Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah, welcome back to the 24th part of the series on the Book of Revelation. We are still in the Throne Room of Yahweh, though today will be our last loook at it, and we have seen that Messiah is on the Messianic Community's (Church's) side in the first half of chapter 5 which we studied last week. Yah'shua (Jesus) has overcome by suffering and now the future is for Him and His people, and He is worshipped together with the Father.

A sealed scroll with seven seals covered with writing on both sides, signifying Yahweh's purposes for the future restoration of the fallen worlds, its contents completely hidden from the knowledge of malakim (angels) and men, including - and especially - a very frustrated Satan and all his demons, rests in the outstretched hand of Him that sits on the Throne. And though the Adversary has done all He can to gain glimpses into this document through the revealed knowledge given to Yahweh's nevi'im (prophets), he still does not know how his kingdom is to be toppled and dismissed by the Almighty except in the vaguest terms couched in deep symbolism that only the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) can open. But the fact that Yahweh-Elohim had His arm outstretched signifies that He offers to make His will known, at least to us, His people. But no created being is fit to receive so high a mission and John weeps, fearing lest the promise made in the first verse of chapter 4 should fail: "I will show you what must happen" (Rev.4:1b, JNT/CJB). It's as well to remember that as we go through hard times with seemingly impossible odds stacked against us. The same is stretched out to us, His people.

The good news is that Christ's victory on the cross has qualified Him to open the Scroll, He whose strength and power is referred to as "the lion from the tribe of Judah" (Rev.5:5, KNT), the "Root of David", that is to say, the stem or "Branch" coming from that root (Rev.22:16; Is.11:1,10; Jer.23:5; Zech.3:8). John looks for a Lion and sees a Lamb (Jn.1:1:29,36), "standing there as though it had been slaughtered" (Rev.5:6, KNT), in other words, recently killed, within the previous 60 or so years of John receiving this vision. And the pointer to Isaiah 53 indicates that it was by His sacrifice that Messiah had won His victory. Thus by the Cross, the devil and the world system were already essentially overcome (Jn.12:31ff.; 16:11,13; Col.2:15) and Yahweh's purposes for man, which depended on the Atonement of Christ, could now be carried out. In other words, the Cross initiated a process whose final result, at the end of the æon was a foregone conclusion, and Satan knew it, and still knows it, in spite of 2,000 intervening years of that process thus far. Then, last week, we saw that the Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes, signifying His complete power and searching insight of the seven Ruachot (Spirits) by which He rules His people and overthrows His enemies and carries out the divine purpose (Rev.5:6; see Rev.1:4; cp. Rev.4:6,8; 1 Sam.2:10; Dan.7:7,20; Zech.3:9). And then the Lamb takes the Scroll...and the process leading to the end of the age has begun!

Of course, we are not to understand that Christ literally has the form of a Lamb. All the symbolism of the Book of Revelation with its Lamb, horns, eyes, and so on, were familiar to the Hebrew mind, steeped as it was in the Tanakh (Old Testament) even if they are somewhat alien to our 21st century mindset. That's another reason not to neglect studying the Old Testament. When the truth of Christ was conveyed by the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) to John's mind, this familiar imagery was therefore used, just as it might have been expressed solely by words. Because we're a more 'wordy' generation, and don't think in pictures so much any more, it takes us a lot longer to describe and explain things, a reason my sermons and teachings can at times take so long, because words are much clumsier and less precise than pictures. 'A picture is worth a thousand words,' the saying goes...paraphrasing. Of course, the Book of Revelation uses words too because not everybody's a visionary or seer like John: we still need words to describe the pictures that he saw! So we must use a combination of the two, which is the language of the nevi'im (prophets).

That pretty much takes us to where we left off last time so let's get straight into today's text without further ado:

8 "Now when He had taken the scroll, the four Seraphim (Zoa, living creatures) and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full ('made' - JB) of incense ('ointments' - HRV), which are the prayers of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones). 9 And they sang a new song (Ps.33:3; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1), saying:

'You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us ('purchased a people' - KNT)
to Elohim (God) by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 And have made us [a Kingdom] [1], kings and cohenim (priests) to our Elohim (God) (Ex.19:6; Is.61:6);
And we shall reign on the earth.'

