2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES
Wednesday in the Word
Second Baptist Church
January 3, 2024
Revelations 6:1-17
We studied two weeks that wills and last testaments in ancient times were sealed with seven seals. Wills could only be unsealed and read after the death of the one who wrote the will. A will could only be opened by certain people who met certain criteria. John sees the Lamb of God that was alive but looked slain take the scroll (will) because he was the only one found worthy in the entire world to open the seals and read the scroll. The picture is really a vision of God declaring how he would give rewards to the faithful and judgment to those who have rejected him.
Verses 1-2. The Lamb, who is Christ, opens the first of seven seals. These first four seals reveal what has been commonly called,” The four horsemen of the apocalypse." We read about these horses and riders in Zechariah 1:7-11 and Zechariah 6:1-8. In chapter 1 of Zechariah these horses and riders are shown to be the sent by the Lord to patrol the earth. In chapter 6 of Zechariah, we see these horses and riders commanded to patrol the earth. The key to understanding this image is found in Zechariah 6:5. The four horses and riders are going out to the four winds of heaven. What does this mean? What do the four winds of heaven represent? The scripture uses the four winds to refer to a sweeping judgment. Notice a few passages where the four winds are used. See Jeremiah 49:36, Daniel 11:4, Matt 24:31. They represent judgment. In Zechariah, the four horsemen are going to the four winds of heaven to unleash this sweeping judgment. ln Revelation they are doing the same thing. The image of the four horsemen is repeated to call to the readers’ mind that this is an image of the coming of sweeping judgment. We need this knowledge so that we can make the proper interpretation in this chapter. When we learn the role of the four horsemen in the Old Testament. The picture in verse 2 is straight forward and is not intended to be made complicated. The rider of the horse is given a crown, that is, he is given authority. What does the rider have authority to do? He has authority to conquer and continue conquering. Christ has unleashed the power to conquer. As the first seal is opened, one of the four living creatures that stood around the throne of God calls out” Come" as to summon someone or something. The person that comes during the opening of the first seal is a rider on a white horse, holding a bow from a bow and arrow in his hand. This rider is given a crown and rides out into battle.
Verses 3-4. The second seal is opened and another living creature from the around the throne says” Come.” This time the horse is fiery red and the rider has been given a sword to take peace from the earth. The rider takes the peace away from the Earth. This is symbolic of a time of war and fighting. The peace in Jerusalem would end in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed the city. Rome had peace, but Jerusalem was crushed. The first recipient of God's judgment was the people of Jerusalem for their persecution of their brothers and sisters who followed Christ. Remember it was the Jews in Jerusalem who led the persecution of Christians with stoning and imprisonment. God judges Jerusalem with the nation of Rome and takes their peace, and then a few hundred years later Rome has its peace taken away and the empire falls as the great Babylon.
Verses 5-6. The third seal is opened and once again one of the living creatures calls forth another rider. Understand that the riders and horses are just pictures of God’s hand of judgment. Horses were symbols of strong armies. The third rider is riding a black horse holding a pair of scales. The scales were a sign of business transactions, but these scales are not tilted in their favor. These scales are against Jerusalem. John says that he hears one of the living creatures declare that a day's pay would only buy a day’s supply of food, and that the supply of oil and wine was in such limited supply that one had to be careful not to ruin any of it. This is the sound of terrible economic times. If your pay could only take care of your daily food supply, how could you afford to have housing and pay for anything else. John sees discord, violence, and economic trouble in these second two seals. This all happens in Jerusalem in 70 AD and then we see the economic collapse of Rome and the debasement of its currency around 235 AD followed by the Plague of Cyprian.
Verses 7-8. The fourth seal is opened and the call to come forth is given to the fourth rider. This rider is riding a pale looking horse. The color is symbolic of death. The rider has the name death and the grave (Hades) is following close behind him. The role of this rider brings all sorts of calamity from sickness, sword, wild beast, and famine to a fourth of the earth. The picture is basically a vision of utter chaos. When man's systems are not in place there is no protection, no healthcare, no organized food supply. This rider demonstrates a period of utter chaos. Between 200k and a million people died during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD from war and starvation.
Verses 9-11. When the fifth seal is opened, there is a different set of occurrences. In the first four seals, riders came forth and went out into the earth. When the fifth seal is opened, John sees souls under the altar of God crying out. Remember this is symbolic. John is shown a picture of the saints waiting until the fulfillment of time. The saints were given white robes. White robes are symbols of redemption. What John hears is a comforting vision that the saints who were slain are at peace waiting for the fulfillment of time. These martyred souls were to rest for a little longer. Judgment was not going to happen immediately. They must rest a little longer "until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been." There are more who are going to be slain for Christ before these judgments unfold. The answer seems to be that God is not stopping the death of his people right now. More are going to die for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus before judgment is unleashed on the earth.
Verses 12-14. The sixth seal is opened and many things happen. This seal will bring a symbolic “cosmic calamity.” The earth will shake, the sun will turn black, the moon will turn red, the stars (meteorites) will fall from to the earth, and the clouds in the sky will look violent. We Know from Isaiah 13:9-13, Ezekiel 32:6-8, and Joel 2:10,31-32, that when we read this language of the sun becoming black, the moon turning to blood, and the stars falling from the sky, we are reading about God saying that this nation will no longer exist. It will be judged so that it will not see the sun. Its power has fallen like stars falling from the sky. All they will see is blood.
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