Word of Salvation – Vol. 45 No.29 – August 2000

Opening the Seven Seals

Sermon by Rev L Douma on Revelation 6

Scripture Reading: Revelation 6

Suggested Hymns: BoW 517; 520; Rejoysing 402; 296

Beloved in the Lord.

If you are an avid reader or movie goer you may have noticed the pattern in how the story starts.  Usually there is a setting of the scene and the introduction of the main characters.  And then there is some dramatic action, some tension that grabs us and makes us want to read further.  That, in a sense, is what is happening in chapters 4-6 here in Revelation.  Chapter 4 outlined the characters in this second vision of John.

We saw God on His throne, signifying that he is Master and Director of everything, awesome and all powerful.  We saw the four living creatures representing the creation, the 24 elders representing the church, all of whom are constantly worshipping God.

In chapter 5 we saw the tension build as all the world was searched for someone worthy to open the scroll, the scroll that represented the will of God.  John wept when no one was found worthy.  Till he was told to look and behold the Lion of Judah, and saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain.  He saw Jesus take the scroll, signifying that Jesus the human being, Jesus who died in our place, He is Lord of all creation.  With the scroll He directs all of history and all of creation.

And now in chapter 6 the tension builds, the action begins.  And what astonishing action as Jesus, the Lamb, opened the seals.  We notice that as the seals are opened we don't see John reading the scroll (book) or hear someone else reading it.  He sees the scroll's contents as a series of visions.  What John sees is human history, but from the perspective of heaven, from the perspective of the Lamb, from the perspective of the cross.

As Christ opens the seals the first four reveal four horses and their riders.  These four horses form a unity.  We see with each one that one of the four living creatures calls out “Come", and the horse and rider appears.  The first horse (vs.2) is white and his rider carries a bow.

Horses in the Bible are animals of war, fearsome creatures to the foot soldiers of Israel as these beasts snort and charge through the battle.

The rider is a victorious warrior because he carries a bow and is given a crown, a victor's wreath.  He wears white, the colour of victory.  He "...rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”  His purpose, his whole aim is conquest, to rule over all.  This rider may think he will do it all in his own power, but the heavenly perspective shows that "he was given a crown."  This conqueror has only what God allows him to have.

The second horse is red, “fiery red” (vs.4).  "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.” This red horse is the horse of war because he takes peace from the earth.  But although he was given a "large sword" it is not said that he kills anyone.  People kill each other.  The horse and rider take away the peace and human beings proceed to do all the killing.

The third horse is a black horse.  Throughout the Bible it's the symbol of famine.  We see in verse 5 that the rider "was holding a pair of scales in his hand”.  It's unusual equipment for a horseman who usually carried a bow or sword.  It probably refers to the weighing of bread in a famine.  Ezekiel speaks of eating food by weight (4:9).  Grain is measured by volume, and we notice John hears what “sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying 'A quart (litre) 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'.”

The measure of wheat was the daily ration for a man.  So the price meant that the full day's wages would be spent on one day's food.  The barley was cheaper.  A person could get three measures of it for a day's wages.  So if he had a family to feed he would just get by on the cheap stuff.  The man and family would survive, just.  But all his expenses would be on food.  All the while as the poor struggle, the rich continue to enjoy all their luxuries; no one is to touch their "oil and wine"!

The fourth horse was a pale horse.  The Greek is ‘chloros', from which we get ‘chlorine', and it denotes a yellowish green colour.  Verse 8 tells us, “its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him".  In Revelation, and other parts of the Bible, these two commonly come together.  "Hades" is the “place of the dead”.  Again we notice that they "were given power".  Even with Death, God is in control.  It can only go as far as God allows.  But the power Death and Hades are given is stunning.  A quarter of the earth's population is killed “...by sword, famine and plague, and by wild beasts of the earth."

Now what do these four horses and their riders mean?  Well we start with the understanding that the “lamb that was slain", Jesus, who was crucified, holds the scroll.  It's a look at world history from His perspective, from the perspective of the cross.  The dreadful suffering that these horsemen bring are typical of what our world has suffered for thousands of years.

But why?  Why are these things happening, continually?  Why is there always war?  Why are we always at each other's throats, or discriminating and developing hate?  Why is it that the poor are always there – barely scraping together an existence, living from pay packet to pay packet, always broke, while the rich wallow in their luxuries, making sure the poor stay in their place and don't touch their abundance?  Why is there so much disease and tragedy, earthquakes, tidal waves, tornadoes, epidemics?

It has to do with the first horse, the white horse, and its rider bent on conquest.  They (can be interpreted to) represent Satan masquerading as an angel of light.  It stands for sin and evil wanting to be a “conqueror on conquest", to rebel and take what is God's.  From the perspective of the cross, from the teaching of the Bible, it's clear that all the tragedy of life begins with sin and the devil.  Everybody can see war and poverty and disease and death in the world.  How could you miss them?

But why is it so?  Because of the sin and rebellion of all of us, of the human race.  Because of God's judgment on His creatures for turning from Him and His ways.  That's what the cross of Christ shows, God's wrath for sin.  That's why Jesus' death and resurrection can bring healing to the nations and peace to all the creation.  Because He dealt with the root cause of all our suffering.  The cross shows God's grace in Christ.  But it also shows very clearly God's anger against sin.

The first four seals reveal the judgments that are let loose on the human race.  They show the self-defeating character of sin.  When the spirit of self-aggrandisement and conquest is around, all God needs to do is let events take their course and we will bring upon ourselves our own punishment.  Wherever there is pride and power, a hunger for conquest, there come war, and hunger, and disease.  Look at the papers and read.

