John is crying, and the book stops to tell us so.
That is where Revelation 5 starts. There is a scroll in the right hand of the one on the throne, sealed with seven seals, and a strong angel asks who is worthy to open it, and nobody in heaven or earth or under the earth is found who can.
And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.Revelation 5:4, King James Version
I wept much. An apostle, in a vision, in the throne room, crying because nothing is happening.
And then one of the elders comes over and tells him to stop, and tells him why.
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.Revelation 5:5, King James Version
Behold the Lion.
That is the instruction. Look at the Lion. And every image in that sentence is an image of force: a lion, a tribe with a king in it, a root that outlasts the tree, and a verb, hath prevailed, which is a word about winning.
John is told to look at strength.
What he actually saw when he turned
Here is the next verse, and it is one of the great turns in Scripture.
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 slainRevelation 5:6, King James Version
He was told Lion. He turned, and there was a Lamb.
And not a lamb in general. A Lamb as it had been slain, which is to say a lamb still bearing the marks of having been killed, standing up.
The elder was not wrong. This is the same person. But the announcement and the appearance do not match the way anybody expects, and the book does not smooth it over. It lets you feel the gap.
You are not being answered with less than you asked for. Revelation 5:5 announces a Lion and 5:6 shows a Lamb about the same one, and it is the Holy Spirit who holds both without letting the second cancel the first.
Now I want to name the disappointment honestly, because it is real and this passage does not pretend otherwise.
You asked for strength. Whatever the specific was, the shape of the ask was force: something to arrive and end it, move it, break it, settle it. And what has turned up in your life is patience, and quietness, and small kindnesses that do not touch the actual problem, and a sense of being accompanied rather than rescued.
And it is very hard not to hear that as being fobbed off.
What Revelation 5 says is that the meekness is not a lesser mode. It is the form the strength took, and the reason the scroll can be opened at all.
Read the response of the room. They do not commiserate. They sing.
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy bloodRevelation 5:9, King James Version
For thou wast slain. That is the stated ground of the worthiness. Not despite the slaying. Because of it.
You have been met by a strength whose credentials are the wounds. Revelation 5:9 gives for thou wast slain as the reason the scroll can be opened, and the same Spirit who kept that word for is the reason the meekness is not a consolation prize.
There is one more detail, and it is easy to read past because the imagery is strange.
The Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes. Horns in that world were the standard picture of power, and seven is the number of completeness. So the Lamb is not weak in the vision. It is described with complete power and complete sight, and it is a Lamb, and it is standing, and it has been killed.
The book puts all four of those in one sentence and does not resolve them for you.
You are looking at complete power and visible wounds in one body, and Revelation 5:6 refuses to rank them. The written word gives the horns and the marks of slaying in a single line, and it is the Holy Spirit who keeps them level for somebody who has been told the quiet answer was the smaller one.
You have been shown power and wounds in the same body and never asked to pick. Revelation 5:6 gives the horns and the scars in one line, and it is His Spirit who keeps them together for a person who has been told that gentleness means something did not work.
And notice, before we leave it, that nobody in this chapter is frightened at the end of it. The vision that begins with a man weeping ends with every creature in heaven and earth and sea saying blessing and honor and glory and power. The book is an unveiling of Christ, and this chapter unveils Him as the one who was killed and is standing.
So stop grading the answer by its volume.
You have been measuring what has arrived against the shape of what you asked for, and the shapes do not match, and you have concluded from the mismatch that nothing came. John made the same reckoning error for one verse and the book corrected it in the next.
You are looking at the same person the elder announced, and the announcement and the appearance never disagreed. Revelation 5:5 and 5:6 describe one figure, and it is the Holy Spirit who is the reason a person can stop treating gentleness as a downgrade.
You have wounds standing in the middle of the throne, which is the strangest and strongest sentence in the chapter. The written word says a Lamb as it had been slain standing in the midst, and the same Spirit who kept those images in one line is the reason nothing about the meekness is a failure.
And I will not lay one gram on you: praying for the wrong shape is not a fault. John was told to look at a Lion by an elder in heaven, and he was not corrected for expecting one. What God does not rebuke, nobody may, and He has never once required a person to want the right kind of help before He would send the right kind.
Declare this over yourself
- Shape of the answer I was waiting for, you are not the measure of what came. Revelation 5:5 says Lion and 5:6 shows a Lamb and both are the same person, and His Spirit holds them together tonight. I am not being answered with less than I asked for.
- Reading that says gentleness failed, get out, in the name of Jesus. You have told me quietness is a downgrade, and the written word gives seven horns and the marks of slaying to one body in one line, which ends you, and the Holy Spirit is holding that word against you and it holds. What God joins in a sentence, I do not get to separate.
- Lord, You are the Lamb whose worthiness is stated as for thou wast slain, and You are that here. Scripture makes the wounds the ground of the opening rather than something You overcame, and Your Spirit keeps that word for exactly where it is. I am naming the shape I wanted, and I am looking at the one who actually came.
Revelation 5:6
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