A scroll or proclamation sealed by the One of Authority
Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. – Revelation 5:1
The King James Version of the Bible uses the word ‘book’ in the place of scroll and interestingly enough you may recognize its importance from the original Greek: βιβλίον – biblion from the Greek root biblos.
The Apostle John, exiled to the island of Patmos, survives the other eleven martyred for their faith, and receives a book of prophecy from the risen Lord. A few years prior to John’s apocalypse Rome had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.
An Ancient Sealed Prophesy
Seven centuries prior to this witness of John, the prophet Isaiah had correctly predicted an earlier fall of Jerusalem to Babylon in 586 BC.
Isaiah 29:
9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished;
blind yourselves and be blind!
Be drunk, but not with wine;
stagger, but not with strong drink!
10 For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes (the prophets),
and covered your heads (the seers).
11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed.
חָתַם סֵפֶר
When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
The Lamb of God
John had witnessed Christ Jesus slain on a cross. He was the Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of the world; yet three days later and for many days John witnessed the risen Christ! Jesus was about thirty years old, but John was even younger. Hundreds of jews and gentiles saw the risen Lord, who previously had told the Apostles of His return.
Now John is an old man (even by modern standards). The Lord gives John a vision, just as the Lord has previously uncovered a certain future to His Prophets centuries before Christ.
John’s apocalypse shows events of a Day to come .. a day of wrath and a day of justice.
ἀποκάλυψις
Revelation 5:2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
Revelation 6:
The Seven Seals
6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder,“Come!”
3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!”
And again with the third and the fourth seal. “Come!”
The breaking of each seal introduces a horse of a different color. Did you know this scriptural source of this familiar expression?
Read in Christ’s revelation to John the fearful imagery of these riders; for the deceiver leads the world to see these foretold truths of that Day as highly imaginable fantasy, when in truth, the wrath of that terrible terrible Day should bring a quaking of terror into unrepentant hearts of the living and souls of the dead.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth…
Read it for yourself, you who fear Almighty God!
Revelation 7:
4 And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
A Great Multitude from Every Nation
A seventh seal is yet to be opened…
When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. –Revelation 8:1
Christ the Lamb looks to you
- Is reverence for the Lord an attribute of your life; do you show any respect for the deserved honor of the Living God?
- Does your heart consider deserved repercussions of your sin?
- Is your arrogance before the risen and living Son of righteous the foolishness of fallen angels who have told adam’, “You will be as gods, knowing good and evil?” Genesis 3:5
Are you a god, failing flesh with mortal soul?
Or does your own sin convict you of your many failings?
Repent! While it is yet today.
For the Day will surly come when seven seals will be broken and the judgments of God proclaimed before all souls – souls saved and souls condemned.
To which side will the Lord separate your eternal soul?
Read the Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John and be blessed.
Or perhaps your warmest memories are from a special moment of a gift you gave to your own child, hugs of a Pooh Bear or love overflowing through a well-planned shared moment of opening a Christmas gift.
I have my Charlie Brown Christmas this year and Rudolph…
Yet this Christmas, even by your confession, I adjure you to embrace Jesus as your Lord; embrace Christ Jesus just as you would lovingly hold a baby in a manger.