In the last chapter God was worshipped as Creator. We now see Him as “judge of the earth” committing “all judgment unto the Son,” and giving “Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:22, 27). “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” (Rev. 5:1-4). God, as we have seen, is resuming the execution of His counsels concerning the earth. The promises made to Abraham and to David, though temporarily suspended after the rejection of the Christ to whom they all pointed, are still in His thoughts; “for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom. 11:29). “The Man of His right hand,” rejected in His humiliation, has been seated on the Father’s throne, while the Spirit has been on earth gathering out a people to keep the word of His patience, and baptizing them into one body with their glorified Head in heaven. This is Christ’s place during the formation of the Church, and not until it is caught up to Himself does He rise from the Father’s throne to commence the work of judgment.
But now this has taken place, and the saints, raised or translated at His coming, are seen under the figure of the elders seated in heaven. The time of Christ’s patience is ended, the time of His kingdom approaching, and the judgments preceding the kingdom about to begin.
God always designed to govern the world by a man. Adam, put in trust, failed in obedience, and ruined the whole creation. After this, sin having entered, the exercise of rule necessarily involved the execution of judgment. Hence the sword of government was entrusted to Noah. But he, too, proved unworthy, and became the object of mockery to his own son. Man’s effort to establish government in independence of God was confounded at Babel, and each successive hand which received the government from God proved itself unworthy to carry out His judgments. Israel failed to execute His purposes upon the Canaanites; the judges failed to maintain His government in the land; Saul failed to carry out His command against Amalek; the house of David failed to meet His righteous requirements, till the nation, already divided, was given as a prey to the Gentiles. The Gentile monarchies all failed, and were set aside, till the last of the four powers crowned man’s guilt by joining with God’s own people in rejecting and crucifying the Messiah. “No man was found worthy.” The scroll of God’s judgments cannot be unfolded by man. Nay, man cannot even look upon it; for when God is dealing in judgment, whether at mount Sinai or in these coming woes, who is there that does not, like Moses, “exceedingly fear and quake”? The strong angel’s proclamation remains unanswered. All human resources have been tried, and on all may be written the words which foretold the doom of the first Gentile monarchy, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”
But as in grace, so in government. When man’s resources are exhausted, God’s power enters the scene. Well might John weep at the impotence of man to carry out the purposes of God; but God only waits till this has been fully demonstrated to bring forth the Man of His own counsels. “And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed [or overcome] to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof” (Rev. 5:5). Here, then, an elder, who knows the mind of God, heralds Christ as the One who is to take and open the book of judgment. What all others have failed to do, He can and will do.
For He is “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” The lion is a type of resistless strength, whether acting lawlessly or, as here, in the righteous execution of God’s judgments, for “the King’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion” (Prov. 19:12). Long ago the figure had been used of Israel — “Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat the prey, and drink the blood of the slain” (Num. 23:24). And of Judah especially it was said, “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?” (Gen. 49:9). These prophecies are yet unfulfilled; for He who holds God’s mighty power, symbolized by the lion, has not yet appeared in this character. He has been on earth as a lamb led to the slaughter, but not as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” This is the character however which He now takes. He is also “the Root of David,” for it is from God’s purposes concerning Him that all the glorious promises to David and his house are derived.
We have not here Christ’s power and dignity as Son of God. Judgment is committed to Him “because He is the Son of Man” (John 5:27). And not only so, but He owes His dominion to His humiliation unto death, because, “being in the form of God, He did not think it an object of rapine to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus” (His name as man) “every knee should bow, of things [or beings] in heaven, and beings in earth, and beings under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:6-11).
Hence, although Christ is coming forth as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” the executor of God’s judgments, and as “the Root of David,” the center of His earthly counsels, how does He appear? “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, 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” (Rev. 5:6). While God’s praises as Creator are celebrated, Christ is “in the midst of the throne” in His own essential glory-the glory of God. But when earthly government and judgment are in question, He stands forth in His derived human glory as the Lamb that had been slain. He is now clothed however with perfect power, as shown in the seven horns, and possesses perfect knowledge and wisdom, as symbolized in the seven eyes, “which are the seven Spirits of God.” For Christ, as man, receives from the Spirit the knowledge and wisdom of God, and thus discerns everything throughout the whole earth.
