Dennis Tuuri

Revelation 5, Revelation chapter 5. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof. No man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

And one of the elders saith unto me, weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 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 to all the earth.

And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof. For thou was 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. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down, and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever.

Heat up here. Heat. Heat. We continue this morning going through our series of talks on biblical worship. This will be the last talk on communion and then two weeks from today I’ll be talking about alms and biblical methods and means of charity and assisting those people who are in need of physical assistance.

Now in 1 Corinthians 11:23 and following, we’ve talked about this verse for the last several weeks. We’ve tried to put the context to it. It’s very important that we note there that Paul, when he reminds them of the institution of the Lord’s supper that he had already provided to them, this was not new teaching. He reminds them in verse 24 that when Jesus gave thanks he broke it, that is the bread which they now will take in communion, and this is at the last supper of course, saying take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. After the same meal also he took the cup when he had stopped, saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood, the covenant, the new covenant.

This do as often you drink it in remembrance of me. So both the bread and the cup, the wine is to remind us and to bring us into remembrance of Jesus Christ. And then in verse 26 of 1 Corinthians 11, we read that for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord’s death till he come.

Now the word there for show, probably if you have a modern translation more modern than the King James, is probably translated proclaim, teach, preach, something along that line, because that’s really the intent of the word. The word is used, I don’t know, ten or fifteen times in the new testament books, and most of the time it is translated directly by preach or teach or proclaim. And so we are not here showing or actually visibly manifesting the death of our savior. That’s not what’s being talked about here. We’re preaching it. We’re proclaiming it to the world around us, and of course to ourselves.

Now there’s a remembrance of the savior commanded of us here in holy communion, and how we’ve talked about how the primary application of that to the Corinthian church was a remembrance of the body of Christ in terms of his corporate body, that the new body that he had brought into existence, the new testament church, and that they were not remembering that body as they came to the table, and so were guilty of violating the table of the lord. But in any event, there’s a remembrance of the savior and then there’s a proclamation of the Lord’s death.

Now we said before that these verses, frequently taken out of context, are misunderstood and misapplied. We tried, thank you. We’ve tried to put some of that context in by reminding ourselves of the need to restore biblical community and the relationship between weekly communion and the building of community in the church. And we’ve talked about the proper context of discerning the Lord’s body. In other words, acting in accordance with the corporate body of the church and the obligations we have to them horizontally being placed into a reconciliation with God vertically.

And we’ve talked about how in terms of the church today, an essential part of discerning the Lord’s body is the reinstitution of child communion. They are holy children the way that Israel was a holy nation in covenant with God. That doesn’t mean that Israel was all saved. They weren’t. But it doesn’t mean all the children will be saved, but it means they should be given the sign of covenant, which is baptism, and then the sign of covenant continuous, which is communion.

And that’s all part of the context here. It’s a direct application from the verses we looked at in 1 Corinthians 10:11. And we talked about the need to restore the idea of covenant. The blood is the new covenant in Christ’s name. And so in his blood, rather. And so when we take communion, we reinstitute or renew as it were, or ratify the fact that we are in covenant with God, and that has obligations on us this morning.

And what we’re trying to do, I guess, in this series is to restore things from the text of scripture that have been left out. Now, there’s a greater context, a context rather, to 1 Corinthians 10:11 than just 1 Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians. It’s the whole Bible. And when we read verses about remembering Jesus and proclaiming his death, the rest of the scriptures will help us to understand what is entailed in that.

And I think that to a large extent, the failure to understand the significance of Christ’s death and his work, and as a result who Christ is, has led to many communion services in our nation today that are essentially dirges as opposed to celebrations. The word Eucharist, another word for communion, means thanksgiving, and there’s not a lot of thanks. There’s some thanks, of course, for the death of Christ, but I think there’s a failure to apprehend the larger context of what that death means.

And that’s why we turn to Revelation 5 this morning. Revelation 5 gives us a picture in Revelation 5 of the proclamation of the death that affects various things, and then also it gives us the person of Jesus Christ and some symbols there in Revelation 5 that we want to remember when we come to communion. We’re paying particularly attention this morning to verses 5 and 6, and then verses 9 and 10. Those two sets of verses.

