Questions for discussion follow the post.
Revelation 6:1-8
Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart[a] of wheat for a denarius,[b] and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!”
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Looking at today’s headlines, It is no wonder that some believe that the world is coming apart at the seams and, as the world’s events seem to be ripped right out of the pages of Revelation, it is no surprise that people are turning to it in a quest to discover what comes next and when.
But is this what we should be doing? The panel on the Reformed radio show/podcast White Horse Inn answered this question when they asked: “What lies at the heart of a Reformational approach to eschatology?” The answer:
“We are interested in, when it comes to eschatology, in what we are interested in all of the rest of the time: Christ. What is God doing in history? The question we come to the Bible with is, not how should we set up a government, what should we expect in terms of the development of common market countries (which, by the way, was a cooperative agreement for trade among European countries which is now the European Union), what’s going to happen in tomorrow’s news that can give us some idea about biblical prophecy, how to interpret biblical prophecy. When we come to the Bible to talk about anything, we are looking for what God is doing throughout history through the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is what God is doing, not primarily what the common market is doing, what all the kings conspiring against the Lord and His Christ are doing.”
Why are we not interested in going to the Scriptures and tying them to current events? It’s a Bad hermeneutic (the way in which we interpret the Scriptures). To go to the Scriptures looking for what the Scriptures tell us to look for – namely Christ- is the right hermeneutic. Jesus himself told the disciples on the Emmaus road that all Scriptures point to Him. If we come to the Bible with a different hermeneutic, namely looking for the days’ news, well, we’ll find it. You could go to Nostradamus and find connections today, you could go to almost any book of pseudo-prophecy done in the Middle Ages or before and find modern correlates. The real question is “How is Christ the fulfillment of all of these prophecies? How is He the one in whom all these prophecies have their fulfillment?”
There are a wide variety of approaches that people undertake in an effort to understand this passage- many contradicting one another in significant ways. Some saying the opening of the seals already happened in the past, some say they are being opened in the present, some say they will not be opened until the future.
And, so, turning to Revelation to make sense of the specifics contained in today’s news headlines may not be as helpful as we suppose. So, what are we to do? We look to see what it clearly tells us Christ is doing even when we are left scratching our heads about the evening news. And, although we are going to stop at verse 9 in today’s study, I think the basic principle for understanding this section is found in verses 15-17. There we find that all of humanity will suddenly realize that the world has always been under the oversight of, and will ultimately give way to, the King of Kings who is Jesus Christ, the Lion Who is the Lamb of God.
We read
15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave[a] and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
When we are approaching these passages a good question to ask ourselves is- “Why was this written?” These voices of the lost tell us. It is to remind us of who is in charge. For them, that discovery brought terror. But, for us, it is a word of hope. I can recall back in the late 90’s, as the year 2000 approached, people were predicting all manner of things. Some expected that the change from 1999 to 2000 would have some cosmic significance, possibly including the return of Christ. A woman came out to a Bible study I was leading for no other reason than to ask, “Is Jesus coming back on Jan 1, 2000?” When I told her I didn’t think that the dawning of the year 2000 held any particular significance in regards to His return, that was all she needed to hear. She breathed a sigh of relief and we never saw her again.
She is representative of so many. They read the headlines and have an underlying concern and even fear about the future, but as long as the sky is not falling right now, everything is ok. And it is unfortunate, because this is a false hope. They trust the kings of the earth, the great ones, the generals and the rich and the powerful believing that they will, in the end, save the day while not realizing that the day will come when they too will hunker down in caves and the rocks of mountains alongside the common folk and cry out “Who can stand?!” President Biden delivered an address to the United Nations in which he said: “The members of the United Nations are not witnesses to history. We are its authors.”
President Biden and the other presidents and kings around the world need to realize that there is a King upon a throne who is far more mighty than they and who is the true Author of history. They think they are in control, but they are not. And one day the One who is truly in control will bring them to their knees. The One they will fear is the hope of Christ’s church.
