar with those that had gotten the victory over the beast and this group would identify with the great multitude because the beast is the name that God gave Satan exclusively for the great tribulation period, and it says in Revelation 15:2-3:
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, *and* over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb…
Now Revelation 15 tells us that the “song of the Lamb” is the “new song” that identifies with salvation: “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.” The interesting thing about this reference in Revelation 15:3 is that those that have gotten the victory over the beast – the great multitude, or in other words (us), God’s people saved during that period of time and still living on the earth at this point – is that they not only sing the “song of the Lamb,” but they also sing the “song of Moses.”
Lord willing, when we get to that chapter, we will be able to spend more time looking at that. What is the “song of Moses?” Unfortunately, we have come to the end of our time today and we will have to continue our Bible study in the Book of Revelation when we get together the next time.
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #9 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:10:
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Now, here, God is indicating that those that have been redeemed (as the previous verse explained) and those that have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ are made unto God kings and priests. In a spiritual sense, in a spiritual manner, we become in God’s sight…and, of course, God is spirit and His is a spiritual kingdom and we become spiritual kings and priests while we are yet living in this world. And, perhaps, that is of no significance to the world. Actually, we know it is definitely of no significance to the people of the world. They do not recognize the child of God’s status as a spiritual king and priest. It means nothing to them. They do not hold it in high esteem at all.
As a matter of fact, the true believer is looked down upon and becomes someone that is considered to be “lowly,” due to their profession and their belief in the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ. So the world does not recognize God’s kingdom; it does not think highly of it at all, but the true believer ought to, because we know there is a kingdom and we can see it with eyes of faith. We know the Bible is true. We know God’s word is faithful and we know that everything He tells us about things to come will come to pass.
Therefore, it is not a light thing at all for us to hear from the mouth of God – from the Lord Himself – that He has “made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” This is really an enormous statement that is revealing to us the grand and glorious eternal future that awaits the child of God.
Let us look into the Bible to see exactly what God means when He says that He has “made us unto our God kings and priests.” When we turn to Psalm 144, we find God making identification with something else. It says in Psalm 144:10:
*It is he that giveth salvation unto kings: who delivereth David his servant from the hurtful sword.
Now, here, the statement is made that God gives “salvation unto kings.” Is it true then that every king receives salvation – the King of Babylon or the King of Egypt or the kings that reign over the nations of the world? No. Actually it is very rare. It is very out of the ordinary that an earthly king of a nation becomes a child of God.
We know that David (who is mentioned here) was a true believer and he did rule as a king. We know there were a handful of other kings of Judah that were true believers, like Hezekiah and Josiah. Yet, for the most part, the kings we read about in the Bible and the kings that, perhaps, we have heard of in history outside of the Bible were not children of God. They were not saved individuals.
So, here, God is actually making the connection between salvation and someone being made a king in His sight. God is the king maker. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the one that selects certain individual sinners to become saved. And once they do become saved, then He considers them royalty; He considers them to be part of His family. And He is the great King and, therefore, they become kings in His sight. We see this kind of language also in Revelation 1:5-6:
And from Jesus Christ, *who is* the faithful witness, *and* the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him *be* glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Now, once again, we first read of being “washed from our sins in his blood,” and the next statement tells us that we have been made “kings and priests unto God.” The two go together. Once God saves a sinner and once the blood of Christ has been applied and they have been redeemed (they have been bought), they enter the family of God as a son of God and are joint heirs with Christ and they reign with Him. This is why the Bible speaks of being lifted up into heavenly places to be seated in Christ Jesus. “To be seated” is language of ruling in the Bible; whenever a king is seated upon a throne, it has to do with dominion and ruling over his kingdom.
We see here, again, in Revelation 1:6 that Christ “hath made us kings and priests unto God.” We understand that we are spiritual kings and this is helpful in the Bible when we see references to kings in some places. But we are not only kings, but God also says that we are made priests. Let us turn to a Psalm that will give us the spiritual definition of a priest. We read in Psalm 132:9:
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness; and let thy saints shout for joy.
Then also a little further down, it says in Psalm 132:16:
I will also clothe her priests with salvation: and her saints shall shout aloud for joy.
