WORTHY2 LAMB TO RECEIVE HONOUR, GLORY, BLESSING Revelation 5
WE continue the study on the great theme, ‘Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing. ‘ (5:12): and especially how fitting for the Savior to receive strength.
But firstly, He showed what seemed debility, as Governor Pilate and King Herod treated contemptuously the Son of God. Times He did not reply, except when He showed His Deity, that is, that He was God in the flesh, that He came from heaven and would return to heaven. He told how He could call on the Father to rescue Him by sending 12 legions of angels to release Him. He chose a path of weakness, to be our sin-bearer.
The eulogy showed how He was worthy to receive blessing, which is also benediction, praise or benefit. Heaven restored all that had been laid down during the Son of Man’s rejection. Parents brought their children to the Lord to be blessed by Him. What sacred moments for the parents and the children to have the dear Son of God pronounce blessing on their child. Even as today when our children and grand children are dedicated to the Lord, they receive such a rich blessing from the hand of the Crucified.
Our Lord suffered cursing because of our willful waywardness. \When we are innocent, accusation is difficult to bear. How much more for Christ, the Innocent One. Paul wrote, ‘ Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’, showing the price that our dear Lord paid for our freedom from sin’s guilt. (Galatians 3; 13) Here the Son of God, the imperishable Tree of Life, hung on a tree that man had cut down. Humanly, it did not make sense, except that eternally our weight of wrongdoing was transferred to the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we might be blessed. Cursing gave way to blessing.
Moses in Deuteronomy 28 contrasted the blessing of obedience with the curse of disobedience. ‘ It shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord will set you high above all nations of the earth.’ Here is the promise, ‘ All these blessing shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord.’ (V1, 2) Details follow, for example, blessings in the city, and in the country; the fruit of your body, produce, increased herds, your cattle and your flocks.’ Every Hebrew understood these contrasts. For the believer, Christ is our obedience, ‘He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (Eph 1:3)
The first 14 verses tell of the Father’s blessing poured out on the obedient children. Then, some of the most grievous judgments in God’s word in the following 54 verses, when God warned that disobedience would bring God’s judgment and His firm denunciation upon His wayward people. Read these solemn words, remembering that He bore the anathema for us. On the cross Jesus our savior suffered the ‘just for the unjust to b4eing us unto God.’ No one has been loathsome like our Lord Jesus. That’s why scripture cried, ‘He is worthy of blessing.’ Give HIM His due praise.
The Lamb was worthy to receive honour’. Which means esteem, rank, reverence, dignity or state. One account of Christ’s humiliation was ‘He came to His own and His own received Him not.’ (John 1:) The Lord created all things, yet His creatures, breathing His air from photosynthesis, drinking water, eating nourishing food, and possessing life given refused to acknowledge Him as Creator. The jeered at Him and despised His sovereignty. Then He came as Prophet, fulfilling all in the precious Hebrew Scriptures, and they turned a blind eye to Him and them. The Hebrews ridiculed Him as though He were unworthy to receive just recognition. Then the types or pictures of Christ in the Old Testament showed in pictorial form so vividly but their hard hearts despised Him. He was the Passover Lamb of Exodus, the Tree of life of Genesis, the Rock that was smitten of Exodus, the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. They derided Him; and jibed at Him.
Man robbed His honour and demeaned Him to the dust. Heaven saw justice as the chorus affirmed, ‘ The lamb is worthy of honour’ and all heaven burst into a song of reverent praise. The chorus echoed through every part of the celestial city. It must echo in our hearts, for He is worthy. And He alone. That’s why we must never accept praise or recognition for any activity, which would redound to His glory.
Our Lord Jesus protested to the Pharisees that ‘if a man receive circumcision on the Sabbath day, that the law of Moses should not be broken, are you angry with Me because I made a man completely whole on the Sabbath day. (John7: 23) They derided Him even for His miraculous healing and restoration of the invalid. He deserved honour and respect. But they sneered and scoffed.
The Lamb of God was worthy to receive glory. John the disciple wrote, ‘ and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ (John 1:14) Another meaning for glory is ‘splendor, dignity, praise, or brightness.’ The disciples saw His outshining, but the religious leaders were so angry, that their foolish minds were blinded so that they could not see His brilliance and holiness. The religious group demanded that Barabbas, a murderer and plotter be released, and the sinless Son of God be tortured on the cross.
They demeaned Him, stripping Him of His clothing when they nailed Him naked to the beams of the cross. Man’s greatest disgrace is to be exposed to the glare of the crowd stripped of all human respect, and robbed of His covering. When He cried, ‘I thirst’. He was not only dehydrated, with the hours of mental and spiritual suffering, and longed for a cooling draught; but He longed for recognition as God’s Son and of the love of His associates. This thirst could not be gauged. He yearned for the Father’s arms, embracing Him, and the kiss of the beloved. Yet, first, He must die for our sins, be buried and rise again in glorious triumph.
The writer of Hebrews speaks of His presence commanding respect, when he wrote, ‘ But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God might taste death for every man. (Heb 2:9)
He deserved the glory and honour, which the Father would confer on Him. If the father of the prodigal lavished such love on the dissolute, once-pleasure-loving son, how much more would the Heavenly Father exalt His holy and beloved Son, the sin-bearer of the world; now, the victorious over death and the grave.
The vast number around the throne said, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing. (5:12)
Over our open bibles and in the quietness of our hearts, we bow before Him, the crucified and glorified One, and pour from our hearts the praise and adoration due to the Lamb. Let us never weary of granting Him the supreme honour and deepest love of our redeemed lives. Do you tell Him He is powerful in your life: that He has enriched you immensely: that He has given you His wisdom: that He has strengthened you: that He has glorified your life in Him: and that He has been the Source of every spiritual blessing in the heavenliest. So you join the heavenly chorus, while traversing life’s sidewalk.