Revelation

6.1-17

Christ Himself revealed in His Olivet Discourse (Mt 24:1-25:46) much of what John saw here in chapter six. One by one, the Lamb opens the scroll's seven seals. At the opening of the first four seals, the four living creatures cry "Come" to the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. The white horse (v2) and rider of the first seal will bring a false peace, luring the world into the unified rule of the final Antichrist, who will conquer by cunning and deceit (2 Thes 2:9-11). He carries a bow, yet no arrows, and wears a crown won as a prize (stephanos). Christ wears many royal crowns (diademas) and carries a sword (19:12). The Antichrist and his forces are present and ruling as the agent of Satan from here forward during the seven years of Tribulation. The red horse (vv3-4) of the second seal ends the peace, as the Antichrist now rules with war and worldwide bloodshed (Mt 24:9-10). The black horse of the third seal (vv5-6) brings the famine that will follow the wars of the second seal. Food will be so scarce that a day's wage (one denarius) will barely purchase adequate food (wheat) for one (one quart) or substandard food (barley) for a family of three. The more precious and expensive oil and wine will have to be treasured (Mt 24:7). The pale horse of the fourth seal (vv8-9) brings the disease and chaos that follows the previous disasters and will destroy a fourth of the population of the earth. The events of Mt 24:15, the abomination of desolation, should be seen as occurring at the midpoint of Tribulation, during which time the fifth seal is opened. The fifth seal judgment (vv9-11) is the prayers of the Tribulation martyrs for God to enact vengeance on their Christ-rejecting murderers. The sixth seal (vv12-17) is the one that none are able to deny is by the hand of God. Earthquakes of a magnitude the Earth has never encountered will shake such that mountains and islands will be moved from their places (v14, Mt 24:7). Concluding with the rhetorical question of "Who is able to stand?" (v17) The obvious answer is - none.

CHAPTER 6

The Seven Seals

1 Then I looked when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.”
2 Then I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sits on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out overcoming and to overcome.
3 And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.”
4 And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sits on it, it was given to him to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.
5 And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” Then I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sits on it had a pair of scales in his hand.
6 And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “One choinix of wheat for one denarius, and three choinix of barley for one denarius, and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
7 And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.”
8 Then I looked, and behold, a pale horse; and he who sits on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9 And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the witness which they had maintained;
10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Master, holy and true? Will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”
11 And a white robe was given to each of them; and it was told to them that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.
12 Then I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
14 And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man HID THEMSELVES IN THE CAVES and among the rocks of the mountains;
16 and they SAID TO THE MOUNTAINS AND TO THE ROCKS, “FALL ON US AND HIDE US from the presence 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 is able to stand?”