Now, here, the spiritual definition is given and this is what we look for in the Bible when we are doing a search on a word or a verse; we are looking for another verse, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, that will explain the verse that is in front of us or define a term for us. And, here, a spiritual priest is defined: “I will also clothe her priests with salvation.”
And this means that once a person becomes saved (when God was saving during the salvation period) and when any individual became saved as God acted upon them, and blessed the word to their heart and created within them a new heart and a new spirit, at the point of salvation, they were immediately clothed with their “priestly garments,” because their salvation is their “priestly garments.” Their garment is righteousness, as it said earlier in Psalm 132:9:
Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness…
And that relates to what we read in Revelation 19:8, speaking of the “bride of Christ,” which is comprised of all the elect, so this has application to everyone that God saved:
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
The fine linen is the “righteous of saints,” and that righteousness is the righteousness of Christ – that is our covering; that is our clothing; that is our priestly garment; that is our salvation that equips us and qualifies us to be a priest in the sight of God. This applies to male and female, old and young and to every child of God. Every child of God, once God has saved him or her, is qualified and called upon to be a spiritual priest and is made a priest in the sight of God.
Now there is something interesting in Ezekiel, chapter 44, concerning the clothing that priests were to wear. We read in Ezekiel 44:17:
And it shall come to pass, *that* when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool shall come upon them…
Now remember that we read in Revelation 19:8 that the fine linen is the “righteousness of saints,” and Psalm 42 told us the priests were “clothed with righteousness,” so we are clothed with fine linen, which is the “righteousness of saints.”
… and no wool shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird *themselves* with any thing that causeth sweat.
What an amazing thing the Bible is and what an incredible author God is, to write in such a way that all of these little details – these seemingly insignificant statements – that we could just “gloss over,” but God ties them perfectly together and brings everything into harmony. Why would He command that the priests that were to go about the ministry are to wear linen? Well, we understand; it is related to the righteousness of Christ in salvation.
And why would He command that “no wool shall come upon them” as they go about their ministry? It is because wool is a heavier material and God says that they are not to “gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.” Why is God concerned if they sweat, or not, while they go about their priestly duties? The answer is that the bible connects “sweating” with “work.” Even though this is a different word than in Genesis when God pronounced the curse upon mankind and told mankind that “by the sweat of the brow” they would have to till the earth in order to live. Even though it is a different word, it is the same idea – that God’s people that are made priests are not to sweat; that is, not to “work” concerning our priestly duties. We are to do no work of any kind to obtain the priesthood or continue in the priesthood. We are to realize and understand that it is all by the grace of God. It is all the work of Christ and not our work.
This is also why, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Bible says that “great drops of blood as sweat” fell from Him because He was demonstrating the work that He had done from the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus, as the great High Priest of His people, offered up Himself for their sins and He did the work in paying for the sins of all the elect that were laden upon Him. He did the work of being the Lamb of God that was sacrificed and of being the High Priest that sacrificed that Lamb. He (and God is very jealous of this truth), and only He, is permitted to sweat. We are not. We are only to realize that we can do nothing; we have never been able to do anything as far as working to obtain salvation or to continue in salvation. It is all by the grace of God.
Let us go to Revelation, chapter 20, as we continue to look at the word priest and how it is related to God’s elect. We read in Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy *is* he that hath part in the first resurrection…
God has a two part or two stage resurrection plan. First He saves the sinner’s soul and then at the end He saves the sinner’s body by the resurrection from the dead. So when the Bible says, “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection,” it is really saying, “Blessed and holy is he that has become saved.” Then it goes on to say:
… on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Now, again, it says “they shall be priests,” and who are priests? It is everyone that has experienced the “first resurrection” and that is everyone that is saved, without exception. Everyone (saved) is considered a priest by God. And, also, notice again that they “shall reign with him a thousand years.” Who reigns but a king? So, here, once again, God is bringing the two offices together: the priesthood and reigning as a king. So when this verse says that they “shall reign with him a thousand years,” the thousand years has in view the completeness of eternity. That is how long all the elect will reign with Christ and that is how long we will be of the royal family of God. It is for evermore and there is no end to this wonderful blessing of God.
