A Vision of the Lamb, Part 3
Revelation 5:8-14
Let's open our Bibles tonight as we come to the wonderful book of Revelation to chapter 5. This is an absolutely crucial and formative chapter for the flow of the rest of the book, as well as being a marvelous account of the vision of God and of the Lamb that the Apostle John experienced. Revelation chapter 5.
I suppose it's common for folks to ask, "Is it possible that we could be near the end of human history? Are we living in the last days? Or better, are we living in the last days of the last days? Are those great events that will culminate human history looming closely ahead as history moves on toward its ultimate end? Could it be that we are living, for example, in the last generation? Could Christ come in the next ten years, five years? Could He come in the next three months?"
And the answer to all of that in general is yes, we could well be living in the last days. The Bible describes the time of the end with some very general descriptions that certainly fit our time. Apostasy is rampant. The nation Israel is back in the land. The stage is certainly set politically, economically and militarily for a great world leader to arise to bring peace in the Middle East. Seducing spirits and doctrines of demons seem to have reached an apex in terms of their proliferation and influence. Europe is revived as Daniel said would come in the time of the end. False prophets abound. Immorality has brought the world to at least the same point it was at when the Lord drown the whole of humanity in the time of the flood of Genesis.
All of those things tell us that we could well be standing on the brink of divine wrath. But no man knows the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man, and so we cannot speculate. God knows, we don't know. We do not know the time. We can discern the scene around us and perhaps have a greater sense of anticipation than generations past have had. But the reality is that only God knows.
And while we do not know the time of the end, we must say that it could be any time near. We are not given the time of the end in Scripture, but we are given a description of the events. And the unfolding of the wrath of God in the end of human history and the establishing of the Kingdom of Christ is described for us in amazing detail in the book of Revelation. There are some indications of it given in Ezekiel. There are some indications of it given in Daniel. There are other indications of it given particularly in the book of Zechariah. There are some references to it in Matthew and Luke. But the great portion of Scripture that focuses in on the events of the end of human history is the book of Revelation. And the unfolding of the final scene is recorded from chapter 6 on.
Now chapter 4 and chapter 5 then set the stage for God coming in final judgment to take back the fallen universe and to set His King upon His holy hill in Zion to reign over the world. The unfolding of that final revelation is just before us in this book as we now come to the last look at chapter 5.
Now you remember that John in chapter 4 was taken up into heaven by way of a vision. And he saw the throne of Almighty God as He readied Himself for judgment, that was the basic scene of chapter 4. And now in the same setting, heaven, the throne of God, we see the Lamb coming to enact the judgment and be the person who takes over the universe. So in chapter 4 the focus is on God who sits on the throne. In chapter 5 the focus is on the Lamb who comes to the throne and takes the scroll out of the hand of God which is the title deed to the universe and then begins in chapter 6 to unroll that scroll, and that includes a series of judgments by which He takes back the universe.
In chapter 5 verse 1 we read, "And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll, written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals." There is the seven-sealed scroll that is the title deed to the universe. It was rolled a little bit and then sealed, rolled a little more and sealed, rolled a little more and sealed, sealed along the edges so that it couldn't be opened without breaking the seals and no one could do that except one who was authorized. The great text inside the scroll laid out all the details of the taking back of the universe, but on the outside was written what the scroll was about. And that was typical of ancient scrolls that were documents involving title. The inside had all the details, the outside had a summary.
And the Father holds the scroll in His hand as much as to say, "Who will take the scroll now on My behalf and enact what is written in it and take back what is rightfully Mine?" And that leads us to the first major point in the chapter, the search for the worthy One. Verse 2 says, "And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, `Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?'" Who is fit to do this? "And no one in heaven...verse 3...or on the earth, or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it." No one had the ability, and no one had the worthiness.
In order to open the scroll and enact its contents you had to be worthy to do that. That is you had to be the perfect heir of God. In order to open the scroll and to enact its contents you had to be able to do it. And so you had to have the power of God. Who then is the perfection of God and the power of God? Who is it that can do this? No one in heaven, no one on earth, no one under the earth.
And so in verse 4 John says, "And I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it." And John was weeping because he wondered if this meant that the earth would continue to be in the power of the prince of the air dominated by demon forces, and he wondered whether Jesus Christ was ever to be exalted and whether the Kingdom promised to Israel was ever to come and whether the reigning promise to the saints was ever to take place and all of those things. And so in the sorrow of the experience in this vision, he began to weep greatly.
