Revelation Chapter 5

The Revelation of Yahshua Christ

Chapter 5

V 1 And I saw at the right hand of Him sitting upon the throne a scroll, written on the inside and on the back, having been sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty messenger proclaiming with a great voice: “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loosen its seven seals?” 3 And no one was able in heaven nor upon the earth nor under the earth to open the scroll or to see it. 4 And I wept much, because no one is found worthy to open the scroll or to see it. 5 And one from among the elders says to me: “Weep not! Behold! The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and its seven seals!”

Yahshua Christ is the Lion of Judah and He is also the root of David. This is the Christian Paradox, and it has been argued since the time of Christ: For that reason Christ asked the Pharisees “If David then call him Lord, how is he his son?”, as we see recorded at Matthew 22:45. That He is God, Yahweh Himself having come as one of His own sons, is the only way that He could possibly be both the Root and the Offspring of David (cf. Isaiah 11:1, 10, Rev. 22:16). Of all of the sons of Adam, only Yahshua is worthy to open the seven seals, because only Yahshua is blameless and only Yahshua is God. Only God Himself can see the future.

KJV Isaiah 11:1, 10: “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots ... 10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”

KJV Rev. 22:16: “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.”

There are a few profane commentators who would pervert Revelation 5:5 into saying something differently, such as that the “lion of Judah” does not refer to Christ, and that it is somehow the object of a verb rather than the subject. Yet all of the Greek manuscripts, without exception, have the entire clause “the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David” in the Nominative case, making the entire clause the subject of the verb, and no part of it could possibly be an object of the verb. It is also a grammatical device by which both phrases are meant to refer to the same entity. A modern equivalent would be a sentence such as “Today in the Big Apple, New York City, all of the airports were closed...” where we see that the phrase “Big Apple” is a synonym for and a reference to “New York City”. Only someone with an agenda, rather than the truth, could read Revelation 5:5 any other way: The King James Version has this verse translated properly.

6 And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as if having been slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven Spirits of Yahweh having been sent out into all the earth. 7 And He came and received it from the right hand of Him sitting upon the throne.

The Lamb that appeared as if it had been slaughtered can only be Yahshua Christ, the Lamb of God, for which see John 1:29 and 1:36 where John the Baptist proclaims Him to be that very thing. Here the Lamb is symbolic, and this allegory also equates Christ to Yahweh, since He is depicted as having the seven spirits of Yahweh. That Yahweh which sits upon the throne is the Creator God who permeates the universe, while the Lamb is His physical manifestation.

KJV John 1:29: “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

KJV John 1:35-36: “Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples ... And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”

The four living creatures are described much the same way Ezekiel described them as a part of the throne of Yahweh 700 years prior to John. These are the same as the cherubs which sat upon the ark of the covenant, those sphinx-like creatures which had the attributes of a man, a lion, a bull and an eagle, the symbols from the standards of the four leading tribes of Israel.

Ezekiel 1:4-11 KJV: “4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. 8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. 9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies.”

8 And when He received the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb each having a lyre and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, 9 and they sang a new song, saying “You are worthy to receive the scroll and to open its seven seals, because You have been slaughtered and You have purchased for Yahweh with Your blood out of each tribe and tongue and people and nation 10 and have made them a kingdom and priests for our God, and they shall rule over the earth!”

Kinsman Redemption:

The purchase with blood for one's brethren is the ancient Hebrew law of the kinsman redeemer. And if you are not a kinsman to the Redeemer, you have no part with Him in the first place! We see this in the Law at Leviticus 25:47-49 where the KJV has: “47 And if a sojourner or stranger wax rich by thee, and thy brother that dwelleth by him wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by thee, or to the stock of the stranger’s family: 48 After that he is sold he may be redeemed again; one of his brethren may redeem him: 49 Either his uncle, or his uncle’s son, may redeem him, or any that is nigh of kin unto him of his family may redeem him; or if he be able, he may redeem himself.”

Related Scriptures abound in both the Old and New Testaments, and the Old Testament passages referenced below all use a specific word which the KJV usually translates into a simple word, to redeem, yet there is a much greater meaning in the underlying Hebrew. The word is ga'al, Strong's no. 1350, and Strong defines it thus: “... to redeem (according to the Oriental law of kinship), i.e. to be the next of kin (and as such to buy back a relative's property, marry his widow, etc.)...” As Strong's also attests, the King James Version has also translated the word to reflect all of these meanings in certain contexts in the Old Testament.

