<p>5:9 <i>And they sing a new song, saying: Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open the seals of it. For you once were slain, and did purchase for God a people with your blood, people of every tribe, tongue and nation</i>- See on :8 for the significance of this &quot;new song&quot;. Is. 42:9,10 says that we sing the &ldquo;new song&rdquo; now, because we sing / meditate of the &ldquo;new things&rdquo; which will be in the Kingdom. In that day, we will &ldquo;sing a new song&rdquo; (Rev. 5:9; 14:3). And yet this is undoubtedly picking up on the way in which we can <i>now</i> sing the &lsquo;new song&rsquo;, every morning (Ps. 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; 98:1; 144:9; 149:1).</p><p>This presents us with the picture of men and women redeemed from <i>every</i> kindred tribe / clan, tongue <i>glossa- </i>language, people a group of people not necessarily of the same ethnicity and nation <i>ethnos</i>- ethnic group, lit. &lsquo;those of the same customs&rsquo;. And they are found to be redeemed at the time when the book of life is opened, which is at the Lord's return. Which we believe to be imminent. This means that not only redeemed &lsquo;Yugoslavs&rsquo; will stand before the throne in the end; but Macedonians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Bosnians... every ethnic group, with every custom, will have representatives who will have believed the Truth and been saved. This idea is confirmed by considering how 70 bullocks had to be sacrificed at the feast of ingathering (Num. 29), prophetic as it was of the final ingathering of the redeemed. But 70 is the number of all Gentile nations found in Gen. 10. And it is written: &ldquo;When he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel&rdquo; (Dt. 32:8). A total of 70 went down with Jacob into Egypt; and thus 70 seems an appropriate number to connect with the entire Gentile world. And representatives of <i>all</i> of them will be finally ingathered. It seems highly doubtful to me that over the past 2,000 years, the Truth has been taken to every <i>ethnos</i>, tribe, clan, custom and language, especially in Africa and Asia. So it follows that only once <i>we</i> have done it in our generation will this come true. The brethren in those parts especially have work to do yet, it seems to me. And we should all support them as best we can. But these days, one only has to stand on the streets of London, Sydney or New York handing out fliers to reach every nation and tongue. I have a real belief that given the current rate of progress in preaching, the current generation <i>could</i> witness literally world-wide representation by those who understand true Christian doctrine- <i>if</i> we <i>all</i> do our bit. It is very difficult for me to reproduce in writing the kind of picture I have in my mind. But it is a thrilling and all consuming, all-demanding vision.</p><p>We are a purchased people, redeemed, bought out of slavery, by the Lord's sacrifice. A true appreciation of the Lord's work on the cross, a real ability to say that the Son of God loved <i>me</i> and gave Himself for <i>me</i>, will reflect itself in our attitude to materialism. The Lord gave His blood in order to purchase our body and our spirit for himself (1 Cor. 6:19,20; Rev. 5:9 RV). <i>Therefore</i> we must surrender our body and spirit, all that we have, to Him. We are not our own. To hold <i>anything</i> back is to deny the cross; to deny the Lord what He paid so terribly to possess: our lives, our hearts, our bodies.</p><p>The very close association of the Angels with their charges is shown by the Angels identifying themselves with their charges by saying that Christ had &quot;redeemed us&quot; out of every nation, and given them the hope of being king-priests in the future Kingdom (Rev. 5:9,10). Unto the Angels the world to come has not been put in subjection, nor do they belong to specific nations, but because they identify so closely with us they can speak in this way. Rev. 5:9 RVmg. speaks of the Angels in the Heavenly throne room, representing us, praising God that He had purchased men unto Himself &ldquo;and madest them to be AV &ldquo;made us&rdquo; &hellip; a kingdom&hellip; and they AV &ldquo;we&rdquo; shall reign on the earth&rdquo; (Rev. 5:9,10). If the RV is correct, we have a picture here of our Angels thanking God in advance for the salvation which He has prepared for us their charges. It would seem from this that our 'guardian' Angel changes according to what we are trying to achieve for God. Similarly the great Angel of the Exodus appears to have been Moses' personal guardian because Moses and the Angel were working for the same ends.</p>