11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many malakim (angels) around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice:

'Worthy (deserving) is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honour and glory and blessing!'

13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying:

'Blessing and honour and glory and power
Be to Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb, le-olam-va-ed
(forever and ever, from the æons to the æons)!'

14 Then the four Seraphim (Zoa, living creatures) said, 'Amen!' And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives le-olam-va-ed (from the æons to the æons, forever and ever)" (Rev.5:8-14, NKJV).

Yahweh and Yah'shua (Jesus) are the two dominant Personages in the Book of Revelation. All Heaven is engaged in singing the worthiness of Yahweh as Creator and the Lamb as the Redeemer. These are the themes which form the subject of the Apocalypse - the removal of the curse from creation, and the redemption of the purchased inheritance, and finally the ejection of the great usurper, all of which is accomplished through the payment of the Redemption's price by the merits of the Lamb and the subsequent putting forth of Redemption power.

For the very first time we are introduced to a musical instrument in Heaven, and we encounter 24 of them altogether, one in the hand of each of the 24 Elders. Indeed, it appears to be the only musical instrument in the Throne Room. Before I comment on that, it's important that we do not separate the harp from the golden bowls containing incense "which are the prayers of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones)". Trying to picture that is not easy. If you were to hold a harp in one hand and a bowl of incense in the other, how would you play the harp? Harps require the use of both hands, as would a large-enough bowl. From this we must conclude one of two things. Either:

• 1. This is purely symbolic and the 24 Elders aren't literally holding and playing harps or bowls; or
• 2. They are literally doing this but because they are heavenly beings they are supernarurally able to multitask as if they has more than two hands each...which seems a little far-fetched to me.

Before we start go any further in playing detective and drawing conclusions (and we can so easily draw false ones if we aren't careful because of our Western mindset) let's first understand what the symbols mean, assuming that's all they are: symbols. Let's 'think Hebrew' for a moment. Think of the harp and think of references to them in the Tanakh (Old Testament). What do we know about them? Essentially three things:

• 1. They are the usual or chief instrument of praise in the Psalms;
• 2. Harps are associated with simcha (joy) and gladness (1 Chr.25:1,6; 2 Chr.29:25; Ps.71:22; 92:3; 149:3) just as sadness is described as an absence of the harp in Scripture; and finally (and not to be missed),
  
• 3. Harps are specifically associated with prophecy (1 Sam.10:5; 1 Chr.25:3; Ps.49:4).

Hold these pictures in your mind as we must not dissociate the harps from the golden incense bowls which are another recognisable article in the Tanakh (Old Testament), namely, the vessels belonging to the altar of the Tabernacle and Temple, as we see in Zechariah 19:16-21), which is a prophecy about the celebration of Sukkot being celebrated in the Millennium by all the nations, Egypt being specifically mentioned, and you will remember that every single article in the Holy City will be inscribed with the words, Qadosh laYahweh - 'Dedicated to Yahweh' or 'Holiness to the LORD' - the inscription we have on the outside of this building. Here Zechariah is looking at the New Jerusalem-to-be, which we encountered in Revelation 3:12 and which we will encounter again later in Revelation 21:2,10, using the symbols that Old Covenant Israel would have been familiar with (since there is no Mosaic Temple or Levitical Priesthood in the Millennium). Are you beginning to see how prophetic symbols work now? Our understanding of this will be critical in deciphering what is to come later on in the Book.

To illustrate how Bible-readers typically misread passages like that, many Messianics as well as Zionist Christians read passages like Zechariah 19 to mean that the Old Covenant temple will be rebuilt and animal sacrifices will be re-inaugurated, a mistake the Mormons make too, incidentally. The Book of Revelation, again, as we will see later, is not speaking of a literal Temple building, as was made clear in a passage we have already encountered in chapter 3. Let me remind you of it:

"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my Elohim (God). Never again will He leave it. I will write on him the name of my Elohim (God) and the name of the city of my Elohim (God), the New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my Elohim (God)" (Rev.3:12, NIV).

