Revelation 5:5: “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.”

“And one of the elders”

Remember, that’s representing the whole church definitely, and possibly the Jews.

“saith unto me, Weep not:”

John’s weeping because no one can open the book with seven seals. But notice who can open it.

“behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda,”

He is introducing Jesus Christ.

“the Root of David,”

There’s no doubt this is referring to Jesus Christ. The reason why is when you look at the book of Genesis, Jacob talks about ‘from Judah will come a lion’s whelp, and he will come down and conquer his enemies. From Jesus’ genealogy from Matthew 1, Judah and David are both mentioned in that line. That’s why the verse says ‘the root of David’, so there’s no doubt this is talking about Jesus Christ.

“hath prevailed to open the book,”

There had to be a conquering of Jesus Christ. His first coming and His second coming are essential for verse 5 to work because if He did not die on the cross, then He would not be able to open the seals, unleash the tribulation and set up His kingdom and we all live happily ever after.

“and to loose the seven seals thereof.”

Pastor believes that the book with seven seals refers to the book of Revelation (Refer back to Daniel 12, Revelation 22 and Revelation 1 in the previous post that talks about unsealing the book of the prophecy and referring to it to the book of Revelation in those 3 passages).

If we’re going to say that the book with seven seals is the book of Revelation, looking back at Revelation 5:1, it says that it’s written within and also written on the backside. Why is that necessary? If we’re going to divide it like this with the seals, then it can go like this:

Seal 1: Revelation 1-3

Seal 2: Revelation 4-6

Seal 3: Revelation 7-9

Seal 4: Revelation 10-12

Seal 5: Revelation 13-15

Seal 6: Revelation 16-18

Seal 7: Revelation 19-21

But Revelation has 22 chapters. Remember that the book is written within and also on the backside. So that’s where Revelation 22 is, the backside. Why is that? Perhaps it’s appropriate where God puts it on the backside of this book: “Warning, do not tamper with this book!” because Revelation 22 says do not add to it, do not subtract from it.

The Lamb that had been slain

Revelation 5:6: “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.”

“And I beheld,”

So John’s looking up.

“and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders,”

There was a throne, then four cherubims surrounding it, and then surrounding that is the 24 elders.

“stood a Lamb as it had been slain,”

There was a lamb who was slain, killed.

“having seven horns and seven eyes,”

We know who the lamb that was slain is. That has to be Jesus Christ. If you look at John 1, John the baptist say, ‘behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.’

So we see right here that there is a lamb, and this lamb is slained. So one of the questions is whether this refers to Jesus Christ as a physical, literal lamb or is it just a title given to Him. John says that he saw a lamb as it has been slain in verse 6.

When God reveals Himself, He does not have to manifest Himself in one way. How did the Holy Spirit manifest itself? In John 3, Jesus says the Holy Spirit is like the wind, “you can’t see it, you just have to feel it.” But the Holy Spirit manifested itself as a dove coming down.

How did God speak to people on earth? As the angel of the Lord. Satan can do that too, he transforms into an angel of light.

Notice here that if we’re going to see this as a literal passage, it may be that God, Jesus Christ, was manifesting Himself right here, and then all of a sudden He switched back to His earthly form in verse 7 because He took the book out of His hand. So He may have manifested Himself as a lamb that had been slain (like an introduction), and then He transformed, manifested Himself as a human and took that book out of God’s hand. 

This is supposedly more of a metaphorical name. It may just be representing Jesus Christ as human form. God manifests in the flesh, introducing Himself, taking the book. But it just seems like that at verse 6, John sees this lamb literally, as it had been slain, and he mentions seven horn and seven eyes.

Seven eyes

So we see right here that He’s got seven eyes. Why would God have seven eyes? The reason why is because seven is His favorite number. He has seven horns as well. You’ll notice in the Bible, there is another being who also has seven heads and tries to imitate Jesus Christ, and that is the dragon. When we come to the book of Revelation, Satan has his church, Babylon, that sits on the seven hills. You’ll notice that Satan always imitates Jesus Christ, he wants to be like Jesus Christ.

Seven spirits of God

Notice what the seven horns and seven eyes are supposed to be.

“which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.”

These all refer to the seven spirits, but these seven spirits were sent forth into all the earth. In our previous passages in Revelation 2 and 3, when Jesus Christ sent down His Holy Spirit at the beginning of the church, these seven spirits started operating ever since Acts 2. 

If we take Revelations 2 and 3 as the seven different church ages, this would make perfect sense where the Holy Spirit was manifesting itself. We proved that the seven spirits were referring to Jesus Christ, and that’s the verse that we just read.

What does that mean? In Revelation 5, from Jesus Christ came out these seven spirits, the Holy Spirits, and then He manifested Himself all over right here. But you’ll notice it says ‘upon the earth,’ but when we read Revelation 4, where were these seven spirits? If you look at Revelation 5:6, they’re now up in heaven. 

They were initially down on earth, but they’re suddenly up in heaven at the end of the church age. It means that before the tribulation, there’s a rapture. This makes a lot more sense if you put a pre-tribulation rapture view in the entire book of Revelation with the dispensational mindset. Everything clicks and it makes sense. If you also put double application where it’s talking about the Christian church and tribulation doctrine, everything’s going to fit a lot more.