At the cost of blood, you ransomed us for God. Revelation 5:8-14.

 

Then the Lamb, which looked as if it had been slaughtered, is now standing between the throne and the four living beings and among the twenty-four elders, right where I expected to see Jesus Christ, the warring Messiah. This lamb had seven horns and seven eyes. I quickly learned that what I saw represented the seven-fold Spirit of God sent out into every part of the earth. I strongly suspect this to be the Holy Spirit of God. This slaughtered lamb stepped forward and took the scroll from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.

I adapted this paragraph above is from Revelation 5:6-7. Perhaps you recognized some of the terminologies, as we recently covered this section of scripture?

“When he took the scroll, the four living beings, and the twenty-four elders fell down in front of the Lamb. Each one held a harp and gold bowls filled with pieces of incense, which are the prayers of God's people; and they sang a new song, "You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals; because you were slaughtered; at the cost of blood you ransomed for God persons from every tribe, language, people and nation.”
(Revelation 5:8-9 CJB)

• The four living beings.

  “In front of the throne was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living beings covered with eyes in front and behind. The first living being was like a lion, the second living being was like an ox, the third living being had a face that looked human, and the fourth living being was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living beings had six wings and was covered with eyes inside and out; and day and night they never stop saying, "Holy, holy, holy is Adonai, God of heaven's armies the One who was, who is and who is coming!" And whenever the living beings give glory, honor, and thanks to the One sitting on the throne, to the One who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before the One sitting on the throne, who lives forever and ever, and worship him. They throw their crowns in front of the throne and say, "You are worthy, Adonai Eloheinu, to have glory, honor, and power because you created all things—yes, because of your will, they were created and came into being!”
  (Revelation 4:6-11 CJB)

• “Each one held a harp and gold bowls filled with pieces of incense, which are the prayers of God's people.”

  I would hope that you understand how vital your prayers are.

  Psalms 141:2 CJB “Let my prayer be like incense set before you, my uplifted hands like an evening sacrifice.”

  Proverbs 15:8 CJB “Adonai detests the sacrifices of the wicked but delights in the prayers of the upright.”

• “and they sang a new song,”

  When we get to Revelation 14, we will see the 144,000 singing a “new song,” which only they will know.

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Revelation 14:1-3 NASB Then I looked, and behold, the Lamb was standing on Mount Zion, and with Him, one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads. (2) And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. (3) And they *sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth.

While Revelation 14 is in Greek, Psalm 40, where King David is speaking, is in Hebrew, yet both convey the idea of a new song, and both can also mean fresh. You might think these 144,000 had already been singing some form of song unto the Lord.

Psalms 40:1-3 NASB “... I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the LORD.”

• “You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals.”

  In the previous post, we talked about Revelation 5:4-5, where John is weeping because there was no one worthy to open the seals. One of the 24 elders tell John to stop crying because there is one, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Well, that's quite a visual, and yet what does John see? A lamb that looks as if it had just been slain.

  The bottom line is this, Jesus Christ was and is worthy, and the Revelation is about to tell you why.

• “because you were slaughtered; at the cost of blood you ransomed for God persons from every tribe, language, people and nation.”

  He wasn’t merely whipped, although that alone killed most people; He was bludgeoned - beaten with fists; had his beard pulled out, a crown of thorns was pressed into His skull, and then the cross arm was lashed to His severely wounded back, stretching out His arms making it impossible to prevent more injury to His head and face as He fell. All of this was an aspect of the price He paid on our behalf.

  1 Corinthians 6:20 tells us that we have been bought with a price.

  Hebrews 2:9 informs us that Jesus, because of the suffering of death, was crowned with glory and honor so that by the grace of God, he might experience death for everyone so that we don't have to. Common sense tells us that every person must die sometime, so the author of Hebrews must be talking about something other than physical death.

  Hebrews 2:14, in the NLT translation, explains, “Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death.” Since the devil's only hope is to bring about a spiritual death, which is separation from God, we must understand that Jesus’ actions in death restored us.

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Acts 13:38-39 conveys the idea that through Him, we have forgiveness of sins, and through Him, everyone who believes is freed from all things the Law could not free us from.

Ephesians 1:7 establishes that in Him we have redemption because of this blood He shed, not only that, but we have the forgiveness of our trespasses; and, He uses the riches of His grace as the standard.

No one was left out of this deal; how is it that many will not accept this love, grace, and acceptance?

It is all about free will, and therefore, their choice to refuse.

If you have chosen to follow after Jesus, you are deemed a kingdom and priests to our God.

Revelation 5:10 KJV And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Hebrews 12:22 tells us that the number of angels is a countless multitude.

Revelation 5:11 NASB Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,

Angels, living creatures, the elders, and every created thing cries out; Worthy is the lamb that was slain.

“saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped.” (Revelation 5:12-14 NASB)

When I opened our look into Revelation chapter five, I asked why wouldn’t the church be the focus of chapter five since chapter four is a definitive boundary between the church age and the time of wrath. The answer to the question is that the entirety of the Revelation is focused on Jesus. What we have also learned is that the elders represent the church.

The problem for us humanoids is that we continue to apply our human emotions to God repeatedly; this is a pointless effort. God is not affected by our human emotions, although, through the Son, He can undoubtedly comprehend our feelings but not be ruled by them.

Now, here we are, represented by the elders, along with every living creature, crying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain

to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”

Along with this cry,

“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb,

be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”

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