Now I reversed the order, and you’ll notice that in your outline. We’re going to deal with verses 9 and 10 first and then go to five and six. Verses 5 and 6 give us some imagery in the symbolic language of the revelation in terms of the lion, the root, and the lamb. Before we get to that imagery, I want to use the doctrinal or more teaching parts of the doxology that’s sung in verses 9 and 10 to set the stage for what we’re going to say about those symbols in verses 5 and 6.

So we’re going to be talking about first verses 9 and 10, the proclamation of the death of the savior and what that accomplished. And then we’ll be talking about the person of the savior in remembrance of him from verses 5 and 6, and then we’ll talk about the application of that to us in terms of communion being a call to worship.

Okay. First, if we show forth the Lord’s death, Revelation 5:9 and 10 will help us to understand what that death is. In those verses, we read the following. They sung a new song, saying, “Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof, for thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hath made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth.”

What’s being sung here is the essence of what Christ has affected by his death. He is first of all worthy to open the book. Earlier, as we read from this chapter a little earlier, John weeps because no one is worthy. The strong angel with the mighty voice sends out a summons throughout the whole world and the whole created order. Who can take this book? Who is worthy? The word worthy doesn’t mean morally or ethically worthy. It has that connotation, but it means in terms of their very nature and their stature and their work.

And John weeps because no one is overlooked. But then the picture is given of the lion, the lamb, the root of David, who can come and take the book, obviously referring to Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is extolled in this doxology in verses 9 and 10 for the fact that he was worthy to do several things. And first of all, it says he was worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof.

Now the identification of this book is a matter of some dispute. What is the book exactly? I’ve listed on your outline there several things that people have said it was or think that it is. I don’t think any of these are mutually exclusive. They sort of build. First of all, the book is opened in Revelation 5. The lamb comes forward and takes it from the hand of the Almighty, from his right hand, and proceeds to open the seals thereof.

And then when the seals are opened, John receives revelations proceeding from the opening of those seals that indicate the judgment upon men and nations that refuse to acknowledge God as king. And so people have said those seals are judgments.

I was riding back from the airport real late Wednesday night. My plane was delayed getting back from Seattle. And as a result, they paid for a taxi, the airplane did. In any event, I was in this taxi cab, which I normally wouldn’t be in, but I was in this taxi cab getting back from the airport. And I got talking to the driver and guessed he’s a Christian. And then one of the first things he asked me was if I thought we were in the fifth seal period of the book of Revelation.

And you know, many people today, when they think of the seals of the book of Revelation, think in terms of these judgments that are manifested more and more as the rapture gets closer and closer, and they see things totally in terms of God’s wrath against evildoers. And so when the book is opened, there is this idea of judgment and specifically the judgment of curses poured out upon people. That’s certainly there. But I think that if we understand that this book is not primarily written as a statement about unbelievers, but rather is written to the church and to John and has implications for him, then we’ll see the flip side of that.

If we put the proper context of the book back into those seals being opened and those judgments being revealed, we’ll see that those judgments involve blessing to the people of God that are rescued from their persecutors. Okay? It isn’t so much just to execute wrath against these people. The context in the book is we have a suffering John, persecution, and a suffering church in persecution. And God assures John that through the work of Jesus Christ, these judges will be manifest in the earth, and their persecutors will be killed and judged, and all these seven seals of judgment will come upon them.

And so it is a book of judgment, but it’s a book of judgment in terms of curses, but also of blessing. And it’s very important to recognize that the judgments that unfold must be seen in context. That context is the deliverance of the people of God from their oppressors. And so the fact that the lamb has conquered and is worthy to open the book means that not just that wrath will be executed against evildoers, but that the church will be delivered and the church will be rescued from its persecutors.

Now commentators have mentioned that this book is much like a testament. Both R.J. Rushdoony and David Chilton, for instance, in their commentaries on the book of Revelation, talk about a commentary by a man named Zahn, and Zahn points out that these seven seals are very significant. The book happens a lot in the book, but in terms of this particular book or scroll or whatever it is, it’s a seven-sealed book.