That is the message of the book of Revelation and certainly of the passage we are looking at here where John relates to us the vision of what has come to be known as “the four horsemen of the apocalypse.”
As with other images that we have already read, and that are yet to come to, these four horseman come from the Old Testament. In Zechariah 6:1-7 we read,
Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, 3 the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong.[a] 4 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” 7 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth.
Though the details of the scene are slightly different, this should come as no surprise to us having seen already that the same four living creatures who surround the throne of God are described slightly differently by the prophet Ezekiel than they are described in Revelation 5. These are visions, and the details may differ depending on the recipients of the vision and the point that is being made. Clearly these are the same horses.
As to who is upon them, the options seem to have no end. In particular the white horse. There is more material on the white horse than one might imagine all by interpreters who take the Scriptures seriously and who are biblical scholars. The options range from Christ Himself to the Anti-Christ. From an angel to a demon. Some say he is simply a human rider.
Some argue this must be Christ because in Revelation 19 we will read of Him riding on a white horse. The problem is that it is Christ who is sending the rider out by the opening of the seals. Besides, there are some marked differences in the descriptions- for example, the crown here is a laurel wreath while the crown in Revelation 19 like that of a king. Here he conquers with a bow, in Revelation 19 with the sword of His word.
The problem with this being the anti-Christ or a demon is due to the similarity between this scene and the one in Zechariah 6. In the end, it seems best to understand the riders as angelic beings that have patrolled the earth. That is why there are four: there are four winds, and four corners of the earth, four directions, north, south, east and west. In other words, there is no place around the world that will be spared from the events that they bring to pass. Neither will there be a time that will be spared from these events- at least not from the time of Christ.
Many approach these seals as predictions about what is yet to occur in the future and so they are constantly looking for the news event that will signal that the first seal has been broken. It clearly describes warfare between nations, so they then look for the second seal of disorder and chaos within nations, the third famine with rampant inflation. A denarius was a day’s wage for working people. These prices are over ten times what they should have been- but- and notice- they are limited by the decree of Christ- do not harm the oil and the wine; and the fourth, death.
Of course, it would be difficult to line these up in a timeline because all of these have been happening concurrently throughout history. There have only been 268 years scattered through the last 3000+ years that warfare has not been occurring. In fact, the fourth seal, rather than coming next in a sequence of events, seems to summarize the prior three. This points us to the fact that these are not only realities of our future, but are the experiences of the past. Including the past of those original recipients. One commentator, writing around 1900 not knowing the horrors of WWI and WWII were right around the corner, was convinced that all of these were events of the past that were completed by 325 AD and was able to point to particular individuals and events that he felt fulfilled them. This included Parthenian warriors who were known for their archery skills and for riding on white horses who were a threat to Rome. Internal struggles which led to 100s of thousands of insurgents within Rome killed and 4 different Emperors ruling over the course of a single year. The decree of the emperor Domitian to destroy half the vineyards throughout the provinces of Rome, etc. Of course, Jesus did tell those who were with Him that they should be looking for these very things themselves, Matthew 24:6-7: 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 nations will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom and there will be famine and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.” And they are what is described here.
But, those who still believe this is yet a future event, point out that verse 8 says that a fourth of the earth will die and, since, such a catastrophic event has not happened, clearly this is pointing to the future. Before we conclude they must be right, take a moment to put yourself in John’s shoes and let’s look down the corridors of time- we can just think of the 20th century alone:
The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million; In WW II An estimated total of 70–85 million people perished; a 1975 US Senate subcommittee estimated around 1.4 million civilian casualties in South Vietnam because of the war. In the 20th century more lives have been lost due to warfare then in all the years that came before combined. Pol Pot caused the death of an estimated two million Cambodians in the 1970s. The brutal genocide of 800,000 people in Rwanda in 1994 was incomprehensible to most of us in the West. We could go on with those who lost their lives under the brutal regime of Stalin, the famine in Ethiopia, the deaths that came from the plague…and on it goes.
