Good morning and welcome back to another study of God’s Holy Word. I am so glad that you are joining me, I pray each morning that you are being blessed by the wisdom of His Word and the connection to God through it.
Today we will be finishing out chapter 6 by examining Jesus' opening of seals 4-6. Recall from our last study (chapter 6 part 1) that Jesus has taken the scroll from God the Father on the throne and He is sequentially opening the seals one by one. We saw him already open the first three and as a result, riders upon horses have been unleashed along with their judgments upon the Earth. The first horse was white and brought the world false peace through the deceit of the antichrist. The second horse was red, and it was a terrible war that racked the planet in the midst of the false peace. The third rider was black and was famine. A great many died of hunger as the ravages of war caused a food shortage the world has never experienced. Let’s continue today looking at the opening of seals 4-6 and the judgements God will have them bring upon a world that continues to reject Him in pereference of their own sinful ways. Let’s explore Revelation 6:7-17:
“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.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to 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.
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave[d] 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?”
6:7-8 – “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.”
Jesus, thoroughly in control, continues to open the 7 seals from the scroll as He is in the throne room of Heaven. The fourth of the seven seals is one of death. Death on a scale never before seen on this planet. The rider is on a pale horse. The color ‘pale’ is meant to resemble the horrible, lifeless, ashen color of a dead body. The rider is clearly described as death, exactly what he is to bring to the Earth. It says that Hades follows him. While death takes the body, Hades is the place where the spirit of a man without salvation in Christ goes.
Death was given authority (from Jesus) to kill 1/4 of the Earth. A quick google search reveals that the population of the world today is about 8.1 billion people. Some quick math reveals that if this judgement were to take place today that the pale rider would claim an amazing 2.02 billion lives. That would be the equivalent of the entire continents of Africa and Europe both being wiped from the planet. Death will exist on an unprecedented scale in this period. So how will the death take place? Four ways: war, famine, pestilence (disease), and wild beasts.
We have already seen as the result of the 2nd seal, the red rider which brought the greatest world war ever seen. War of course will always bring great loss of life. We have also seen famine as the third seal, the black rider. The scale of the war in the great tribulation will scorch the land and food production will all but cease. The lack of food will cause great death. The third is “Pestilence.” Pestilence is a fatal epidemic disease, like the bubonic plague. In the midst of war and starvation, a disease will arise and have catastrophic results. The fourth way of death mentioned is by wild beasts. I don’t necessarily think this means that countless packs of lions will be roaming the streets killing people. We just mentioned the black plague, remember how it was so effectually spread as to decimate 1/3 of Europe in the mid 1300’s? And how was it spread? Rats. It seems very likely that something like this could very easily happen again being spread by wild animlas.
6:9-11 - “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? Then they were each given a white robe and told to 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.”
We shift gears here a bit as the fifth seal is opened. The first four seals have had two main components. A force that brought a judgement and a punishing result of that force. The fifth seal differs. When it is opened, the apostle John sees “under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.” These are saints (believers/martyrs) that have been killed during the first 4 judgements (seals) here in Revelation chapter 6. During the great tribulation there will be an unprecedented time of persecution among believers. But I know what you might be saying, “I thought all of the believers were raptured, so how are their still believers on Earth?” Great question and you would be right, at the inception of the rapture, Jesus snatches all the “current” believers up to meet Him in the air. But after the rapture and because of the judgments that befall the world, a great many will come to Christ. Even though they are now saved by the blood of Jesus; they will have to live and endure the remainder of the great tribulation. Just because they believe in Jesus does not mean there will be individual raptures to take them out of the world. As the antichrist’s kingdom continues to grow, the world will worship him on a massive scale. As a result, if you call upon Jesus as your Savior during this period, you will be seen as being in direct opposition to the antichrist. These “new” believers will be persecuted and murdered for their faith by the millions.
In the fifth seal we see the souls of these martyrs in Heaven crying out to God for justice. To punish those who killed them for placing their faith in Jesus. So you see the force of this seal is not in a horse and rider but in the power of prayer to God. The prayer of these saints will cause God to judge. They are comforted by God as He gives them all white robes. These are of course metaphorical robes as it clearly says they are souls at this point and have no glorified bodies. The white robes were a reward of grace and symbolized God’s gift of eternal righteousness. God also comforts them with the phrase “rest for a little while.” This is God’s promise that evil will be judged not only for them but for all saints that will die during the great tribulation. But it will be done in His timing.
