Revelation 6:1-8

Revelation chapter 6. I want to read the first eight verses, and we’re going to look at the first half of this chapter in our study of this morning, Lord Willing. And I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, He that sat on him had a bow. The crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. When he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. There went out another horse that was red. Power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth or the land, and that they should kill. one another, and there was given unto him a great sword. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, come and see. And I beheld, and lo, a black horse. He that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny, three measures of a, barley for a penny, see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. When he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was death. Hell followed with him. And power was given unto him, excuse me, and power was given. under them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with the sword, with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beast of the earth. May God bless to us. His sacred. The real difficulties of interpreting the book of revelation begin now with chapter 6. All is vision and symbol. The easy part is over when we looked at the first five chapters. What do the symbols found in chapter six represent? How do we go about interpreting them? Looking at the general nature of the symbols, what you find everywhere it seems to me is war, conquering. And then the effects of war, which is bloodshed, famine, and death. All of it culminating in one dreadful final catastrophe in which the land seems to unravel and dissolve. It’s called the Great Day of His Rath, or the Lamb’s wrath, in chapter 6 and verse 17. Now, anyone can speculate on what these seals mean. people’s imaginations have run wild, like World War III with nuclear weapons and destroying the universe, so to speak. So when we come to a passage of scripture like this, and we’re dealing with prophecy, I always like to have like some boundary line, some way to guide the interpretation of the text so that we can more carefully approach it. So how should we regulate the interpretation of this passage? What are some of the guiding principles that we should follow? I suggest three things. One, the contemporary nature of the prophecy. I have mentioned this repeatedly. The events that John is going to talk about are those which are near and imminent for those in John’s day. The time for their fulfillment is such that there are things which must shortly come to pass. Chapter 1, verse 1. John’s original readers could expect no delay for the time is at hand, Revelation 1 3. So you should look for the fulfillment of this in John’s lifetime, not thousands of years later down the road. That’s number one. Number two. The scope of the prophecy relates to the seven sealed book. After all, isn’t that what Jesus is opening? The lamb opens the seals. The seals are on the book that he received from the father, and he took it. It was written within and without, and it was sealed with seven seals, and now he’s opening the seals. Right? So, how do we interpret that? Well, Ezekiel’s prophecy provides the answer, and we looked at it last week, in Ezekiel chapter 2, verse 3, and I read through chapter 3 and verse 9, he sees a book of the exact description as John’s, written within and without. He’s told to eat it and so forth, just like John is this, particular book, as later on will find him being told, him doing that in chapter 10. Now, within this book, we’re told that Ezekiel are written lamentations and mourning and woe. That’s what we find here. And it’s against the nation of Israel. Shouldn’t you realize that the message then is identical in both cases. This is a divine judgment against the land of Israel. In other words, Ezekiel’s prophecy, I believe, is decisive in interpreting the seal judgments. He’s told us what it’s about. And John here is given the same view. Same kind of book, same approach, same type of judgment. So that’s the second thing that seems to indicate to me we should be. focusing on a contemporary situation and it should be focused particularly on the land of Israel. The third thing that I’ll mention is that these judgments resemble Christ’s teaching in the Olivet discourse. This has been widely recognized so that the olivist discourse has been known as the little apocalypse. This is the Bollett discourse. This is the Bavis discourse. This is the big apocalypse that John writes. And if you look at the three gospels, the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, they have the little apocalypse. They have the Olivet discourse. Guess who doesn’t have the Olivet discourse? John doesn’t have the Oliveid discourse. I wonder why he doesn’t have the Olive discourse. Maybe he has an expanded version of it in the Book of Revelation, and therefore he didn’t put it in, you know, God did not see fit to put it in the gospel. because he gave us its expanded version of it in the book of Revelation. That’s my suggestion to you as we look at this. Let’s look at a couple of things from the Olivet discourse just to get an idea here of what we’re talking about. Look at Matthew with me, chapter 24. Let me begin with verse 6. I’ll read through verse 13. And you shall hear wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not true. troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you and you shall be hated of all nations for my namesake. Then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many fall. profit shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that endureth unto the end shall be saved. Then verse 29 of this book. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken. later on in this chapter 6 of revelation, we’ll find that kind of language being used as well. And then if you look at verse 34, barely I say, and you this generation shall not pass to all these things be fulfilled. Then if you would look with me at Luke, and chapter 21. Luke 21, verse 11, start with, great earthquakes shall be in diverse places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs, shall there be from heaven. Then drop down to verse 24. And when ye shall see Jerusalem come pass with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of, it depart out, and let not them that are in the countries enter there into. For these be the days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled, but woe unto them that are with child, to them that give suck in those days, for there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people, and they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away caverns, into all nations in Jerusalem shall be troddened down to the Gentiles till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now, if you study the Olivet discourse, there are two parts to the Olivet discourse. One part has to do with the fall of Jerusalem, 70 AD. One part has to do with Christ’s second coming. And so you have to look at the two sections. of that Olivet discourse. And if you look at it carefully, you have a lot of signs with regard to the one, and the other one seems to be more sudden and taking people off guard. And so the first part of the Oliver discourse speaks of the destruction of Jerusalem, in particular in 70 AD, is its climax. And what do you find Christ speaking about are wars, international strife, earthquakes, plagues, famine, persecution, cosmic collapse, the same kind of things that we see as in Revelation chapter 6. And remember Jesus said, this generation shall not pass until these things are fulfilled. In other words, the time is in hand. It’s near. So this is the approach that I’m going to take to the book. and chapter 6 here of Revelation. With that in mind, let me begin reading here the first seal, the white horse. And I saw the lamb opened, I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, and one of the four beasts saying, come and see. And I saw, and behold, a white horse, He that sat on him at a bow and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. The first seal here is a white horse. It speaks of conquest. This represents, I think, the first scene in the Roman Jewish War of 66 to 70 AD, where the Romans are bent on conquest to put down the Jewish revolt against them. The Jewish war began around 66,000. A.D. when Caesar Nero ordered his general Vespasian to subdue the Jews by invading Israel. And here, I believe you see Vespasian heading up a massive army advancing to combat. He’s going forth to conquer. The war hasn’t begun, but the forces are gathered. The Roman general is going to conquer, and nothing less is his objective. Vespasian rides on a white horse. Now, the white horse, when it is used, it is used for victorious generals in ancient times. So he is portrayed here as being successful. This horseman is God’s Avenger upon Israel. An instrument. to carry out the wrath of the Lamb, 616. He holds a bow. This is a weapon that is used at a distance. For war will begin at a distance. It’s going to begin in Galilee. And then it will move south as he begins to conquer the land toward Jerusalem until Jerusalem is overwhelmed as well. A crown. A crown, is given to him. At the moment, Bespasian is not a king. But eventually he will be a king. He will be a Caesar. And he will take over as the emperor of Rome. Now, there are some who compare this passage of scripture to Revelation 19 because you have Christ riding on a white horse in Revelation 19. But I suggest to you there are some differences. One, different weapons. Here we have a bow in this man’s hand. In Christ’s hand, we have a sword. In Revelation, we have a sword being used as a weapon. Chapter 19, verse 15. The placement of the weapons is different. Here he has a bow in hand. In Revelation, we have a bow a sword from the mouth. The number of crowns is different. Here we have one crown mentioned. Whereas in Revelation 19 verse 12, many crowns Christ wears. The only similarity seems to be the white horse in both cases. But I suggest you, if you look at this carefully, Christ is already in this scene. He is the lamb who is opening the seals. Therefore, he’s not the horseman. So I suggest to you the first seal is the white horse that conquest is coming. That’s the indication. Any questions? Before I go on on that. All right, the second seal is the red horse. This speaks of bloodshed. Let’s look at verses three and four. When he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, come and say. sea, and there went another horse that was red. Power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth or the land, and that they should kill one another. There was given unto him a great sword. Red, here will be the simple blood being shed during war. Notice that he takes peace from the earth or the land. The focus is on the land of Israel in particular. At this time, the empire had been experiencing up, I should say up to this time, had been experiencing the Pax Romana, the great peace of Rome. For years, they had peace. But now, with the Jewish revolt, temporarily at least, this long-term peace is going to be disrupted. In fact, we’re going to find later on there are going to be civil wars when Nero commits suicide and things are going to at Hawar for quite a while. Hostilities have now commenced. The Roman army has to