And then we find in verse 5 the second point, from the search for the worthy One we come to the selection of the worthy One, verse 5 says, "And one of the elders said to me, `Stop weeping...there's no need for this...behold the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David," and both of those I noted for you last time are titles of the Messiah given in the Old Testament, the One who is the lion, great power and fierceness, who comes out of the messianic tribe of Judah, the One who is the root or the offshoot or the offspring of David, that is He has royal blood. He is the Messiah by virtue of coming through Judah's loins, He is the King by virtue of coming through David's loins, the One who is fit to be King by authority and He is fit to be King by ability and He is fit to be King by worthiness has overcome. We noted that that has reference to His cross where He overcame death and He overcame Satan and He overcame demons and He overcame sin and He overcame hell. He has overcome so as to be able and worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals. Stop weeping. The Messiah will do it.
Verse 6 says, "And I saw between the throne, or in the midst of the throne, with the four living creatures," those four amazing cherubim, angels, and the elders who were all mingled there on...remember the elders were on twenty-four thrones and the four living creatures, living beings, cherubim, angels, all mingling with the glory of God who was flashing out His glory in brilliant red and diamond light, bouncing, refracting off the crystal pavement beneath the throne and shining all through an emerald rainbow and flashings of lightning and thunder were coming from the throne as well, all of that along with the songs of praise, the anthems of praise that were swinging, as it were, around Him in both melody as well as the sayings of the angels. All of that great throne, all of that conflux of beings and movement as described so magnificently by Ezekiel as wheels within wheels, flashing and shining, it says in the middle of all of that, verse 6, a lamb was standing.
John, no doubt, when he looked expected to see a lion but instead he saw a Lamb. This Lamb was not down, it was not dead, it was standing. It meant that it was alive. It was standing but it was as if it had been slain. It still bore the wounds of death. So here was a Lamb alive that had once been dead. "Seven horns" speak of perfect power, the horn of an animal being the emblem of its power, seven the number of perfection. "Seven eyes," having to do with perfect knowledge, perfect wisdom, perfect insight, perfect ability to see and assess and understand. And those seven eyes really are the seven-fold Spirit of God sent out into all the earth to see what needs to be seen.
Here comes the Lamb, the Lamb is worthy. The Lamb has conquered. The Lamb has been slain, being the sacrifice for sin. The Lamb is now alive. The Lamb has full power. The Lamb has full understanding. And verse 7, "He came and He took out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne the little scroll." That moment is the most significant moment yet in human history...the moment when Jesus Christ takes the little scroll and begins to inaugurate the recovery of the lost universe, lost to sin, Satan, death and hell.
And when He takes the scroll it is for the purpose of unrolling it. And as He unrolls it and breaks the seals, chapter 6 begins to unfold the judgments. But before we come to chapter 6, at this very moment in John's vision, as he is catapulted far ahead of his own time to see the scene that is yet to come, before the Lord Jesus takes the scroll and unrolls it, there is one other thing here that we must note and that is the song of the worthy One.
All the beings in the universe break out in praise. Verse 8 says, "And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures," that is the cherubim, the four living beings, "and the twenty-four elders," you remember they represent the redeemed and raptured church, "fell down before the Lamb, they fell down in worship." This is the moment for which all of heaven and redeemed earth has been waiting. Now as we come in to this song of worship, this time of praise, we begin to notice some marvelous things. And I wish we had time to just literally exhaust all of it but stay with me and we'll move rapidly and say what time allows us to say.
When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, again they represent the church so the symbolically they are the raptured church, fell down before the Lamb. They fall down in worship. Now notice, "Having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints."
In the text here I would prefer to take the phrase "having each one a harp" to refer directly to the twenty-four elders. It is in my mind the preferred interpretation because of the structure of the sentence in terms of its grammar. It is possible that it could also reach back and encompass the four living beings, but it would seem to me to be the best understanding of the intent of the inspired writer that the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp. The Greek grammar and layout seems to indicate that.
So here you have these representatives of the redeemed and raptured church, each having a harp. Now the harp, if you go back into the Old Testament and we'll do that just briefly because you can look up the harp yourself in a concordance and trace it, but in 1 Chronicles 25 verse 6 we have instruction in this chapter about offering songs to the Lord. It talks about the service of the sons of Asaph in verse 1 and of Heman and of Jeduthun who were to prophesy with lyres and harps and symbols. And then it goes on to list all of them and there were many of them. And down in verse 6 it says, "All these were under the direction of their father to sing in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps and lyre," a lyre would be a stringed instrument, shaped differently than a harp. "They were to do this for the service of the house of God. And they themselves were under the direction of the king. And their number who were trained in singing to the Lord with their relatives, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight."