Let us go to one other place, concerning this priesthood. We are going to see something interesting in 1st Peter 2:4-5:
To whom coming, *as unto* a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, *and* precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Here, God is speaking again of His chosen, the elect, and He says, first of all, “You are as a living stone.” Whenever someone would become saved, it was as if God was building His house for His eternal habitation that He will dwell in into eternity future. Now, of course, we are living at the time when that “house” is complete and God has entered into every one of the elect whose names were in His Book and, therefore, He has “filled the house” and His glory has entered in.
But, right now, we are interested more in the next part of this verse:
… an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
Okay, now God is, once again, calling true believers priests. We are a holy priesthood. But here He tells us something additional: He tells us we have a task to perform of “offering up spiritual sacrifices.” Now when we search the Bible to try to discover what this is, we find that there could be a few things in view. One is prayer for others. One is for us to utilize our resources of time and finances, but there is one thing in particular that really stands out and would include the other things I just mentioned and that is that we, as believers, are to offer up as a spiritual sacrifice our self.
Just as Jesus was the great High Priest and offered up Himself for the sake of His people, God commands us to offer up our self. Actually, He tells us to do this on a daily basis. Remember, we are told: “Take up your cross and follow me.” When Jesus took up His cross, He was demonstrating that He was the sacrificial Lamb of God. He was demonstrating the sacrifice of His very life and He commands us to take up our crosses. In one of the Gospel accounts we are told to do it daily; take up your cross; sacrifice yourself. We read this stated directly in Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, *which is* your reasonable service.
First of all, God lets us know that if you are able to do this to any degree and if you do follow through and you begin to live a sacrificial life (if you truly are able to submit yourself to the will of God; if you are able to turn away from sin and keep God’s commandments; if you are able to deny yourself and take up your cross spiritually; then you can only do it by the mercies of God), it is an evidence that God has saved you and He has already worked out that salvation within you in granting you salvation. And when He did so, remember the Psalms told us that you are “clothed with salvation” and, therefore, that is your priestly garment and now you are equipped; you have the fine linen (no wool) which is the “righteousness of saints” and the garment of a priest and now you may go about your priestly duties.
And what is your priestly duty? It is to sacrifice your very self, just as Jesus sacrificed Himself. It is to sacrifice our self. We start with us. God says we are to “present your bodies a living sacrifice,” to keep our body under, to bring it into submission, to mortify our members which are upon the earth, to turn from the things that have so easily beset us and to follow the Word of God. Now God gives us the wonderful and perfect example of Christ, in Hebrews 12:1-4:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset *us*, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of *our* faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.
Here, God is really showing us the way in which we are to go. He is telling us our priestly duty: to offer up our self as a living sacrifice. And this can only be done (to whatever degree it is done) by the moving of God’s Spirit within us “to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
Back in Revelation 5:10:
And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
The phrase “kings of the earth” is found several times in the Book of Revelation and it has this in mind when talking of true believers: God has made us a king and He has made us to reign. But remember, as we read in Revelation 20, that we shall reign with Christ a thousand years; that is, for the completeness of eternity. We are seated with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus when we become a child of God. That is why we are kings and why we reign.
But the earth that we reign over is not this earth – it is the new earth that God will create at the end of the world, once He destroys this present sin-cursed earth. He will create a new heaven and a new earth and God’s people (which could number as many as 200 million) will all be kings and priests and they will all reign over the earth for evermore. They will all reign with Christ, with God, and it will be an everlasting reign that they will enjoy. It is a wonderful thing.
Now the Book of Revelation refers to “kings of the earth” in some places, where the context clearly indicates that it is unsaved individuals that identify with God through the churches and congregations (they profess to be believers) and, therefore, they are also considered to be “kings of the earth.” But, tragically, since they are not true believers, they are only kings of this earth. They are not kings of the new earth. That is the difference. That is the distinction. And how we can tell these references apart is to look at the context to see who is in view – the true believer or the unsaved – and that reveals which earth they are likened to be kings over.
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:11:
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Again, we are continuing, verse by verse, through this glorious vision being shown to the Apostle John. God is revealing the happenings in the throne room of heaven where He sits upon His throne and rules as King of all kings and Lord of all lords.
