The Lion Who Is a Lamb

5:1-4The sealed scroll and the weeping apostle

"I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals" (WEB). The right hand is the hand of power. The scroll is written on both sides, which means it is full, with no space for another word. Ezekiel saw a similar scroll, "written within and without" (Ezekiel 2:10). And the seven seals mean total security. Daniel was once told to "shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end" (Daniel 12:4). Now the time has come to open it.

What does the scroll contain? Christians disagree. Some think it is God's plan for history, others the title deed to creation, and others the full outworking of his judgment and redemption. The visions that follow show it is about the purposes of God for the world and his people, carried out as the seals are broken.

A mighty angel asks, "Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?" Notice the word. He does not ask who is strong enough, but who is worthy. The search covers "heaven above," "the earth," and "under the earth," the whole cosmos. No one.

Then comes one of the most human lines in the book: "I wept much." An apostle cries out loud in heaven. He does not weep for himself. He weeps because it seems that God's purposes cannot proceed, and that evil may have no answer.

5:5-6The Lion heard, the Lamb seen

One of the elders says, "Don't weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome." Both titles are royal. Jacob blessed Judah as "a lion's cub" and promised that the scepter would not leave him "until he comes to whom it belongs" (Genesis 49:9-10). Isaiah spoke of "the root of Jesse" standing as a banner for the nations (Isaiah 11:10). A conquering king, then, and the word "overcome" means that the victory has already been won.

Now John turns to look, and this is the heart of the book. He has heard a Lion. What he sees is "a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain." The Greek word suggests a little lamb, and the verb for slain is the one used for the slaughter of a sacrifice. The conquest of the Lion was won as a Lamb. The picture carries layers: the Passover lamb whose blood saved households in Egypt, the servant in Isaiah who was "as a lamb that is led to the slaughter" (Isaiah 53:7), and Abraham's answer to Isaac, "God will provide himself the lamb" (Genesis 22:8).

The Lamb is standing, so he is alive, yet he still looks slain. The wounds have not been erased. He has seven horns, meaning complete power, and seven eyes, which "are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth," meaning complete knowledge. And he is "in the middle of the throne."

5:7-10He takes the scroll, and the new song begins

"Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne." There is no struggle, only a calm, sovereign act, like the son of man receiving dominion in Daniel 7. At once the living creatures and the elders fall before the Lamb. Each has a harp and "golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." That detail should stop us. The prayers of ordinary believers, perhaps muttered at night, are kept in heaven as a fragrance before the throne.

Then they "sang a new song." Scripture calls for a new song whenever God does a new act of salvation (Psalm 96:1, Isaiah 42:10). The words explain why the Lamb is worthy. "You were killed, and bought us for God with your blood." The verb for "bought" belongs to the marketplace: a price was paid. The people he bought come "out of every tribe, language, people, and nation," echoing Daniel's vision of "all the peoples, nations, and languages" serving the son of man (Daniel 7:14). For readers in an empire divided by language and class, that was a startling picture of one people.

Finally, "made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on the earth." This repeats 1:6 and goes back to Sinai (Exodus 19:6). Christians read the timing of the reign differently, but all agree on the promise: those whom the Lamb buys will share his rule.

5:11-12Ten thousand times ten thousand

Now John hears angels beyond counting: "ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands." This borrows from Daniel 7:10, where the same numbers surround the Ancient of Days. The same host that attends the Ancient of Days now surrounds the Lamb.

Their chorus is sevenfold: "Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!" Seven means fullness. Each item is something the powers of the world chase and claim: power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, praise. The empire of John's day claimed them all. Here the Lamb receives them in full, and the astonishing thing is how: by having been killed.

Look at the phrase "has been killed." The Greek is a perfect participle, which in Greek grammar often describes a past event whose effect remains. The Lamb is the one who was slain and still bears the marks. The cross is not a chapter in his past that heaven has moved beyond. It is the reason for the song, and it remains part of who he is.

Heaven does not say the Lamb is worthy because he is strong. It says he is worthy because he was killed.

5:13-14Every creature says Amen

The scene widens to its fullest. "Every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them" joins in. Remember verse 3, where the search for someone worthy covered heaven, earth and under the earth, and found no one. The same cosmos that found no champion now sings with one voice. The question that made John weep has been answered everywhere.

Notice the doxology: "To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever!" One song, one set of gifts, two recipients. Elsewhere in the book, angels refuse worship that belongs to God alone (19:10, 22:8-9). The Lamb accepts it. The only way to hold both truths together is the one the church has always held: the Lamb is fully God, sharing the throne, and fully a sacrificed man who bears the wounds.

The final reaction is brief. The four living creatures say "Amen!", the "so be it" of creation, and then "the elders fell down and worshiped." The scroll is still unopened. But the One who will open it has been named, and the right response is to fall down.

Tomorrow the first seal is broken.