So you had a rather massive choir, a large choir, and you had instrumentalists accompanying them on harps and lyres and cymbals. If you go through Psalm...the Psalms you read in Psalm 33 and Psalm 71 and Psalm 92 and Psalm 98 and Psalm 147, 149, Psalm 150, you read about harps as a part of worship. And they indeed even show up in the book of Revelation. Chapter 14 and verse 2, "I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of loud thunder and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps." Chapter 15 verse 2, "I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who would come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses." There you have harpists. They are believers, they are people who have been redeemed and they are playing the harp and singing the song of deliverance.
Now here then in this oratorio of escalating praise that began back in chapter 4, first of all we saw the praise start in verse 8 and there were two movements of praise in this oratorio in chapter 4, there are three in chapter 5. But we see here added to what is already been going on the quartet of cherubim in their praise, the twenty-four elders making a total of twenty-eight, and now we find added to the twenty-eight--instruments, harps. And this note needs to be made also, follow very carefully because I think this gives insight into why they're used and to what they mean. I think the symbolism here is very important.
The twenty-four elders have harps...what is the intent of that? Listen carefully, the harp or the lyre, another kind of stringed instrument, is regularly in Scripture associated with prophesying. It is regularly associated with prophesying. For example in 1 Samuel 10:5 the prophet Samuel said to Saul, "And it shall come to pass when thou art come thither to the city that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high places with a psaltery and a harp before them and they shall prophesy and the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee and thou shall prophesy with them and shalt be turned into another man." So the prophets will come and they will come with harps and harps are then associated with their prophecy.
Again in 2 Kings 3 the Spirit of prophecy was not upon Elisha. As he stood before the two kings Elisha said in 2 Kings 3:15, "But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass when the minstrel played upon his harp that the hand of the Lord came upon him and he said, `Thus saith the Lord...'" How interesting.
In other words, Elisha did not have the Spirit of prophecy until someone came and began to pluck the harp and then the Spirit of prophecy came upon him, the Spirit of the Lord, and he began to speak. Somehow God ordained that in the sounding of those notes and in the plucking of those strings and in the making of melody, His Spirit would move.
In 1 Chronicles 25:1, "David separated unto the service Asaph and Heman...as I noted...and Jeduthun who would prophesy with harps."
The forty-ninth Psalm and verse 4 adds to this, "I will incline mine ear to a parable, I will open my dark saying upon the harp." How interesting.
It is safe to say then, and I want you to follow this, it is safe to say that the harp not only was used for accompaniment in worship but it was used for the accompaniment of prophecy. The harp then somehow tied into prophecy. Here we see the harp. What is it there for? Not only to accompany worship, but to symbolize all of prophecy, to symbolize all the prophecy, all the revelation that God had given, promising and describing the great events about to take place. All the Scripture that had ever been given regarding the end, all the prophecies that had ever been made regarding the end, the future, the final return of Messiah, the building of the Kingdom, the judgment of the ungodly, all that Scripture had ever said about the end is symbolized with the harps, for they become the symbols not only of praise but of prophecy.
And so, there are the twenty-four elders plucking their harps in a symbolic indication that all that the prophets had ever said was about to come to pass. In addition to the harps, notice in verse 8 that the twenty-four elders were also holding golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints. Bowls, more like a saucer with a wide mouth, maybe more like what we would know as a cereal bowl, wide made of gold. These kind of utensils, by the way, were found in the tabernacle. They were found in the temple. These kind of golden bowls, according to Zechariah 14:20 were used at the altar. And so we conclude then that these golden bowls symbolized the priestly work of intercession for the people. They were symbols of the priestly function.
Notice, they were full of incense. Incense was burned to send a fragrance upward. The Old Testament priests burned incense because it symbolized prayer rising to God fragrantly. As the incense went up and the smoke carried the fragrance up, it symbolized the offering of fragrant prayers to God. Normally the priests would stand before the inner veil in the holy place before the Holy of Holies and they would offer incense before the presence of God so that it would be wafted into the Holy of Holies and there, as it were, to be swept into the very nostrils of God as a symbol of prayer rising for the people. In Psalm 141:2, for example, the psalmist writes, "May my prayer be counted as incense before you."
In Luke we get another good indication of this. Chapter 1 verse 8, "It came about while Zacharias who was the husband of Elizabeth, the father of John the Baptist, was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by Lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering."
That was the pattern. Whenever the priest went in to burn incense, the people prayed and the incense symbolized the prayers of the people. Now you see twenty-four elders holding golden bowls like the priest did, full of incense which are the prayers of the saints. Just as the harps represented the prophecies and the revelations and the scriptures that predicted the coming of the end, follow this, the bowls and the incense represent the prayers of all the saints through all the ages that the promised redemption might come. It's a rich and magnificent scene.
