7 And
he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the
throne. (Revelation 5)
This
meaning-packed statement puts all the attention on the center of the picture.
On one side, you have the one who went, and the one who took. On the other
side, you have the scroll, the right hand, and the one who was seated on the
throne.
We
must keep these central details in mind so that the picture does not diminish
as we travel along. This is not a series of scenes as much as an adding
together of realities. Visions are played out in different ways, but there are
significant issues that flow through everything we see.
It
reminds me of a series of books based on one particular character. The first
book tells us what this character is like. Once these characteristics are
established in our minds, the author does not need to give the full
character-sketch every time the main figure does something. Whatever we read of
the character’s activities, we imagine them
with the way he looks, the way he thinks, his idiosyncrasies, his worldview,
his feelings about people, and anything else that has already been described.
The
book of Revelation is like the final volume in a large series of books about
God. The first volume, the book of Genesis, introduces God to us as Creator,
explains to us the problem of sin, and reveals God’s covenantal nature in
presenting a plan to have a people who are his very own. All the volumes
in-between continue to unfold God’s rights as our Creator, and his plans as our
Redeemer. As one reality of God is built upon another, we can apply the whole
nature of God, and all the attributes of God, to every experience of God
relating to his people, judging the nations, calling people out of their sin,
and whatever else we would describe as God’s interactions with his creation. No
matter what we read of God doing, it is the same God, same nature, same
character, same holiness, same righteousness, same justice, same love, same
mercy, same grace, same glory, always working to bring about his plan of having
a people in his own image and likeness.
As
we come to Revelation 5, we are reminded of significant things to do with God.
They are not new things, but are constant things put into new pictures, or old
pictures presented with new emphasis and increased clarity. It is the way first
grade arithmetic must stay clear in our minds even while learning high school
trigonometry, or university Calculus. The way God has already been revealed in
Revelation’s first four chapters is not new. Each of the declarations of God as
Father, Son and Holy Spirit working together in relation to the servants of
God, the seven churches, are precise reminders of things we already know.
What
we are given in Revelation is a reminder of who God always was, is, and will be.
We see the ways he has already revealed himself in the past, and project his
unchanging nature, plans, and purposes into the future so that we are assured
that the God who never changes will never stop sovereignly ruling over all that
happens in the universe.
So,
when Revelation 5 tells us that we are continuing to deal with the one who is
seated on the throne, now with a seven-sealed scroll in his right hand, we are
to keep all this in mind as we consider the Lion of the tribe of Judah who will
open the scroll and break its seals. We must keep the whole picture in our
minds as we see the Lamb looking as though it had been slain now coming towards
the throne of God and taking the scroll from God’s hand.
In
other words, the focus is not changing from the one who sits on the throne to
the one who is standing before the throne. Rather, the focus is expanding and
increasing as detail is added to detail, so that we are in a constant consciousness
that we are dealing with the one who is seated on the throne, and are seeing
every other living person in relation to him. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is
in relation to the one who sits on the throne. The seven torches of the Holy
Spirit are before this throne. The four living creatures, representing all the
creatures God has created on earth, and bringing to mind the cherubim who
represent all the angels of heaven, take up their places on the four sides of
the throne. The twenty-four elders, representing believers from both covenants,
surround this throne, and the one who sits on the throne.
Now
we have this repetitious picture that there is a seven-sealed scroll in the
right hand of the one who sits on the throne. Everything to do with the might,
and power, and authority of God, represented by his strong right hand that both
rescues and destroys, is kept in the picture for the whole of the book of Revelation.
Every previous demonstration of God’s throne confronting the thrones of man and
idols is held before us so that we cannot escape the certainty of the hope that
is ours in Jesus Christ.
Even
the condensed beauty of the picture of Jesus as the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
the Root of David, the Lamb looking as though it had been slain, is a reminder
to God’s people that Jesus is about God’s people. The Lion is of the tribe of
Judah, a significant part of the people of God as their history unfolded under
the first covenant. The Root is of David, that great King of the people of God,
that man after God’s own heart, who received the promises of one who would sit
on his throne forever, promising and binding into reality the connection
between God and his people. The Lamb, looking as though it had been slain, is a
constant and timeless reminder that Jesus was slain because of God’s people. Jesus
was put to death for God’s people. Jesus was made alive for God’s people,
giving us our eternal Savior, our eternal High Priest who constantly makes
intercession for us.
In
other words, while our attention is continually drawn to the one who is seated
on the throne, and to the one who has the worthiness to take and open the
scroll, this is still about us who are the people of God. This whole letter is
written “to show to his
servants the things that must soon take place.”[1] It is addressed to the “seven
churches”,[2] representing the complete church through the completion of time. The
twenty-four elders remain in this picture forever. The scroll tells us things
that will unfold the way God says they will unfold, and God has complete
control over the more-than-happy ending to the story.
I
believe this emphasis is necessary because, historically and personally
speaking, God’s children have a propensity to forget what God is like when they
find themselves in the newest impossible situations. Israel would not trust God
to take the land of Canaan away from giants and give it to the sons of Abraham no
matter how many miracles he had already performed for their deliverance and
freedom from Egypt.[3]
In
the same way, God’s children often doubt God in some immediate circumstance as
if he is different from the God who brought about redemption through the
miraculous birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We find ourselves
walking by sight more often than we care to admit, and need to be reminded of
what things look like in heaven where living creatures, elders, angelic beings
all worship God for the constancy of his character, and the unfailing nature of
all his promises.
Every
time I come back to the visions of Revelation 4 and 5, I am reminded that God
is always the same. There will never be an antichrist, a world-order, a
government system, a collection of armies, an onslaught of false teachers, who
will keep God from fulfilling all that he has written on the scroll. The Lamb
of God who has taken away the sins of his children from nations the world over,
has conquered. He went up to his Father’s throne, reached out to his Father’s
right hand, removed the scroll his Father was holding, and is about to begin
opening the seven seals.
Already
I know that the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders will worship
the Lamb as they have already worshiped the Father. This is the way it was
shown to John then, and it is the way it is now. Jesus is fulfilling all that
Revelation reveals about him.
Next
time any of us find ourselves in one of those impossible situations that
threaten to undo us, think of the ways God is revealed in the pictures of the Revelation.
He is the same God now, just as he always was, and just as he always will be.
The Son will always make the Father known the way the radiance of God’s glory
perfectly and precisely shows the glory of the invisible God. The Triune can
never be different from what he is, or they are. The book of Revelation shows
that they clearly prefer that we revel in the wonder and the worship of knowing
them in spirit and in truth, rather than feeling overcome with worry because we
believe that they have somehow ceased to be the way Scripture has so clearly
revealed them to be.
From
my heart,
Monte
© 2013 Monte Vigh ~
Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise
noted, Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway
Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.)
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