Revelation 6:12-17

Revelation chapter 6. I want to read verses 12 to 17 as we look more specifically at the sixth seal judgment here. And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal. Although there was a great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became as blood, and the stars of the heaven fell upon the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bondman and every freemen hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who is able to stand. May God bless to us the reading of his sacred this morning. Chapter 6 is the beginning of some of the more difficult sections here of Revelation as we look through probably up, you know, the rest of the book has it more symbols and more signs and things of this nature that have to be interpreted. and so it becomes more difficult. And I said in a previous study, we need some like grounding principles so that we can interpret this passage properly. If we lay a good foundation, then we can be assured that what we build on it is correct. If we don’t get a good foundation laid, then we’re building on sand and we’re just speculating. You can make revelation say almost anything you wanted to say. if you read the different writers on it. So we need to know about the time when these things will occur, whether it’s going to be a future day like 20, 30 or something like that, and what it means. We’re talking about nuclear war here. We’re talking about World War III. What are we talking about here in this section, this sixth seal judgment? You remember, Christ is the one who’s opening the seals. and we’ve now come to the sixth seal of the seven that are on the scroll that he received from the Father. I said there were three guiding principles that we should look at. The contemporary nature of the prophecy, it was written for John’s Day. It was written for the seven churches. So that they might have a grasp of what is taking place. Things which must shortly come to pass, the time is at hand, chapter 1, 1 to 3. We said the scope of the prophecy relates to the seven sealed book, which seems to be drawn from the book of Ezekiel, chapter 2 and chapter 3, where this same type of book written within, without, and so forth, needs to be opened, and they have judgments, lamentations, and woes, and so forth, against the land of Israel. And so we should see this passage as referring against. Israel. The third thing I said that these judgments resemble Christ’s teachings with regard to the all of that discourse of Matthew 24. And we see many of the things related to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD in that chapter as well as some things also related to the second coming. The first four seals, the first seal was the white horse. We said this represented conquest. The second seal was the red horse. This represents bloodshed, connected with war. The third horse was the black horse, which we said represented famine. And the fourth horse was the pale horse, which represented death. So all these things are associated with war and bloodshed and things of this nature connected with war. The fifth seal are the martyrs who are crying out for vengeance because they have been put to death. and they’re told to wait a little bit before the judgment falls. And then we come to the sixth seal. We have this cosmic collapse language where the universe is going to come unraveled for us. And at first glance, you might think, well, this must be the end of the world. As we know, it’s all over. And the universe is going to dissolve here. This must be the second coming of Christ. The problem. The problem is, for those who will take this literally, is that we’re only on the sixth seal. We’ve got the seventh seal, and we’ve got all the kinds of other judgments are going to come upon the earth as well, or the land, that are going to follow, such as the seven trumpets and the seven vials and so forth. So your interpretation should be based upon what Scripture teaches about the type of language. And how does this language, how is this language used elsewhere in scripture? And we looked at a couple of examples. We went to the Old Testament and we saw the darkening of the sun and the moon of the stars symbolize the collapse of a nation. Such as Egypt falling to the Babylonians in Ezekiel chapter 32, such as the fall of Edom to Babylon in Isaiah 13. such as the fall of Babylon to the Medes and the Persians in Isaiah 13. But now I want to look more specifically at the sixth seal here of Revelation 6. What we have to understand is this is again prophetic language. So what does it mean? We have a great earthquake that’s talked about here. This is a great national. upheaval of some sort. Now there are several passages of scripture that relate this kind of language to us. If you hold your place here, let’s look at Hegei chapter 2 versus 20 through 22. Three books from the end of the Old Testament. Hegei chapter 2 versus 20 to 22. Some somebody want to read that for us? Russell, thank you. And again, the word of the Lord came unto Haggaiiyei. In the four and 20th day, and