The Lamb has Taken the Scroll

Weapons of war make a deafening sound.

Explosions! Boom! Bullets whizzing! Shouts! Cries! Pleas!

Bombs fall, and a mother cries.

Explosions rip through buildings, and babies cry.

Ammo from guns rips through the air, anyone in their path screams with pain.

War! We humans are good at killing one another. Massive amounts of money go into building more powerful missiles, bombs, ammunition, and the weapons that fire them.

Today as I write, the weapons of war are heard, and felt, across Ukraine as Putin’s war to make Ukraine a part of the empire of which he dreams continues with all of its atrocities, horrors, terrors, and unspeakable emotional and physical pain.

Numerous other “hot spots” in the world are experiencing the horrors of war—civil wars, ethnic cleansing wars, people who like to fight wars.

Misusing religion, zealots are convinced theirs is a righteous cause and their God approves of their merciless and indiscriminate killing of innocents. We are reminded of the biblical story when King Herod ordered the slaughter of every male child in Bethlehem aged two and under, as he sought to have the child destined to be “King” killed. (If Herod could have put his ego aside, listened to the prophets, and paid close attention to what the wise men from the east were saying, the slaughter of the innocents in Bethlehem of Judea could have been avoided. But like all autocratic leaders, struck with their sense of self-importance, their narcissism, Herod only heard a threat to his power. Those who are struck by their own self-importance, and selfishness, do not give up power; it has to be taken from them. The baby in the manger of Bethlehem was not a threat to Herod’s earthly power; for this child born a King came to proclaim the kingdom of God, and not the kingdoms of this world. But I digress.)

When we hear, “God wants you to kill these people,” we need to stop, think, pray, seek guidance from the Holy Spirit. Let us be reminded that in the Revelation given to John on Patmos, the weapon of war, the two-edged sword, comes from the mouth of the risen Christ. It is the word of God that has power.

Are wars necessary? It is an age old question among Christians. Unfortunately, the sad answer is, yes. When confronted with those who want to wage war and its violence against a people, those people have no choice but to fight back. Pacifism is a wonderful idea; unfortunately reality breaks on the scene and screams another view. War must be a last resort.

John was shown the throne room of God when he was given the vision, the Revelation. In that great throne room he heard songs of praise to God and to the Lamb who appeared as though he had been slain—the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Holy, holy, holy,

the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come,” they sang. (Revelation 4:8)

To the Lamb they sang,

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing,” the hosts of heaven sang. (Revelation 5:12)

John had seen the scroll; the scroll that contained the future. It was filled with writing so that nothing could be added to it, and it was sealed with seven seals to keep anyone from taking from it. (We should keep in mind that this was a vision that John was told to write and send to the seven churches of Asia Minor, and it ultimately has come to us—Christians of the twenty-first century. John used symbolic, figurative, apocalyptic language to paint a word picture for us of his vision. So we must always seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit when we interpret his words. It’s best to let the words of the Revelation speak for themselves.)

Only One was found worthy to open the seals, and reveal the content of the scroll. Nothing in the scroll can be revealed until the Lamb breaks the seal. So we must be careful who and what we believe. We should also remember that this Revelation was first given to, and sent to, seven real churches on the mainland, and therefore, contrary to what some write or teach, it should be interpreted with the situation of those seven churches in mind. Caution must be used that we don’t make the Revelation say what we want it to say as opposed to what the word of the Lord—the Revelation—says.

This brings us to chapter six of the Revelation. John has seen the One on the throne. He has seen the Lamb in the midst of those surrounding the throne—the twenty-four elders, the four strange looking living creatures, and the host of angels. John has heard the songs of “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea.”

The Lamb has taken the scroll.

He opens the first seal.

“And I heard one of the foul living creatures call out as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come!’ I looked and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer.” (6:1-2) We should note that it’s the rider and not the horse that carries the weapon with the intent to conquer.

In quick succession the first four seals are opened, and with each seal a different colored horse and rider who had some destructive “weapon.” The third horse was black and its rider brought famine. Horse number four was pale (or pale green) and its rider brought death by plague.

Today, it is the second horse, the red horse that we need to see. In Israel, and in Gaza, the weapons of war echo around the globe, and the cries, the tears, the anger, the hate, the horrors, the terror, mounts. All of this from what we call the “Holy Land.”

“When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature call out, ‘Come!’ And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword.” (Revelation 6:3-4)

Stay tuned.