In our last study we saw in verse 10 that the statement was made: “And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” And we looked at both of those words, kings and priests, and we saw how God, spiritually, has given the office of the priesthood to His people and He has made all His elect of royal blood so that we (spiritually) are kings and priests and we shall reign in the new heaven and new earth. God’s people will rule with Christ, as Revelation, chapter 20, tells us; all who have experienced the first resurrection (every saved individual) will reign with him “a thousand years;” that thousand years reference has to do with the completeness of whatever is in view.
And what is in view? When God saves a sinner, He gives that person eternal life and He lifts them up into heavenly places to be seated (to rule) in Christ Jesus; we reign together with Him for ever, for the completeness of eternity. That is what that thousand years is really saying. So we will reign on the new earth that God will create.
Now the vision is continuing into verse 11, which we would like to look at in this study.
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders…
Now the question for us is this: Who are these angels that are round about the throne? We saw in the previous statement that the kings and priests had to do with God’s elect and we know that God’s elect are often identified with this Greek word angelos (angels) which the King James translators often translated as angels – too often – and many times it would better have been translated as messengers and then there would not have been confusion with God’s elect (that are messengers of God) with angelic beings, because there are angelic beings; there are angels that were created as angels – that is the type of creature they are; they are spirit beings and the Bible speaks of them as being “ministers to the heirs of salvation.” God uses them to accomplish His purposes in the lives of His elect. These are the good angels that did not fall.
We know there are angels because Satan and the demons were once angels themselves and they were in heaven. They were created “good” with the rest of the angelic host and, yet, they fell. And we know, absolutely, that Satan is a spirit being (a creature that we cannot see) because he is a spirit and, likewise, all the fallen angels or demons are spirit beings. They were created as angels and angels are spirit beings, so we know that there are angels and not all of them fell – only a portion of them fell – and that means that there are still “good” angels.
So whenever we come across this word, we have to try to figure out and understand if God is referring to His people (whom He identifies as His messengers) or is He speaking of these spirit beings known as angels? In this case, it is a little difficult to discern and to realize who exactly is in view. I think it is, once again, God’s elect, that are in view. Let me read here, again, starting in Revelation 5:11-13:
And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, *be* unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Now let us compare that with Revelation 7 where we read of the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation. And we know that is language that is referring to the tens, upon tens of millions of people that God saved during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation that came at the end of the world (which we have just gone beyond and now we are living in “those days after that tribulation”), and it says in Revelation 7:9:
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And all the angels stood round about the throne, and *about* the elders and the four beasts, and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, Amen: Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might, *be* unto our God for ever and ever. Amen.
Verse 12, here, is listing seven glorious attributes of God that are being praised, just as in Revelation 5:12. The many angels, likewise, were praising God for seven glorious attributes. It appears, as we read in Revelation 5:10, of those that are “made unto God kings and priests” and then we read of many angels glorifying God; and then, as we read in Revelation 7, of a great multitude being saved and we read of many angels about the throne glorifying God, that they are one and the same – the great multitude is those angels. The kings and priests are the many angels that are spoken of in the following verse.
I do not think it is conclusive, so that we can say this absolutely. At least, right now, I do not feel comfortable in saying that, but we also find related Scriptures in the Book of Daniel to what we are reading in Revelation 5. It says in Daniel 7:9:
I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment *was* white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool…
Now the wool identifies with a lamb and in Revelation 5 it is the Lamb of God. The Lamb is praised again, and again, because He was the Lamb that was slain. It was the Lamb that took away the sins of the world for His elect. It was the Lamb who died and accomplished the will of His father and was victorious over sin and death and it was the Lamb who purchased for Himself a people.
And now we find in Daniel 7:9, “the Ancient of days…whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
This is the same Person – it is eternal God, the Lord Jesus Christ and here in Daniel 7 we are given a look at God upon the seat of judgment and He is the Lamb. And, likewise, that is the case in the Book of Revelation.