Whatever the New Jerusalem is, it isn't the Mosaic one the Messiah-rejecting Zionists have got ready to build in modern Jerusalem, as this one is coming out of the heavenly realm and is not the work of the hands of man. Whether this is purely symbolic, representing a non-physical heavenly reality, or whether, in some form or other, it will include a physical reality too, we'll discuss further when we get to chapter 21 right at the end of this study, since the Millennial world is a Resurrection world, that's to say, a physical world, albeit a transformed one greatly exceeding in glory the present earth, and for now transcending our fleshy understanding.

But back to those golden incense bowls, lest we forget them, so that we can get a simultaneous handle on physical reality, spiritual reality, and symbolic representation all rolled into one. Let's turn to Luke 18:7-8 where the "prayers of the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones)" are the prayers referred to by the Master in the Parable of the Judge, where Messiah applies the parable to Himself:

"And the Master said, 'Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not Elohim (God) bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them (avenge them) quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?'" (Luke 18:6-8, NASU).

The emunah or 'faith' spoken of is the same we have already encountered in Revelation 2:19, 13:10, and 14:12. These elect are the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) spoken of, and referred to, in Matthew 24:31 and Daniel 7:18,22,27 too, where they are described as "Qodeshim of [El] Elyon", the 'Saints' or 'Set-Apart Ones of [God] the Most High', remembering that Elyon or 'Most High' is a divine title and is always used in connection with the earth (since He can obviously only be 'high' from His vantage point or juxtaposition of being in Heaven). It is not a title associated with the Messianic Community (Church) itself - we are not elyon (most high) though you might say a husband and father is 'elyon' (with a small 'e'), positionally or authoritatively speaking, relative to his wife/wives and children, respectively, just as an Israelite ruler is an 'elohim' (likewise with a small 'e').

The Elders are here kind of performing a priestly service on behalf of others - the prayers of the elect, as it were, 'pass through' the 24 Elders, which the Messianic Community (Church) cannot do. Do you see the problem for those who claim they are the Messianic Community (Church) in Heaven? If the 'Elders' are the Messianic Community (Church) (which we're already shown they can't be in an earlier study) then the 'Qodeshim/Saints/Set-Apart Ones' cannot be the Elders either, for the Messianic Community (Church) cannot 'offer' for itself, nor can one part of it offer for another part (which is an error of Roman Catholicism, for in their system their priests are necessary intermediaries for the lay people making 'sacrifices' for them in the Mass). Remember, the Messianic Community (Church) is 'all echad or one in Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus),' and cannot be separated or divided.

Those of you familiar with the practices of the non-Protestant church denominations (with the exception of High Anglicanism, which is more Catholic than Protestant), will know that ritual incence burners are used in church services by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Syriac and Coptic Churches. This historical development or evolution of church pratice is based on Old Covenant temple imagery and rests on the false assumption that the 24 Elders are the 'Church in Heaven'. Strictly speaking, to be consistent, if they're using incense, they should be playing harps too, which as far as I know they never do.

So now that we have looked at some of the technical details of verse 8, let's step back and try to get the overall sense before we start discussing what they're singing in the Throne Room because, as I've said, we've got to understand how this symbolism works. To do that I'm going to borrow a helpful illustration by N.T.Wright [2]. He asks us to imagine we are stitting in a theatre when the drum in the orchestra pit begins with a slow, steady rhythm. That drum is telling you something. It's going somewhere. It builds up, louder and louder. Then the voices join in. Wild, excited singing, rich and vivid. That builds up too, louder and louder. Then, as the stage lights come on, the musicians join in as well: the rich brass, the shimmering strings, the sharp, clear oboe and the flute fluttering like a bird to and fro over the top of it all. The music is designed to 'set the scene', to open the play, to make you realise that this is a drama like you've never seen it before. And that is what the Book of Revelation is like! And not just the Apocalypse but large sections of the Bible too. We're back to the Story motif again.

So picture the scene. You're sitting there and all that remains is for the curtain to go up and the actors to come on stage. But wait - and here's the shock - you see, in describing this scene, John has alreadty hinted that WE ARE THE ACTORS just as we ourselves are in the Story, contributing to its movement and direction. We are listening to the music so that we can know that we can now come on stage, ready or not, and play our part. That's you and me right now - we are all of us getting our cues...He's calling us to join to enter into the scene that is being played out in world history and to do our bit. I'm doing mine right now in teaching, preaching, writing and broadcasting, amongst other things. Your part may be completely different, but a part you most definitely have. I already have my rôle in the Cosmic Play and have been playing it out since I gave my life to Christ in 1977.

