12.  Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.

Vs. 11, 12.—­Here we have the concurrence of holy angels, as seen by John in vision, with all the redeemed in acts of solemn worship offered directly to the Lamb.—­“Many angels,” how many?  Some divines have actually attempted, by arithmetical rules, to compute the number!  Such employment may amuse, but it cannot edify.  The definite here mentioned for indefinite numbers, may be easily computed; (as in Dan. vii. 10; Ps. lxviii. 17;) but still we would labor in vain “to find out the account;” for we are expressly told that they are “innumerable.” (Heb. xii. 22.) Like the ransomed children of Adam, they are “a great multitude which no man can number.” (ch. vii. 9.) Why then attempt that which the Holy Spirit has pronounced impossible?  “Vain man would be wise.”  It is of much more consequence for us to contemplate their position, relations and employments.  Their position is “round about the throne,” beholding the “Lamb as it had been slain.”  The law of their creation could not reveal to them this object of adoration.  That they may know their duty to the Mediatorial Person as their moral Head, it is requisite that they be directed by a new revelation.  Accordingly, we find a “new commandment” issued from God the Father expressly to them. (Ps. xcvii. 7; Heb. i. 6.) “Worship him, all ye gods;” that is, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”  By the development of the eternal counsels of God in his dealings with the church, these “principalities and powers in heavenly places,” discover with adoring wonder more and more of the “manifold wisdom of God.”  They stoop down, as it were, “to look into this” mysterious economy, (Eph. iii. 10, 11; 1 Pet. i. 12.) They are humbly but intensely desirous to discover still more of “the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto the glory” of their fellow worshippers. (1 Cor. ii. 7.) Such is their position.—­They are related to the Lamb as his subjects by the Father’s grant and command.  “He (Jesus) is gone into heaven ... angels ... being made subject unto him.” (1 Pet. iii. 22.) They are also related to the “elder” and “animals,” the members and ministers of the church.  Said one of them to John,—­“I am thy fellow-servant.” (ch. xix. 10.) Angels are not ashamed to call them “fellow-servants,” whom the Lord Jesus “is not ashamed to call his brethren.” (Heb. ii. 11.) As the “four animals” are nearer the throne than the “elders,” so are the “elders” nearer the throne than the angels.  These are ranged, in John’s view, in the outside segment of the circle.  All the redeemed, ministry and membership, are “nearer of kin” to the Lamb than angels are.  “He took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” (Heb. ii. 16.) All believers are “members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.” (Eph. v. 30.) He has highly advanced human nature, by taking it into real and indissoluble union with his divine person.  This is the special ground of nearness and intimacy between Christ and his brethren.  And O, how ought we to emulate holy angels in adoring this precious Redeemer!  “He loved the church and gave himself for it,” (Eph. v. 25,) and he loved and gave himself for every member of the church. (Gal. ii. 20.)