Then it says in Daniel 7:10:
A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
And, here, you probably noticed the same numbers as we have in our verse in Revelation 5:11:
… and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Now what does “ten thousand times ten thousand” equal? The answer is that it is equal to one hundred million – one hundred million of these many angels plus “thousands of thousands.” And we cannot tell you how many that is because it is not specific enough. It does not say “one thousand times one thousand,” because then we could know, but it says “thousands of thousands.” And that could be two thousand or five thousand or nine thousand – we are just not sure, so we cannot multiply that number like we can “ten thousand times ten thousand.” All we can say is that it is “one hundred million” plus.
And another thing we can say is that what is in view here is the completeness of these (many) angels – one hundred million or “ten thousand times ten thousands.” The number ten in the Bible points to the completeness of whatever is in view and, likewise, in the case of “thousands of thousands,” these are multiples of ten, so God is emphasizing the utter completeness of all of these angels. Now this could just be language indicating all of the elect that Christ would ever save. We do not have to think that just because this is happening before the seals come off the Bible that God cannot give a vision concerning all of the elect, just like the twenty four elders represent all of the elect; so, too, do these angels.
But we do have to keep the thought open that the angels could be referring to the angelic beings and, if that were the case, then this would be pointing to the completeness of the entire angelic host, or all the spirit beings that God has created. But, again, I believe this is referring to the true believers.
Let us go on to Revelation 5:12:
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
And, again, there are seven things listed here: power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory and blessing. We are not surprised that there are seven wonderful, glorious attributes of God that are being lauded and praised. The number seven is found repeatedly in the Book of Revelation. It was found already back in verse 6 when the Lamb that had been slain had “seven horns” and “seven eyes” which are the “seven spirits of God.” Seven, seven and seven, which points to the perfection of these things and, likewise, the number seven in our verse points to the perfection of the power of Christ, perfection of His riches, perfection of His wisdom, perfection of His strength and perfection of His honour and glory, and perfection of His blessing. These are all things that completely identify with the Lord Jesus.
When we get together in our next study, we are going to look a little bit more closely at each one of these attributes that the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, is said to be worthy to receive. It is always wonderful when we can look up a word in the Bible and see how God uses it elsewhere; it will help us, likewise, to realize that the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, is worthy of all the praise and honour that we could ever lift up toward His name.
Good evening and welcome, everyone, to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #11 of Revelation, chapter 5, and we are going to be reading Revelation 5:12:
Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
This is the heavenly host – ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands – of angels and, in all probability, representing God’s elect and they are proclaiming the worthiness of the “Lamb that was slain,” from the foundation of the world. It is the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God, that took away the sins of His people and they are declaring that He is worthy to receive these seven things: “power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”
The number seven has to do with the perfection of each one of these things that are mentioned. The Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of receiving the absolute perfection of power, perfection of riches, perfection of wisdom, and so on.
Since God takes the time to list these things, we want to go through and look at each one just a little bit, to consider and think about what God is telling us about the victorious Lamb of God, the One that overcame and, therefore, is worthy to receive all these things.
The first thing that God mentions is power. The Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power.
Remember we read these things in Romans 1:3-4:
Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared *to be* the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
That resurrection took place from the foundation of the world. That is when the Lord Jesus died for the sins of His people and that is the time He was resurrected and gave all evidence that He had overcome and won the victory over sin and death. At that point, He was “declared to be the Son of God with power…by the resurrection from the dead.”
It is no wonder then that the Lamb is in view in Revelation 5, the Lamb who has overcome. And how did He overcome? He overcame by rising from the dead, demonstrating that death had no power over Him; He was stronger and more powerful than death itself, so He is worthy to receive the perfection of power.
The second thing mentioned is that the Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive riches, and, of course, God is not referring to earthly riches or material things. No - that would be nothing to the One that created all things. Those are not the riches that interest God. Those are not the true riches anyway. The true riches must be something that is eternal. We read in Romans 9:23:
And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
Here are described some of the riches of God, the “riches of his glory.” Look at Romans 11:33:
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable *are* his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Notice that phrase at the beginning of this verse: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” We often say that the Bible is a very “deep” Book and you can search the scriptures and search the scriptures for your whole lifetime and you would never plumb the depths of the truth that is within. That is a true statement. Given our limitations with our finite nature and our temporal life span in this world, we can never plumb the depths of the “riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!”
