Revelation chapter 6 will show the breaking of the seven seals.
Revelation 6:1 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the land and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the land to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the land and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to land, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the land, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
For many folks today these images are mysterious and troubling, however, they were taken from familiar Old Testament passages.
See for example the four Horseman of Zechariah 6:1-7, I looked up again, and there before me were four chariots coming out from between two mountains—mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black, 3 the third white, and the fourth dappled—all of them powerful. 4 I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?
“The true interpretation of these first four seals is that which recognizes them as a symbolic representation of the wars, famines, pestilences, and earthquakes which Jesus declared would be the ‘beginning of sorrows ‘ in the desolation of Jerusalem, Matthew 24″ Milton Terry, “Biblical Apocalyptics”
This also mirrors Habakkuk 3 in which God prophesies a military invasion of Judah by the Chaldeans. God often used unbelievers to discipline his chosen people. Habakkuk was shown images of; verse 5, pestilence, verse 6, mountains falling, verse 8, horses, verse 9, a war bow, verse 10, flood, verse 11, sun & moon, verse 12, the apostates trampled under God’s fury.
Revelation 6:1 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Q. Who is this first rider on the white horse with a war bow?
We are given four clues.
- Rider:
Before me was a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True… On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Revelation 19:11-16
- Bow:
You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows… Sun and moon stood still in the heavens at the glint of your flying arrows. Habakkuk 3:9-11
See also Psalm 45:3-5
Where did the rider get the bow?
Remember John had already described the bow in the Throne Room of God. Revelation 4:3
After Noah’s flood God had hung up his war bow promising to never destroy the earth with water again. Genesis 8:20-21, 9:13-17. And Ezekiel had described the bow when he was shown the Throne Room. Ezekiel 1:26-28. Here we are told that Christ has again taken up the bow as he prepares to ride out.
- Crown:
I looked and there before me was one like the Son of Man with a crown of gold… Revelation 14:14, 19:11-13
- Conquered:
The Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed. Revelation 5:5
Who is the crowned, conquering hider with a war bow?
The first rider is none other than Christ riding out to bring judgment!
Revelation 6:3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the land and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
The second rider represents war, just as Christ, in speaking to his disciples, had predicted the imminent destruction of Jerusalem.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Matthew 24:6, Mark 13:7, Luke 21:20
Notice that God does not have to incite men to fight against one another. He simply removes the conditions of peace; take peace from the land. This makes war inevitable.
“The mind of man has been so completely estranged from God’s righteousness that it conceives, desires, and undertakes, only that which is impious, perverted, foul, impure, and infamous. The heart is so steeped in the poison of sin, that it can breathe out nothing but loathsome stench. But if some men occasionally make a show of good, their minds nevertheless ever remain enveloped in hypocrisy and deceitful craft, and their hearts bound by inner depravity.” John Calvin, “Institutes of the Christian Religion”
Revelation 6:5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!
Scales are the symbol for famine from the prophesy in Ezekiel 4:10
God’s judgment on the unfaithful is to curse the productivity of the land causing famine and starvation.
If you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you… Leviticus 18:24-28
The earth is defiled by its people;
they have disobeyed the laws,
violated the statutes
and broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left.
7 The new wine dries up and the vine withers;
all the merrymakers groan.
8 The joyful timbrels are stilled,
the noise of the revelers has stopped,
the joyful harp is silent.
9 No longer do they drink wine with a song;
the beer is bitter to its drinkers. Isaiah 24
Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed… Deuteronomy 28:15-34
Roman historian, Flavius Josephus was an eyewitness to the destruction of the land. He wrote a book chronicling the events; “The Wars of the Jews.” Josephus observed the following: As the famine grew worse, the frenzy of the insurgents kept pace with it, and every day both these horrors burned more fiercely. For, since nowhere was grain to be seen, men would break into houses, and if they found some they mistreated the occupants for having denied their possession of it; if they found none, they tortured them as if they had concealed it more carefully.
See also: Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11
Revelation 6:7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the land to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
Death and the grave are both set loose by the Son of Man, who unlocked them with his key Revelation 1:18.
This, then, is not new information. The first four seals are simply a recounting of the summary of the curses of the Covenant that God had prophesied through Moses, Leviticus 26 & Deuteronomy 28. These are the curses that God had promised to inflict on the people of Israel if they rejected him. In rejecting and crucifying the long awaited Messiah, Israel had called down these curses on themselves.