What about you? You're being cued right now and if you're an active believer and witness, you have already been cued many times in your life already. It's time to roll up your sleaves and get stuck in, not as lone, solo straggler-qodeshim (saints, set-part ones) whom the Enemy can pick off the moment you let your guard drop, as the Amalekites did when Israel was in the wilderness, but together, as a Body, in the Brotherhood of Messiah. Christianity is not a solo, private religion,. any more than your kidneys or heart can isolate themselves and act only in their own self-interest. Of what use would a lone heart be anyway? Solo Christians, so-called, have a part to play in the big Story - they're not supposed to be out alone in the wilderness unless it is for preparation for a season like an Elijah, Moses, John the Baptist or Paul, and then only for a season. There are no 'Simon Styletes' in the Play, perched on platforms on top of poles, sponging food off gullible followers, gazing at their own navels and supposedly being very 'spiritual'.

It's all there in the opening of the music that John describes. Harps are playing and soon the song - a new song (Ps.33:3; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1) - will burst forth in the rest of this Chapter 5, not as a solo but as a choir. When the 24 Elders fall down in front of the Lamb, each of them, as we're now more than aware of, was holding two things: a harp, and a golden bowl of incense. John tells us what the incense is: it's the prayers of Yahweh's people - you and me. The heavenly scene is umbilically related to the earthly sphere - like a mother linked to her unborn baby - and they're connected to it viâ the Seraphim and the 24 Elders who are, as it were, the 'heavenly switchboard' (for those of you who remember how the earliest telephone systems were organised). The ordinary, faithful, humble prayers of Christians/Messianics here on earth appear in Heaven as glorious, sweet, smelling incense. And the same is true of the music too, with the heavenly harps corresponding to the song, however feeble and out of tune at times, which we sing to Elohim's (God's) praise.

Some of you may remember a vision I had a very long time ago of the Remnant assembling in a small room totally unaware of one another - small, that is, relative to the 'large' rooms of the bigger churches and assemblies. Everyone was singing a different song or hymn and each was facing in different direction. Then, suddenly, there was a rushing sound like the wind that moved through that gathering and the Ruach (Spirit) caused them to all face eastwards and sing the same song in unison - the threefold song of what the harp represents. That's still the situation today because of disunity over doctrines and practices.

Then, in the first of three songs in today's passage, we find that the Lamb is being praised, not just for rescuing us but for turning us from hopeless, disobedient rebels into useful servants, from sin-slaves into (as the earlier Aramaic puts it), "a Kingdom of cohenim (priests) and kings..." (Rev.5:10, HRV) - the word "Kingdom" is missing from the Greek texts. Literally, we are transformed from being rubbish into royalty. Once transformed, this then becomes our play, because only the transformed may perform an active, constructive rôle in it. The Lamb has set us free to stop being spectators and to start being actors.

So anyone who hears this crescendo of heavenly songs does so, then, not merely with excitement and eager fascination, but now with a sense of vocation and in the correct divine tavnith (pattern). First, we praise the Lamb for what He has done (vv.9-10) - He is indeed worthy to take and open the scroll and its seals. He is worthy to be the Agent to carry forward Yahweh's Plan to destroy the destroyers, to thwart the forces of evil, to confront the seemingly all-powerful and to establish Yahweh's Diorthosis or "New Order" (Heb.9:10, NIV; also translated 'restoration' or 'reformation') - the Qodesh, Set-Apart or Holy Melchizedek Order - instead of the Babylonian one. And the way the Lamb has done this is through His own death, His own blood, which we proclaim as the exclusive means of liberation.

