Revelation 5:5

5. One of the elders The Lamb, as the next verse shows, had not yet been made visible to the seer; but one of the elders exalted representative of the Church within the circle of the sacred twenty-four is in the divine secret. The elder in his throned and crowned state is more knowing than the apostle still in the flesh. There is one, he declares, who in spite of all this silence, not only will prevail, but hath prevailed to open and loose book and seals.

Lion… Judah Judah, that is the tribe, which according to the patriarchal prophecy (Genesis 49:9) was to be a “lion;” and this is the lion of the “lion,” in whom all the lion in the tribe rises into completion. And as lion is a warlike image, so hath prevailed, is military: literally, hath conquered, to break the seals. The battle of revelation is identical with the battle of redemption. The fixedness of the seals consists in the natural impossibility of knowing the far future. The same agony by which the Lamb overcame the moral impossibility of saving the lost sinner, conquers the natural impossibility of revealing the last days to the saved Church. And this serves to help us to understand the depth in John’s weeping; somehow he identified the revelation of the future of the Church with its true redemption, and auspicated that in losing one he might lose both. The mighty Lion proved able to save both, and forthwith John was strong in his strength.

Root of David Not the root from which David sprung; but the root -sprout which germinates from David and culminates in Messiah.