Left to myself I don’t spend a lot of time in the book of Revelation, or in prophecy in general. I accept that it is part of the Bible, and there are lessons to be learned and directions to be given. I just don’t understand it and have not been able to discern a clear statement about much of what it involves. I know there are people who have marvelous outlines of the end times, and have it all figured out, but I am not one of them, and I find their theories have more holes in them than a fishnet.
I’m still open to insights that come as long as they’re not trying to make a chart or graph about all the events that are displayed in glorious color and creative imagination in the book. I started my thinking in the 23rd Psalm. As you probably know, that implies that we are sheep, and that God is the Shepherd.
That got me thinking about the nature of sheep, and what it says about us. I got to thinking how most of us want to be the top dog in the pack, the wolf out hunting for prey, the eagle flying majestically in the sky... you get the idea. Most of us don’t want to be a sheep which implies being dumb, passive and weak. Jarringly contrasted, with that is the concept of Jesus, being the Lamb of God. When we were talking about Him being the perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins that fits. In the Old Testament, the lamb was sacrificed as part of the atonement process.
Then I get to this picture in revelation,
Revelation 5:5-6 (KJV) 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. 6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.The description of the Lamb here is part of the dystopian tendencies we see in the book of Revelation. Things are described in ways that just don’t seem logical or realistic. I think that’s part of what’s going on here. It’s trying to point out to us that as Jesus comes as the lamb, that is not just a weak passive creature. He is the mighty Lamb. In the previous verse, it talks about Him as being the Lion of Judah.
This is not “gentle Jesus, meek, and mild.” This is the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world. This is our Savior. As much as I get frustrated with Revelation as a whole, this is a joy to behold.
homo unius libri
Amen!
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