Any first century Judean would know that the words, "You have redeemed us to Elohim (God) by Your blood" (v.9) would have meant "through His death seen as a sacrifice". Similarly, they would know that a sacrifice through which Elohim (God) "purchased a people...to be [a Kingdom], kings and cohenim (priests)" is the ultimate Pesach or Passover Sacrifie, the final fulfilment of what Elohim (God) had done close up in history when He set His people free from their slavery in Egypt, "purchasing" them like slaves from a slave-market, in order to establish them as a "royal priesthood" (1 Pet.2:9), as the people through whom He would accomplish His worldwide purposes, something made clear through Moses:

"'You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of cohenim (priests) and a qadosh (holy, set-apart) nation.' These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel" (Ex.19:4-6, NKJV).

In other words, the purpose in creating Israel was to make it a shining example to the nations of the right way to live in relationship to Yahweh by becoming the world's ministers (priests), the non-Israelite 'nations' being the 'laity', as it were. The planet is to become one huge Theocracy governed by priest-kings, the governors and governments of the nations. This is still the final destiny of the nations, a very different political set-up to the ones we have today - one of benevolent, righteous dictatorship with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as Global Regent.

The Sabatean-Frankist élites (the Clintons, Obamas, Bushes, Bidens, Schwabs, Zuckermans, Gates', Rockerfellers, Rothschilds, and others), who run the world today, mean that that is them, that it is their, their birthright as a kind of unaccountable, dictatorial global aristocracy...only they are evil and glorify Satan rather than Yahweh. That is why the globalist élites behave with the arrogance they do, because their god is not the Elohim (God) of ahavah (love) and emet(truth) like Yahweh, but a 'god' of hatred, deceit, violence and tyranny. Yahweh's rulers will be taken out from the 12 Tribes of New Covenant or Messianic Israel whereas the unelected satanic élites are taken out of 13 inbred families steeped in the occult, slaves to darkness, whose only 'qualification' is that they do what Satan tells them, including the robbing of trillions and the murdering of millions.

But John, as you would expect, isn't just evoking one biblical passage. The first Song echoes the great passage in the seventh chapter of Daniel where, after the raging of the monsters and the vindication of "one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven" (Dan.7:13, NIV), Yahweh establishes His rule over the whole earth in and through the "people of the qadosh (holy, set-apart) ones of [El] Elyon ([God] the Most High)" (Dan.7:22,27, NRSV). The actors have a major job to do - they are not couch potatoes waiting for Yahweh or His malakim (angels) to do everything for them. The great rescue spoken of in Daniel is, as it were, the great 'New Exodus', with the monsters who have oppressed Yahweh's people taking the place of Pharaoh in Egypt fated to be drowned. Here John is picking up the same storyline, only putting together the slaughtered Pesach/Passover Lamb and the vindicated (justified) Son of Man. How is this breathtaking move made possible? By the rushing and fusing together of both vocations in Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself.

So, the First Song praises the Lamb for rescuing a people by His death so that they could then take forward Elohim's (God's) royal and redemptive purposes ("kingdom and priests") for the wider world which will come to proper and complete fulfillment in the Millennium, the thousand year-long peace free of demonic interference. I saw a glimpse of this in a vision many years ago when I was shown my home in that Kingdom-yet-to-be, how we dressed (which took me a bit by surprise), and how communities, large and small, are ruled by priestly quorums or groups of three cohenim (priests) who are the judges of those communities, governing according New Covenant Torah in, and under, Messiah Yah'shua (Jesus). They will rule over the earth in both the Millennial Kingdom (Rev.20:4) and on the New Earth that follows it (Rev.22:5; cp. Mt.5:5; 1 Cor.4:8), as servants of El Elyon, the Most High God (Ex.19:6; Is.61:6; cp. 1 Pet.2:9; Rev.1:6), He who has power, honour and glory from time immemorial, attributes He granted the Lamb who was, is, and always will be worthy of them because He did not grasp at them, something that we human leaders must be continually reminded of:

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Messiah Yah'shua (Christ Jesus):

Who, being in very nature Elohim (God), did not consider equality with Elohim (God) something to be grasped ('exploited' - NRSV; 'snatched' - NEB, 'clutched to Himself' - Barclay; 'demanded' - NLT)
but made himself nothing ('stripped Himself of privilege' - JBP), taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled himself
and became obedient to death -
even death on a cross.
Therefore Elohim (God) exalted Him to the highest place
and gave Him the Name that is above every name,
that at the name of Yah'shua (Jesus) every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is Yahweh (LORD) [3]
to the glory of God the Father" (Phil.2:5-11, NIV).