Now what about the Christian, the Church, in all of this?  Well, the vision of John reminds them that the Lamb is very much in control.  He holds the scroll.  He opens the seals that release the horses.  They have power only to the extent it's given.  But even though Jesus is in control, the church is not exempt from sin and war, poverty, suffering and death.  In fact, the Christian will be tested further as they are persecuted for being faithful to Jesus.  But there is a difference.  Suffering for the Christian is no longer a punishment for sin.  It's the consequence of sin, but no longer the judgment.  Christ dealt with the punishment.

For the Christian, suffering is a way of bringing us closer to God.  It's a way of bringing glory to God when dealt with in faith.  Even the ultimate consequences of the “pale horse, Death", is not the end of the Christian.

Look at the fifth seal, verse 9.  You notice we move in the vision from earth to heaven.  "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."  What a comforting vision.  You don't see that in everyday life.  The Christian, like everyone else, struggles with life and tension and disease.  We die like everyone else.  And those persons and governments who persecute Christians, even today, may think they have gotten rid of them, that they have beaten them.  But not so in the least.

John's vision shows that God has taken home the Christians who died in His Name.  John sees their lives, their souls, safe under the altar of God.  They are protected under His gracious care.  No, life is not a senseless chaos for the Christian.  Life is not a hopeless tragedy.  God brings each of His, home to His care, even if they die by persecution or disease.  They are safe “under the altar".  They are safe because of the "lamb that was slain”, the Christ who offered His body and blood.  They are “given" white robes.  They are justified, perfect, holy by the blood of the lamb.  The white robe is given - it's a free gift.  They are protected by God, not because they were so good and better.  They are there because of Christ.  Remember, this is history from the perspective of the cross.

We see that these saints cry out for vengeance.  Verse 10 "they cry out in a loud voice, 'How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?'”

At first it might seem like an un-Christian request, a scream for revenge, to get even.  But it's not that.  Notice how God is addressed: "Sovereign Lord, holy and true”.  There is the recognition that God has absolute power over everything.  And He is completely holy, just, right and fair.  So the cry is not so much for revenge as for justice.  It is a recognition that God is the one who will judge the nations.  “It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord”.  What the saints under the altar are expressing is the heartfelt longing of every Christian.  Why do we struggle to live God's way?  Why do we pray for wars to cease, and disease to be healed, the lives of the poor and downtrodden changed, that the powerful be humbled and the arrogant brought to their knees?  Why?  Because we want to see justice done, that all the wrongs are made right.  We want to see peace and righteousness get up and be the winner.  We want to see God honoured as He should be.  It's what the whole of creation groans for, says Paul in Romans 8.  O God, bring justice to this earth, destroy the wicked, so that we may bask in your peace, sin destroyed forever.

The saints in John's vision are told they will have to wait (vs.11) "a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed." The ultimate sacrifice of being a martyr is not random.  God determines who will witness for Him in that way.  Sometimes we may think that God is letting people get away with persecuting the church.  But the cross of Christ demonstrates to us that God is patient, giving all a chance to repent, even using the martyrs to bring a witness to their killers.  But the cross of Jesus also reminds us that God cannot and will not stand for evil.  The time will come when God will avenge the death of Christ and the martyrs.  The time will come when God will avenge the defiling and destruction of His creation.  It is not a question of "if" but of “when".

This becomes very clear when John sees the opening of the sixth seal.  What we see is not new to the Scriptures.  We see it in the prophets and Jesus' descriptions of the “Day of the Lord” in the gospels.

What John describes is a disaster of cosmic proportions, the ruin of the whole universe.  Note verses 12-14, “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 see when shaken by a strong wind.  The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Now the vision is still symbolic, for while John vividly describes the complete breakup of the universe, in the next verse he describes how people want to hide in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.  Verse 15, “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?’"

Notice how John lists the classes of people who are going hysterical, calling on the rocks and mountains to fall on them.  He emphasises the great and powerful, the kings, princes, generals, the rich, the mighty.

But he also includes "every slave and free man, showing it includes everyone.  But the emphasis shows that no matter how powerful you may be, how rich, how intelligent, how good on the football field, a great a politician and statesman or a megalomaniac dictator, they will all be hysterical in that last day.  They will be totally powerless, absolutely in fear.  No one will be immune from the day of judgment.

What is it that they are all so terrified of that they would rather die, being crushed to death by the rocks and mountains than face it.  “The wrath of the lamb'!  How odd.  Have you ever seen an angry lamb?  The gentlest of all God's creatures angry!?  It's the anger of love, the wrath of sacrificial love.  Jesus, the Lamb who was slain, did His absolute utmost for us and our salvation.  If we have not accepted Him in faith, if we have not accepted God's wrath and justice poured out on Him on the cross, then there is nothing else to save us facing that vengeance of God ourselves.  For God has given all authority to Jesus to judge on that last day.

John saw that the "great day of wrath had come" and saw the absolute terror of the world as they cried out, “who can stand?”  Who can stand?  Outside of Christ?  No one.  Hear the Word of God and be clear about it.  Make it clear to others; to every one: that day will come.  God will have His vengeance.  Justice will come.  But to those who have come in repentance and bowed the knee before Jesus, who confess that God is right, that “Day of the Lord”, though totally awesome and overwhelming, will be seen with joy as God brings justice and peace to creation.  Then there will be no more sin, or war, or poverty, or death.  The four horses will be gone.

As chapter 7 says “never again will they hunger, never again will they thirst.  For the lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd, he will lead them to springs of living water.  And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Amen.