And Zahn, from his studies of culture at the time the Revelation was written, the first century of the church, says quite clearly that any person, most people at that time would have recognized a seven-sealed book as being a testamental book, a will. In other words, the idea was that wills were extremely important and wills were sealed in seven places by seven different witnesses. And that if possible, when the person died who made the will and the will was to be executed, the people would try to gather those seven witnesses together, and in the presence of all seven witnesses, if possible, if they were still around, the will would then be opened and executed.

And so there is that connotation here of it being a testament. Now in Hebrews 9:16-17, we read this in terms of the new covenant. Let’s turn there. Hebrews 9:16-17, reading here about the benefits, of course, of the new covenant, the old covenant, and then a discussion of the new covenant, what it is. Verse 16 says, “For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of a testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.”

Now, this concept of the new covenant as a testament, okay? Let’s just make sure we understand the use of those two terms. When we’re talking about covenants, we’re talking about a contractual obligation between two parties. We’re talking about covenants with God. We’re talking about covenants of grace, because the greater condescends to enter into covenant with the lesser, which is man, and the greater is God.

Hebrews 9:16-17, as well as the text perhaps and the imagery of the seven seals in the book of Revelation—but certainly clearly Hebrews 9 tells us the new covenant has an aspect to it where it is a testament. It is a will as opposed to being a contractual set of circumstances of two living parties. It is also a testament in that God has established certain things for his people, and on the basis of that, the death of the savior, the will has been put into effect. Okay, that’s important to notice.

And here we have, in a sense, the book as a book of a testament. It has these seven seals. I guess in Germany, apparently, before the issuance of money orders, according to Zahn again, if a person had an envelope that had five seals on it, they knew that meant there was money inside, that because it was important, more important than a letter. And so they had these five seals, and there were five witnesses to putting the money in the thing.

And so the same thing was true in the New Testament with the seven seals. People knew it was a testament. Now, the significance of this being a testament is pointed out by John Murray in his little booklet called The Covenant of Grace. And I’ll read this. It’s got some big words, but you’ll get the general idea. He says that the idea in Hebrews 9, specifically of the testament, is introduced for the specific purpose of illustrating the transcendent efficacy or effectiveness of the death of Christ in securing the benefits of covenant grace.

Just as the disposition made in a last will goes into effect with the death of a testator and is thereupon of full force and validity for the benefit of the legatee, so since Christ, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without spot to God, the blessing of the new covenant becomes ours. Specifically, in terms of the context, our consciences are purged from dead works to serve the living God, and we receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

The testamentary provisions referred to in these verses are introduced simply for the purpose of enforcing the efficacy of Jesus’s death and bringing into effect the blessings of the new covenant. There is no more possibility or feasibility of interference with the effective application of the blessings of the covenant than there is of interfering with a testamentary disposition after the testator has died.

And so if you’ve gotten a will and in that will you’ve been named as a beneficiary, you know that once the person dies, the will won’t be changed. You have those blessings accrue to you. And so what Murray is saying is the covenant has all these covenant blessings assigned to it. That is what it essentially is—a document of inheritance to the people of God. Now, what it contains curses, but essentially it is a book of blessing, covenant blessing.

And those blessings are secured by the death of Jesus Christ. Once the testator dies, the will can’t be changed, and the benefits are sure to pass on to those who are named in the will. Now, the ones who are named in the will are the elect of God. And there is no way the elect of God can be removed, or can the blessings of the covenant be removed from them.

And so the idea of a testament here, in terms of the book that’s opened by the savior, who is worthy by his death, means the assuredness of covenant blessings flowing to his people. And this is why the judgment should be seen in terms of the blessing that occurred to the church as a result of the judgment against those outside of election and outside of redemption. The emphasis is upon blessing in terms of the testamentary will.

