Lion of Judah, Lamb of God

Revelation 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals.
2 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”
3 And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.
4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.
5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.
7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.
8 Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty–four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
14 Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty–four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.
How interesting it is to see that the above passage of Scripture describes our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” in verse five, and as a Lamb right below, in verse six. For what we know of these creatures in nature, they could not be any more opposite from each other.
Why is our Lord Jesus Christ called the Lion of the tribe of Judah? We know that our Lord Jesus was from the tribe of Judah, as His genealogy shows, see Matthew 1:1–17. In this particular genealogy, our Lord Jesus’ lineage is traced starting from Abraham, even though the lineage goes all the way back to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as mentioned in the book of Genesis. we see in this genealogy that the Lord Jesus is a descendant of king David, hence the Lord’s titles, “Son of David,” and, in verse five of the above passage, “root of David.”
In the Old Testament, we have a shadow image of Jesus as the Lion of Judah, when Jacob summoned his twelve sons in order to bless them shortly before his death in the land of Egypt. Notice Jacob’s blessing for his son Judah:
Genesis 49:8 “Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
10 The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes; And to Him shall be the obedience of the people.
Notice how this ancient blessing talks about praise, victory, kingship and obedience to Judah, and how the image of the lion is used to represent him. Praise, victory, kingship and obedience are all given to our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Scriptures, the lion represents different things. Here are some examples:
The lion as symbol of the unjust ruler and wicked men:
Proverbs 28:15 Like a roaring lion and a charging bear Is a wicked ruler over poor people.
Psalms 22:21 Save Me from the lion’s mouth And from the horns of the wild oxen! You have answered Me.
The lion representing Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon:
Jeremiah 4:7 The lion has come up from his thicket, And the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your land desolate. Your cities will be laid waste, Without inhabitant.
The lion as a representation of Satan:
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
The lion also represents a mighty king, a champion or defender of his people, as in the following passages:
The lion as symbol of God, the champion of His people:
Isaiah 31:4 For thus the LORD has spoken to me: “As a lion roars, And a young lion over his prey (When a multitude of shepherds is summoned against him, He will not be afraid of their voice Nor be disturbed by their noise), So the LORD of hosts will come down To fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.
The lion as a symbol of strength, power and authority:
Amos 3:8 A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord GOD has spoken! Who can but prophesy?
As the Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ, in His righteous indignation, will bring judgement to the world at the appointed time:
Proverbs 20:2 The wrath of a king is like the roaring of a lion; Whoever provokes him to anger sins against his own life.
The following passages show the image of the lion as an instrument of judgement:
Jeremiah 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them; A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, Because their transgressions are many; Their backslidings have increased.
Hosea 13:7 “So I will be to them like a lion; Like a leopard by the road I will lurk;
Hosea 13:8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, And there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah, our Lord Jesus Christ, is our champion, the one who triumphed over sin and death. The Lion of the tribe of Judah comes to our defense when we are being attacked by the evil one. The Lion of the tribe of Judah sustains us and gives us His strength so that we may continue in faith on our journey towards our eternal and celestial home. In addition, the Lion of the tribe of Judah will judge in His holy sovereignty and will destroy His enemies in His holy justice.
Jesus as the Lamb of God is a truly extraordinary image. When we think about a lamb, we think about a completely harmless and docile animal, incapable of defending itself.
During His life here on Earth, our Lord Jesus was indeed very meek and docile, enduring the contempt and insults of men, and the ultimate humiliation of the cross in order to suffer the divine punishment for our sins and transgressions. Perhaps one of the best passages of Scripture that describes and explains our Lord’s death on the cross is found in Isaiah 53. The following is the familiar verse that refers to our Savior as a lamb:
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the chosen, perfect sacrifice that God our Father foreordained to be the atonement for the sin of His chosen people. This truth was reflected in the sacrificial laws given by God to the people of Israel, starting with the Passover lamb:
Exodus 12:5 `Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
The lamb in the sacrificial laws, which, along with the Passover lamb, was meant to point forward to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ:
Leviticus 1:3 `If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish; he shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the LORD.
Leviticus 1:10 `If his offering is of the flocks––of the sheep or of the goats––as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish.
We can be confident in the fact that, as a Jew and a Nazarite, John the baptist was very familiar with the sacrificial laws and understood their purpose. For this reason, he immediately and correctly identified our Lord Jesus as soon as he saw Him:
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
John 1:36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
The apostle Peter draws a clear parallel between the lamb used in the ancient sacrificial laws and our Lord Jesus Christ:
1Peter 1:18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers,
19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you
The last book of the Bible makes an explicit statement about the blood of the Lamb of God:
Revelation 7:13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
14 And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
So far, we have seen how the perfect Lamb of God became the willing sacrifice for the cleansing of our sins, and thus our justification before the Father. But now that the Lamb of God has completed His work of redemption by His death and victorious resurrection, He is no longer the meek and docile person He was when He walked the Earth. Now, the images of Lion and Lamb merge into one. To put it in a better way, the Lamb acquires the attributes of the Lion. See it in the book of Revelation:
Revelation 6:12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains,
16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 “For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Verses sixteen and seventeen of the passage above talk about the wrath of the Lamb. I ask you now, have you ever seen a wrathful lamb? The answer to this is definitely no, it is more appropriate to think of a wrathful lion, and this is who the Lord Jesus is.
The Lord Jesus Himself will be a witness to the destruction of the reprobate:
Revelation 14:9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand,
10 “he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
The Lamb of God, identified in the verse below as the Lord Jesus Christ, wages war against His enemies and prevails over them. Again, have you ever thought about a lamb waging war? Hardly:
Revelation 17:14 “These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
If you go back to the verses about the lion as a representation of our Lord Jesus, you will be able to harmonize what the Bible says about Jesus the Lion and Jesus the Lamb.
As both Lion and Lamb, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ holds the scepter of rule and kingship. He is invincible and has vanquished all His enemies. He is the one who shall judge the whole Earth in His righteous indignation, and His enemies will experience His wrath. He is the one who receives, and shall receive for all eternity, all worship and praise. Lion of Judah, Lamb of God, may all Your holy angels and all Your saints sing to You and praise You forever and ever, Amen.

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Re: Lion of Judah, Lamb of God

Posted by:
Connie Grace

You are so good.
Wish you were able to come to the Bible conference of the blind in Nashville.
I am sure we could arrange for you to give a devotion.

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Re: Lion of Judah, Lamb of God

Posted by:
Ras lucky

the people of jamaica in 1930 were had nothing and were going no where.Haile Selassie was a symbol to them that the black man could be strong.if is that true,why the South African church hate the jamaican’s belief?

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Re: Lion of Judah, Lamb of God

Posted by:
Zoraida Morrison

Hello Ras,
I am sorry I am not able to answser your question. What you are asking sounds really interesting, but I have no knowledge of this history.
Zoraida

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