As the slain Lamb, invested with authority to execute judgment, He receives His commission from God. “And He came and took [the book] out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne” (Rev. 5:7). And now the homage to “the name of Jesus” begins. “And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, 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, and hast made them [not us] unto our God kings and priests: and they [not we] shall reign on [or rather over] the earth” (Rev. 5:8-10). Here Christ is worshipped, not as God, but as the slain Lamb, because “He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” According to the strict grammatical sense — which does not however always determine the meaning — it is only the elders who are said to have harps, and therefore we may conclude only the elders who raise this song. But however this may be, the four living creatures join in the adoration of the Lamb, falling down before Him in worship, thus signifying perhaps the fact that God’s power in judgment, which they represent, is now placed in Christ’s hands. The song is new, for though the merits of Christ’s death are not new, the character in which He now appears, as the One who takes the book of God’s judgment, and opens the seals thereof, is new. It is a character which He only assumes after the Church has been taken to heaven. The elders worship as priests. As a “royal priesthood” they celebrate on the harp “the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). As heavenly priests too, in “the holiest of all, which had the golden censer” (Heb. 9:3, 4), they have “golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.”
We have before seen that these elders represent the redeemed in heaven. Their song confirms this. If the words, “and hast redeemed us to God” were correct, the evidence would be still stronger. But though most manuscripts so read, the omission of “us” from a few copies is confirmed by the fact that in the next verse the reading undoubtedly is, “And have made them unto our God, kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth.” The word “us,” therefore, is doubtful. But still the whole song, being a celebration of Christ’s work in redemption as entitling Him to take the book, naturally belongs to those who represent the redeemed. Who should be so interested in the fact that men were redeemed to God by His blood, were made kings and priests, or should reign over the earth, as the redeemed themselves? All these topics, so natural for them, are omitted from the angels’ song, showing that these elders have a far deeper interest in the redeemed than the angels. A difficulty may arise from the words, “and they shall reign on the earth;” but the true reading is, “over the earth;” and while it is certainly never said that the heavenly saints shall dwell on the earth again, it is distinctly promised that when Christ reigns over the earth, they shall reign with Him.
The praise of the angels follows. “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures 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 honor, and glory, and blessing” (Rev. 5:11, 12). At the time here spoken of, the Psalmist’s words are fast approaching their fulfillment: “Jehovah hath prepared His throne in the heavens; His kingdom ruleth over all” (Psa. 103:19); and even now “His angels that excel in strength,” the “ministers of His that do His pleasure,” bless Him in the person of “the Son of Man,” through whom His rule is carried on, and who is about to have all things put under His feet. (Psa. 8:4-6). But there is a great difference between this worship of the angels and that of the elders. The angels look at His “obedience unto death,” and own that it is as the slain Lamb He is entitled to receive glory and blessing; but they say nothing about redemption. To them the central object in the cross is the perfect obedience there manifested; to the elders the central object in the cross is the redeeming work there accomplished.
But the chorus of praise does not stop here. The prophet’s eye glances forward in vision to the universal adoration which will be rendered to the name of God and of the Lamb. The Psalmist knows nothing of throned elders in heaven, but he summons, not only angels, but all God’s “works in all places of His dominion” to bless the Lord. (Psa. 103:22). And here in John’s vision, after the songs of the elders and of the angels, the praises of creation also rise. “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 [or, “all things in them”], heard I saying, Blessing, and glory, and honor, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped” (Rev. 5:13-14). The words added in our version, “Him that liveth forever and ever,” are without authority, and spoil the passage. For the worship rendered to God in this chapter is not to God as Creator, or as the Eternal, but to God sitting upon the throne of judgment, and to Jesus as the slain Lamb, to whom the judgment is committed.
These two chapters, then, form the introduction to the judgments which follow the rapture of the Church, and usher in the day of the Lord. The present dispensation of grace having come to an end, God takes up again the thread of His schemes of earthly government, of which Christ is always the center. He appears in the first chapter as Creator, about to assert His rights over the world He has made, and ever mindful of the covenant into which He entered with Noah. Here He is adored as Lord God Almighty, while Christ is not seen as separate from the glory of God, or as having any distinctive dignity as Son of Man. In the next chapter, however, God is not presented as Creator, but as Judge, and then Christ appears as man, the One who had been “brought as a Lamb to the slaughter,” but now stands forth armed with all God’s power, as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” to avenge His chosen people, and as “the Root of David” to “judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth” (Psa. 96:13). As such, the redeemed in heaven, the angels, and all creation, join to celebrate His praise. The worship of creation, indeed, is only anticipative, the prophet’s gaze being carried on, in this, as in other cases, beyond the immediate present, to contemplate the glorious results which were to flow out of the sad scenes of judgment now about to commence.