The Song of The Lamb #1 Visions, symbols and suggested meanings

The Song of The Lamb                            Revelation 5, 14 & 15                             Bible Songs

Revelation is a very difficult book to read and interpret.

It is going to be necessary to fill some brief context of these songs – and in a book that, as you know, due to its very figurative language, is not straight forward, there being also a number of views on its interpretation.

Breakdown by Revelation, by chapter to give the context of our thoughts this evening.

1: 1-8	Introduction
1: 9-20	Vision of man among lamp stands
2:1 – 3:22	Seven Letters
4:1 – 5:14	Vision of the throne in heaven and the Lamb
6:1 –17	Six Seals
7:1 – 8:5	Vision of multitude no man can number
8:6 – 9:21	Six trumpets
10: 1-11	Vision of the rain-bowed angel
11:1-14	Two Witnesses
11: 15-19	The seventh seal
12: 1-17	The Woman and her child
13: 1-18	The Beast
14: 1-20	Vision of the redeemed with the Lamb on Mount Zion
15: 1-8	Vision of the final judgements
16: 1-21	Seven plagues
17:1 – 18:24	Judgement of the great Babylon Harlot
19:1-10	Vision of the Lamb’s Bride
19:11-21	Victory over the Beast
20: 1-15	Subduing of the nations
21:1 – 22:21	Vision of the new heaven and the new earth

Revelation has been rightly described as different to any of the books in the New Testament and also different to most of the books in the Old Testament. The style of the book is more comparable to that of the prophecies of Daniel and Zechariah.

It is primarily a book about visions. The Apostle John describes what he saw, what was revealed to him while he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos, but did not always describe what the vision means. The Greek word for this book is Apocalypse and we can see from the summary that is contains visions of angels, beasts, living creatures, horsemen, armies, rainbows, stars, thunders, lightning and great earthquakes.

The Angel Appears to John. The book of Revelation. 13th century manuscript. British Library, London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is uncertain when the book was written, John was exciled on Patmos for his faith –this implies must have been a period of persecution. In John’s lifetime there were two periods of extreme persecution in the reigns of Nero (AD54-68) and Domitan (AD81-96).

If the early date – then some of the prophecies could have had an immediate fulfilment in the overthrow of Jerusalem in AD70 by Rome.

The start of the book opens with the words:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants – things which must shortly take place.  And he sent and signified it by his anger to his servant John.

Therefore everything that written, as far as John was concerned, was to be fulfilled in the future. He was shown the development of God’s purpose from his own times, right through to the times when Jesus was to return to establish God’s kingdom, and beyond.

Some symbols and suggested meanings

Lampstand	Congregation of believers
Two-edged sword	Word of God
White robes	Righteousness
Burnished brass	Man’s nature perfected
Heaven	Government
Sea	All nations
Living creatures	Saints
Elders	Saints
Lion of Judah	Jesus as King
Lamb	Jesus as Saviour
Horse	Military power
Altar	Jesus’ sacrifice
Earthquake	Political upheaval
Sun	King or emperor
Moon	Religious powers, priesthood
Stars	Princes, rulers
Trumpets	Judgements to come
Censers	Prayers
Rainbow	God’s glorious covenant
Temple	Jesus and his faithful disciples
Court	Those who claim to be Christ’s
Bottomless pit	Out of bounds
Woman	Religious community

Throughout the book of Revelation there is an extensive use of symbolic language. The keys to their interpretation can be found either in Revelation or elsewhere is scripture. Another important principle about the is that they tend to be in pairs. They represent something that can develop either in a Godly way or a worldly way. The symbol of the woman for example can either be faith and become the bride of Christ – but also can be shown to be a fallen woman, a prostitute which represents those people who do not remain faithful to Jesus, corrupt and perverting his teaching.

The symbols therefore are often “clashing”. Though they start in the same way, they develop in different directions until they are directly in opposition to each other.

Steven Robinson

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To be Continued: The Song of The Lamb #2 Sevens

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Also of interest:

Revelation 1:8 – Who is Speaking?

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