speak to his Earl of all. Governor of Judah saying, I will shake the heavens and our earth and I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms. And I will destroy the strength of the kingdom for the chariots. Here we have the action of God. Not so much upsetting the physical framework of the universe. but this shaking of the heavens and the earth seems to refer to political social structures that would certainly impress the Jews. All is under God’s control and he’s going to overthrow those kingdoms and those rulers that are opposed to the kingdom of God, the kingdoms of the kingdoms of the heathen that are mentioned here in verse 22. So we see the fulfillment here, I think, in a way of Daniel’s prophecy, Daniel chapter 2, the metallic image, where those four world powers come to an end when Christ’s everlasting kingdom comes into play as a shaking of the heavens that are. A great earthquake, if you would. Now, that’s important that we see this because in our passage in Revelation, and we’re looking at Revelation in that time area, we have two heathen nations that stood in the way of the kingdom of God in John’s Day, the Roman Empire and apostate Israel. And I think in Revelation 6, we’re dealing with apostate Israel. And so that’s the idea. Now, if you would look at Hebrews 12 because this passage is quoted here. Someone read that for me verses 25 to 29 of Hebrews 12. Tim, thank you. Why should these Hebrew saints be careful not to return to Judaism? Now you recall the theme of the book is to show the the superiority of Christ and Christianity over Judaism. we got a better high priest, we get a better sacrifice and so forth as you go through the book. Why should they cling to the kingdom of God because it cannot be moved. It cannot be shaken. It’s an everlasting kingdom. Israel is going to be shaken. It’s going to be removed. It’s going to collapse. The sun and the moon and the stars are going to be darkened for them. Even those things related to the spiritual realm and we look at the heavens here are going to be shaken too because all the ceremonial worship of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple is going to come to an end. They’re no longer going to be worshipping as they once did. Remember what Jesus said in John 4 to the woman at the well? There’s going to be a time when people won’t be coming to Jerusalem to worship, physically having to go to Jerusalem, that city. But God looks for people to worship Him and spirit and truth wherever they are. So things are going to happen. The temple’s going to disappear. God is a God of judgment like a consuming fire. He’s going to sweep away here this apostate nation. So Paul sees, it seems to me, Hagiahe chapter 2 and verses 20 through 22 that we read earlier about to be fulfilled. He sees it as coming to pass. things are going to get shaken. don’t go back to Judaism. it’s going to be gone. What you think is going to be great, the temple worship and the saccharacterity, all that’s going to be gone. The kingdom that’s going to last is Christ everlasting king. So this is why certainly Christianity is superior to anything else that the Jews had. Chilton in his paradise restored says this. As a whole, the Book of Revelation is a prophecy of the end of the old order and the establishment of the new order. It is a message to the church that the terrifying convulsions coursing through the world in the spear comprised the final shaking of heaven and earth, ending once, and for all, the old covenant system, announcing that the kingdom of God had come to earth and broken Satan’s hold on the nations. In the destruction of Jerusalem, the old kingdom and the temple, God revealed that they had been merely the scaffolding of his eternal city, his holy nation, and most glorious temple of all. Now, if you would, look at Revelation chapter 16. Verse of 17 and 19. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air and there came a great voice out of the temple of heavens from the throne saying it’s done. There were voices, thunderings, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Here we have this earthquake. A great upheaval of some sort, with agitations and unrest and war and destruction associated with Babylon. And who is Babylon, according to what we’ve already studied. Anybody remember? Jerusalem? Apostate Israel is going to be shaken by a devastating judgment and will be no more, as Revelation 18 indicates to us. Politically recalled that Jerusalem was divided in the three warring factions during the war with the Romans and civil war contributed to its downfall. The cities of the nations fell. Here we find that many cities throughout the Roman Empire rebelled against Rome when Caesar Nero died, when he committed suicide. And so there was a total chaotic uproar in the whole empire. And it threatened its very existence. And these rebellious regions had to be subdued, and they were subdued by Vespucian who eventually took the and became the new emperor. All this was a divine judgment against the enemies of God’s kingdom. One was Babylon and