The Lion Is the Lamb

John weeps because no one is found to open the great scroll (perhaps the title deed to the earth?). He weeps because no one can make it right. No one can redeem the earth from its present corruption.

The one of the Elders (human representatives of God?) tells John to stop weeping. The Lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy to open the scroll. He has satisfied the legal requirements. He has done what was necessary to ensure restoration of the earth.

After the name is given, with all the power and authority that the King of the jungle imagery inspires, John looks. What does he see? Something he did not expect. He sees the Lion – the Lamb as if it had been slain, with the number of divinity (seven) all over Him, which we are told by John represent the sevenfold spirit of God, none other than the Holy Spirit Himself.

He is no mere created being. He is not, for example, Michael the Archangel, or Scripture would have named Him so. He is none other than the Son of Man, Jesus the Messiah, slain as humankind’s Passover Lamb, and raised to Life again by the very power of God the Father. To say otherwise is to deliberately misunderstand the Scriptures as a whole, and to completely miss the intimacy of God in how he has dealt with humanity.