“I saw.” This is how the following vision is introduced, or, rather, how the previous vision is continued in a deeper way, for the person referred to as “Him who sat on the throne”1 has something in His right hand. The Lord’s right hand reigns. The song of Moses says: “You stretch out Your right hand, and the earth swallows Your enemies.”2 The victors will soon be singing that song of Moses too.3 “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things, the Lord’s right hand is lifted high! I will not die but live.”4 With Him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.5 Asaph laments the destruction of the Temple and the mocking of Israel’s enemies: “Why do you hold back Your hand, Your right hand?”6 According to Jewish tradition, God has been holding His right hand behind His back since the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, and as long as that is the case, things will continue as they are and evil will continue to spread.
In this case God’s right hand is not behind His back! John sees that His hand is holding a scroll, which, curiously, has writing on both the inside and the outside, and is sealed with seven seals. What is the scroll not? It is not the Book of Revelation as such.7 It is not the Book of Life.8 It is not the books that will be opened, on the basis of which judgment will be meted out.9 Nor is it the little book that John has to eat and that tastes like honey in his mouth but turns sour in his stomach.10
Ezekiel also sees a scroll like this, with writing on both the inside and the outside, which he is instructed to eat—that is, he is to identify himself with it, become one with it, so that his mouth will proclaim God’s judgments and counsel.
What then is this scroll? Could it be a ‘testament’ which, in ancient times, was sealed with seven seals, and the legality of which was attested to by seven witnesses?
This is what it appears to be. In that case it is indeed a very special ‘testament’—a ‘redeemer’s deed’, a ‘deed of redemption’. When property changed hands in Israel—if, for example, you had to sell your ancestral land because you were no longer able to pay your debts—two deeds were drawn up. One was left open and the other was sealed. The buyer was handed the latter and this meant that you or your heir had the right to regain the piece of land (represented by the sealed deed) in the Year of Jubilee because ancestral land was not allowed to be transferred into strange hands for ever.11 The sealed deed became the title to the legacy that had changed hands. The redeemer, or ‘goël’, had the right to break the seals and thus to repurchase everything that had changed hands before the Year of Jubilee.12 This redemption procedure is clearly illustrated in Jeremiah 32. The thought behind this is that in Israel people are not allowed to possess land that basically belonged to other families indefinitely. There was to be no permanent ownership of land of other people or accumulation of land. Because that would lead to a society with a small, rich, top layer and a large number of poor, enslaved peasants, with all kinds of social injustices associated with it.
The land is the Lord’s (Leviticus 25:23 ff.) and He gives it to Israel on loan. He rents it out to Israel. He tells Israel: “The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is Mine and you reside in My land as foreigners and strangers.” Of course, it is also true what we hear in some Psalms, like Psalm 24:1 NIV ”The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it”; Psalm 50:12 KJV.13 But He says it specifically of the Promised Land of Israel that this tiny piece of land is His land. Therefore, by the way, basically Israel does not even have the right to trade in ‘land for peace’. They are not the owner. The Lord is the owner of the land. If you rent a house and one day you want to sell it for a good price, in no time the landlord will be at your front-door telling you: “You have not right to sell this place, because you are not the owner! I am!”
God is the rightful owner of planet earth. Yet Earth has fallen into other hands, however. The devil is lord and master. He could offer the kingdoms of this earth to Christ (Matthew 4:8-9) because he had become the new owner. However, the great Redeemer, Jesus Christ, is going to break the seals and buy back the property, and return it to its rightful owner, to the Lord God Himself. The content of the scroll consists the final destination and the outcome of the world, of planet earth, of mankind, of human history, and of Creation and the Universe itself. By breaking the seals of the scroll the process starts to bring everything back to the rightful owner. The breaking of the seals will cause a great lot of things to happen on earth, however!
• A scroll which is written on both sides is called an opistograph. The parallel in Ezekiel 2:8–3:3 shows that the two-sided scroll also points to God’s counsel and the future of the world.
• Looking at the history of our world, there is a visible and an invisible side to it. In the daily news one sees the events in the world happening, but the driving forces behind these events are invisible. The breaking of the seals of this scroll shows us the inside of God’s counsel. What will visibly happen on planet earth, has an invisible cause. Cause and effect.
• The Lord Himself knows precisely how the history of the world will end, for that is contained in the scroll. In the last phase of world-history, finally the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed with all His glory, containing the judgments of the world as well as the coming of the Kingdom. We are looking at the outside of the events. He sees the inside and the reason why.
Bible References:
1. Revelation 4:2 2. Exodus 15:12 NIV 3. Revelation 15:3 4. Psalm 118:15–18 NIV 5. Psalm 16:8 6. Psalm 74:11 NIV 7. Revelation 22:18 8. Revelation 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12 and 15, 21:27 9. Revelation 20:12 10. Revelation 10:2, 8–11, comp. Ezekiel 2:8–3:3 11. These could be girls too, Numbers 27:1–11 12. Leviticus 25 and 27, comp. Ruth 4 13. Psalms 24:1 and 50:12