one was the Roman Empire. And we see the same kind of judgment here that’s being spoken of. So there’s a sense in which we can see the connection, I hope, between those things. The second thing he talks about is the sun becoming black as sackcloth back in Revelation chapter 6. This speaks about terrible and gloomy state of affairs in the morning that is associated with it. So a universal morning a day of darkness, if you would. There are several passages we could look at with regard to this. Let’s look at Isaiah chapter 50. one to three. Let’s say if the Lord, where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement whom I have put away or which my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have sold yourselves for your transgressions, your mother, put away. Wherefore, when I came, there was no man. When I called, there was none to answer. Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke, I will dry up the sea. I will make the rivers of the wilderness. Their fish shell, their wilderness, their fish stinketh because there is no water and dieth for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness. And I make sackcloth their covering. There’s a sense in which God is going to put them away. He’s saying, actually, you’ve sold yourself. You put yourself away here. But the idea is they’re going into captivity. They’re going to be punished for what they’ve done. And it’s a day of blackness. It’s a day of darkness. It’s a day of mourning. That’s the kind of idea. You see this all, I won’t look it up, but I look at Jeremiah chapter 4. Versus 26 to 28. We have the same type of language used for a bad time. we talked about the moon becoming his blood. These are dark days when bloodshed will be the associated with that period of time, war. Civil wars. We looked at that in chapter 6 here, verse 4. And we talked about it last week. When I referenced Acts chapter 2, verses 17 to 21, on the day of Pentecost, Peter sees not only this is that which is spoken by Joel the prophet, the giving of the spirit, but we also have the idea of speaking in foreign languages at that time so the gospel can go out and associated with that is this idea of the moon turning the blood, the idea of judgment upon the nation of Israel, which is going to come shortly upon the nation. So I won’t reiterate and go through all that again. Then he says the stars of the heaven in verse 13 fell upon the earth. Now, we could just take this in the sense of darkness again. It’s still connected with darkness. But in scripture, you will know that sometimes stars speak about leaders, those in power or authority, social or spiritual in the nation. It’s interesting when Joseph had his dream, remember there was the sun and the moon and the stars all bowed down to him, and his brothers picked up on that immediately because the stars were them. They were bowing down. And the son of the moon was the father and the mother, all recognizing Joseph. There are 12 stars representing the 12, tribes of Israel. The leaders of the tribes or the stars. And that seems simple enough. When you read about the woman in chapter 12 of Revelation, who has the 12 stars on her head, these are leaders. There’s some type of leadership involved, or at least the tribe leaders, representing all the 12 tribes, yes. In Revelation 1, the seven star, that’s exactly right. That was the next thing I was going to mention. In Revelation 1, the stars are the leaders of the church, the pastors of the church. And you remember in Jude Chapter 13, when he talks about the false prophets who were getting up, teaching people, leading people astray, what does he call them? Falling stars to whom the blackness of darkness is reserved forever, right? He calls them falling stars. That’s Jude verse 13. Wondering stars. Shooting stars. They’re falling. Also, if you want to look at Daniel chapter 8, verse 10, I won’t have you do it this morning, but he talks about Antiochus Epiphanes and casting down some of the stars of heaven. And I think he’s talking about the leadership there. Those of you are really interested to read Calvin on that passage. And you’ll see. Daniel Chapter 8, verse 10. I won’t pursue it any further. So it’s possible that the stars here are representative of some type of notable leaders that are going to fall and rather quickly like untimely fix. And then he says the heaven departed as a scroll when it was rolled together. verse 14. Here we have the destruction of national Israel and the establishment of a new world without the Old Testament order of things. The rolling up of the spiritual past and something new will be established. Let’s look at Isaiah Chapter 34, 1 to 6. A real quick. In this regard. Would someone read that for me? Would you do that, Russell? Isaiah 34, 1 to 6. Come near, ye nations, to hear, and harking, you people. Let the earth hear. And let all that is there in, the world, for the indignation of the lury upon all their armies. He hath utterly destroyed them. He hath delivered. And does they fall? and shall we bathe them heaven? So here, we