The
Seven-Sealed Book
Revelation
5:1-7:
 |
| E. Gillespie Commentator |
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.
6. And I
beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the
midst
of the elders,
stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which
are the seven
Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
7. And he
came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
Because of the
tremendous importance of rightly understanding the remaining chapters of Revelation,
one great Bible scholar said, “The little seven-sealed book in the hand of the
one on the throne, mentioned in Revelation chapter five, contains the secret of
the chapters which follow, and is the key which opens the entire book of the
Revelation.”
If we make a
mistake here, we cannot rightly understand the rest of the book. The right understanding
of this mysterious little book will give to us a right understanding of the
rest of Revelation. As we study these verses, I promise you to faithfully set
before you a plain teaching of God’s Holy Word, comparing spiritual things with
spiritual as we study the scroll in the hand of the Christ who is worthy to
remove the seven seals - (and He is the ONLY one who is worthy). In Chapter One
of Revelation, we saw the vision of the glorified Christ, in the majesty and
glory of His second coming. As we studied chapters two and three, we not only
saw the seven local churches in Asia Minor, but we also discovered that these
messages contain the history of the professing church, pre-written by the Holy
Spirit, penned down by John the Beloved. Each of these churches, from Ephesus
to Laodicea, represents a period of time in the history of the church, from
Pentecost to the Rapture.
When the
Laodicean church has run its course, the True Church is caught out (Revelation
4:1-3),and John is caught
up in the spirit into Heaven, and there experiences what we will literally experience
as recorded in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. At the beginning of chapter four, John
is caught away into Heaven and sees, first, Christ on the throne in all of His
glory. Then, he hears Heaven’s song of praise and adoration by the host of
Heaven, the elders, representing the saints of all ages, and the four living
creatures.
Chapter five is
actually a continuation of chapter four. It begins with a conjunction (“and”),
thus linking the two chapters. Remember,
man (not the Holy Spirit) divided the Bible into chapters and verses. I do not
object to this, but I do believe some chapters are divided at the wrong place. Personally,
I am happy that godly men divided the books of the Bible into chapters and
verses, but because of the connecting word used here I do not believe there
should be a chapter division.
What we will
study in chapter five takes place in Heaven, where John was caught up in the
spirit to meet the Lord, and where he saw Christ sitting on the throne . . . a
throne encircled by the rainbow. At first John saw nothing but Christ . . . he
was completely occupied by the splendor of the vision of
his Lord. You can imagine
how the sight of the glorified Lord swept John into another realm. Gazing upon the majesty of
Jesus on the throne, nothing else caught his eye for a period of time that is undetermined
here. And then he sees Someone he has not seen before. He notices another
sitting on the throne - and in HIS hand, the little book. That other One is God
the Father, the Great I AM, the Lord. The Greek word used here for “book” has
the technical meaning of a scroll . . . a roll of parchment sealed with
seven seals. Heaven comes to a standstill. A diligent search is made in an
effort to find someone who is worthy to break the seal, open the book, and read
the message.
Until that
person is found, nothing further can be revealed. Everything hinges and depends
upon finding one who
is worthy to remove the seven seals and make known the message of the book. In
this little book (or scroll) is contained the Revelation and the account of all
that is to follow, as having to do
with God’s last dealings with man, angels, saints, Israel . . . ALL of His
creation. In this
seven-sealed scroll is contained what is to be known concerning the blowing of
the seven trumpets and the pouring out of the seven vials of the wrath of
Almighty God.
The little book
sealed with seven seals contains the redemption terms for the earth. Jesus redeemed
the soul at Calvary (I Peter 1:18-23). He will redeem the body at the Rapture
(I John 3:1, 2). Jesus will redeem the earth and all creation during the time
of the removal of the seven seals from the scroll (Romans 8:18-23). To understand the
seven-sealed book, we must go back to the Old Testament. There is no Scripture
but that there is a verse somewhere in the Word of God which sheds light on any
other verse, no matter how hard it may be to understand. There are many laws,
and regulations in the system of laws, concerning Israel and their dealings
with God. Among these are three laws concerning redemption:
1. The law of
redemption concerning a wife. If the husband died, leaving no children, the husband’s
brother was to take his widow, so that his name would not die. But he must
first be able to support the brother’s widow. If he were not financially able
to care for the woman, he had no right to take
her. Jesus, with His own blood (Acts 20:28) redeemed the Bride (the Church). Jesus
was able, He was the only one who could redeem man.
2. The law of
redemption concerning a slave. If a man lost all he had, and could not pay his
bills, his creditors could take him as a slave. (Adam lost all when he sinned,
and we thus became slaves to sin . . . “by nature the children of wrath.”)
When he served six years as a slave he was automatically free. During the time
of creation, God worked six days. On the seventh day God rested from all of His
labor. II Peter 3:8 tells us that a day is as a thousand years with the Lord,
and a thousand years as one day.
We have had
nearly six thousand years of human history, and according to the Bible
Time-Table given to us in this verse of Scripture, these six thousand years add
up to about six days. Therefore, it must
be about time, by God’s great time clock, for the day of peace and rest to begin
(Revelation 20:6). Man has been a slave to sin and the devil for almost six
thousand years. The devil is the god of this age, he is the prince of the power
Off the air, the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one. But the devil’s
day is about over. His time is fast running out and it will not be long until
the sons of Adam (as having to do with the flesh) will go free, because the second
Adam paid the ransom note with His own blood.
