Thoughts on Revelation (9)
Our study in the Revelation now brings us to chapter five. John sees a scroll sealed with seven seals, and he hears the voice of a mighty angel asking a question. “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” John waits for the answer, but to his dismay, no one in all of heaven or earth is worthy. In response to this, John weeps and weeps. At this point one of the elders tells him to stop weeping because there is One worthy to open the scroll. This elder describes the worthy One as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. In John’s vision he sees One who can be none other than Jesus, the Lamb of God.
We must ask ourselves what all this means. Sealed scrolls sound so ancient and so mysterious. Yet we find this unfolding as a future event taking place in the throne room of heaven It is also evident that whatever this scroll contains, only Jesus is qualified to break the seals and carry out its instructions. In fact all the heavenly hosts sing a new song proclaiming the worthiness of the Lamb.
While several interpretations are possible, two seem most plausible. Perhaps the scroll contains the title deed to earth. This title was given to Adam, but when he sinned, the title was forfeited to Satan. Remember that he is currently the god of this fallen world system. Only Christ, who paid the price of redemption with His life is worthy to reclaim it completely.
Another possibility is that the scroll contains God’s final plans for the end times. There is a hint of this in the book of Daniel. Long ago God showed the prophet many visions concerning events at the close of history. The Lord then said to Daniel, “…close up and seal the words of the scroll until the end of time.” (Daniel 12:4)
We would conclude that the events in Revelation 5 are about to unfold. As with much of Revelation there are many applications. The ultimate fulfillment is yet future and awaits Christ’s second ad- vent.
-Terry Morrison