And that helps us to understand that word riches. Again, it is related to spiritual riches, to the eternal riches of God’s wisdom and knowledge. We learn a little bit about these things – the wisdom and knowledge of God – as we learn truth from the Word of God.
But we are always learning truth from the Word of God. It is really incredibly sad that many in the churches (and some outside of the churches) have the idea that there is no such thing as “progressive revelation.” In other words, they think they have reached the high water mark of knowledge; they think they have learned all there is to learn of the Bible. It must be that they think that because whenever a child of God puts forth information from the Word of God that is “new” or “brings correction” to something previously thought, their reaction is, “Oh, no, oh, no, we do not go in for progressive revelation.” Basically, they are saying, “There is nothing new to be learned. There is no further insight for us to gain. We will just hold on to what we have.”
Of course, that kind of mindset is one of the reasons why God has brought judgment on the churches and congregations. They have uplifted and held their confessions and creeds and their denominational positions above the teachings of the Bible. Of course, there is progressive revelation! There are depths of riches of the Bible – riches that are hidden treasure and depths that mere man (mortal, finite and tiny little man) cannot reach. It is only by the grace of God and His kindness toward us that He has opened up the Scriptures to reveal certain truths to His people at this time (the time of the end), that we are able to learn some things. Of course, God has not opened up everything, but before God’s program for this world is completed, we will have learned everything that He wants us to learn.
Here, again, is this word riches and we find it in Ephesians 3:8:
Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
And who is Christ? He is the Word made flesh. He is the embodiment and personification of the Word of God, the Bible. So the Apostle Paul, writing under the inspiration of God, speaks of preaching among the Gentiles, the nations, the “the unsearchable riches of Christ” or the unsearchable riches of this Word that we are so privileged to have in our possession, if we have a Bible or other access to the Word of God. It is unsearchable by men. Remember what God says in 1st Corinthians 2:9-10:
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed *them* unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
Remember we read in Romans 11:33: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.” These are the deep things of God and it also says in 1st Corinthians 2:11-12:
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Then God goes on to explain how God gives those things through the process of “comparing spiritual with spiritual” and then “the Holy Ghost teacheth.” But notice the “deep things of God,” which is the Bible, His Word, and that no man knows these things. If anyone thinks that they can take a seminary course or they graduate from seminary and then maybe they move on to get their doctorate in theology (and they become a Doctorate of Theology) and that this qualifies them to know “the deep things of God,” then they are utterly deceived. They are no more qualified to know these “deep things of God” than an ant would be qualified to know anything found in a medical journal, if you found the ant walking along the pages of an open medical journal. The ant might be upon that book and, perhaps, he might be able to deceive his fellow ants into thinking he knows something (of it), but the reality is he does not know a thing about that complex book. (And that is a book written by men.)
Mankind knows nothing about the “deep things of God,” the infinitely deep thoughts of this Eternal Being – this God who can speak a word and bring a creation like this into existence. What can we know of Him? We can know nothing except what He wants us to know and He has given us the Bible that we might search it out, but searching without His help will be fruitless; it will bring us no closer to understanding. It requires the Spirit of God to know the things of God, just as no man knows the things of a man except the spirit that is in him. And, likewise, “the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” It requires not only a lamp, but oil within the lamp to light it, that we might be able to “see” and gain knowledge.
Well, these are the riches that Christ is worthy to receive and it is related that the Lamb was given the Book. Remember it said in Revelation 5 that “thou art worthy to take the book.” The Book contains all these riches that we are reading about and He was worthy to unseal the Book and this means that Christ is worthy to receive these spiritual riches. Of course He is, as He is the essence of them and everything that is in that Book is speaking of Him and, so, He is worthy as the Lamb to receive these riches.
This is such an edifying thing for us to think about, so let us also look at Ephesians 3:16:
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;
Yes, the riches of glory, riches of wisdom, riches of knowledge and God also says in Philippians 4, referring to His riches and glory, in Philippians 4:19:
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
These are the riches, not gold and silver or dollar and cents, not coins or paper money, not things like houses and boats or whatever things one can find. The riches of this world are paltry; they pale in comparison to the glorious riches of the kingdom of God and of Christ Himself.