Now, as we put on the outline, it’s also a covenantal book. It is essentially the book of the covenant. The testament simply reinforces the idea that the blessings will come to pass to those named in the covenant, and the blessings will happen to them. And as a result, anything that would get in the way of those blessings being accrued to them—in terms of people refusing to honor the church and persecuting the church—they will be dealt with by the terms of the will as well.

Now, the book is written on front and back. And some people see in this a reference to the Ten Commandments. You may not remember this, but from the record of the Ten Commandments in the book of Exodus, they were also written on front and on the back. Very specifically, again in the book of Ezekiel, in Ezekiel 2:9-10, there was a book written on the front and the back. And this book is a book of covenantal lawsuit against the people of God who have broken the terms of the covenant.

And so the fact that it’s written on front and back, some people have seen to indicate, again, that it is a covenantal book. We don’t need that piece of evidence, but that also reinforces the idea that this is covenant blessings and cursings and a covenantal will that affects the terms of the covenant that is being opened here by the lamb.

You remember that God promised in Genesis, in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis. He brought Adam and Eve into a covenant of grace once they had disobeyed and broken the covenant of works. And he promised to them in terms of that covenant that all the people that would oppress them will be removed, that they will receive blessing, the Son would come, bruise the head of the serpent, or his foot would be bruised, but he would crush the head of the serpent. He would prevail.

And so the opening of these seals, or the prevailing of the people of God through the judgments of Jesus Christ against men and nations in history that persecute the church and reject and refuse to honor God, is assured by the covenant blessings of Genesis 3. And so this book, as it’s opened up and the seals are opened, also is a covenantal book.

The point here is that the death of the savior that we proclaim at communion—that death demonstrated the worthiness of him to open the book of the covenant, to pass out blessings and cursings—and the sureness of those blessings being that it is a testament as well. Just as surely as Christ died, those testamentary blessings, the inheritance will be passed on to his people, and anything that gets in the way of that—the serpent and his minions as it were, his offspring, the seed of the serpent, the vipers—will be judged by God in history, because his purpose is to bring blessing to his people in Jesus Christ.

That’s what we proclaim at communion: the death of our savior, the establishment of the covenant, that history moves in terms of that covenant, blessings and cursings, and the will that assures his people that they will prosper, and that anything that tries to stop them will be crushed. That is what we proclaim: the death of our savior. And this is what it means in terms of his being able to open the book.

And that book is also the book of history. Chapter 4—we won’t bother to look at it now, but chapter 4 gives us a vision of John. You’ll remember the first couple of chapters. After the portion we read from Revelation 1, the next couple of chapters talk to the letters to the churches, and then John in chapter 4 is transported into the throne room of heaven. And it’s very important to recognize that in the context of the book here, chapter 4 tells us that it is a book of history.

The throne room is the authority of God manifested from heaven. I think it was Rushdoony who said that heaven is not seen essentially as the symbol of angels flittering about having a good time, but rather the throne of heaven is declared as a throne of God’s authority and preeminence in terms of history and all things, as seen in chapter 4. We’ve talked about the doxologies. All glory and honor and power belong to God. And that’s declared in the last verse of chapter 4: All power and all honor and glory in history is God’s and God’s alone.

And so this book that is opening is related to that throne room that John is in, in the presence of here. And so it has to do with the book of history. All history moves in accordance with God’s will, who sits on the throne. Lenski, in his commentary, talking about the opening of this book, says that opening here means to execute what is written in the book—not merely to tell its prophecies, but to make them come true, to put into effect, to cause to occur.

Again, Lenski says, the taking of the book means the act of proceeding to turn its contents into reality in and through the kingdom despite all its foes. And thus all the agents of Christ praise and glorify him. He’s talking about the fact that it says that the lamb is in the midst of the elders and the living creatures, the agents of God’s providence as he works out his decree. Those agents move in accordance with the lamb at the center of all that, being declared to be in the midst of his agents, opening the seals, determining history.

And so the book being opened is the determination of history as well, and the assuredness of blessings to God’s people. Okay. And that’s what we proclaim. We proclaim the death of our savior. We also proclaim the death that secured redemption.

