REVELATION 5
We have seen in chapter 4 the throne in heaven, and the glory and faithfulness of Him who sits upon it, and that all created things are for His will. Now a book is seen on His right hand, which I take to be the record of what God purposes to bring about so that His will may come into evidence in the very scene where lawlessness has been.
The book referred to in Psalm 40: 7 and Hebrews 10: 7 is different. What is in view there is that the sacrifices which were offered according to the law entirely failed to give God pleasure, or to establish His will in the blessing of man. He had innumerable thoughts of blessing. “Thy thoughts toward us: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee; would I declare and speak them, they are more than can be numbered” (Psalm 40: 5). Another Psalm says, “But how precious are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand” (Psalm 139: 17, 18). All those precious thoughts were written in a book, and on the roll of it was written, “Lo, I come to do, O God, thy will”. Every line written in that book depended on Christ for its effectuation; He stood engaged to [p. 86] bring all to pass. It was not a sealed book, for God would have men to know His blessed will, and the One who came to give effect to it. It was no question of changing the conditions here, but of bringing to light the will of God, and His numberless thoughts of blessing, not in public manifestation, but in the way of testimony. See Psalm 40: 9, 10. That is the present character of divine acting; the book of Psalm 40 is the book we have to do with at the present time.
The book in Revelation 5: 1 stands in relation to another dispensation. It has to do with a time when God takes in hand to bring about His will in this world. The fact that there is a book written indicates that God has definitely and formally committed Himself to what is written. He has put it, if we may use the language of men, in black and white. There can be no reversal or change. Then its being “written within and on the back” conveys the thought of great fulness, for it was not usual to write on both sides. And, finally, it was “sealed with seven seals”. God has a will as to the earth, His purposes are all written, but they have not yet been opened up, or brought out in a public way. The scene before us brings out very strikingly that only ONE is worthy to do that. The time when He will do it is now very near.
Verse 2 is a challenge to the universe. “Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?” God would have every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, to face this question. The elders know the answer to it, but John as the seer does not, and he weeps much “because no one had been found worthy to open the book nor to regard it”.
[p. 87] There are widespread hopes in the world of a good time to come. People have vague ideas of a time of universal peace and happiness, and I suppose that these may have been gathered, in part, from Scripture. But how few connect these ideas with the thought of God having His rights here, which is essential to such conditions! The world has had an opportunity for thousands of years of learning that no one has been able to bring in conditions here which would be in accord with the will of God, and which would secure peace and happiness for men.
One might well weep to see mighty monarchs, great statesmen, and all the best of the sons of this world, proving one after another their inability to open the book, or even to regard it. Do you think there is a great leader of men anywhere able to look at the will of God in regard to the earth, as we may see it in Scripture, with the slightest hope of being able to bring it to pass? No, he would say, it is a hopeless impossibility.
How many people have given their money, and their sons and brothers, in recent years in hope that the world was going to be reconstituted! Have they not had to realize that it was all in vain? Do you think there is a thoughtful person in the world who does not feel like weeping today? God has allowed every class of men to be tested as to their ability to put things right. Absolute monarchy, the rule of the nobility, the rule of the middle classes; and the rule of the working classes will have its day too. All these and different combinations of them, have been and will be tried. Each class thinks it could do better than the others, but all alike fail because they cannot deal with the root of the mischief.
[p. 88] Then some have thought — chiefly by a perversion of Old Testament scriptures — that the church would eventually bring all under divine influence and would be found worthy to open the book by means of the gospel, so that God’s world-kingdom might be brought in that way. But, as we have seen in previous chapters, the church has proved herself an unfaithful witness. She has not maintained her own testimony. Instead of setting the world right she has become herself the subject of divine judgment.
After all man’s attempts to improve things by legislation, education, and moral and religious influences of many kinds, there is an increasing feeling of insecurity. Instead of the world getting better, thoughtful persons are beginning to realize that it is like a city built on a volcano which may burst into eruption at any moment.
It is good to be an elder! The Christian, instead of being behind the times, as many suppose, is really very much in advance of the times. He knows all the evil that is developing, and will develop, here, but he also knows the ultimate issue of things in God’s complete triumph. The elders do not weep, for they are in the secret of God, and one of them said to John, “Do not weep. Behold, the lion which is of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book, and its seven seals”.
