Revelation 6 : Opening the Seals
Revelation 6 : Opening the Seals
v1-6: The Four Horsemen
The Four Horsemen in Revelation 6 are often interpreted as symbolic representations of four disastrous occurrences that will take place before the second coming of Jesus Christ. The horses' riders are not real people, but rather metaphors for the forces of war, famine, death, and judgment that will afflict humanity. However, some scholars tried to assign someone, either devils or angels to them. Nevertheless, the purpose of the seals are part of the God's judgement on earth, regardless of the instruments He used to bring them.
When the Lamb open the first seal, one of the cherubim said "Come!", and a white horse with a rider with a bow came out. A crown was given to him, and he came out to conquer. (v1-2)
Jesus will also ride a white horse when he comes, but this rider is not Him. This rider carries a bow and has one crown; while Jesus has a sword and multiple crowns. (Rev 19:11-16). Some even said that the person riding the white horse is the anti-Christ himself, who came with fake peace and riding a white horse to imitate what Jesus will do. But the angel named him correctly, that his purpose is to conquer the world.
Note "conquest" does not necessary means violence and war. The rider has a bow, which means he has power (weapons), but he did not have arrows. meaning he did not use his weapons. His crown makes him a world leader at that time. He will deceive people that his purpose is to bring peace, as 1 Thessalonians 5:3, which says, “While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
In fact, Daniel prophesied the time the anti-Christ will go to war against Israel - "This king (anti-Christ) will make a seven-year treaty with the people, but after half that time, he will break his pledge and stop the Jews from all their sacrifices and their offerings; then, as a climax to all his terrible deeds, the Enemy shall utterly defile the sanctuary of God" (Daniel 9:27)
When the second seal was opened, a fiery red horse went out, and its rider with a sword will take peace from the earth, and people will kill one another. (v4)
The fake peace from the white horse will change to war in the middle of the tribulation.
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| 1887 painting by Viktor Vasnetsov |
These happens because of evil sinful nature of man, and influence from the devil. We can call these "birth pangs", as explained by Jesus in Matt 24:8 - "And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are but the beginning of the birth pains."
However, once tribulation starts, the wars will get more frequent and more intense, as a result of the "conquering" spirit of the anti-Christ.
When the third seal was opened, a black horse came out and the rider had a pair of scales in his hand. John heard a voice among the cherubim said: "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (v6)
The purpose of this vision is to accelerate the existing famine and inflation to the world, for they were already occurring as a "birth pangs" as Jesus said in Matt 24:7-8. The scales are used to measure and ration the food. The denarius was the standard Roman silver coin, which evolved into dinar, which are still being used by some of the middle east countries. According to scholars, the price mentioned of the food were 12 times higher then normal. A day of work will buy only a loaf of bread based on the price of the ingredient of wheat and barley.
The "oil and wine" represents expensive things for the rich people. There seems to indicate a greater economic divide (or income inequality) between the rich the poor. For example, in Singapore, the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) own a car had once increased to over S$144k, yet the rich can still buy a car. According to statistics, The poorest half of the global population owns just 2% of the global total, while the richest 10% own 76% of all wealth. Whatever you see now, worse will happen during the tribulation.
When the fourth seal was opened, a pale horse came out, with a person named Death on it. A fourth of the earth was given to him to kill with sword, hunger, death and wild beasts. (v7-8)
The sword represent the wars, and hunger represent starvation or malnutrition when major wars happen. This could be the outcome of all the disasters brought in from the first 3 horses, and also God's judgement on the antichrist's army. That can explain why one quarter of 8 billion people died.
According to the United Nations, more than 250 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2022, meaning they did not have enough food to meet their basic needs. Some of the main causes of hunger and starvation are conflict, climate change, famine, economic shocks, and soaring food prices.
Diseases such as AIDS and COVID-19 also caused a lot of death. As of 4 Jan 2024, there have been more than 1.2 billion confirmed cases and 26.4 million deaths due to COVID-19 globally. These are the "birth pangs" of something worse to come.