Going on in verse 9 of Revelation 5, it says that thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof. We’ve just talked about that. And why? Because thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood of every kindred, tongue, and people and nation.

We proclaim the death of our savior at communion. We proclaim the death of the redeemer and the redemption accomplished by that death. Very important, basic concept. I’ve listed some verses there in your outline that spell out the terms of redemption in the old covenant.

Now, to redeem means to buy something back. The wages of sin are death. The scriptures say that’s the payment for sin. And because we’ve sinned, we need redemption. We need to be brought out of bondage to sin and curse and the death that accompanies sin. We need to be cut out from those curses. We need to be redeemed back to God. And Jesus Christ in his precious blood paid the price for our sins. He has redeemed us.

The words of the Heidelberg Catechism: from all the power of the devil, and he preserves us therein. That redemption is accomplished and is the basis for our salvation. And it’s accomplished through the shed blood of our savior. And we remember that death at communion. We remember our redemption. That’s central to the act of communion.

Of course, now redemption in the old covenant has a familial aspect to it. The term redeemer had along with it the concept of a kinsman, the kinsman-redeemer. And the verses I’ve listed there in your outline give the specific Old Testament references to the kinsman-redeemer. A price must be paid by that redeemer. It’s like, I guess, you could think of it as kind of a pawn shop arrangement, where a person has been sold into slavery, been placed in the pawn shop, and he needs to be redeemed by the owner thereof.

And we’ve been placed into slavery, and we need to have a price paid for us. And the price that is paid is the precious blood of our savior. The person who pays the price, according to the Old Testament laws of redemption, must be a kinsman. And so Jesus came as our kinsman-redeemer. He came in the flesh. He came as a man born of a woman. And so he is our kinsman and can redeem us.

And of course, redemption has the concept of deliverance to it. We’re redeemed away from those curses and subjection to Satan, and in the world of men who are in rebellion against God. The scriptures are quite clear in many verses that say that we’re redeemed out of bondage to sin, out of bondage to Satan, and out of judgment from God.

But it’s more than that. It’s very important. Most of us understand those things. But it’s very important we recognize that we are redeemed to something, not just away from something. And so in the verse we just read, in verse 9, it says, “Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.” Thou hast was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.

Redemption has the idea that the kinsman, coming and paying the price. Jesus comes, pays the price of his precious blood, redeems us away from the power of the devil and the curses of death. But more than that, he redeems us to God. We have been placed in service to God now. And so it is a redemption to knowledge and to righteousness, holiness, and dominion. That is what we are redeemed to.

The kinsman-redeemer doesn’t just pay the price and get us back on our feet so we can start living our lives in isolation from the family again. No. We’re brought into his family now. Frequently a marriage would be seen in terms of the kinsman redemption, for instance, this picture in the book of Ruth. And we are then assured that our redeemer will take care of all enemies that we have. We’re redeemed to God and protected in his holy family.

And redemption has that concept to it. So when we celebrate communion, we should remember that. We should remember that kinsman-redeemer has paid the price to deliver us from sin and bondage to sin and the curses of sin, and he has redeemed us to God and to be part of his holy family, to be protected by the king at whose table we sit week to week. But more than that, to serve that king in righteousness, holiness, knowledge, and dominion.

Third, the death of the savior assured the saints’ earthly reign. So important to understanding all of this. The verse goes on to say that he was worthy to take the book, open the seals thereof. He has redeemed us to God by his blood, of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. Then verse 10: and hath made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

Now, this is an essential aspect of proclaiming the death of our savior. We proclaim the death that effected redemption, that effected the opening of the book of the covenant, its testament, and we proclaim the death that secured the reign of the saints. Where does the text say? On the earth, not in heaven. Certainly we reign in heaven, but we reign on the earth.

Here is what it says specifically. The verse used here and the texts of the verbs used here is subject to some disagreement. Does it mean we will reign or does it mean we are reigning? What exactly is being said here? But really that is not important to make sure we understand that the verb, which apparently the variant manuscripts relate in different ways, is qualified by this reign being said explicitly, as I said, to be on the earth. And that really finalizes what’s being talked about here.