Here then we have anticipation on the part of the redeemed and raptured elders. As they pluck their harps they are saying all that prophecy has ever indicated would come to pass is about to happen. As they, as it were, hold the bowls and the incense rises which is the prayers of the saints, they are saying all that the saints have ever prayed for in terms of the ultimate and final redemption is about to come to pass. And so both the prophetic promise of God and the prayers of the saints are indicated in the harps and the bowls.
There was a tremendous eagerness on the part of the saints in the past and there is today and there will be in the future that the Kingdom come. In fact, Jesus said when He taught us to pray, "Pray like this, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And while there is a contemporary and immediate fulfillment to that kind of prayer in the spiritual sense, there is also an eschatological sense in which we are praying for the end and the final redemption and glory of God.
The prayers of the saints, by the way, become a major theme through the book of Revelation.
Look at chapter 6 verse 10 as an illustration. Here are some saints who have been slain. They have been martyred. And what are they doing? Verse 10 says, "They're crying with a loud voice saying, `How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?'" In other words, "Lord, how long are the wicked going to prosper and the saints be martyred? When are You going to come? When are You going to punish the wicked and exalt the righteous?"
Chapter 8 you find another illustration in verse 3, "Another angel came and stood at the altar, he had a golden censer," that is the same kind of golden bowl, "and incense was given to him that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake." And now the prayers are really being answered. He takes the incense of prayer, turns it and throws it back into the holocaust of judgment on the earth. The symbolism and imagery is magnificent and vivid.
So here are the redeemed. For sure the twenty-four elders holding harps and golden bowls, perhaps the angels do as well, although it's best to see them with the twenty-four elders. And the symbolism is simply this, that all that the church has ever promised through the scriptures and all that we have ever prayed for is now about to come to pass. All the anticipation of holy writ, all that believing, hoping prayer, all that believers have cried for to deliver them from sin and disease and Satan and flesh and demons and the cursed universe, all that prayer that has gone up for centuries and centuries for God to act, for Christ to come is now in a consummate way lifted up in one final plea for the action to start. And all that the prophets have ever said about this moment is strummed in a final effort to play the tune that will lead to the final end.
The harps and the bowls fit the context because verse 9 is the response to the promises and the prayers. "And they sang a new song." In other words, they knew it was going to happen. They knew it like they had never known it before. There was a brand new song, a brand new anticipation as the twenty-four elders bring before God what represents the desire of the saints. Their hope based on the promises and their prayers.
Now please notice, they sang a new song. I don't want to belabor every word but I can't get past "they." Who is it? Again it could possibly include the four living creatures but it also could be restricted to the twenty-four elders.
You say, "Well now wait a minute, aren't the four living creatures involved in this oratorio?" Yes they are.
"And can't it be said that they are also singing the song of redemption?" Yes in a general sense it can.
"Certainly the four living creatures we found back in chapter 4 verse 8, didn't we, not ceasing to say, `Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty who was and who is and who is to come,' they started it all off. And there in verse 10 again, the twenty-four elders along with the four living creatures, or living beings, cherubim say, `Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor,' and so forth in that verse. Aren't they there?" Yes.
"And aren't all of the angels included down in verse 11 of chapter 5?" Yes.
"Many angels and many angels joining the oratorio in verse 12, `Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.' And then in verse 14 and there you have the four living cherubim beings who keep saying, `Amen.'"
Yes the angels are there. Yes the cherubim are in the oratorio. Yes they're in the song of redemption. But, most interesting, this is the only use of the word "sing" in chapter 4 or 5. Every time it talks about the four living creatures or the rest of the angels it uses the word "say," not the word "sing."
Somebody suggested that only the twenty-four elders sing and the angels are in to rap. If they are, it will be a whole lot different than what we hear today.
But is the only use of the word "sing," which fascinates me. Every time the angels are spoken of as engaging in this oratorio of praise, it refers to them as "saying." Here, adosin(?) means to sing an ode from which we get an ode which is a song means a song. And the elders adosin ode, they sang a song. Again I say it's fine to speak of all the angels enjoying this song of redemption, but specifically to speak of angels singing you have to...you'd have to include them then in the "they" of verse 9 and it's best to limit that to the twenty-four elders.
You say, "Well now wait a minute. Angels sing, we know that because the Bible says, `Hark the herald angels sing.'" Where is that verse? That's not a verse of the Bible, that's a song, that's a hymn, "Hark the herald angels sing." There's nothing in the Bible that says the angels sing.
And Job 38:7 says that at creation the morning stars sang toget