As prophesied in Ezekiel 14:21, 5:17 For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem my four dreadful judgments—sword and famine and wild beasts and plague—to kill its men and their animals!
Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. Psalm 46:8
See also: Luke 21:11
Revelation 6:9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the land and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
Have you ever wondered, or been tempted to ask, in the midst of tragedy, “Does God see, does God even care?”
As we saw in the opening chapters of Revelation, in the letters to the seven Churches, the First Century readers of this book faced terrible persecution. They were imprisoned and tortured, and their possessions and homes were sometimes confiscated. They were at times denied the ability to work. They were executed.
The breaking of the fifth seal shows us a scene in heaven: the souls of those who have been slain are under the altar. This image is taken from the Old Testament where the priests would sacrifice on the altar and the blood would form a pool under the base. Leviticus 17:11
I don’t think that it would be lost on the First Century readers that their blood was spilled by the very Jewish leaders, the officers of the Old Covenant, that had crucified Christ.
Like the blood of Abel that cried out, having been slain by the older brother, Genesis 4:10, we see those who were killed by the apostate religious leaders, calling out for justice.
As we are instructed in the Psalms, the godly are instructed to pray for God to judge the ungodly.
May the table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
23 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their backs be bent forever.
24 Pour out your wrath on them;
let your fierce anger overtake them.
25 May their place be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents. Psalm 64:22-25
See also: 2 Timothy 4:14
What is God’s response to the question, ‘How long?”
They were again reminded that Christ was reigning and in charge of the world’s events. They were told that they must wait a little while longer until more believers were killed in the persecution of the Church. This means that the persecution was not something that was out of Christ’s control. Christ had intended it for a specific purpose and was letting it continue by design.
Revelation 6:12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to land, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the land, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Do you remember that Christ’s disciples had asked him for a sign regarding his coming in judgment? Christ had told his disciples that earthquakes would be a sign to them that the Old Covenant was about to come to and end; Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8, Luke 21:11
Next, using familiar Old Testament judgment language John is shown that the lights were about to go out for Old Covenant Israel because they had rejected the Messiah. They are about to face the Wrath of the Lamb, riding out in judgment.
In Joseph’s dream: sun, moon, stars bowed down, interpreted to mean authority figures would bow to him. Genesis 37:1-11
The Fall of Babylon is represented as sun, moon, stars going dark. Isaiah 13:10
Egypt’s demise is described in terms as sun, moon and stars being darkened. Ezekiel 32:7-8
Edom’s stars will dissolve and heavens rolled up like a scroll. Isaiah 34:3-4
In the Gospels Christ spoke of Israel as a fig tree. Matthew 21:19, 24:32-34, Luke 21:29-32: The fig tree is Israel and she is about to be shaken. God’s Old Creation, Israel, is to be de-created and the Kingdom is transferred to the Church, the New Creation.
In another parable taken from Isaiah 5:1-7, in an attempt to take over a vineyard, those tending the vineyard had murdered the owner’s son. As a consequence the vineyard will be broken down and destroyed.
But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38″But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ 39″They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. Matthew 21:37
The generation that had rejected the landlord’s son would soon be begging the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”
Earthquakes shake the land and destroy the works of man. Throughout the Scriptures God uses the image of the earthquake to describe his judgmental acts in history. He shakes society and brings down kingdoms.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble;
and the earth will shake from its place
at the wrath of the Lord Almighty,
in the day of his burning anger. Isaiah 13:13
See also: Malachi 4:1, Haggai 2:6, Nahum 1:5
The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. Hebrews 12:27-28
Again, Old Covenant Israel was about to be shaken to the core and a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, the New Covenant Church, was about to be established.
The Mosaic economy, which had been ushered in with such pomp and grandeur amidst the thunders and lightnings of Sinai… was doomed to come to an end amid the most terrific demonstration of justice and wrath of God…The chosen people were to be overwhelmed by the most terrible calamities that ever befell a nation… The old made way for the new. Law was replaced by the Gospel. Moses was superseded by Christ. A new and better covenant… embraced the whole family of man and knew no difference between Jew and Gentile.
The story of the siege and capture of the Holy City is not simply a thrilling historical episode, such as the siege of Troy or the fall of Carthage; it is not merely the closing scene in the annals of an ancient nation – it has supernatural and divine significance; it has a relation to God and the human race and marks the most memorable epoch of time. J. Stuart Russell, “The Parousia”