Jesus Christ’s death assured the saints’ earthly reign. Lenski, in commenting on this, says that between the present tense “they reign” and the variant reading “they shall reign,” there is no substantial difference. Lenski says why—because both terms signify what is the result of the lamb’s making the saints a kingdom. He has made us a kingdom, and that means we reign. And so that’s Lenski’s saying quite accurately that the determination of those verbs is based upon the rest of the verse. He has made us a kingdom. We reign on earth, not in heaven. And so that is very clear what it implies to us.

Reverend David Clark, who was, I believe, Gordon Clark’s grandfather (I believe, might have been his father, I’m not sure), wrote a commentary on the book of Revelation some years ago, obviously, which is now it’s called The Message from Patmos, and I noticed, I think in Great Christian Books catalog, it’s now been reprinted. I got a copy from, I believe, Reverend Jones when he was out here once.

In any event, in Clark’s commentary on this particular portion of scripture in the book of Revelation, he says the song ends by saying, “And hast made us or might be made them kings or a kingdom and priests unto God, and we or they shall reign or do reign on earth.” The manuscripts, he said, are very uncertain in this text, but it shows at least that God’s cause will not always be persecuted and cast down, but will arise and grow and triumph on earth.

And that’s the death we proclaim. We proclaim the death of our savior. We proclaim that death has been effectual for opening the book of the covenant, its blessings and cursings, the secured redemption for the elect, and more than that. He has made us more than conquerors in the Savior. And he has led us then to reign on earth.

Now, that’s great cause for thanksgiving before God and for conducting weekly eucharist in that sense. He has made us a kingdom and we reign on earth. Now those are the teachings from verses 9 and 10 in terms of the remembrance of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of his death, as it were. And then we want to turn now to verses 5 and 6 and look at the picture of the savior presented there to us.

And remember that communion is in remembrance of him. It’s proclaiming his death that we’ve talked about was effectual to do these things. And now we’re going to talk about the remembrance of Jesus Christ at communion. And you’ll see parallels to what we’ve just pointed out from verses 9 and 10 up in verses 5 and 6.

First, communion is remembrance of the lion of Judah. The lion of Judah. John is weeping. He says, “Who can prevail to open the book?” He’s downcast. He doesn’t think he can do it. The elder comes and says, “Look, somebody can do it. The lion of Judah has appeared. The root of David.” The lion of Judah is the one who opens the book. And so communion, being a remembrance of that death that opened the book, is a remembrance of the lion of Judah.

Now, the lion of Judah has two things I mentioned in your outline. First, he is a law executor. And secondly, he is the terror of foes. First, in terms of the execution of the law, in Genesis 49:8-12, we have the prophecy of the tribe of Judah. We read therein the following. Genesis 49:8 and following says, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Thou art a lion’s whelp. From the prey, my son, thou art come up. He stooped down. He crouched as a lion and as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall be a gathering of the people be.”

We are told in that verse that he is a lion, and then the direct interpretation of that, in verse 10, is that the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet—that is, from his heirs—until Shiloh come.

Jesus Christ comes as the ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy of the tribe of Judah, the lion of Judah. He comes as an executor of God’s law. Now, the kings of Judah that came from Judah were not lawgivers in the sense of making up new laws. That’s not the implication of the text here. And in fact, in some manuscripts, maybe some of your translations that you have out there, instead of lawgiver, it actually reads a ruler’s staff.

And those—I think lawgiver really is the better translation. But the point is that it’s not a new law. He comes as the king to give the law to the people and to execute God’s law in terms of his obedience to it, in terms of his required judgments against lawbreakers. And so when Jesus comes as the lion of Judah, pictured in Revelation 5, he comes as the one who executes the law of God.

And of course, that’s what’s going to happen the rest of the book of Revelation. He executes the laws—blessings and cursings—cursings upon God’s enemies and blessings upon those in covenant with him through Jesus Christ.

So he comes as a lawgiver. Judah, as we said, executes the law of God. So Christ also executes those laws by taking the book and causing the events to transpire in accordance with God’s law and decree.