go out and conquer the land of Israel and put down this rebellion. So they roll through the land, like a great tidal wave, slaughtering all the Jews as they go along, leaving them dead and they’re awake. This horseman has a great sword, because it bloody carnage. is going to occur. It’s going to be terrible. The slaughter is going to be great. Ruthless, slaughter the Jews. They’re going to depopulate the land. They’re not going to they’re not taking many prisoners here. They’re basically going to put down this rebellion and they’re going to be ruthless about it. They didn’t have any rules for engagement like we have. When we go to war, we have all these rules. They just went out and took care of business. If that weren’t bad enough, there would be civil wars among the various factions of the Jews. You’ll notice that they should kill one another, it says here. I take it that that may refer to some of the infighting that took place as well. The sword is a close-up weapon. Here we have an indication of a hand-to-hand combat between opponents. Inevitance, and in inevitably with sword combat, it’s bloody. So the second seal here is a red horse. It speaks of bloodshed. Any questions about that? All right. We’ll go to the third seal. The third seal is the black horse. And it speaks about famine. Let’s look at verses five and six. When he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say come and see. And I beheld in low a black horse. horse. He that sat on him at a pair of balances in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, a measure of wheat for a penny. Three measures of barley for a penny. And see, thou hurt not the oil and the wine. Famine follows on the heels of war. I mean, that’s pretty standard in most wars. You end up having this problem. Black is the color of distress, misfortune. and morning. A pair of balances here indicate some type of measuring out of the food so that there’s a limited amount. It’s rationed because of the shortage they’re going to have. A measure is about a quart. That was the daily portion here for one person. A penny was a whole day’s wages. According to Matthew 20 and verse. too. So whole day’s wages for just a quart of food. This was a very high price for a measure of wheat or three measures of the more inferior grain barley, which is mentioned here. The price was perhaps about ten times more than normal. And it suggests a severe shortage. This is one of the curses, by the way, that God promised the Jews who were disobedient to his law. In Leviticus 2626, and when I have broken the staff of your bread, 10 women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again to you by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied. Food would be scarce in the land, especially in the besieged cities, and as we shall see, particularly in the city of Jerusalem, when it gets surrounded by the Roman armies that we read about. Josephus, in his wars, says this, and I think I’m going to read this paragraph, this larger paragraph that he has. He said, the madness of the seditious did also increase together with their famine. And both those miseries were every day inflamed more and more. For there was no corn which anywhere appeared publicly, but the robbers came running into and searched men’s private houses, and then if they found any, they tormented them, because they had denied they had any. And if they found none, they tormented them worse because they supposed they had more carefully concealed it. The indication they made use of whether they had any or not was taken from the bodies of these miserable wretches, which if they were in good case, they supposed that they were in no want of any food. But if they were wasted away, they walked off without searching any further, nor did they think it proper to kill such as these, because they saw they would very soon die of themselves for one of food. many of there were indeed who sold what they had for one measure. It was of wheat. And if they were the richest sort, but of barley if they were of the barley, if they were poor. Notice the same two grains that are mentioned here in Scripture. When these had so done, they shut themselves in the innermost rooms of their houses and ate the quarter. they had gotten. Some did it without grinding it by reason of the extremity of the want they were in. Others baked bread of it according as necessity and fear dictated to them. A table was nowhere laid for a distinct meal, but they snatched the bread out of the fire, half-baked, and ate it very hastily. This gives us an indication of what was taking place at this time. That’s in his war’s fire. 10, 2, if you want to look at that paragraph. The Jews in Jerusalem suffered terrible food shortages. Due to the fighting factions within the city, they would even raid each other’s food supplies whenever they could. And so it was just terrible. The poor regular people didn’t have a chance. Unless you were really in one of these factions, you were just good. They’re going to steal everything you had. They’d go in there under force of arms and just take everything you had. Thus food was scarce. So scarce, Josephus tells us that mothers ate their own children. I won’t pursue that, but Josephus tells us that this took place, and it was quite a bad circumstance. Now, unlike the grains, it’s interesting here that there would not be a shortage of oil and wine. This is, hurt not the oil and the wine. Now, how can that be? It seems strange. And Josephus also provides an explanation of this. If you read it intelligently with this scripture in mind, he states that John of Giskelah, one of the leaders of the warring factions in Jerusalem, seized and confiscated the oil and the wine of the