The words of the Second Song, "'Worthy (deserving) is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing!'" (v.12) are familiar to you as they form part of our Liturgy of the Master's (Lord's) Supper. Thousands upon thousands of malakim (angels) join in the singing of this gigantic chorus the likes of which none of us has ever heard before, even though I have heard heavenly choirs on a couple of occasions. The Second Song turns from what the Lamb has achieved to what He has deserved (what He is worthy of), namely, all the honour and glory of which creation is capable. The wealth and strength of the nations belong to Him - everything that enobles and enriches human life, everything that enables people to live wisely, to enjoy and celebrate the goodness of Yahweh's world - all this is to be laid at His feet. Contrast this with the despotic dictatorship whose core was wealth, fame and power that was offered to Yah'shua (Jesus) when He was tempted in the wilderness (the same temporarily given to the satanic élites today), and you will at once perceive the huge differences in the exercise of power...godly versus ungodly (Mt.4:9-10).

Contrast all of this with the teachings and practices of many other Christians who think of Yah'shua (Jesus) purely in terms of their own comfort and hope ('He saved me - now He's my buddy') and who fail completely to see the sheer scope of His majesty, the sweep of His glory. Many rest content to 'have Yah'shua (Jesus) around the place' for particular 'spiritual' purposes, but who continue, in an effective state of double-mindedness, to assign 'riches, power, glory' to the earthly forces and rulers. Then there are the 'Prosperity Gospel' people who simply view their 'Jesus' as a heavenly vending machine to satify their every carnal whim who has to give them what they ask because (as they suppose) they have the power to command heaven to do as they wish, a very occult idea. They are immature, self-entitled and narcissistic, like the society around them. Perhaps this is why the Book of Revelation is marginalised in some churches, because it so strongly challenges this modern (and not so modern) attitude. I still find it astonishing that John Calvin, one of the 'fathers' of the Reformation, excluded this Bible book from his Commentaries altogether.

Finally we come to the Third Song, in which every creature in every part of Yahweh's creation joins in, singing, "'Blessing and honour and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, le-olam-va-ed (forever and ever, from the æons to the æons)!'" Once again we are reminded of Paul's vision recorded in Philippians:

"Therefore Elohim (God) also has highly exalted Him (Messiah, Christ) and given Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Yah'shua (Jesus) every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is Yahweh [3], to the glory of Elohim (God) the Father" (Phil.2:9-11, NKJV).

We are at once confronted here with a profound and critically important truth, which like everything else in chapters 4 and 5 continues to inform the whole of the rest of the book...a truth which those who deny the fully Deity of Christ miss, either willfully or because they have been blinded by some other spirit that is not Qadosh (Holy, Set-Apart). And the truth is this: The Lamb shares the praise which belongs to the one and only Elohim (God). This is John's own way of glimpsing and communicating the mind-challenging but central truth at the heart of the Christian/Messianic faith: Yah'shua (Jesus), the Lion-Lamb, Israel's Messiah, the true man - this Yah'shua (Jesus) shares the worship which belongs - and uniquely only belongs - to the one Creator, Yahweh-Elohim. Thus all other claimants to being the Creator (Allah, Jehovah of the 'Jehovah's Witnesses' and the Mormons, some Messianics, etc.) fail this critical litmus test of truth and reality.

But there's more. The affirmation of the full, uniquivocal divinity of the Lion-Lamb only comes in the context of the Victory of Elohim (God) [4], through the Lion-Lamb, over all the powers of evil. It isn't enough just to agree with this as an 'idea' or impersonal 'propositional doctrine', in the abstract, that Yah'shua (Jesus) is, in some sense or other, Elohim (God). I learned that much as a young potential Buddhist neophyte when Yahweh inteverned and spoke directly to me, whilst surrounded by a room full of Buddhists, telling me audibly that Yah'shua (Jesus) was Elohim (God) and not a mere 'Boddhisatva' (see A Glimpse into Heaven). It's not to positively respond to the question, 'Is Yah'shua (Jesus) Elohim (God)?' as though we already knew who Elohim (God) was ahead of time, and could simply 'fit' Yah'shua (Jesus) into that picture. To be theologically correct isn't enough in order to be right with Yahweh.