But secondly, of course, Judah is a terror of foes. And I, you know, it could be t-e-r-r-o-r or t-e-a-r-e-r. Terror of foes. He rips foes apart. That is implied in the first couple of verses we just read, Genesis 49:8 and 9. Judah is from a lion’s whelp. He grows up, and it says in verse 8 that his hand shall be on the neck of his enemies. The picture is one of great strength in battle.

The lion is the mightiest of creatures, according to the scriptures. He doesn’t give way to anybody. And so that’s obviously implied here. I don’t know if you remember or not, but in Micah 5, going to the book of Micah, we read this reference to the people or the remnant of God being like a lion tearing in pieces in verse 8 of Micah 5.

We read, “The remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through, both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver. Thy hand shall be lifted up upon thine adversaries, and all thine enemies shall be cut off.”

Now, remember that prophecy was talking about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the true remnant of Jacob as it were. And he is the great lion who tears in pieces his enemies and who destroys all those that would rise up against him.

Now, it is interesting in the scriptures, and I’ve listed a couple of other verses there on your outline that in terms of the lion of Judah being a terror of foes, I also list Samson and David in the scriptures. Ungodly nations are also pictured as God’s lions to bring wrath against God’s people. In the book of Hosea, for instance, that imagery is used. Hosea 5:14 says, “For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will take away and go, I will take away and none shall rescue him.”

And so the lion of Judah is torn apart by the lions of God’s wrath, being the ungodly nations that God brings in to chastise his people. You might remember from Psalm 22 that is a picture of our savior’s, of course, death and the results of that death. We read in Psalm 22:13, “They gaped upon me with their mouths as ravening and roaring lions.” Jesus was torn, as it were, ripped apart by lions. God’s curse came upon God’s people, and he became the curse-bearer for those people to effect their deliverance from that curse.

And so we see in the scriptures through, often, kind of a battle of lions. We got the evil lions who are actually used by God to execute his wrath against the people. When they come to repentance, and when Jesus Christ rises from the dead, he is the mighty lion now going out to tear his foes and to rip apart all the other lions.

And so we have in the scriptures, I mentioned on your outline, Samson and David, both of whom are going to deliver God from enemies, and both of whom, prior to that deliverance, kill lions. Samson kills a lion with his bare hands, and then a chapter later it talks about how the Philistines come upon him just like the lion came upon him. The lion was roaring. The Philistines are shouting, and in the book of Judges, one chapter apart, we read that the Spirit of God comes upon Samson to kill the lion with his bare hands, and then later, when the Philistines come upon him, the next chapter, it says the Spirit of God comes upon him and he kills a bunch of Philistines.

The killing of a lion, the same way that David killed a lion prior to his killing Goliath, is a picture of what that deliverer will do—by delivering his people from the line of oppression, as it were, Goliath or the Philistines in the two cases of David and Samson.

And so Jesus Christ comes as the greater David, the greater Samson, and as the greater lion to these ravenous lions who tore him apart, as it were, at the cross. Jesus Christ comes as the great lion of Judah. And the implications of that is that he’s an executor of God’s law, but he’s an executor of God’s wrath against people who would come up against him and against his people.

And so the picture continues in the book of Revelation of God’s wrath against those people that would oppress him. Jesus is further identified as the lion of Judah, but also as the root of David.

In verse 5, one of the elders says, “Weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loosen the seven seals thereof.” Jesus is the lion of Judah. He is also the root of David.

And I’ve listed on your outline there that this means that first of all, he is the meaning of history. Revelation 22:16, the same thing is said. Jesus Christ says, “I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star.” Matthew 22:45, our savior says, “If David then called him the Messiah, Lord, how is he his son?” Jesus was declaring that he was first and last in these verses, and he does here.

The root does not mean a shoot coming off of David. It means the root from which David grew. Now David happened chronologically before Christ, didn’t he? And Christ happened after David. But God is saying here that Christ is the meaning of history. That the future, as it were, the end result of history, determined what God’s decree was in history.

