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voice, "Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof?" No one was
found in the whole universe "in heaven, in earth, or under the earth" who was worthy.
The apostle must have realized the great importance of the scroll which was held in the
hand of Him who sat on the throne, for one of the elders said to him, "Weep not! Behold,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, prevailed to open the book, and shall
loose the seven seals of it". When John looked to the throne once again, in order to see
the prevailing Lion, he beheld, "and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living
ones, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain". The elder says
the LION, but John see a LAMB.
When Jacob gathered his sons together to tell them what should befall them in the last
days, those sons concerning whom most is said, and who include in their forecast
references to either Christ or Antichrist, are Judah, Dan and Joseph; this will be most
readily seen if we just present the outline of Jacob's prophecy as follows:--
Gen. 49: 3-27.
A1 3-7.
| a | Reuben. Water.
b | Simeon. Scattered.
c | Levi. Divided.
B1 8-12. | d | Judah. The LION.
e | THE SCEPTRE. SHILOH.
A2 13-15. | a | Zebulun. Ships.
b | Isaachar. Rest.
B2 16-18. | d | Dan. the Serpent and Adder.
e | SALVATION.
A3 19-21. | a | Gad. Troop.
b | Asher. Bread.
c | Napthali. Hind.
B3 22-26. | d | Joseph. Fruitful bough.
e | THE SHEPHERD. THE STONE.
A4 27
| Benjamin. Wolf.
Judah is the tribe whose latter day prophecy links it with the prevailing Lion, and with
the sceptre, lawgiver and Shiloh. The One who had prevailed to open the scroll was
moreover, "The root of David". This title, taken together with that of Revelation 22: 16,
"I am the root and the offspring of David", is often explained by saying that Christ was
not only the son of David (the offspring), but also as the root whence David sprang. We
rejoice to know that He who was David's son was also David's Lord, but in what special
way David sprang from Christ we fail to see in Scripture; neither is there any need for
such an idea. The "root" of David seems to be an allusion, if not a direct reference back,
to Isaiah 11: 1, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch
shall grow out of his roots"; the stem really means the stump of a tree after it has been cut
down, and the figure exactly fits the apparent destruction of the royal line of David in our
Lord's day. Christ is the branch that grows out of his roots, for, in verse 10, the prophet
continues, "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse. . . . to it shall the Gentiles
seek". If the title, "the root of David", denotes the source from whence David sprang,
and not the same as the offspring of David, then "the root of Jesse" indicates the same.