WEEP NOT: BEHOLD, THE LION OF…JUDA

‘Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda ... hath prevailed to open the book’. Well may the seer of Patmos heed this command and dry his tears as the glorified Lamb, the conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah, takes the book which none other in the entire universe can unseal from the hand of the awesome theophany seated upon heaven’s throne. That book contains God’s judgements and plans for a rebel world, and only the victorious Lamb is worthy and able to administer those judgements. Why? Because He has ‘prevailed’ (conquered) and obtained the victory! His victory was won at Calvary when He spoiled principalities and powers, defeated Satan, obtained salvation, and glorified His Father God. Now, He becomes the sole administrator of divine judgements - all truth is in His hands.

John’s attention is then riveted upon the vision he beheld ‘in the midst of the throne’ and of the living creatures and elders. He saw a Lamb standing ‘as it had been slain’. The One he beheld in the midst of the throne is the same One he had seen take the book from the divine hand. The Lion of Judah, the mighty Messiah, who has the throne rights of Israel as the Root of David, is also the Lamb who had once been slain! This glorious Lion-like Lamb is our lovely, exalted Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lamb John saw was a ‘little’ Lamb (arnion), for in His risen majesty our Lord still bears the grace of His meekness. We stand in awe of His majesty as the Lion, and draw near unafraid, attracted by His meekness as the Lamb. He is ‘standing’ in the posture of life and divine energy. The scars and wounds of Calvary are still upon Him; He is the ‘Lamb as it had been slain’, and forever in heaven those marks of sacrifice will be manifest. He has fulness of power, for the Lamb has seven horns. He has fulness of knowledge; He is the omniscient one who has the seven eyes. He has fulness of control, for the seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God; and, by the attributes of this seven-fold Spirit, the Lamb works to perfection controlling all forces and circumstances upon the earth. Only He is able to reclaim the earth for God. Well may we join heaven’s host and sing, ‘WORTHY is the Lamb that was slain’!