Revelation 6:1-17--The Seven Seals

Revelation 6
English Standard Version

The Seven Seals
6 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.

3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”

7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by 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 for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

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We  will now see why that discussion about the seals and the scroll was so important in the last chapter.  The time has come for God's wrath which has been held back by the dam of his grace and mercy to be poured out like a flood on the wicked, yet, we know that God will not let the righteous be caught up in the judgment of the wicked.  Keep that in mind as the righteous have nothing to fear from these coming judgments and the wicked can avoid these judgments by repenting and accepting the free gift of salvation offered by the Lord Jesus Christ who died in your place--our Passover Lamb who was slain to redeem and ransom a people from every tribe tongue and nation.  It doesn't just stop there though, you must also surrender control of your life to God, and He will send the Holy Spirit to live inside of you, to seal you to be deleivered unto Jesus Christ on the day of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that we are going to read about, and to seal you for your protection against the coming day of wrath that we're going to start reading about today--both this great salvation and the great judgment are called The Day of the LORD in the Old Testament.  God calls His people to once again be made in His image, to be obedient to everything He has commanded us and to be His ambassadors of His Kingdom as we go forth into all the world to make disciples of all nations--it's not just about "fire insurance" for yourself, it's about responding to how much God loved you and you wanting others to know the love of God as well.

Listen closely to all the invitations to "Come" in the book of Revelation.  Here, when Jesus opens the first seal the four creatures call for the rider on the white horse to "Come"--this is the first of the Four Horsement of the Apocolypse.  Do not confuse this rider with the coming of Jesus at the end fo teh book of Revelation.  This is the one we will call Antichrist.  He is both a counterfeit Christ and against Christ.  He is armed with a bow and is a mighty hunter of men, like Nimrod from Genesis 10:8-9.  Yes, Nimrod, the father of many wicked nations, but specifically the father of Babel which becomes Babylon, located in the plains of Shinar (see Genesis 10:10).  The wicked kingdom of Antichrist is going to be called Babylon--few people realize the callback to Genesis 10 and 11 and the association that Antichrist is making with the rebellious people there who disobeyed God and thought they could become wise enough, strong enough, and numerous enough to oppose God.  The LORD said of them, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them."  This is why the LORD confused them so that they all spoke different languages and divided them and scattered them.  The Antichrist is going to try to remake this rebellious kingdom, but with all the peoples of the world, once again.

The second seal is opened and as the cratures again call for something to "Come," we see the rider on the red horse which symbolizes war.  Peace as taken from the earth and nation will rise against nation so that a graet many people will die in these various wars and conflicts.  God did not have to cause people to go to war with each other, He just simply allowed their evil hearts to lash out at one another without restraining them.  We see in Romans 1 that God allowing man to get what he desires is indeed a form of judment that God uses.

The third seal is opened and we again hear the four creatues say, "Come."  This third rider is riding on a black horse and is famine personified.  There will be great economic distress as there will be great shortages of food for the common people, yet the oil and wine of the rich and powerful will not be affected.  The ppor will have to work all day just to buy wheat or barley grain (not barley flour) and they will still have to make their own flour and bake their own bread because it will be too expensive to buy either flour or bread.

When the fourth seal was opened, the four living creatures again called for something to "Come."  This time is was a rider on a pale horse (the exact color of the pale horse is a little iffy, but it's not a pretty picture as we'll see who is riding on it).  On this horse rides Death and Hades who comes after the souls of all those who did not belong to God and died at the hands of Antichrist as he rose to power, the various wars that broke out, and the great famine that spread across the entire world, and the wild beasts that were allowed to go after men, for God would no longer hold them back.

There is another group of people though that we see here as the fifth seal is opened.  There are a group of martyrs who were slain for the Word of God and the witness they had borne (the word "martyr" means "witness").  They cry out to Jesus, the Lamb, who is seated on the throne, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"  They long for the day when Jesus will avenge their deaths and destroy the wicked and establish His eternal Kingdom and heaven and earth will be one. They will be given white robes that were promised to the Seven Churches in Revelation 3:4-5 and Revelation 3:18 and they were told to rest for a while longer until their number was complete, for there were still more martyrs who would give their lives for the Word of God and their testimony during this time of judgment that we call the Tribulation.  Note, this is not in conflict with what I said earleri about God's people not experiencing the wrath that was stored up for the wicked because by the world killing them, they are immediately at peace and rest with Jesus and "Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  We dont' know exactly what this number of martyrs will be, but God does, and He will not bring final judgment on the earth until all of them have been gathered unto Him.

When the sixth seal is opened, great signs were given in heaven and earth that are things that the world has been looking for.  Wars and rumors of wars are pretty commonplace and don't make us think about the end of the world anymore--at least, not since World War I and World War II.  There will be a great earthquake, but this again may be something that people may be able to ignore because earthquakes, even large and violent earthquakes are somewhat natural events.  The sky will be darkened and the moon will be turned to blood (possibly describing a lunar eclipse, but definitely pointing to the fulfillment of the prophecy in the book of Joel that talks about the moon being turned to blood when the Day of the LORD comes).  The combination of the eathquake and the darkness reminds me of the darkness that happened when Jesus died on the cross.   It is the last sign though people will not be able to ignore as there will be a great number of stellar objects that will fall from the sky like when a fig tree is shaken by a strong wind--these could be meteors but could also be the various sattelites we have put up in orbit.  Imagine the chaos it would create if we no longer had satelite communication, GPS, or survellience.  So much of the technology that we depend on would be totally useless.  It is at this point that the world goes into a panic and people start to hide in caves and pray for the mountains to fall on them and save them from what is to come, because the combination of all these things in such proximity lets them know that this is the beginning of the end.  They correctly identify this as the Wrath of the Lamb who sits on the throne, but they still imagine that death will save them from the coming wrath.  Death will not protect them from the ultimate wrath of God that was prepared for the devil and his angels in what we call The Lake of Fire.