know that this judgment is really against a doomy error. And you recall, this judgment is not something that’s in time, but he uses the language here of the heavens being rolled up and dissolved and so forth here. As far as that nation is concerned, it’s all going to be destruction. And so forth. In Revelation 6, I think it’s speaking of Israel, and therefore it has the same kind of connotation. And then he says in verse 14 also of Revelation 6, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. The kingdoms of the earth here, and even the far-off islands of the sea, are going to be moved. He says, and this word moved in the Greek here, stir, excited, shaken, agitated. Sort of like what we read in Revelation 18, when all the people are mourning because of the loss of Babylon. This language, if you look at, let’s look at a couple of passages here. One is Ezekiel. Again, I don’t wish to make this tedious, but I’m just trying to show you how this language can be used. and how it is interpreted and can be interpreted without us coming to the end of the world as we know it. Tim, could you read verses 15 to 18 for us? What did I say? 26. Ezekiel 26, 15 to 18. Here’s the city of Tyre going to fall. And notice how the language is connected here. fall and how that these various, you know, even far away places are affected by tires fall. We something similar we find in Isaiah 64, one to four, and I’ll read that for you. O that thou wouldest rend the heavens and thou wouldest come down and that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, if the fire causeth the fire causeth the utters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence when thou didst terrible things, and we look not for, which we look not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence, for since the beginning of the world, men have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, besides, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. And here the mountains are going to flow down, are going to melt at the presence of God’s judgment, so to speak. Not literally, but symbolically. You know, here we have this idea and the hope that the remnant will have in the Lord God. Any questions about this kind of language as we go on? All right. part verses 15 to 17 of Revelation 6 we have what is the desire to hide from the wrath of the lamb none are going to be able to escape regardless of how hard they try maybe their privileged status isn’t it’s not going to that’s not going to help them even if they’re insignificant and nobody who cares about this person they’re not going to escape either this passage is not speaking again of the end of the world, but rather the end of apostate Israel. The proof of this comes from a key passage in Luke 23, and I will have you look at this with me, because this is quoted here in Revelation 6, what Jesus says in Luke 23, verses 27 to 30. Here he is Jesus. He’s on his way to his crucifixion, and there followed him a great company of people and a woman which also bewailed and lamented him, but Jesus turned and said unto them, and turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming in which they shall say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bear and the paps which never gave. suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains fall on us and to the hills cover us. Do you see what he’s saying here? He’s connecting this idea of the hiding from the wrath of the lamb that’s mentioned in Revelation 6 with a punishment upon Israel for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And it’s coming. Notice he gives the time frame for you and your children. We for yourselves and your children. It’s going to come shortly. Not five generations down the road, not 10 generations down the road shortly. Josephus records how the Jews tried to hide in rocky caverns and hiding places under the earth to escape destruction. This is from his war’s book six chapter seven, paragraph three. So now the last hope which supported the tyrants. and that crew of robbers who were with them was in the caves and caverns underground. Wither, if they could once fly, they did not expect to be searched for, but endeavored that after the whole city should be destroyed and the Romans gone away, they might come out again and escape from them. This was no better than a dream of theirs, for they were not able to lie hid neither from God or from the Romans. And they were found out. There are actually caverns under Jerusalem, where some of them hit as well, as other places in the land. So the seven seals here. Any questions on this last section we looked at? Let me say this, and I’m going to draw some practical conclusions we end this chapter. The first thing I want to mention is this. There’s much debate over literal and symbolic interpretation of prophetic truths. Really, all interpreters are literal and symbolist on some points and symbolist on others. For example, Christ is portrayed in the Bible as a lion, as a lamb, as a root and as a rock. No one, and I mean absolutely no one takes those