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. -- Revelation 5:6 (KJV)
John was told about a Lion. He looked, and what stood at the center of everything was a Lamb, and the Lamb had been killed.
The King James keeps the old word: slain. This was a killing, done on purpose, and John records it as something you can still see on the body — as it had been slain. Whatever the resurrection did, it did not clear the marks away.
The Reason in the Song
Monday's chapter gave one reason for worship: He made everything. The new song adds a second, and it hangs on a single word.
“Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.”
For. What the angel's question had been asking after — the qualification no one in heaven or earth or under the earth could produce — turns out to be blood. Not strength, not rank, not an unblemished record kept at a safe distance from us. A death is what opened the book, and the buying back of people was paid for in it: redeemed to God by thy blood.
Brought as a Lamb
Isaiah described the manner of it long before it happened. “He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
Silence in Isaiah. Standing in Revelation. The one who would not defend Himself at His trial is the one now holding what nobody else could touch.
Laid Down
Most of us read power as the ability to make something happen. Jesus applied the word to His own death and turned it around — no man taketh it from me, I lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down.
Which is why this picture never quite settles, however often you read it. At the center of a universe that runs on force stands a Lamb that was killed, and He is the one everybody in the room is looking at.
