We are now going to see Christ as
the only individual worthy to open the book of prophecy and judgment, identified
as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. We will see the scene in heaven as judgment
on this earth and the Beast and his kingdom is prepared. Christ will be praised
and a countless multitude will praise Him.
5:1 ¶ 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. 2 And I saw a
strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and
to loose the seals thereof? 3 And no man
in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book,
neither to look thereon. 4 And I wept
much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. 5 And one of the elders
saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of
David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Verse 1 - God is holding a book in
His right hand. It has writing on both sides and is sealed with seven seals.
The right hand signifies authority and the seals signify that only God knows
what is in the book.
Genesis 48:14 And Israel
stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the
younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly;
for Manasseh was the firstborn…17 And
when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from
Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. 18
And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the
firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
Daniel 12:8 And I heard, but I
understood not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?
9 And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for
the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.
Books, or Biblion, in Greek, were
made much more common by Christians as they spent a great deal of effort in
reproducing Biblical texts and the letters of the Apostles and the Gospels in
book form. However, that took time to come about and here at the end of the
first century the book referred to may have been a scroll book, some would say.
The reason I think this is a book as we know it is because when scroll is used
in Isaiah 34:4 and in Revelation 6:14 it is talked about as being rolled together not opened as here.
Ancient scrolls, I have read, were made smooth on one side to be written on but
this book is written on both sides, as pages in a book have writing on both
sides. You open a book. You unroll a scroll.
Verse 2 – An angel, a strong angel, asks in a loud voice who is worthy to open the book
and the seals? This is clearly a rhetorical question as we can be sure that
they know.
Psalm 103:20 Bless the LORD, ye
his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto
the voice of his word.
Five more times in Revelation an
angel with a loud voice proclaims things that will not be good for the people
of the earth.
Revelation 7:2 And I saw another
angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried
with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth
and the sea,
Revelation 8:13 And I beheld,
and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud
voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other
voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!
Revelation 14:9 And the third
angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and
his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Revelation 14:15 And another
angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the
cloud, Thrust in thy sickle, and reap: for the time is come for thee to reap;
for the harvest of the earth is ripe.
Revelation 19:17 And I saw an
angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the
fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto
the supper of the great God;
Verse 3 – No man in heaven or on
earth or under the earth, in Hell,
had any power to open the book or see what was inside. It is not in man’s
vision to open the book of prophecy. We cannot know what is to take place
without God’s words in His book. No man today claiming to know what is going to
happen in the future is telling the truth apart from what he has read here.
Take a moment and consider under the earth.
Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was
three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Deuteronomy 32:22 For a fire is
kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume
the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
Psalm 86:13 For great is thy
mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell.
Revelation 20:3 And cast him
into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be
fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
What is a pit without a bottom,
only having sides? It is a sphere, like the center of the earth.
Isaiah 14:15 Yet thou shalt be
brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
God’s prophecies are
indecipherable to unregenerate and rebellious man.
Isaiah 29:9 ¶ Stay yourselves,
and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they
stagger, but not with strong drink. 10
For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath
closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered.
11 And the vision of all is become unto
you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is
learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is
sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to
him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not
learned. 13 Wherefore the Lord said,
Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do
honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me
is taught by the precept of men: 14
Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this
people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall
perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. 15 Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their
counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth
us? and who knoweth us? 16 Surely your
turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall
the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say
of him that framed it, He had no understanding?
Verse 4 – John, as a man, is upset
that no man is found worthy to loose the seals and open the book. Judging by
the number of prophecy seminars I’ve read about in the last forty years I would
say that man’s desire to know the future is equaled only by his inability.
Verse 5 – This elder names two
references to Christ which are linked also by cross-referencing to His
millennial reign. First look at the root of David, who was the son of Jesse.
Isaiah 11:1 ¶ And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his
roots: 2 And the spirit of the LORD
shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3 And shall make him of quick understanding in
the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes,
neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: 4 But with righteousness shall he judge the
poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay
the wicked. 5 And righteousness shall be
the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and
the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. 7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their
young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on
the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice’
den. 9 They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
10 ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of
Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles
seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand
again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be
left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from
Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the
nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the
dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and
the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and
Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14 But they
shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall
spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab;
and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15
And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with
his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in
the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant
of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in
the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Juda [Judah].
Genesis 49:9 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?
Hebrews 7:14
For it is evident that
our Lord sprang out of Juda; of
which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.
As a man, Jesus Christ’s legal
descent through both Mary and his stepfather, Joseph, was from Judah.
Matthew 1:1 ¶ The book of the
generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob;
and Jacob begat Judas [Judah] and his
brethren;
Luke 3:33 Which was the son of
Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the
son of Phares, which was the son of Juda [Judah],
Only He is able to open the book
and to loose the seven seals of prophecy.
Revelation 19:10 And I fell at
his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy
fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship
God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The spirit of prophecy belongs
only to Jesus Christ, not the founder of any other religious or faith
tradition. You think you can figure all of this out? Well, not unless Christ
reveals it to you and to keep you from declaring yourself God-like to many
other people, as well. Don’t get puffed up.
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