3. The law of
redemption concerning land. Leviticus 25:23-25: “The land shall not be sold
for ever: for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.
And in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the
land. If thy brother be waxen poor, and hath sold away some of his possession,
and if any of his kin come to redeem it, then shall he redeem that which his
brother sold.”
The first Adam
sold out to the devil; the second Adam bought back with His blood what the
first Adam lost. The method of redeeming the land was as follows: If a man lost
his property, he was then taken before the judges, and a document was prepared,
stating that the land had passed from the one who owed
the debt; to the one to whom the debt was owed. The man who owned the land gave
a paper to his creditor, making the land the possession of that creditor.
However, this was not a permanent transfer of the land. When the year of
Jubilee came, the land then automatically reverted to the original owner; but
at any time before the year of Jubilee, the land could be redeemed by the
original owner. It could be redeemed in either of two ways:
a. The owner
himself could pay the redemption price - but how could he ever pay the
debt? He was a slave because of the debt, and being a slave he could never earn
enough money to payoff the debt. Remember, when God cursed Adam, He cursed all
creation - man, the animal kingdom, the vegetable kingdom - ALL creation. Man
tried to cover his guilt by his own devising, but God rejected the
fig-leaf covering. It was insufficient, superficial, man-made (Genesis 3). But
since He had also cursed the ground, the animal kingdom and all creation, this
curse must also be lifted and the land
bought back.
b. A near kinsman
could redeem the land and pay the debt while the original owner was in slavery. When a man lost his property and became a
slave, two scrolls were prepared. On these two scrolls the terms of the
redemption were written. One scroll was left open in the temple for all to read
if they so desired. The other was rolled
up, sealed with seven seals, and placed in the temple to be brought out only when
the kinsman redeemer gave proof that he was able and willing to redeem the land
lost, by his kinsman. When the kinsman read the open scroll and proved that he
was able to pay the debt, the priest brought out the sealed scroll, read the
sealed demands, and the kinsman having met the payment of the debt, the land
then reverted to the owner and he Was no longer a slave because his debt was
paid-paid by a near kinsman. In later years, the two scrolls were discarded and
only one was used. The terms of redemption were recorded on both sides of the
parchment; then one was sealed - and one was exposed, when the scroll was
rolled together. This is a perfect picture of Revelation 5:9-10: “
And they sung a
new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals
thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our
God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Please do not be tempted to take this verse out of context and subject it to sectional interpretation.
In the law of
Israel, the scroll had to do with the redeeming of land only. There was no
scroll used in the terms having to do with redeeming a wife . . . there were no
drawn up, sealed documents. There was no document having to do with the
redemption of a slave; but there was a scroll used in
the process of redeeming land.
At the beginning
of chapter 5, two of these redemptions have been literally fulfilled. The wife has
been redeemed, the slave has been redeemed:
1. The wife -
the New Testament Church bought with His precious blood (Revelation 1:5). Jesus redeemed the
Church in His death on the cross. “It is finished.”
2. He will
redeem us from the slavery of sinful bodies in the Rapture - but in reality
this is already accomplished because we rest in hope, knowing that when He
appears, we shall be like Him (Revelation 4:1, I Thessalonians 4:13-18, I
Corinthians 15:51-53). The only redemption not yet accomplished, in the law of
redemption in Israel, is the land. Jesus will redeem the land when He comes
with His saints. This will take place approximately seven years after the
Rapture (Jude 14, 15; I Thessalonians 1:5-10). Today the land groans and
travails under the curse of sin. All creation groans and travails, awaiting the
redemption that will be brought about when Jesus comes to lift the curse and
put Satan in the bottomless pit.
Adam was the
head of all terrestrial creation; therefore, when Adam fell, ALL fell. “Cursed
is the ground for
thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herbs of the field” (Genesis 3:17,18).
Here is what we
have:
(1) Sorrow
(2) Thistles
(3) Thorns
There is the
picture that sin’s curse brought to the earth. The ground became desert-barren wasteland.
The vegetable creation bore thorns and thistles. The serpent was cursed and
doomed to crawl on his belly and eat dust all the days of his life (Genesis
3:14). The whole creation became a groaning, travailing wilderness (Romans
8:22).
The book sealed
with seven seals concerns the terms on which Adam’s lost estate (the whole creation)
may be redeemed by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb slain but raised,
the Lamb with seven
horns, seven eyes, yes, the second Adam “who came to give His life a ransom (buy
back His own) for many.” I have pointed out that Jesus redeemed the
Bride at Calvary. He redeemed us from the slavery of sin through His sinless
life. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He will redeem the piece of
ground (the earth) when He comes again. We learn in the book of Leviticus that
a near kinsman could redeem the property of a relative if he were able -but
three definite conditions had to be met:
1. He must be a
near kinsman of the one who lost the property. He could not be a distant
relative; he must be a
NEAR kinsman. 2. He must be willing to act as redeemer. He must do it of his
own free will; he could not be forced, paid or bribed to do it. It must be done
out of a heart of love and willingness. 3. He must have
the financial backing to prove that he was able to redeem the lost possession.
If such a person
came to the priest on behalf of his kinsman, the priest was forced to bring out
the scroll and make known the terms of redemption. Here is a true picture of
such a transaction, recorded in
Jeremiah 32:6-15:
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