As we've already seen in the Book of Revelation, Elohim (God) is the Creator, who is intimately involved with His world, and worshipped by that world. Elohim (God) has plans and purposes to deliver His world from all that has spoiled it. In other words, His Plan is to re-establish His sovereign rule, His 'Kingdom', on earth as in heaven, which includes the political realm. It is at the heart of those plans - and only there - that we find the Lion-Lamb sharing the Throne of the One Elohim (God). So I repeat, it is not enough to split off a bare affirmation of Yah'shua's (Jesus') 'divinity' from an acceptance of Elohim's (God's) Kingdom Agenda, because this must be followed-up by including living the Torah lifestyle in its New Covenant setting and completeness, in the here-and-now in the Messianic Community (Church); and also affirming that we'll be back here in the resurrection (and not remain permanently disembodied spirits in 'heaven') where proper Patriarchal Kingdom Rule is once again the norm, as in ancient times. That I saw very clearly in my vision of the Millennial Kingdom!

If you think that just proclaiming the divinity of Christ is enough to 'make the spiritual grade' and secure for yourself the highest reward by (for example) repeating one of the man-made Trinitarian Creeds or reciting the 'Sinner's Prayer' and assuming that you are 'once saved, always saved', is to fundamentally miss the point. It is, fact, delusional. It is, in effect, to use a version of one part of the emet (truth) as a screen to stop yourself from having to face the full impact of the rest of the emet (truth). We discover, and celebrate, the divinity of the Lion-Lamb Messiah only when we find ourselves pulled out of our armchair-faith and are caught up to share His work as the Royal Melchizedek Priesthood as actors in the Divine Play or Story, summing up creation's praises before Him but also bringing His saving rule to bear on the rest of the world. And we start in the home by bringing the Patriarchal Kingdom Order and Government fully into operation. For if we fail in the home (1 Tim.3:4-5), we will not succeed anywhere else and cannot arise properly and fully into that Royal Priesthood (1 Pet.2:9) for end-time service.

And that, brethren and sisters, brings us the end of our five-part study of the Throne Room covering chapters 4 and 5. Next week, Yah willing, we shall get stuck into chapter 6 and basically the 'rest' of the Book of Revelation. May Yahweh bless and inspire your studies this week, in Yah'shua's (Jesus') Name. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] The Aramaic reads: "And you made them to Eloah (Elohim, God) a Kingdom and cohenim (priests) and kings..." (Rev.5:10, HRV)
[2] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011), pp.55-56
[3] "And every tongue will confess that Yeshua the Messiah is YHWH, to the glory of Eloah (God) His Father" (HRV) - compare with "...confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (NKJV, NRSV, ESV, NEB, JB, etc.), "Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai (Lord)" (JNT/CJB). We here defer to the Aramaic original. For more on the 'Greater Yahweh' (the Father) and 'Lesser Yahweh' (the Son), see the Godhead website.
[4] See N.T.Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (SPCK, London: 1996)

Acknowledgements

[1] Tom Wright, Revelation for Everyone - The New Testament for Everyone Commentary Series, Vol.19 (SPCK, London: 2011)
[2] E.W.Bullinger*, Number in Scripture (Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan: 1967)
[3] E.W.Bullinger*, Commentary on Revelation (Kregel Classics, Grand Rapids, Michihan: 1984)
[4] E.W.Bullinger*, The Companion Bible being the Authorized Verion of 1611 with Structures & Critical Explanatory Notes (Samuel Bagster & Sons Ltd., London: 1974), pp.1883-1914
[5] David H. Stern, Jewish New Testament Commentary (JNT Publications, Clarksville, Maryland: 1992)

*E.W.Bullinger was a brilliant Anglican clergyman and scholar whose works merit careful study by serious students of the Bible. He was, however, seriously in error in at least three main areas, namely, (1) he believed the 'Church' has been raptured before the Book of Revelation opens, (2) he believed that the 7 churches in Revelation 2-3 are 7, literal Jewish churches or assemblies yet to come, and (3) he believed in a pre-tribulation, pre-millennial rapture.