Lion and the Lamb
Our God is a Lion The Lion of Judah
He's roaring with power And fighting our battles And every knee will bow before him
Our God is a Lamb The Lamb that was slain
For the sins of the world His blood breaks the chains
And every knee will bow before the Lion and the Lamb
Every knee will bow before him.
1) First
off...Why on earth are we talking about Lions and Lambs?
The Bible is
full of pictures and images to describe God and Jesus, the Messiah[1].
When we talk about lions and lambs, we aren't talking about them in a literal
sense but as images to show us something of who Jesus is.
2) Where does
the imagery of the Lion and the Lamb come from?
These two
images are found throughout the Bible but they come together in Revelation 5
where one of the elders tells John that the conquering Lion of the tribe of
Judah is worthy to open the scroll[2].
In the next verse (v7), it is 'a Lamb standing as though it had been slain',
who comes and takes the scroll. Everyone then starts to worship the Lamb and
say that He is worthy to take the scroll and open it.
3) Hang on...
I thought you said the Lion of Judah was the one who could open the scroll. Why
does the Lamb take it?
This is the
really good bit! The Lion and the Lamb aren't images for two different people –
they are both images of Jesus.
4) Why
couldn't they just say that then? What does the imagery of the Lion and Lamb
actually mean?
In Jewish
understanding, the Lion of Judah is how the Messiah (Jesus) was thought of. Way
back in Genesis 49, Jacob blesses his sons and compares Judah to a lion. Lions
have royal status in the wild. I think they're called king of beasts and this
is definitely the understanding the Jews had of their Messiah – that he would
come as a conquering King who would lead his people to victory over their
oppressors. The blessing of Jacob over Judah foretells of David's reign and
ultimately the reign of Christ, the Messiah, Jesus.
However, Jesus
did not fit in with this idea. Firstly, as a man, he was a very ordinary
carpenter's son, turned travelling preacher, followed by a motley crew of
fishermen and other disreputable people. Secondly, he died on a cross, mocked
and abused, the most humiliating form of punishment and torture in the Roman
world. He didn't look much like a conquering King.
This is where
the imagery of the Lamb who was slain comes in. Lambs were used as sacrifices
by the Israelites in the Old Testament. The idea was that their sins would be
transferred onto the lamb, the lamb would be sacrificed and they would be
cleansed from their sin (until the next time they sinned and then the process would
have to be repeated).
Jesus is
called the perfect Lamb because it was his humiliating death that meant that we
could be forever free from the effect of sin. He took our sin upon himself and
defeated oppression, death and the devil forever through his death and
subsequent resurrection.
Maybe this
wasn't the victory that the Jews were looking for but it was a greater victory
than they could ever have dreamt of. It wasn't the freedom from their earthly
oppressors they had been expecting but it was (and is) freedom from powers that
could do us much greater harm than men ever could.
5) To
conclude...
So the slain
lamb is also the conquering lion – the seemingly weak, dependent, fragile lamb
that is easily killed is also the fierce, powerful, majestic lion that wins the
victory.
This is why
the Lion of Judah is worthy to open the scroll and why the Lamb takes it – they
are images of one and the same person, Jesus!
This is why we
can both sing about our God being a powerful, roaring lion who fights our
battles and a slain lamb whose blood breaks chains.
Jesus' victory
over sin means that he is the conquering King who has paid the price to set us
free.
