Revelation 6

     Up to this point, John has witnessed the coronation of the Lamb in heaven (Rev. 4 & 5).  Now he is shown what happens on earth as the Lamb exercises his power to open God’s plan during these last days.  It is all in his hand.  Nothing happens unless he breaks the seals.  When he does, what is written comes with irresistible force.

     6:1-8.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

     Remember, these events cover the entire age between Christ’s first and second coming, concluding with the victory of Christ and the vindication and reward of his faithful church (see 7:17-8:1).  But while we are ever moving toward that conclusion, remember that this is also a vision not just of history, but also of how history works.  For example, it is true that when the first four seals are broken, one horseman follows another as night follows day.  But it is also true that these four horsemen are always abroad in the world.  They are always in evidence here or there at various times and places, doing their appointed work.  It must also be remembered that the warfare we are engaged in gets down to a personal level, as well as engaging nations and cultures.  The warfare in families is just as shattering to the members of it as the larger battle.  Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother…; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household” (Mt. 10:34-36).

     6:1-2.  Though there is, as usual, divided opinion, I have no doubt that the white horse is ridden by Christ.  In 19:11-16, he is clearly identified, and the meaning of these symbols does not change.  His name is called The Word of God, a sharp sword comes from his mouth to smite the nations (cf. 1:16), and his written name is “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”  Here, in 6:2, he carries a bow, wears a crown, and goes out conquering, and to conquer.  See Ps. 45:3-5 (LXX, the Greek OT, reads thus at Ps. 45:4; “And in thy majesty ride, and bend the bow, and prosper and reign.”  Cf. also Ps. 18:34; Is. 41:2-4).

     6:3-4.  The Lamb on the throne breaks the second seal, and the second cherub says, “Come” (cf. 22:17, 20), and the red horse and its rider go forth after the white horse. Discord and war naturally follow the conquering word of God.  The great tribulation has begun (7:14; cf. John 16:33).

     6:5-6.  The black horse and its rider represent the despair of economic disorder and famine, coming naturally on the heels of war.  The daily wages of a working man, a denarius, would go entirely for the usual daily allotment of food, with perhaps a little left for his family if they ate barley, the coarser grain.  The rich would not suffer; indeed they would have an abundance of oil and wine.   Since no one else could afford it, there would be an over supply of luxury goods selling cheaply.

     6:7-8.  Following famine comes Death riding the corpse colored ashen horse, and trailed as always by Hades, the place and condition of the dead.  Eventually of course, death comes to all, but this is a kind of death restricted to a fourth, to the violent or unnatural deaths caused by the previous and continuing disorders of war, famine, pestilence, and even wild beasts.   Wild beasts, both predators and scavengers, take advantage of the weak and the dead.  This no doubt includes the worst of predators, beastly men (cf. Ezek. 14:12-23).

     6:9-11.  We are not to suppose that those who are conquered by Christ and the gospel, and surrender their lives to the rider of the first horse, are spared by the next three.  In fact, judgment begins “with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”  (1 Pet. 4:17).  Many times it is believers who lose their jobs, or go to prison, or even are “slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained” (9).  Like the blood of Able (Gen. 4:10), their blood cries out from the ground to God, from beneath the altar of sacrifice in heaven.  Their souls cry out for justice, and in a little while they shall have it.  All those who have died with Christ can rest in peace, dressed in his righteousness, the white robe washed in his life’s blood.  “In all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us”  (Ro. 8:37; see Ro. 8:35-39).  All who die in the Lord from now on are slain in the flesh by a defeated enemy.  When their number is complete, it will be time for the Lamb to break the sixth seal, and bring his righteous judgment upon all the world, upon all the living and the dead.

     6:12-17.  The breaking of the sixth seal brings to John’s vision a series of symbols for the judgment day.  The symbols’ meanings are all well established in the OT as poetic metaphors the prophets used to describe God’s wrath upon the nations and empires of the ancient world.  Jesus also used this language to describe both the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, and the final judgment that it typified (Mt. 24:29 ff.; cf. e.g., Is. 13:9-13; Jer. 4:23-26; Joel 2:10, 31; Nah. 1:5).  A literal falling of actual stars to earth like unripe figs shaken loose by a great wind we can be sure is not in God’s plan.  But, as noted at 1:20, stars are symbols of authorities (luminaries), especially heavenly, i.e., spiritual ones (cf. Luke 10:18; John 12:31).  As for the wind, the same word is used in both Hebrew and Greek for breath, wind, or spirit, and perhaps wind has a double-edged meaning here.  In any case, these once powerful angelic luminaries are cast down to the ground as easily and finally as unripe figs are shaken from the tree by a great wind.  The point is, all that wicked and ungodly men believe is immoveable, stable, and permanent in their world, whether material, cultural, institutional, or spiritual, will be shaken and thrown down (12-14; cf. Heb. 12:26-29).  Rank, authority, or privilege will be of no value.  All seven classes of men alike will know at once that this is the Lord’s doing, and all efforts to escape the wrath of the Lamb will be as desperate as they are ineffective (15, 16).  Who is able to stand in the day of wrath?  This question is answered in chapter 7.