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The Lamb is worshiped after He is found worthy to takes the scroll and does take it.

Let’s talk about the scroll for a second. Talk about writing a book and putting it on the shelf. This scroll was written before the beginning of time.

How do we know that? We know the Plan of Salvation was written before the foundation of the earth. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1: 3-4 ESV).

If God knew everything then, He knew how it would all end. It is just waiting for the fullness of His time.

Music permeated first-century Jewish culture. We can see this because it is all throughout God’s Word.

• “His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe” (Gen. 4: 21 ESV).
• “Why did you flee secretly and trick me, and did not tell me, so that I might have sent you away with mirth and songs, with tambourine and lyre?” (Gen. 31: 27 ESV).
• “Then Israel sang this song: ‘Spring up, O well! — Sing to it!’” (Num. 21: 17 ESV).
• “Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter” (Jdg. 11: 34 ESV).
• “And joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful field, and in the vineyards no songs are sung, no cheers are raised; no treader treads out wine in the presses; I have put an end to the shouting” (Isa. 16: 10 ESV).
• “Gladness and joy have been taken away from the fruitful land of Moab; I have made the wine cease from the winepresses; no one treads them with shouts of joy; the shouting is not the shout of joy” (Jer. 48: 33 ESV).
• “Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-hareseth. Therefore the riches they gained have perished” (Jer. 48: 36 ESV).
• “For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ezra 2: 40-41 ESV).
• “Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing” (Lk. 15: 25 ESV).

As with everything, music can be a part of our sinful nature.

• “When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, ‘There is a noise of war in the camp.’ But he said, ‘It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.’ And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain” (Ex. 32: 17-19 ESV).
• “They have lyre and harp, tambourine and flute and wine at their feasts, but they do not regard the deeds of the Lord, or see the work of his hands” (Isa. 5: 12 ESV).
• “Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers” (Isa. 14: 11 ESV).
• “And now I have become their song; I am a byword to them” (Job 30: 9 ESV).
• “I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man” (Ecc. 2: 8 ESV).

Songs of victory can also be found in God’s Word.

• “And Miriam sang to them: ‘Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.’” (Ex. 15: 21 ESV).
• “Then sang Deborah and Barak the son of Abinoam on that day: ‘That the leaders took the lead in Israel, that the people offered themselves willingly, bless the Lord!;” (Jdg. 5: 1-2 ESV).
• “And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’” (I Sam. 18: 7 ESV).
• “And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son, and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar” (II Sam. 1: 17-18 ESV).

When we think of a musical instrument in God’s Word, we probably think of the ram’s horn (Shophar). Translators may call it a trumpet.

Whatever it is called in translation, it had an important function. It called Israel to war and announced when danger was present. It announced new moons and sabbaths. It also announced deaths of important nobility and mourns those who have died.

• “Ehud escaped while they delayed, and he passed beyond the idols and escaped to Seirah. When he arrived, he sounded the trumpet in the hill country of Ephraim. Then the people of Israel went down with him from the hill country, and he was their leader. And he said to them, ‘Follow after me, for the Lord has given your enemies the Moabites into your hand.’ So they went down after him and seized the fords of the Jordan against the Moabites and did not allow anyone to pass over” (Jdg. 3: 26-28 ESV).
• “Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel. But the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon, and he sounded the trumpet, and the Abiezrites were called out to follow him” (Jdg. 6: 33-34 ESV).
• “And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. And I said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, ‘The work is great and widely spread, and we are separated on the wall, far from one another. In the place where you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Our God will fight for us.’” (Neh. 4: 18-20 ESV).
• “And let Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet there anoint him king over Israel. Then blow the trumpet and say, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (I Kgs. 1: 34 ESV).
• “There Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the tent and anointed Solomon. Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, ‘Long live King Solomon!’” (I Kgs. 1: 39-40 ESV).
• “And when Jesus came to the ruler’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion” (Mt. 9: 23 ESV).

What we would consider a trumpet was something different. This was more the instrument the priests used. I am a little confused at this point, because it sounds like a trumpet, not a ram’s horn, that is being described. However, the functions seem like that what as assigned to the ram’s horn.

• “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Make two silver trumpets. Of hammered work you shall make them, and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for breaking camp. And when both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the entrance of the tent of meeting. But if they blow only one, then the chiefs, the heads of the tribes of Israel, shall gather themselves to you. When you blow an alarm, the camps that are on the east side shall set out. And when you blow an alarm the second time, the camps that are on the south side shall set out. An alarm is to be blown whenever they are to set out. But when the assembly is to be gathered together, you shall blow a long blast, but you shall not sound an alarm. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall blow the trumpets. The trumpets shall be to you for a perpetual statute throughout your generations. And when you go to war in your land against the adversary who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, that you may be remembered before the Lord your God, and you shall be saved from your enemies. On the day of your gladness also, and at your appointed feasts and at the beginnings of your months, you shall blow the trumpets over your burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings. They shall be a reminder of you before your God: I am the Lord your God” (Num. 10: 1-10 ESV).

We can’t have a discussion of music in God’s Word without talking about the harp.

• “And David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals” (II Sam. 6: 5 ESV).
• “And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day” (I Kgs. 10: 12 ESV).