Revelation 5:14

The vision opens in Revelation 4, where John is shown God seated on his throne in majesty, surrounded by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders, who praise him without ceasing. Revelation 5 brings a scroll sealed with seven seals, which holds God’s sovereign plan. When no one in heaven or on earth is found worthy to open it, John weeps. Then he is told of the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, and when he looks he sees a Lamb standing “as it had been slain” (Revelation 5:5–7). The Lamb takes the scroll, and the creatures and elders fall before him and sing a new song, because he was slain and has redeemed people to God by his blood (Revelation 5:8–10).

Our passage widens that worship circle by circle. First come the creatures and elders nearest the throne, then a host of angels around them (verses 11 and 12), and then every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth and in the sea (verse 13). Last of all the praise returns to the throne, where the creatures say “Amen” and the elders worship (verse 14). Each wave is larger than the one before, until all that God has made has joined the song.

The angels’ cry is the heart of the passage: “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.” The word for worthy, áxios, means deserving or fitting, and its older sense is “weighing as much”, having a worth that matches what is given. Everything heaven and earth can offer the Lamb is matched by what he is and what he has done.

The word for slain, spházō, means to slaughter, and it was used for killing animals in sacrifice. Here it stands as a perfect passive participle, which speaks of a death that is finished and whose effects remain. The Lamb John sees is alive and standing, and he still bears the marks of his death. He is Jesus, who was crucified. Israel offered lambs for sin, and Paul calls Christ “our passover” (1 Corinthians 5:7). John the Baptist pointed to him and said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). The whole sacrificial system of the old covenant pointed forward to his perfect, once-for-all sacrifice (Hebrews 9:11–14).

Only a few verses earlier this same one was announced as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, yet John sees a slain Lamb. The Lion conquers as the Lamb, by giving himself up to death.

The angels name seven things, and seven in Scripture is the number of completeness, so the list means that the Lamb is worthy of every kind of honour there is. Each has its own sense.

• Power (dýnamis) is authority and the ability to act, divine might.
• Riches (ploûtos) is abundance and fullness, wealth that is spiritual and eternal.
• Wisdom (sophía) is perfect understanding, insight and discernment.
• Strength (ischýs) is might and the capacity to overcome.
• Honour (timḗ) is esteem, high regard and dignity.
• Glory (dóxa) is splendour, majesty and renown.
• Blessing (eulogía) is praise, speaking well of someone in adoration.

The word dóxa comes from a verb meaning to think or to appear, and it describes honour that is plain for all to see. In Scripture it often means the visible shining of God’s presence and majesty, and here it is the radiance and praise that belong to the Lamb as God and that he has won through his sacrifice.

Each item is joined to the next by “and”, seven times over, so the list builds as it goes and gives each gift its own weight. The Lamb is worthy to “receive” them because they are his by right, and heaven is acknowledging what is already his due. He is the exalted Lord over all creation, fully deserving of every form of praise and authority.

John begins, “And I beheld, and I heard.” The verb for seeing, eídō, means properly to see, whether with the eyes or with the mind, and akoúō is the verb for hearing. John both sees and hears, which makes the vision vivid and real. What he hears is “the voice of many angels”, one sound rising from a vast company, a single chorus of praise.

These angels stand “round about the throne and the beasts and the elders”, a great outer ring around those nearest to God. The throne, and the Lamb with it, stays at the centre, and every circle of worshippers faces him.

Their number is “ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands”. The Greek word myriás means a myriad, ten thousand, and the phrase is literally “myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” (myriades myriades kai chiliades chiliadon). Myriads of myriads would be a hundred million, but the two phrases together are a way of saying a number beyond counting, and they are meant to be heard that way. Daniel saw the same host before the throne of the Ancient of days: “thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him” (Daniel 7:9–10). A psalm says, “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels” (Psalm 68:17), and the letter to the Hebrews speaks of “an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22). In Revelation this countless host turns its praise to the Lamb, and the Lamb’s redeeming work is celebrated by all the hosts of heaven.

In verse 13 the praise spreads beyond heaven. The word for creature, ktísma, means a created thing, from the verb “to create”, and “every creature” (pan ktísma) takes in everything that owes its existence to God. John names the realms one by one. Heaven holds the angels and the saints in glory. The earth holds people and animals. “Under the earth” may mean the spirits of the dead in Hades, or the depths of the earth itself. The sea holds all that lives in it. Then he adds “and all that are in them”, so that the list of parts stands for the whole of creation, and every “and” (kai) binds the realms into one voice.

Paul speaks in the same way of the name of Jesus, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:10–11). The psalmist calls all God’s works in every place of his dominion to bless him: “The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all” (Psalm 103:19–22). The praise fits the one it is given to, because all things were created by the Son and for him, and through him God reconciles all things to himself (Colossians 1:15–20). God’s purpose is to gather together all things in heaven and on earth under Christ as head (Ephesians 1:10).

The whole creation says, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” Blessing (eulogía), honour (timḗ) and glory (dóxa) are the same words the angels used in verse 12. “Power” here is a different Greek word, krátos, which means might, dominion and the authority to rule. The One on the throne is God the Father, the sovereign source of all authority, and in the same breath and with the same words the Lamb receives the same praise.

The vision ends where it began, beside the throne. “The four beasts said, Amen.” Amēn comes from the Hebrew for what is firm and sure, and it is a strong affirmation, “so be it” or “truly”. The living creatures, who stand closest to the throne, give their full assent to all the praise that has gone up to God and the Lamb, and their word seals it.

Then “the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.” The verb for worship, proskynéō, comes from a word for kissing, and it means to bow down in homage, to prostrate oneself, to adore. The elders’ bodies show what is in their hearts, which is humility and complete surrender to God’s authority. Subjects bowed in this way before the kings of Israel, and here the same posture is given to the King of heaven. Falling down in worship comes again and again in Revelation, as when the angels, the elders and the living creatures fall on their faces before the throne (Revelation 7:11).

They worship “him that liveth for ever and ever”. The verb záō means to live, to be alive, and with “for ever and ever” it names God as the One whose life has no end. This title points first to the Father, yet the whole scene has joined the Father and the Lamb, and the Son shares that eternal life. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25), and “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). John’s Gospel opens by saying that the Word was with God and was God, and “in him was life” (John 1:1–4). The worship of the living God is opened to us through his eternal Son.

These verses show us the reality behind everything else in Revelation. Whatever powers rage on earth, the throne of God stands, and at its centre is a Lamb who was slain. The church that first heard this was suffering, and it learned that the One it worshipped was already receiving the praise of angels beyond number. Our worship on earth belongs to that same chorus, which began around the throne and will one day be sung by every creature God has made.

The passage also shows us who God is. He is worthy of every honour, and he shares his glory with the Son who died for us, so that the cross stands at the centre of heaven’s praise. Christ’s way to his throne went through humility and death, and the highest place in all creation belongs to the one who gave himself for us. The living creatures’ Amen is open to us too, as our own “so be it” to the worth of God and the Lamb, who live and reign for ever and ever.