Maybe an illustration to help us understand that would be that if maybe some of you might go to a football game this Friday or Saturday, and you might be planning on it now to do that thing, and then you’d buy some tickets to accomplish that prior to the event. And in that sense, what’s going to happen in the future is determined what happened in the past.

Now, it’s a poor illustration because we’re bound by time, but God is not. But the point is that history is an unfolding, moving toward its consummate purpose in Jesus Christ. God purposes to bring forth Jesus Christ to glorify himself for the demonstration of his mercy and of his great wrath against sin. He purposes to bring forward a people in Jesus Christ and to have them reign on earth and to be blessed as they preach the gospel, because he purposes that as the end result of history: the glorification of himself through Jesus Christ and the elect covenant community.

So David came before, here as a picture of Christ, and from David’s loins, as it were, come Jesus Christ, the lion of Judah, at some later point in history. The future determines the past. R.J. Rushdoony, writing on this in his book The Biblical Philosophy of History, says the following: “The movement of time according to the Bible is from eternity, since it is created by God and moves out of and in terms of his eternal decree. Because time is predestined, and because its beginning and end are already established, time does not develop in an evolutionary fashion from past to present to future.

Instead, it unfolds from future to present to past. God’s future purposes in Jesus Christ are declared by this statement that he is the root of David. He is the first and last. He brings history into being because history moves in terms of the eternal decree to glorify God through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the key to history, and he is seen here as the gateway to the kingdom. He alone opens up the kingdom to man, and he reveals the meaning of history in this text.

He is also the king of kings. As I said, in Revelation 22:16, he says, “I am the root and the offspring of David.” Isaiah 11:1 says, “There shall come forth one out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” That is Jesus Christ. In Jeremiah 23, we read that he will be called the Lord Our Righteousness, and he will be the branch from David, the greater David as it were, the king of kings of which King David and King Solomon were mere types and illustrations and shadows of the reality to come in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is both root and shoot, the alpha and the omega, the determiner of all that comes to pass. All history then must be interpreted in light of him. That’s what history is all about: seeing God’s purposes developed in Jesus Christ, the coming of the Messiah and his covenant community of blessing. God purposes things in Jesus Christ and he brings all this to pass for his glory in history. History is not by chance. History is determined by God.

Now, John is given this picture, and we’re remembering at communion that we come in remembrance of him who is the lion of Judah, who is the terror of foes, who is the executor of God’s law. And we come to communion and remember Jesus Christ who is also the root of David, the determiner of history, and the king of kings.

And John then looks to see this lion and this root of David who is going to open up this book. But what does he see when he turns? Verse 6 says, “And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, 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.”

He doesn’t see the lion of Judah. He doesn’t see the root of David, the king of kings. He sees a lamb as if it had been slain. This is so important, and it correlates to what we said earlier about verses 9 and 10. The lamb here is not a picture of Christ’s nature. Christ’s nature is pictured by the lion of Judah. The lamb is a picture of Christ’s work in effecting and opening that book of the covenant up to his people, in the book of curses up to those that are outside of redemption.

Christ’s nature is as a lion. His work is as a lamb. When John sees the work of the lamb, there is a correlation between that work on the cross that he had been slain two thousand years before, once for all. He’s no longer slain; as if he had been slain, he’s standing. He’s alive. Okay? It’s that lamb who was slain that effects the coming of the lion of Judah and the root of David, the determination of history.

You see, when we proclaim the death of Jesus and remember that he is the lamb that was slain, it has the connotations of all these other things: that the lion of Judah will not tear apart all those in history and will move his people in terms of blessing and deliverance, and will come upon their persecutors and his persecutors, the persecutors of his church, tearing them asunder and establish history in terms of his reality.

The correlation is quite obvious here. The lamb who was slain is the Passover lamb. Our Passover has been slain for us: Jesus Christ. He is the picture of his sacrificial work. And the significance of that work is that he then is the lion of Judah who tears apart and destroys his foes and the foes of his church. The basis for Christ’s victorious work is nothing other than his work on the cross, his death, which we proclaim at communion.