In our verse in Revelation 5, it says in Revelation 5:12:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom…
You see, Jesus is all of these things and, yet, it says He is worthy to receive them. Let us turn to 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, and we will see what wisdom is. We read in 1st Corinthians 1:30:
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
Jesus is wisdom. You see, all things that Christ is, in a sense, are being “given back to Him.” He has been restored as the Lamb that was slain. He emptied Himself of His glory and now it is, perhaps, as though God is saying now that He has received all these things, once again, now that He has risen from the dead because it would be true that if Christ had remained dead, He would have lost everything – all of the “unsearchable riches” of His purpose and His kingdom, all of the tremendous power and untold things that our minds cannot even grab hold of that belong to Him as King of kings and Lord of lords, as the one that has always been. He has dared to die for the sake of rebellious sinners (wretched, filthy sinners that have shaken their puny little fists at Him) that He has created. He, the Creator, dared to die for them and if He had remained dead, He would have lost “the deep things of God.” He would have lost the treasures of heaven. But He was able to win the victory, to overcome death, to rise from the dead and, now, gloriously, to be seated in the heavenlies at the right hand of God and to reign as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, the Lamb worthy “to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength…”
Now the word strength can be translated as power, also, and it is translated as mighty in Ephesians 1:19:
And what *is* the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
The mighty power of God and the mighty power that belongs to Him – He is worthy to receive it. God then goes on with this heavenly proclamation of the perfection of these glorious attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ and He is worthy of each one. He is worthy to “receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour…
Regarding honour, we read in Romans 13:7:
Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute *is due*; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.
And that is exactly what is happening in the heavenlies, in the throne room of God. The One that is due honour, the One worthy of honour, is receiving honour from those He has redeemed, from the sinners that He has saved and from the Godhead Himself (three Persons, yet, one God); all are declaring His glory and declaring that He is worthy to be honored.
And the next word is “glory,” where it says He is worthy “to receive… honor, and glory.” We read in John 17:4:
I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
And, again, it is said in John 17:22:
And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
The glory that Christ had with the Father before the world was…now that glory is being showered upon Him as He is receiving these things: honour and glory and blessing. And blessing is the seventh attribute and praise being given by His elect. He is worthy of blessing.
We normally think of God as the one who does the blessing and that is true. God is the one who bestows blessing upon us. Who are we to think that we can bless anyone, let alone that we can bless God? But it is also true that God is, in Himself, blessed. He is able to bestow and grant blessing to others because He is the very essence of blessing. We read this in Romans 1:25:
Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
And, also, it says in Romans 9:5:
Whose *are* the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ *came*, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
This is something that God is. He is blessed. He is blessing and that is why when God saves a person and enters into that individual, that individual becomes blessed, due to the identification with the One that is blessing Himself.
Well, what a wonderful praise to God this is: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” And it goes on to say, in Revelation 5:13:
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, *be* unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Some of the very same attributes or praises are declared again! Can we ever praise God enough? Can we ever thank Him enough and we have done it sufficiently and there is no need to praise Him or thank Him any further? Of course not! We will be praising God eternally, for ever and ever.
We read in the Psalms (and these Psalms are wonderful), and I am going to just read the entire Psalm 148:
Praise ye JEHOVAH. Praise ye JEHOVAH from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that *be* above the heavens. Let them praise the name of JEHOVAH: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise JEHOVAH from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of JEHOVAH: for his name alone is excellent; his glory *is* above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; *even* of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye JEHOVAH.
And we also read in Psalm 150:
Praise ye JEHOVAH. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise JEHOVAH. Praise ye JEHOVAH.
It was pointed out to me recently that Psalm 150 has the word praise thirteen times contained within it. Thirteen times God is to be praised. Why would that be? Of course, the number thirteen points to “super fullness” and it points to the end of time – to the end of this world – and, therefore, it also points to the beginning of the new heaven and the new earth which will take place once this world is destroyed.
Then all of God’s elect and all principalities and powers and all the heavenly host and everything that has life from God will praise Him in unison and in glorious song! God will be exalted and will receive the honor and the glory and the power that is due unto His name, for He is worthy as the Lamb of God: worthy to be praised.
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