Note that there are additional people being killed in the sixth trumpet in Chapter 9:18 - "By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths." I believe the people who died increases from one-quarter to three-third during the final war at Armageddon in the 7th year.
Note: the word translatede "pale" is "chlorophyll" and can also mean ashen-green and can be used describe the decomposition of dead body. (John McArthur.)
Some leaders or teachers took this as "green" to describe the flag colors of the Arabic nations - white, red, black, and green. They believe the Arabic nations are involved or are creating the curse of the four horses.
However, the context of the 4 horses are in global scale and a fourth of humans will die, and cannot be related to the Arabic nations alone, as they do not have the cability to destroy the earth themselves.
v9-17: Martyrs and Cosmic Disturbances
When the lamb opened the fifth seal, John saw under the altar the souls of those who were slain for their faith in God. They cried out to God how long will it take for Him to judge and avenge their death. They were given a white robe, and told to wait a while longer until the number of the believers that will be killed is complete. (v9-11) These death of these believers will continue until the Lord comes again at the end of the tribulation.
The words "under the altar" reminds us that the blood of sacrifice to God is also poured under the altar, as in Leviticus 4:7: "And he shall pour the remaining blood at the base of the altar of the burnt offering."
It is amazing that God had predetermine the number of martyrs who will suffer and die for His name, and He will not execute His wrath until that number is reached. We must remember that He is sovereign over our lives, and he has control over who will be killed and who will be kept alive. No matter what happens to us, we know that God has a bigger plan and that everything he does is for the good of those who love him.
When the sixth seal was opened, a strong earthquake occurred, and the sun turned black, and the moon became red as blood. The stars from the sky fell to the earth like a "fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place." (v12-14)
The image given for the sixth seal seems like a nuclear war - similar to what happened in the first till fifth Trumpets in Chapter 8 and 9. The missiles falling down may look like a "star" for John. When the earth explode, the dust will rise up beyond the clouds and circle around the earth, blocking the sun light. The moon, if it still can be seen, will appear red or orange due to the dust in the atmosphere. The earthquake and the sky "vanished like a scroll" is also the effect of nuclear explosion, as the earth will shake and the force of the wind it creates will push away the clouds. The explosions will also destroy (or "move") the mountains and islands.
The fig tree normally represents Israel, such as in Jeremiah 8:13, Hosea 9:10, and Luke 13:6-9. The unripe or winter figs that fall from the tree could indicate the judgment and dispersion of Israel for their unfaithfulness and rejection of the Messiah. Or the winter fruit could also represent the false or apostate Christians who will fall away from the faith when persecution and tribulation come. However, if the event is a nuclear war. then real figs would drop from the tree from the shock as well.
At that time, the people will recognized the it was God that is pouring his wrath on them. They kings, the generals, the rich and poor will hide themselves in caves among the rocks. They "hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (v15-17)
These people actions to save themselves are also consistent with a nuclear attack. The nation leaders and military generals, will hide themselves underground nuclear bunkers or in literal caves in the wilderness.
Of course, we don't rule out that God can also create such disasters using His own power. The sixth seal is a summary of the disasters that will come during the Great Tribulation. It is like the first skin of the onion which give you a high level information, and the details will be revealed as we go deeper into the onion in the next chapters.
Important Note:
It is important for us to understand the sequence of all these Seals, Trumpets and Bowls. They are not happening sequentially. In other words, Revelation looks like an onion, where the Seals is the first layer as a summary of the tribulation, the trumpet is the second layer of details, and the bowl is further details. They all happen in parallel.
Ethelbert W. Bullinger said that the first six seals are a “Summary of the judgments distributed over the whole book; a brief summary of what will occur in ‘the day of the Lord,’ up the time of His actual Apocalypse or Unveiling in chapter 19.” (Bullinger)
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