“But one of the twenty-four elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the heir to David’s throne, has won the victory. He is worthy to open the scroll and its seven seals.’
Then I saw a Lamb that looked as if it had been slaughtered, but it was now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the sevenfold Spirit of God that is sent out into every part of the earth. He stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne. And when he took the scroll, the four living beings and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song with these words:
‘You are worthy to take the scroll
and break its seals and open it.
For you were slaughtered, and your blood has ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation.
And you have caused them to become
a Kingdom of priests for our God.
And they will reign on the earth.’
Then I looked again, and I heard the voices of thousands and millions of angels around the throne and of the living beings and the elders. And they sang in a mighty chorus:
‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered—
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing.’
And then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea. They sang:
‘Blessing and honor and glory and power
belong to the one sitting on the throne
and to the Lamb forever and ever.’
And the four living beings said, ‘Amen!’ And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb.”
I have so many songs playing in my head right now I can’t even count them. Worship songs, hymns, and even Handel’s Messiah echo these verses. There is hardly a more triumphant story in the Bible than the coming of this Lamb who is able to break the seals. Remember yesterday’s bitter weeping because no one in all of heaven and earth could open the scroll? Enter the Lamb. Slaughtered and yet still standing.
There are a lot of parts of Revelation that we could speculate about. I’d rather focus on what we clearly know. First, we know that this slaughtered Lamb is worthy to open the scrolls. Notice it says, “worthy” instead of “capable.” It’s not a skill set, it is an honor. We know that the blood of the Lamb paid a ransom for people who have become a kingdom of priests. We know that the Lamb is worshiped and given glory equal to the one on the throne.
If you were every confused when you were singing in church, “Worthy is the Lamb…” now it hopefully makes some sense. This is a clear reference to Jesus, who died on the cross and whose blood was offered as a ransom for many (also referenced in Matthew 20:28). There are not clear lines between the Son of Man (“the one on the throne”) and the Lamb, and these are also conflated in Matthew 20:28 as well. The sevenfold Spirit of God (sorry, nothing’s clear about exactly what that means) is all a part of the horns and eyes of the Lamb. Even to begin to reduce God to our finite thoughts is offensive, yet he has chosen to allow us to attempt it by revealing himself to us. Passages like this one hopefully remind us that God is beautifully and ornately complex. He is worthy of our worship because he is nothing like anything else we have ever seen.