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powers of the heavens which are to be shaken, the power of the enemy which was used
for the hurt of human kind. There shall yet be manifested "power and signs and lying
wonders" in the earth, when the dragon gives to the beast "his power, and his throne, and
his great authority" (II Thess. 2: 9; Rev. 13: 2). This last reference supplies the parallel
with our subject; just as God will give to the Lamb "power", and He is acclaimed as
worthy to receive it, so the dragon at the last feels that in the beast he has one who is
worthy to receives this power is "as it had been slain", so of the beast it is written in
Rev. 13: 3, 4:--
"And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded (same word `slain') unto death, and
his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast, and they
worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast,
saying, who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?"
The parallel between these two passages is very marked and needs further comment. The
power given to the Lamb has special reference to His kingdom, and in 11: 17 we catch
an echo of the new song, when the Lord God almighty took to Himself His great power
and reigned.
The same age-time lesson which we learn from seeing a Lamb, as it had been slain, in
the place where we might have expected a Lion, is here. In all heaven and earth none is
so worthy to receive power as the Lamb, and that Lamb the One who was dumb before
His accusers and was crucified through weakness.
RICHES.--What we have said of power may also be said of riches; the Lord was rich,
yet for our sakes became poor; He is worthy therefore to receive riches. When we try to
think of the "riches in glory", or the unsearchable riches of Christ", we cannot find words
to express even our puny conceptions, but we glory in the fact that He who sits upon
heaven's throne and rules this poor cursed earth in righteousness and peace, is worthy to
receive the coveted power and riches which no one yet has possessed without failing
somewhere in his stewardship. The gold that the Lord counseled Laodicea to buy, was
"gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich"; such is the character of all the riches that
He will receive.
So we may consider all the rest. The wisdom that is first pure, then peaceable, is His;
the strength that is His will never be used but in the cause of righteousness. Honour and
glory constituted His crown "for the suffering of death" (Heb. 2: 9), and His priesthood's
consecration on the mount of transfiguration (II Pet. 1: 17). Glory and honour also
pertained to Him as the Son of man beneath whose feet shall be subjected all things.
Finally comes BLESSING.--As we listen to this acclamation, our minds are impelled
backward into the history of the past. We think of those who have received from God
glory and honour, riches and wisdom, power and blessing. Among those that stand out in
this connection are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Solomon, Nebuchadnezzar--yet, wide as the
difference between these individuals may be, and worthy as some are of our imitation, all
were creatures, and all were fallen, none were "worthy to receive" the blessings that had
been bestowed. How different it is with the Lamb of God! God blessed Adam, but how