There is One whose supremacy cannot be challenged by any when He rises up — “the lion which is of the tribe of Juda”. The lion is “mighty among beasts, which turneth not away for any” (Proverbs 30: 30); it has been connected with Judah since Jacob’s prophecy in Genesis 49. David is the king of God’s choice — the one marked by victorious power over all his enemies. “The root of David” suggests that every promise of royal glory in the earth had its root in Christ. It was from Him that it sprang in the mind of God; and He is the only One competent to give effect to those promises. He became “the offspring of David” that He might take all up in Manhood, and give effect to it.
He it is who “has overcome so as to open the book, and its seven seals”. That word “overcome” contains volumes. I have no doubt it refers to the work of the cross as that which annuls “him who has the might of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2: 14); and in which principalities and authorities were spoiled (Colossians 2: 15). In the place where every evil power was found in array against God and against His Christ He overcame. It was such a victory as was never gained on any other battle-field, for
“By weakness and defeat
He won the meed and crown;
Trod all our foes beneath His feet,
By being trodden down”. (24:2)
He “has overcome” by going into death. “Sin, death, and hell are vanquished”. Viewed as enemies opposed to all that is in God’s thought for man — they are overcome. Sin cannot hinder, for it has been removed in sacrifice. Death has been annulled by One going into it upon whom it had no claim. And the powers of evil, which would have used man’s envy and wickedness to blot out in the death of Christ all that was of God when it appeared in grace amongst men, have been defeated. For that very death has brought God in, and made Him known so that the works of the devil might be undone in men’s hearts. He “has overcome”, and that has established His [p. 90] worthiness to open the book. What He has done for sinful man is celebrated in verses 9, 10. But in verse 5 it is the victorious Lion overcoming every power that is adverse to God. Of course, as John learned immediately, the Lion is also the Lamb, the One who has redeemed to God by His blood, and He is worthy to take the book, and to open its seals, on that ground also.
But as having “overcome” He is entitled to lay His hand on everything that is hostile to God, and to set it aside by power so that God’s will may be brought in where all the lawlessness of man has been. His having “overcome” gives Him title to deal with all evil; His having “redeemed” gives Him title to secure for God “kings and priests” who will reign with Him over the earth when all that is evil has been set aside.
The Lamb stands “as slain” in the midst of the throne. How affecting is this! It is the One who has suffered, even to death, in doing God’s will who is entitled to take up all that will in relation to the earth, and to bring it into effect. He has “seven horns” — perfection of power — “and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God which are sent into all the earth” — probably answering to the sevenfold qualification for government seen in Isaiah 11: 2.
He comes and takes the book. The One who could open the book of grace in Luke 4 is worthy to open the book of God’s will as to the earth in Revelation 5, and to give effect in power to all that will. It involves in result “the restoring of all things, of which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophets since time began” (Acts 3: 21). The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fall before the Lamb,
“[p. 91] having each a harp and golden bowls full of incenses, which are the prayers of the saints”. It is the Lamb — the once-slain One — whom they worship. It is the hand once nailed to the cross that takes the book. The One who died will have the kingdom and dominion. Everything that rendered His death necessary — lawlessness, lust, Satan’s power — will be set aside. He would not have died to bear the judgment of these things, and then leave them permanently to defile God’s creation. So that the opening of the seals brings judgment. God begins to deal definitely with things as they are here in this world, and His judgments begin to be realized as abroad in the earth.
The saints are delivered in grace from the dominion of sin. Men are not shut up hopelessly under the power of evil now; they may go out from the sphere of judgment through the door which the death of Christ has opened. If people fall under judgment it is because they have despised the way of escape which has been opened. I believe there will be the consciousness in all who come under judgment that they might have escaped.
The “harps” which the elders have are, I think, suggestive of their personal praises. The “golden bowls” contain the prayers of saints still on earth after the church has been translated. The elders are a priestly company in heaven, but they are sympathetic with the exercises and prayers of saints still suffering on earth. They identify themselves with those prayers as they fall before the Lamb.
