Revelation5chapter 5

Revelation 5:1-2

The scroll in the right hand of him that sat on the throne is written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals, the language of a Roman testament or a covenant deed sealed shut until the appointed heir claims it. Some read it as Ezekiel 2:9-10's scroll of lamentation and mourning and woe now reopened for judgment, others as the title deed to the earth itself, forfeited in Eden and now to be reclaimed. A strong angel's challenge rings through creation, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof, a question the whole book has been building toward since the throne room opened in chapter four.

Revelation 5:3-4

No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, a search that sweeps every rank of creature, angel, man, and the unseen dead, and finds none qualified. John's weeping is not idle grief but the seer's own stake in the answer, for if the book stays sealed the purposes of God for the earth stay frozen and evil goes unjudged and unended. His tears are stopped only by an elder's word, not an angel's, since the answer belongs to redeemed humanity's own testimony to who has prevailed.

Revelation 5:5

The elder names him by two Old Testament titles at once, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, Genesis 49:9-10's scepter promise, and the Root of David, Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10's shoot from Jesse's stump, both messianic titles John's readers would know from the synagogue. Hath prevailed, enikesen, the verb of conquest, answers the angel's question before the reader sees who conquered or how, and the delay is the chapter's own turn: John is told a Lion and shown a Lamb.

Revelation 5:6

Between the throne and the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders, stands a Lamb as it had been slain, hos esphagmenon, standing though slaughtered, the paradox the whole chapter has prepared: the Lion conquers by dying. Seven horns speak fulness of power, horns being Scripture's regular sign of strength in Deuteronomy 33:17 and Psalm 89:17, and seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth, the same sevenfold Spirit named in 1:4 and grounded in Isaiah 11:2, omniscience joined to omnipotence in the slain and standing Lamb.

Revelation 5:7

He came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, a simple act that answers the whole search of verses two through four: worthiness is shown, not argued, by the taking itself. The Father does not hand the scroll to an equal by force but releases it to the Son whose blood has already earned the right, the cross standing behind this throne room transfer of authority.

Revelation 5:8

The taking draws immediate worship: the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fall down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints, the incense of Psalm 141:2 made visible, the church's accumulated prayers held before the throne and released at the very moment redemption's claim is exercised. This is the first time in the book the Lamb, not only he that sitteth on the throne, receives the elders' worship outright.

Revelation 5:9-10

The new song, kaine, a song never sung before because its subject is new, gives the ground of worthiness in one sentence: thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, the price named before the purchase. Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation states the atonement's universal reach in provision, while made us unto our God kings and priests answers Exodus 19:6's calling to Israel now extended to the redeemed, and we shall reign on the earth states plainly, in the futurist reading this site holds, a coming and visible reign rather than a present spiritual one only.

Revelation 5:11-12

The circle of worship widens to myriads of myriads, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, an innumerable angelic host John hears rather than counts, their voice loud as the sealed book's own challenge in verse two. Their sevenfold doxology to the Lamb, power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing, matches in kind the sevenfold doxology 4:11 gave the One on the throne, the same sevenfold worship offered to both, the book's quiet and repeated claim to the Lamb's full deity.

Revelation 5:13-14

Every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea joins last, the whole created order answering where verse three had found no one able, now every creature able to bless: Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever, Father and Son named together in one doxology and one for ever. The four beasts say, Amen, sealing creation's answer, and the elders fall down a second time and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, the chapter closing exactly as chapter four's throne room did.