- Revelation Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 is an explanation of when Jesus ascends to heaven after His resurrection in 31AD
To tackle the Rev 5:9-10 you must read what is happening in the previous verses that when there was a time to open that scroll, seal or book, none was able or worthy and then Jesus appears as the lamb who had been slain, slain from where? Right from Calvary and His wounds can be said still fresh. Because His blood was the only blood which is worthy for redemption, so it was He alone who could give, exact, accurate delineation of events and history of humanity revealed in the other chapters of Revelation the culmination of events.
- Re 1:6. And hath–rather as Greek, “And (He) hath.”
Made us kings–The oldest manuscripts read, “a kingdom.” One oldest manuscript reads the dative, “for us.” Another reads “us,” accusative: so Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, and ANDREAS. This seems preferable, “He made us (to be) a kingdom.” So Ex 19:6, “a kingdom of priests”; 1Pe 2:9, “a royal priesthood.” The saints shall constitute peculiarly a kingdom of God, and shall themselves be kings (Re 5:10). They shall share His King-Priest throne in the millennial kingdom. The emphasis thus falls more on the kingdom than on priests: whereas in English Version reading it is equally distributed between both. This book lays prominent stress on the saints’ kingdom. They are kings because they are priests: the priesthood is the continuous ground and legitimization of their kingship; they are kings in relation to man, priests in relation to God, serving Him day and night in His temple (Re 7:15; 5:10). The priest-kings shall rule, not in an external mechanical manner, but simply in virtue of what they are, by the power of attraction and conviction overcoming the heart.
Priests–who have pre-eminently the privilege of near access to the king. David’s sons were priests (Hebrew), 2Sa 8:18. The distinction of priests and people, nearer and more remote from God, shall cease; all shall have nearest access to Him. All persons and things shall be holy to the Lord.
God and his Father–There is but one article to both in the Greek, therefore it means, “Unto Him who is at once God and His Father.”
Glory and dominion–Greek, “the glory and the might.” The fuller threefold doxology occurs, Re 4:9,11; fourfold, Re 5:13; Jude 1:25; sevenfold, Re 7:12; 1Ch 29:11. Doxology occupies the prominent place above, which prayer does below. If we thought of God’s glory first (as in the Lord’s Prayer), and gave the secondary place to our needs, we should please God and gain our petitions better than we do.
For ever and ever–Greek, “unto the ages.”
In a nutshell that that reign starts in the period of Millennium but culminates in the fulfillment of the Lords prayer “M’t:6:10: Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” and a direct fulfillment of the beatitude “M’t:5:5: Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” When the old earth and the heavens are done away with then God creates everything anew never to pass away again.
- Rev 20:4
Re 20:4, 5. they sat–the twelve apostles, and the saints in general.
Judgment was given unto there- The office of judging was given to them. Though in one sense having to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, yet in another sense they “do not come into judgment (Greek), but have already passed from death unto life.” What is this judgment all about that they are given:
1Co:6:2: Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
1Co:6:3: Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
This is not actual sense passing condemnation but reviewing of the book of life why the people that are expected to be in heaven are missing and how the angels rebelled and were cast out in the war of Rev 12:7-10
Souls–This term is made a plea for denying the literality of the first resurrection, as if the resurrection were the spiritual one of the souls of believers in this life; the life and reign being that of the soul raised in this life from the death of sin by vivifying faith. And they lived” implies their coming to life in the body again, so as to be visible, as the phrase, Re 20:5, “this is the first resurrection,” proves; for as surely as “the rest of the dead (wicked) lived not (again) coz the wicked dead did not resurrect at His second coming and the wicked living were destroyed by the brightness of His second coming 2Thes 2:8 until,” &c., refers to the second resurrection (after the millennium), so must the first resurrection refer (resurrection of the saints). This also accords with 1Co 15:23, “They that are Christ’s at His coming.”
Beheaded–literally, “smitten with an axe”; a Roman punishment, though crucifixion, casting to beasts, and burning, were the more common modes of execution. The guillotine in revolutionary France was a revival of the mode of capital punishment of pagan imperial Rome. Paul was beheaded, and no doubt shall share the first resurrection, in accordance with his prayer that he “might attain unto the resurrection from out of the rest of the dead. The above facts may account for the specification of this particular kind of punishment. Those who had died under dark ages persecution and the very last ones at the end when they withstood the beast and his counterfeit worship.
And which–Greek, “and the which.” And prominent among this class (the beheaded), such as did not worship the beast. So Re 1:7, Greek, “and the which,” or “and such as,” particularizes prominently among the general class those that follow in the description. The extent of the first resurrection is not spoken of here. In 1Co 15:23, 51; 1Th 4:14 we find that all “in Christ” shall share in it. John himself was not “beheaded,” yet who doubts but that he shall share in the first resurrection? The martyrs are put first, because most like Jesus in their sufferings and death, therefore nearest Him in their life and reign; for Christ indirectly affirms there are relative degrees and places of honor in His kingdom, the highest being for those who drink his cup of suffering. Next shall be those who have not bowed to the world power, but have looked to the things unseen and eternal.
Reigned with Christ—Starts in heaven with a Sabbatical Millennium then continues over the earth after the millennium when Satan, his angels and the wicked are finally resurrected and destroyed forever Nahum 1:9
