5:5 elders. One can suppose that this particular “elder” might be Judah himself, who was John’s forebear, as well as that of the line of the Messiah, and who heard Jacob’s ancient prophecy: “Judah is a lion’s whelp….The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,…until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be” (Genesis 49:9-10). Shiloh (a name for the Messiah, the Prince of peace) had come, and the sceptre finally had departed from Judah. Now all God’s people had been gathered together at His throne. Christ was not only the son of David, but also, as his Creator, the Root of David, and of David’s forebear Judah. He had “prevailed” (or, literally, “overcome”), and could unseal the title scroll and take possession of the world once again. He finally had “come whose right it is” (Ezekiel 21:27). He had come “blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a shew of them openly, triumphing [i.e., prevailing] over them in it.” (Colossians 2:14-15). The “handwriting against us,” with which Satan’s evil “principalities and powers” were alleging that we had no claim on the world and that it now belonged to them, has been nailed to the cross of the Lamb of God, who paid the redemption price with His own innocent blood and who has now “despoiled” Satan of all his fraudulent claims.

5:6 Lamb. Instead of a conquering Lion, John sees a Lamb before the throne about to receive the scroll with the title deed. The Lamb obviously had been slain, shedding His precious blood as the price of redemption, and yet it “stood,” alive again after death. He was the “Lamb without blemish and without spot…foreordained before the foundation of the world” (I Peter 1:19-20). The “seven eyes” speak of omniscience (Zechariah 3:9; 4:10). The “seven horns” represent omnipotence (Joshua 6:4-5, “the seven trumpets of ram’s horns”). The seven-fold Holy Spirit expresses omnipresence (Revelation 1:4).