Study inRevelation

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The Six SealsChap 6v1-17

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The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen [6v1-8]The seals found in Chap 6 symbolise times of trouble and persecution. Each seal releases its own symbolism. The symbolism of the first four seals introduce in turn, four horses and their riders [Zech. 1:8 ff., 6:1 ff. ].

In scripture the horse is generally associated with strength, terror, warfare and conquest [ Isa. 30:16, 31:1; Job 39:22-28 ]. A similar association of ideas is found in Revelation [9:7, 14:20, 19:11].

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The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen [6v1-8]Each of the four living creatures introduces a rider and commissions him to ride out, ‘Come’. The rider on the white horse is regarded by many to be Christ who is the supreme conqueror in Revelation. White is associated with that which is holy cf. white... garments, cloud, throne and stone. This rider receives a crown which fits with immediate context cf. 14:14. In Rev. 19:11 the rider on a white horse is clearly identified as Christ.

Psalm 45 [a Messianic Psalm] describes the conquering Messiah equipped with a bow as here. His presence here is seen to be the first victorious outworking of a victory already won.

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The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen [6v1-8] The second horse is bright/blood red. This horse and rider are seen to symbolise war- ‘he takes peace from the earth’.

The sword in the riders hand is a ‘machaira’, the name given to the Roman short sword. Have we ever thought that the judgements of God can be found in the wars of men; sinful men destroying sinful men.

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The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen [6v1-8]The third rider on a black horse bears a balance in his hand [Ezek. 4:10]. When grain for bread is weighed this most staple of foods will cost a considerable amount. A days wages [a denarius] would buy enough food for one person for a day. Even an inferior grain, costing a third of the price, would be insufficient to support a whole family once heating, lighting, clothing, etc. were calculated. Hence famine prices!

N.B. oil and the wine, the luxury items, are in abundance. The rich are unaffected while the poor have hardly enough to survive reflecting the injustice often associated with famine. The affluent in the nation are generally the last to suffer [cf. 1Kings 18 Ahab searches for water for the royal horses while the nation languished for lack of it!]

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The First Four Seals: The Four Horsemen [6v1-8]When the fourth seal is broken the fourth living creature calls out the pale horse. Its sickly colour is symbolical of disease and death. The rider is named Death. And trotting behind death is Hades, the abode of the dead, clamouring for more death and more dead. Note that death and Hades cannot do as they please, they are not allowed to go beyond divine permission. Authority was given them and boundaries were set for their devastation, a fourth part of the earth and no more.

The remit to Death seems to be rooted in Ezek. 14:21 for the four specific ways in which they kill are based on ‘the four sore acts of judgement'- the sword, famine, evil beasts and pestilence

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The Fifth Seal: Cry Of The Martyrs [6:9-11]The fifth seal focuses upon those martyr saints who have suffered in the midst of such convulsions. They cry from underneath the alter. Their lives have been sacrificed as they have remained faithful to Christ and his cause [2 Tim. 4:6 ].

They are conscious, they know what is going on in the earth, and are able to make a pure and unvindictive prayer for vengeance upon their destroyers.

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The Fifth Seal: Cry Of The Martyrs [6:9-11]

Some are puzzled that this prayer seems so different from that offered by Stephen in Acts 7:60.

But the martyrs’ concern is not for personal revenge, rather it reflects the idea of divine vindication. This passion for the divine reputation is a theme that runs throughout the whole of the OT. cf. Ps. 79:10].

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Each martyr is given a white robe signifying they had been purified through the blood of Christ [7:13, 22:14] to whom they had been faithful witnesses.

That they are told to rest a little while for their numbers are not yet complete infers that there will be martyrs to the end of the age, this has proved to be the case. N.B. the timing of the final judgement of God is not an arbitrary thing. It has been planned and fixed by God!

The Fifth Seal: Cry Of The Martyrs [6:9-11]

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The Sixth Seal: The Great Earthquake [6:12-17]The sixth seal introduces judgement day and reveals a universe in turmoil, a catastrophe associated with the end of the age.

The terror and consternation produced by this ‘Day’ is reflected in both the symbolism of the crashing universe and by a terrified human race - the world in general rather than believers.

The sixth seal affects six objects of creation and is distributed among six classes of men.

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The Sixth Seal: The Great Earthquake [6:12-17]The earthquake was a regular feature of divine visitation cf. Sinai Ex. 19:18 but also Isa. 2:19. Other references to the upheaval of creation include Joel 2:30-31, Acts 2:19-20, Matt.24:29 also Isa. 54:10, 2Pet. 3:7, 10, 12. So terrifying is the last day that men will be driven to the mountains to plead for death rather than face the wrath of the Lamb. [Isa. 13:7-8; Mal. 3:2].

“What sinners dread most is not death, but the revealed presence of God”. H. B. Swete. .

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The Sixth Seal: The Great Earthquake [6:12-17]Those who might normally feel secure, buckle under God’s revelation of himself; kings, great men, generals, rich and strong. The inclusion of slaves and free is added to stress the completeness of the human consternation as they discover that for them there is no hiding place!

Some have objected that ‘wrath’ is inappropriately associated with the slain Lamb. But in the Scripture God’s wrath is the settled response of God’s holiness to persistent and impenitent wickedness.

Meekness when righteously aroused is terrible!