literally. You must recognize that symbols are used throughout the Word of God, often right alongside literal language. I challenge you to interpret this phrase of Christ, strictly literally or strictly symbolically symbolically. Jesus at one point said, Let the dead bury the dead. Try to explain that. If you take them both literally, can you do it? Can dead people bury dead people? No. But spiritually dead people could bury dead people that are physically dead. So you begin to see that one phrase, here’s phrase, he’s using the word dead in one sense, in the sense of spiritually dead, but in the other sense of the physically dead. that. And so these are the kinds of things you find something in scripture. The point is, you can’t make an artificial approach. Some people say, when it comes to prophecy, I will always take the Bible literally unless it’s impossible to do so. That’s not the way you should approach prophecy. What we should say is, I will look and see how the Bible uses this language elsewhere, and then I will use that is a guide to help me interpret this passage of scripture. I think that’s the way. Let scripture help us interpret the scriptures that are more difficult. I just want to drawback to this approach. It requires hard study. It requires familiar. You have to be very familiar with what the scriptures, especially the Old Testament, teaches. So we look at all these passages we looked up because the language was similar. So we could sort of get a handle on the language here in Revelation. And that takes out a lot of the speculative guesswork. We can say, well, okay, this seems to indicate this. This seems to indicate this. And so forth. And so I suggest that that’s how we should approach these things. Now let me make some quick practical observations. One, let it be clearly seeing that conquest, war, bloodshed, and death, famine, pestilence, and so forth, are sent as a judgment by God on the wicked through the reigning Christ, as the first part of Revelation and the first four seals indicate to us. These tragedies don’t come haphazardly. They don’t come randomly. They’re weapons of Christ he uses to subdue the enemies of his kingdom. Israel was guilty of crucifying Christ. and trying to exterminate the church. So the penalty for such evil behavior was going to be severe. I like that phrase, come and see. Come and see. Here’s a command for believers to perceive the hand of Christ in these judgments. As the king of kings ruling upon his throne. Pondered carefully, he tells us. The second thing is, the righteous, even glorified saints, saints have a right to expect Christ to avenge the harm that’s done to them. According to Revelation 6, 9, through 11. Vengeance doesn’t belong to us personally. It belongs to God. Venge not yourself, is what the scripture says. God says that he owns vengeance. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, said the Lord. And therefore, your duty is to take your complaint to the judge of all the the earth. Let Christ meet out the judgment. When we sing the Psalms and we speak about judgment on the wicked, that’s what we’re doing in a sense. We’re asking the Lord to fulfill his word and judge the wicked. So we are the enemies of the kingdom of God. Shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them, I tell you we’ll avenge them speedily, Luke 18, verse of 7 and 8. Such prayers can’t be sinful. for even those saints in heaven under the altar are crying out for God to avenge their deaths. The third thing is this. The persecutors can only kill the body. There’s nothing they can do against your soul. The martyrs here have been put to death, but where are their souls? Their souls are in heaven. Their souls are with Christ, and they’ll get the rule in the rain. with Christ according to Revelation 20. And that’s the promise also in Revelation 3 that is given to the people of the church. The fourth thing is this. The wrath of the lamb is terrifying the face. The last verses here, verses 15 to 17. Notice the degree of terror which overwhelms these enemies of the people of God. When Christ begins to meet out his judgment, They’re desperate to escape Christ, the king’s anger when it’s kindled. And they call upon the mountains, you know, cover us, hide us in the… And so forth. The Christ is the lamb. Yet, when angry, his fierce anger is like a roaring lion, who can stand before him? Now think about this. You perish without any remedy. If you don’t, under the judgment of the one who is the Redeemer of men. He’s the Redeemer. He’s the only hope you have a salvation. He’s bringing judgment against you. You’re in big trouble. You will be most miserable. All the terrors which fell upon apostate Jews of Judah and Jerusalem are just a small picture of what will happen on the day of Christ when he returns. And there’s true judgment at the Great White Throne Judgment on all. those who know not the Lord. Any thoughts? Any other thoughts on this? Maybe there’s other practical thought you could think of to add to this. All right. Well, let’s close this for the word of prayer.