It is ever God’s way to produce exercise and desire in His saints with regard to what He is doing or about to do. The saints on earth after the church has gone will realize as no saints ever have before what a scene [p. 92] of moral disorder this world is. For divine government, which has been such a check on the lawlessness of man since Noah’s day, will no longer restrain. There will be a dominant power, but it will be Satanic in character, and not like the powers that be today, which are ordained of God. It will make war with the saints, and overcome them, and it will have authority over every tribe, and people, and tongue, and nation. See chapter 13: 1 - 10. Under such circumstances how terrible will be the suffering of saints! Many of the Psalms give expression to their experiences and exercises. They will look for judgments on their enemies and persecutors, for the time introduced by the Lamb taking the book and opening its seals is a time of judgment. The Spirit of Christ in the saints today is a Spirit of intercession for all men that they may be saved, because it is the day of salvation. But the Spirit of Christ in the saints in that coming day will put them in harmony with what God is about to do in dealing with all that is evil here by “the thunder of his power”. And the elders in heaven will be sympathetic; they will carry before the Lamb the prayers of the suffering and martyred saints on earth.
Then the new song which they sing is not as to their own redemption, but it is the celebration of the worthiness of the Lamb to take the book and to open its seals, “because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to God, by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and made them to our God kings and priests, and they shall reign over the earth”. It contemplates the blessed fact that in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy (Habakkuk 3: 2). He will still have in those terrible coming days [p. 93] His elect and redeemed ones, secured in the value of the blood of the slain Lamb, made kings and priests to Him. God will see to it that there is a witness right through to redemption by blood, and to the Lamb as slain. Every persecuted and martyred saint will be a witness to Him; as the judgments come one after another, in ever-increasing severity, there will still be in each saint a testimony that there is such a thing as redemption by blood, and that those who have been sinful men can be with God in the value of it. But each saint will be a witness, too, that the obduracy and wilfulness of man as utterly apostate from God is proof against every testimony which God can present to him, so that judgment is inevitable — strange work though it be to the blessed God. Nothing could be more solemn than to consider that the worthiness of the Lamb to take the book and to open its seals lies in the fact that He has been slain, and has redeemed to God by His blood! He has died to redeem. Divine love could go no farther. If lawlessness will not yield to such a testimony it must be broken by a rod of iron.
The saints in view here as redeemed are not those who go through the tribulation to enjoy millennial blessing on earth. For those who do so will not reign; they will be reigned over. But these “shall reign over the earth”. It refers to those who will live and reign “with the Christ a thousand years”. See chapter 20: 4 - 6. It is true of all saints who will be raised or changed before the millennium that they are redeemed to God by the blood of the Lamb, and that they will “reign over the earth”.
The “new song” awakens universal acclaim. The “myriads of angels, the universal gathering” (Hebrews 12: 23),
“[p. 94] ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands”, ascribe worthiness to the Lamb. The elders strike the note, but all created intelligences around the throne take up and prolong the strain. Then the vast harmony overflows the bounds of heaven, “and every creature which is in the heaven and upon the earth and under the earth, and those that are upon the sea, and all things in them, heard I saying, To him that sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, blessing, and honour, and glory, and might, to the ages of ages”. This evidently anticipates the final issue of God’s ways, when everything that hath breath will praise Him. It is the grand climax reached at the end of the Psalms.
The Lamb taking the book is the pledge that all will be brought to pass that is for God’s pleasure in His creation. Judgments will have to come in to give effect to that pleasure in a scene where lawless wickedness is rising to a head preparatory to its being broken for ever. But heaven looks beyond the judgments to the reign over the earth of those redeemed by blood, and it celebrates the worthiness of the Lamb. The unrivalled honour belongs to Him alone. The whole creation which “groans together and travails in pain together until now” will be “set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God” (Romans 8: 21, 22). This chapter carries us in anticipation to the blessed day of creation’s liberty when, instead of a universal groan, there will be “blessing, and honour, and glory, and might” from every creature to Him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. It is the final result; God’s complete vindication and triumph in the creation where sin has wrought its havoc. “And the four living [p. 95] creatures said, Amen; and the elders fell down and did homage”.
When the Holy Babe was born the heavenly host celebrated the full result of His coming into the world. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. In like manner when the Lamb takes the book the full result of His doing so comes before the mind of heaven. The fact that the first move on God’s part has been made is the sure pledge to heaven of the accomplishment of all. There may still be on earth that darkest part of the night which precedes the dawn. Heavy clouds may still hang over a world where apostasy is reaching its climax. But the vision of heaven is filled with the worthiness of the Lamb, and looks beyond the darkness to “the light of the morning, the rising of the sun, a morning without clouds, when from the sunshine, after rain, the green grass springeth from the earth” (2 Samuel 23: 4).
God has given this revelation that we may look at creation’s future in the vision of heaven, and “boast in hope of the glory of God”.