The book with the seven seals
Do you know the idiom “that’s a book with seven seals,” meaning a great mystery? The phrase actually originates in this chapter — though it doesn’t mean quite what people assume.
The book with the seven seals
In the throne room, the place of perfect worship, a scroll with seven seals appears and draws all attention. But what is this seven-sealed scroll?
In the ancient world, sealed legal documents — such as a will sealed by seven witnesses — were opened by an appointed party to put their contents into effect, making them legally valid. But Revelation may also be drawing on the nearer image of the sealed scroll from the Old Testament, such as Ezekiel’s scroll of lament (Ezek 2:9-3:3) or Daniel’s book “sealed until the time of the end” (Dan 12:4) — a fitting background for a book about God’s plan finally being unsealed.
So when the voice asks “who is worthy to open the scroll,” it really means “who is able to put the contents of that scroll into effect?” It isn’t entirely clear at this point what the scroll refers to concretely — you could call it the prophets, the Old Testament, or simply God’s plan — but one thing is clear: whoever opens it will rule the world. Since no one turns out to be able to open it, John is understandably in deep distress.
But there is one who can open it: the Lion of Judah — the ancient title from Jacob's blessing over Judah's line, the ruler whose scepter would not depart until the obedience of all peoples belongs to him. That's what John hears — but what he sees is a slaughtered lamb. The two are aspects of the same reality: the apparently helpless lamb is the victorious, invincible lion. It is the mystery of a hero — a challenging image, since every apocalyptic hope pictures a strong ruler who overthrows the forces of evil by sheer power.
Another surprising element is the worship of the Lamb. The previous chapter showed everything revolving around the throne; here, everything centers on Jesus — he is worshipped, and God allows it. That itself is telling: it shows Jesus is truly God, because only God may rightly be worshipped.
The seven seals
When Jesus opens the seals, he makes sure that the devil's plans are exposed. Satan wants to rule the world, and the first four seals show exactly what he intends to bring about on the earth.
Since the saints are not excluded from hardship (we will see why during the trumpets), they suffer and ask when this will end. But their request for vindication is not yet granted — instead they receive white robes and are told to wait until the full number of martyrs is complete. From there on, the tension between the saints' prayer and God's timing is a common theme in the book.
What follows is cosmic upheaval, met by universal terror: everyone from kings to slaves hides and begs to be sheltered from the wrath of the Lamb — the same Lamb who was just pictured as slain. The one who conquered by dying is also the one whose coming wrath none can survive.. This is truly the Day of the Lord — the Last Judgment, where everyone is held accountable and no one can hide.
After the interruption of the 144,000, the seventh seal is opened, and it brings a half hour of silence. Silence carries its own meaning in the Bible, and in Jewish literature there’s a strong connection between a time of silence in heaven and the moment God hears the prayers of the saints. This continues the idea from the fifth seal, where the prayers of the saints come into focus. Even though the prayer of the saints is mentioned only twice, it connects the themes of the seals and the trumpets and plays a central role in both.