The World in Jeopardy

Series on Revelation

II The Viewpoint

A Cycle One, The Sovereign, Scroll, and Seven Seals

3 The Seals

Text: 6:1-17

Introduction

Here is an unusual thought to start our considerations from the pen of the legendary sportswriter Grantland Rice, “Outlined against a blue, gray October sky the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below.” Actually these were the four horsemen of Notre Dame and they won every game that season for their coach Knute Rockne ending with the National championship defeat of Stanford in the Rose Bowl. None of the four stood taller than six feet and none of the four weighed more than 162 pounds, and they played both offense and defense, but the Four Horsemen were, perhaps, the greatest backfield ever. As a unit, Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden played 30 games in their college career and only lost to one team, Nebraska. They were legendary, but at least partly because they got their name from the apostle John’s vision in Revelation 6. When the remembrance of these athletes has passed away, the vision of John will still be in view. This image is so memorable that one of the many video games that gamers have invented in the 21st century is a war game called “The Four Horsemen.” As Jesus opens the first four seals the four horsemen emerge, but there are two more seals opened in this chapter so that there are three parts to the vision. Part one is the four horsemen, part two is the martyrs, and part three is the final judgment. Thus we learn about the punishment, the pledge and the panic. One more thing is important before we study this in detail. The book of Revelation is not chronological, that is chapters 7 and 8 do not necessarily occur after chapter 6 and so on. Revelation is a series of visions or paintings or images and within each of those visions we see the picture of this age in which we live from beginning to end. Thus the end, the second coming of Christ and the judgment are shown over and over with each cycle. So let us look now at this cycle and begin with the punishment as displayed in the four horsemen.

I The Punishment

We read about the four horsemen in verses 1-8, 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!” 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. When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword. 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. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!” When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 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 earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. Three of the four riders and their horses are easily identified from the text. The red horse is war “taking peace from the earth.” The black horse is famine, and the pale horse is death and hell. These horses picture God’s judgments until the end of this age. But what about the white horse? This is the most difficult, debated and enigmatic of the four. Who are the white horse and his rider with a crown? In other places Jesus is pictured on a white horse as in Revelation 19:11-14, I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. I think it is not so difficult to identify the person as is is to interpret what it means. Identifying the white horse and rider as Christ and the gospel people often jump to the conclusion that the white horse has a different purpose than the three that follow. They all refer to judgment. I think the white horse does too. In Matthew 24 Jesus speaks of the end times and we read in verses 3-8, As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. And Jesus adds in verse 14, And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. Revelation 6 is reminiscent of Jesus words. His coming with the sword of the gospel is salvation to His people but it is judgment on the world because it must be accompanied by end time signs of judgment and it will separate between the sheep and the goats and prepare the way for the final judgment. This also comports with Zechariah 6 where the prophet has a vision of four chariots drawn by red, black, white, and dappled or pale horses, all of them powerful. The prophet says, I asked the angel who was speaking to me, “What are these, my lord?” The angel answered me, “These are the four spirits of heaven, going out from standing in the presence of the Lord of the whole world. These are God’s messengers of judgment on the enemies of Israel. The white horse in Zechariah’s vision is anomalous because Christ had not yet come, but the idea of judgment is inescapable.

II The Pledge

The saints of God are not immune to all the disasters that characterize the gospel age whether they be wars or famines or earthquakes or plagues. However they are not forgotten, their prayers are heard, and a pledge is given as we read in verses 9-11, 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. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. Many of the believers on earth had died because of their faith. We must remember that in John’s day there was widespread persecution by the Roman empire. The Roman distrust of Christianity came from the Roman view of religion. Religion was first and foremost a social activity that promoted unity and loyalty to the state – a religious attitude the Romans called pietas, or piety. Cicero wrote that if piety in the Roman sense were to disappear, social unity and justice would perish along with it. Severe persecutions occurred under at least 10 different emperors including Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Maximinus the Thracian, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian and Galerius, and Julian the Apostate. In his vision John sees souls, not persons with bodies, because they are waiting for the consummation and the resurrection. George Eldon Ladd pointedly writes, “Every disciple of Jesus is in essence a martyr; and John has in view all believers who have so suffered.” They are slain because of the Word of God and their testimony regarding Jesus and all who old fast to these are in a war against the world system and the “god of this age,” Satan. In fact in the Greek language the word which we translate martyr is the word for witness. These martyrs are under the altar. This should be interpreted as being “at the bottom of God’s throne,” because the “throne” of God in the tabernacle and temple was over the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant in the holiest place between the two cherubim fashioned by Moses. This made the scene in Revelation 4 an exact depiction of the Holy of Holies in Jewish worship. In fact later Rabbis actually taught that a Jew “buried beneath the altar is as if he were buried beneath the throne of glory.” The Jews understood that the ark with the mercy seat was God’s throne which is why they carried it with them in battle. They foolishly thought that they were thereby ensuring God’s presence and power with them. The important thing about this passage is the assurance and the promise given to the martyrs and to every suffering believer throughout history. We are all told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed. Then will come the vengeance of the Lord and the last judgment on His enemies and ours. This is the pledge.

III The Panic

When the sixth seal is opened there is generalized panic because the pledge of the fifth seal is now fulfilled, and we read in verses 12-17, 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, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 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! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Is this not the end? How can anyone not see that the book of Revelation is recapitulating the history of the age between Christ’s first and second coming over and over again. We are constantly brought back to His coming and the last judgment. And the description here sounds exactly like the scene described by Jesus in Matthew 24, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. John devotes the next chapter to the saints, but now he focuses attention on the unbelievers. Note that this judgment is universal and it is also inescapable and unrepeatable. It is universal because it involves all the levels of humanity from top to bottom facing the coming judgment. Having rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, these multitudes are unable to escape the wrath of God and the Lamb. It is inescapable because the upheavals in nature are a picture of terror and dread they are unable to escape. Jesus used similar language when he predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD in Luke 23:30. He said it would be so horrible that the people would call on mountains and hills to cover them. It is unrepeatable because the atmospheric heaven is rolled up like a scroll, as a scroll that has been read is rolled up and put away in a closet. This heaven is replaced by a new heavens and earth. The panic is justified because this is the wrath of the One on the throne and the Lamb, “their wrath.” Wrath is not something people readily associate with Jesus, but here it is. If you make Jesus angry, there is no other refuge.