temple. which they had stored up for the sacrifices. And this act of sacrilege, which is said, you know, it says you’re, deal not unjustly with the oil and the wine, explains why these two things were not rationed. Josephus in his wars 5136 says this. Accordingly, Drawing the sacred wine and oil, which the priests kept for pouring on the burnt offerings, in which were deposited in the inner temple, he distributed them among his adherents, who consumed without horror more than a hen in anointing themselves and drinking. And here I cannot refrain from expressing what my feelings suggest. I am of the opinion that had the Romans deferred the punishment of these wretches, either the earth would have over, and swallowed up the city, it would have been swept away by a deluge, or shared the thunderbolt of the land of Sodom, for it produced a generation far more ungodly than those who were thus visited. For through the desperate madness of these men, the whole nation was involved in their ruin. It’s interesting that Titus Vesputian’s son, who also helped him in the battle. during the siege of Jerusalem, which he conducted himself, because at that point, Vesputian had gone off to become Caesar, gave this order that the olive groves and the vineyards were not to be ravaged. They were to leave them standing in the land. And so I think this is why the oil and the wine are mentioned as not being as extremely in short supply. this is the third seal, the black horse of famine. Any questions or thoughts on that? Yes. Oh, that was from Leviticus. 2626. That’s if they broke the law of God. If they didn’t follow what God had said, and of course that’s what they were doing now. They were apostate. And he said, he’s going to punish them. Any other things? All right, let’s see if we have the time to do. Let’s try to. we’ll try to squeeze in this fourth seal. I think that’d be good. Verses seven and eight. And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked and behold a pale horse, and his name that sat on him was death, and hell followed with him, and power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, or the land, to kill with sword and with hunger, and with death, and with the beast of the earth. Here we have the foreseal, the pale horse, speaking of death. The horrors and miseries of war intensified as death and hell came in the wake of military conflict. Hell or Hades is used in scripture. It can be used in two different ways, but it usually uses for place of departed spirits. It can be used for heaven or hell in some cases. but here it’s used in a negative way. It’s used of hellfire, I believe. So it’s not only that they die a physical death, but they also are going to die an eternal death in hell. The four score judgments of God, which Ezekiel saw, used to destroy the land of Israel, and his, prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 14 are employed again here. But let’s look at that passage. Ezekiel 1421, and he summarizes his judgments against the nation of Israel. He puts him in these four categories. 14 and verse 21 of Ezekiel. For thus saithes, the Lord God, how much more when I send my four sword judgments upon Jerusalem, the sword and the famine and the noisome beast and the pestilence that cut off from it, man, and beast. There’d be so many dead that they would not have anyone left to bury them. So many dead and people being so weak that they’d have trouble burying them. In fact, they got to the people. point where they would just take them and throw them over the wall down into the valleys. And you can imagine, you know, the wild beast coming along and consuming the bodies of these people. They said everywhere you went, even inside the city, there are dead bodies everywhere. On the streets, in the houses, all over the place. Let me read this paragraph from Josephus. I believe it’s a book five. Chapter 12, paragraph 4, 512, 4. So all hope of escaping was now cut off from the Jews, together with their liberty of going out of the city. Then did the famine widen its progress and devoured the people by whole houses and families. The upper rooms were full of women and children that were dying by famine, and the lanes of the city were full of the dead bodies of the aged. The children also and the young men wondered about the marketplace. places like shadows all swelled with famine and fell down dead wheresoever their misery seized them. As for burying them, those that were sick themselves were not able to do it. Those that were hardy and well were deferred from doing it by the great multitude of those dead bodies, and by the uncertainty there was how soon they should die themselves. For many died as they were burying others. Many went to their coffins before that. fatal hour was come. Nor was there any lamentation made under these calamities, nor were heard any mournful complaints, but the famine confounded all natural passions for those who were just going to die, looked upon those that were gone to their rest before them with dry eyes and open mouths. Now the seditious at first gave orders that that the dead should be buried out of the public treasury as not enduring the stench of their dead bodies, but afterwards, when they could not do that, they cast them down from the walls into the valleys beneath. The first four seals find their fulfillment in the Roman Jewish war, which began at 66 AD. The Roman armies swept through Galilee and Samaria and laid waste all the cities, all the villages in their path. The siege and the overthrow of Jerusalem by the Romans was one of the most horrible events of human history. This is the four seal. This is the pale horse of death. Any questions about this? I think I’m going to have to stop at this point.