Lesson 14: The Scroll and the Lamb, part 1

 Revelation 5:1-5
1 Then I saw in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?”
3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it,
4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it.
5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals.”

The scroll seen here is a title-deed such as we see in Jeremiah 32:9-15 where Jeremiah was offered the opportunity to purchase a piece of ground, and he did so even though the people of Israel had been taken captive to Babylon and would not return for 70 years. Upon the return to the land, this contract or title to the property would be honored but it would have to be opened by the legal heir to the purchaser.

The search for the “legal heir” to this property in the scroll began. The property is earth itself. God created it, but there have been many through the years who have claimed ownership, whether to pieces of it or to all of it. Remember, in Matthew 4, Satan told Jesus that he could give Him all the kingdoms of the earth - a claim that Jesus did not declare as invalid.

Note also that those wanting to claim ownership include: those in heaven - angels, those on the earth - humans, and those under the earth - Satan and his demons. We find these things mentioned in such places as:
*Deuteronomy 32:8 - God divided the people of the earth (at Babel - Genesis 11:8), and 1 Chronicles 1 lists 70 nation-groups as being descended from Noah.


*Matthew 4 - Satan told Jesus, in one of the temptations, that he could give Jesus the kingdoms of the world, making it unnecessary for Jesus to die for the people. Jesus did not tell Satan that he did not have the authority to give Him those nations.
*Various scriptures in Daniel - First, in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue acknowledged that Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus and Alexander the Great would be world-wide conquerors (men who “owned” the world). Second, in Daniel 10:13 the angel Gabriel tells Daniel that God sent him to tell Daniel the meaning of his dream but was hindered from coming by the “prince of Persia” until the Archangel Michael came to help him. This would mean that the “prince of Persia” was a demon who fought against God’s angels.

We continue in verse 6 in our next lesson.