When was the last time you wept? Not just tearing up with emotion, but those deep, wracking sobs when your world seems to be falling apart.

• At the funeral of someone you love and can’t imagine life without?
• After a phone call with news you hoped to never hear?
• After feeling abandoned or betrayed by someone you loved and trusted?

When was the last time you cried out to God in despair, “Why?” or “How long?” or “Please, Lord – do something!”

Our hearts long for God’s redemption of his broken creation. We long for death to be banished, for the curse to be removed, for sin to be punished, for justice to be done. Those who have bowed the knee to Jesus long to see Him reigning as king with every knee bowing and every tongue confessing His lordship.

With these thoughts in mind, today we turn to Revelation 5 – tomorrow we’ll get to the “good part,” :) but first we need to consider John’s emotional response and the reason behind it.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside.

Revelation 5:1-4

The Title Deed to the Earth

The first big question we must consider with this passage is “what is this scroll?” Dr. Robert L. Thomas in his commentary on Revelation 1-7 explains-

“This kind of contract was known all over the Middle East in ancient times and was used by the Romans from the time of Nero on. The full contract would be written on the inner pages and sealed with seven seals… The Hebrew document most closely resembling this scroll was a title-deed that was folded and signed.” [pg. 378]

John MacArthur further elaborates:

“The scroll John saw in God’s hand is the title deed to the earth, which He will give to Christ. Unlike other deeds, however, it does not record the descriptive detail of what Christ will inherit, but rather how He will regain His rightful inheritance… It tells how Christ will redeem the world from the usurper, Satan, and those men and demons who have collaborated with him.” [pg. 164]

Weeping and Despair

As John catches a glimpse of this document, the title deed to the earth, the way that the universe would be reclaimed from Satan (as we have been waiting for since Genesis 3!), there is no one who is found worthy to take it.

Do you feel why John is weeping? This title deed represents the right to rule the earth, to render Satan powerless, to bring the creation back to its rightful place in perfect submission to the rule of God. There is no way to explain this more poetically than W.A. Criswell has done.

[John's tears] represent the tears of all God’s people through all the centuries. Those tears of the Apostle John are the tears of Adam and Eve, driven out of the Garden of Eden, as they bowed over the first grave, as they watered the dust of the ground with their tears over the silent, still form of their son, Abel. Those are the tears of the children of Israel in bondage as they cried unto God in their affliction and slavery. They are the tears of God’s elect through the centuries as they cried unto heaven. They are the sobs and tears that have been wrung from the heart and soul of God’s people as they looked on their silent dead, as they stand beside their open graves, as they experience in the trials and sufferings of life, heartaches and disappointments indescribable. Such is the curse that sin has laid upon God’s beautiful creation… “And I wept audibly,” for the failure to find a Redeemer meant that this earth in its curse is consigned forever to death. It meant that death, sin, damnation, and hell should reign forever in the hands of Satan. [3:68-70]

No one in heaven or earth could open the scroll or look inside it. The words are haunting.

But the King is coming! Tomorrow we will rejoice with John as the Only Worthy One appears to take His rightful place. How we long for that day!

To catch up on any of the Revelation posts you may have missed, you can find them all listed here. For more daily encouragement, come join us on the blog page on facebook!  You can also subscribe by email to receive daily posts sent right to your inbox.