Estimates of how many people were living in the world at the writing of Revelation run around 100 million. Can you imagine it being revealed that the number of the entire population of the earth would be wiped out by warfare alone in coming years and that does not even count inner struggles such as described in the second seal, or by famine, disease and then the horrendous killing of millions by abortion? And, then, to hear the words of Christ who says that we must understand that these are but the birth pangs! And, indeed, they are. War, revolution, famine…death….all birth pangs because although 4 seals have been opened, that is only four out of seven. To this point the scroll has not been opened but remains sealed by 3 more which have yet to be undone. Taking all of this together, we can understand the vision to be describing the birth pangs…the events which lead up the end…and these events began with the coming of the last days which were inaugurated with the advent of Christ and which continue until now (see Heb 1:1; 1 Peter 4:7).
Some conclusions from these first 8 verses of Revelation 6:
1) Remember that this letter has as its direct recipients the 7 churches in Asia, many of whom were compromising their faith. They were in danger of having their candles snuffed out and they needed to be awakened and called to repentance. The four horsemen are designed to shatter the illusion that people can find true security in the borders of a nation, in an empire, in a flourishing economy, or in their own health. One of the reasons that the history of Israel played out as it did with king after king after king with no ultimate earthly security and with them landing in exile in Babylon, was to show that there are no, and will be no, perfect earthly kings upon whom we can trust. Only the King of Kings can bring lasting peace and hope. And so it is here. And when He comes to bring peace, He will bring it by subduing evil in His wrath. “Who is able to stand?” (6:17). “None” is the answer. So turn to Him.
2) For those who follow Christ, we must remember what Jesus says in Matthew 24:6 “See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place.” How can we not be alarmed when headlines we read daily? We recognize that it is Christ who opens the seals no earthly ruler. Nothing happens apart from Christ’s control and permission.
3) While this passage does not offer an explanation for why Jesus would open seals such as these, we do get a clue from Zechariah. When Zechariah heard a divine horseman report that “the whole earth remains at peace,” an angel demanded to know how long God would allow peace to continue, because ongoing peace simply gave the powerful the luxury of oppressing the people of God (Zech. 1:11–12; 6:1–8). For change to come, God would need to disturb the peace. Revelation 6 says…the end has not yet come because God is patient…not willing that any should perish….BUT Jesus is disturbing the peace in order that we mighty trust in Him before the end does finally come.
Questions for Discussion
This passage reminds us that a knowledge of the Old Testament is necessary to understand the book of Revelation. To approach Revelation without consulting the OT is like trying to understand the movie “Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker” without having watched any of the previous Star Wars movies.
The most obvious background to Revelation 6:1-8 is Zechariah 6:1–8.
6 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, 3 the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong.[a] 4 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” 7 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. 8 Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.”
In Zechariah 1:14-16 we are given an explanation of what they were sent to do:
14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. 15 And I am exceedingly angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was angry but a little, they furthered the disaster. 16 Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it, declares the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. 17 Cry out again, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.’”
The four groups of horses were sent to patrol the earth and punish the nations that were oppressing God’s people. These nations were raised up to discipline God’s people for their sinful rebellion against Him, but they inflicted more pain and suffering on Israel than they should have (vs. 15). God, therefore, sends the chariots and their horses out to punish these nations for their sins and to demonstrate His love and faithfulness to Israel.
1. How does the background of Zechariah 1 and 6 inform our understanding of Revelation 6:1-8?
2. What are the wars, revolutions, famine and death brought about by the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” sent to accomplish?
It is argued that both Ezekiel 14:12-23 and Leviticus Lev. 26:18–28 may have provided the background from Revelation 6:1-8 as well.
3. What are the points of these passages?
4. If they do serve as a part of the background of Revelation 6:1-8, how would we sum up the purpose of the opening of the seals based upon these 3 background passages? (Zechariah, Ezekiel, Leviticus).
5. What is the challenge for believers in light of these purposes?
6. How should we respond to events such as the attack of 9/11 in light of all of these passages (including Revelation 6)?