KJV Leviticus 25:25: “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 [as a kinsman] that which his brother sold.”

KJV Psalm 74:2: “Remember thy congregation which thou hast purchased of old; the rod of thine inheritance, which thou hast redeemed [as a kinsman]; this mount Zion, wherein thou hast dwelt.”

KJV Psalm 107:2: “Let the redeemed [kinsmen] of Yahweh say so, whom he hath redeemed [as a kinsman] from the hand of the enemy.”

KJV Isaiah 43:1: “But now thus saith Yahweh that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have [as a kinsman] redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”

KJV Isaiah 62:12: “And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed [by their kinsman] of Yahweh: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” (Sought out must refer to the “hunters” of Jeremiah 16:16.)

The idea that Israel was sold in sin, and therefore Israel had to be redeemed, is also found explicitly in Scripture, for instance at Isaiah 50:1 and 52:3, which is also a Messianic prophecy.

KJV Isaiah 50:1: “Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.”

KJV Isaiah 52:3: For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed [by a kinsman] without money.

KJV Romans 7:14: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”

Therefore Paul, in Galatians Chapter 4, gives the very reason why Christ came to die on the cross in the first place, giving His blood as the price for His redemption of this same Israel people. Once this understanding is obtained, once and for all the Old Testament and the New clearly converge as one and the same book telling a consistent story from cover to cover.

CNT Galatians 4:4-5: “4 And when the fulfillment of the time had come, Yahweh had dispatched His Son, having been born of a woman, having been subject to law, 5 in order that he would redeem those subject to law, that we would recover the position of sons.” (See also Luke 1:68, 24:21; Galatians 3:13; 1 Peter 1:18; Revelation 14:3, 4.)

A Kingdom of Priests

The idea of a “Christian priest” does not exist in the ante-Nicene writers, because all Christians should be priests in their own right, and there should be no professional Christian priesthood. Those who do the will of God are doing the service to God that He requires and therefore they are all priests of God.

There is nothing in Christianity which requires that performance of any special ritual. We are merely told to keep His commandments and to love our brethren – in action and not in speech only – and by doing those things we achieve the execution of the true Christian priesthood. The idea that each and every Israelite who does the will of Yahweh is a priest of Yahweh belongs to the Old Testament as well as the New, and is evident from Exodus Chapter 19 as well as from the epistles of Peter. Paul, and elsewhere in the Revelation.

While Paul does not refer to this priesthood status of Christians explicitly, in those letters which we have he does often use the Greek word leitourgia, and words related to it, in reference to the deeds which common Christian people perform in obligation of their duties to God. Yet the meaning of this word, which bears the very meaning of a service performed for God, is hidden in translation. The professional priesthood has adopted it for their own purposes, where they merely transliterate it as liturgy. In Athens, the word was used to describe those services which men either chose or were elected to freely provide for the public. When Christians provide for their brethren, that is their liturgy and they are fulfilling their Christian priesthood!

KJV Exodus 19:5-6: “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.”

KJV 1 Peter 2:5, 9: “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.... But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light...”

KJV Rev. 1:6: “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.”

11 And I looked, and heard a sound of many messengers around the throne, and of the living creatures and of the elders, and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands 12 saying with a great voice: “Worthy is the Lamb which had been slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and dignity and honor and praise!” 13 And every creature which is in heaven and upon the earth and under the earth and upon the sea and the things in them all heard, saying: “To Him sitting upon the throne and to the Lamb is the praise and the dignity and the honor and the sovereignty for the eternal ages!” 14 And the four living creatures said “Truly!” And the elders fell down and they worshipped.

The ten thousands of ten thousands must be a vision of the saints – or holy ones – of Yahweh, the redeemed of our race, which we shall see mentioned more often in the chapters which follow. As we see where Jude quotes the writings of Enoch, when Yahshua returns He comes “with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him” (Jude 14, 15). Here we have a profession of those very same people, which at one time rejected Yahweh as their King, that indeed He is sovereign and rightfully so, for only Yahweh Himself can justly rule over His people.

In 1 Samuel Chapter 8 we see that the children of Israel demanded an earthly king, thereby rejecting the Sovereignty of Yahweh their God. This is summarized in 1 Samuel 10:19 thus: “And ye have this day rejected your God, who himself saved you out of all your adversities and your tribulations; and ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us. Now therefore present yourselves before the LORD by your tribes, and by your thousands.” This is truly the “Stone which the builders rejected”, and in Christ it will once again become the chief cornerstone.