Devotional -

Who Will Open the Book? ( 18 March )

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There in heaven was a throne with someone sitting on it. . . . Day and night they never stop singing: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come." . . . I saw a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne . . . And I saw a mighty angel, who announced in a loud voice, "Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?" But there was no one in heaven or on earth or in the world below who could open the scroll and look inside it. I cried bitterly . . . Then one of the elders said to me, "Don't cry. Look! The Lion from Judah's tribe, the great descendant of David, has won the victory, and he can break the seven seals and open the scroll." . . . As he did so, the four living creatures and the twenty- four elders fell down before the Lamb. . . . They sang a new song: "You are worthy to take the scroll and to break open its seals. For you were killed, and by your sacrificial death you bought for God people from every tribe, language, nation, and race. You have made them a kingdom of priests to serve our God, and they shall rule on earth."

Revelation 4:2, 8; 5:1-5, 8-10

As I read these verses my heart bursts with hope and thanks to Jesus. My hope is that I myself will one day go to heaven where I will be able to stand and praise God. I am no singer, but I will stand and open my mouth in a song of praise because of what he has done for me.

When John saw the book with its seven seals, he was worried and he cried. What if there was no one to open the book? He knew that if a letter or a book or scroll was sealed, it meant that only one person can open it, because it was not intended for just anyone.

We need not be worried. We already know what John saw afterward. He saw Jesus, the worthy Lamb, sacrificed for our sins, who with his blood bought us and made us a kingdom of priests. John understood that if no one was found to break the seals and open the book, the world would not be cleansed, and the saints would not get to the heavenly city that he saw in his vision. And so he wept inconsolably.

We have hope! We know that the Lamb paid the price for those for whom he died, so that one day we will indeed go to heaven, to that heavenly city where we will be together with those John described: "every creature in heaven, on earth, in the world below, and in the sea-all living beings in the universe-and they were singing: 'To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor, glory and might, forever and ever!'" (Revelation 5:13).

I am waiting for that moment when I can stand in the heavenly city and praise God in his presence. Amen.

- 18 MARCH -