Vs. 2-3.--Proclamation is made by a "strong angel," the Almighty
Monarch's herald to the universe, challenging all creatures to the task
of opening the seals. His "loud voice" reverberates throughout
illimitable space, that all concerned might hear. The challenge is not,
"who is _able_?" but, "who is _worthy_?"--Who is "worthy," by personal
dignity, or distinguished and meritorious services, "to open the book
and to loose the seals thereof?" No response comes from any quarter to
break the solemn silence. The whole creation is mute. "Who hath known
the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?" "O the depth of
the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out!" (Rom. xi. 33, 34.)--"And
no man in heaven," &c. The word "man" is in this place, as in many
others, an imperfect and inadequate supplement. In some places it is
calculated to mislead the "unlearned and unstable," as John x. 28, 29,
(in some copies,) Heb. ii. 9. The former text, as supplemented by the
word "man," contradicts the apostle, Rom. viii. 39. The meaning here is
obviously that no _creature_,--angel or man, was worthy or "able" to
"open the book." To holy angels, devils, and the dead "under the earth,"
the purposes of God are as inscrutable as they are to us, until they are
revealed. (Eph. iii. 10; 1 Pet. i. 12.)


4. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read
the book, neither to look thereon.

V. 4.--John understood by the symbol which he saw, that its contents
were of deep significance. A sanctified curiosity and anxiety, more
powerful than that of the Ethiopian eunuch, (Acts viii. 34,) occupied
his soul. But the book is sealed and there is no visible interpreter!