The sixth seal. We will next look at the sixth seal. At this point we should take a deep breath, exhale, and prepare ourselves to experience the true power and wrath of God upon a people that continue to harden their hearts against their creator. Folks, to me, the sixth seal is one of the scariest, most incomprehensible passages in all of God’s Word. It’s just hard to understand the destruction, devastation, and horror that God will release upon a world that continues to reject Him. Let’s look carefully at Jesus’ opening of the sixth seal.
6:12 - When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood.”
We will see 7 distinct events that happen during this amazing event. (more sevens) The destruction starts with an earthquake the likes that the world has never witnessed. It is an earthquake that in its magnitude, causes many cataclysmic after-events we will look at shortly. Throughout history Earthquakes have been the single biggest cause of death among all natural events. In the last 4,000 years earthquakes have claimed over 13 million lives. It seems very plausible here that God would use an earthquake to trigger the single biggest destructive event that the world has ever seen. In fact, God often makes His presence known by shaking the Earth (Ex 19:18, Psalm 68:8, 1 Kings 19:11-12, Matt 27:51, 54) But folks this will be no mere tremor, it will not even be a "massive" earthquake, it will be the earthquake.
The Richter scale was developed in 1935 by Charles Richter to measure the strength of an earthquake. It can range from 5.9 to 10. The notable thing about the Richter scale though is that it is exponential in its measurement. Meaning that the difference between a 7 and an 8 is not just a standard increase that would be the same as between 6 and 7. The intensity (damage) grows greatly between the scale. For instance, the difference between a 7 and an 8 is 31 times greater in its power than from 6 to 7. One of the highest Richters ever recoded was in the Indian Ocean in 2004 which was a 9.3. It caused widespread damage in over 14 countries and killed an estimated 230,000 people. Scientist estimate that anything that nears a 10 on the Richter would be absolute destruction of everything. Folks, God has an 11 saved up for this day.
The earthquake has a ripple effect. It causes the sun to “become like sackcloth.” Sackcloth was a thick heavy cloth made from the hair of black goats and was worn by mourners. Naturally you could not see anything through it. The sun will be turned as black as night. This more than likely will be the result of the many volcanic eruptions that are likely to be taking place as a result of an Earth changing event like this earthquake. Read this article:
“The Tambora volcano in what is now Indonesia blew its top in April 1815, killing more than 60,000 people and turning the summer into winter across much of the Northern Hemisphere. It is considered the largest eruption to have occurred in the last 750 years. Because Tambora ejected sulfurous gas that generated sulfate aerosols into the atmosphere, which block sunlight, the eruption created a year without a summer, leading to food shortages -- people were eating cats and rats -- and very general hardship throughout Europe and eastern North America," said Stephen Self, an adjunct professor of earth and planetary science at the University of California, Berkeley and an expert on volcanoes.”
The sun will become like sackcloth. It also says the moon will become like blood, likely another result of the atmosphere being polluted with ash, gases, and toxins from this earth splitting event. The color and intensity of the moon will pierce the cloud of toxins with a different effect.
6:13-14 – “And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.”
The stars falling from the sky is not actual "stars falling into the Earth" as the original Greek here is much different. Also, since our sun is a star, if it were to collide with the Earth it would be absolute destruction of the entire planet before it even made contact. This is much more likely interpreted as an asteroid or meteor shower pummeling the Earth. Apparently, the eartly imbalance causes some type of atmospheric disturbance as it says it causes the sky to vanish like scroll that is being rolled up. Every mountain and island will be removed from its place. Folks, are you getting the magnitude of this event? Notice God uses the word ‘every’ here which means every. Every mountain and island will be moved from its place. The continents will shift, mountain ranges will fall, islands will be removed from the face of the Earth, and it will all happen in total darkness.
6:15-17 – “ Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave 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?”
Here we will see the result of this event upon the people left in the world. God is careful to give us a list of the people affected and again it is a reoccurring number 7. The “kings of the Earth” refers to the heads of state throughout the world. The “great men” are high ranking government officials. The “commanders” are military officials. The “rich” are the super wealthy, the “strong” are the influential. Lastly, we have the all inclusive classes of “slave” and “every free man.” Folks this is everybody. You cannot have any person left on the planet that does not fit into one of these seven categories, which I think is God’s point. This event will affect every single person on the planet in a way that will force them to recognize His power.
So, what will the people do? They will “hide themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains” They will flee to the mountains and try to protect themselves with what they think is strong and safe, the rock(s) of the world. How ironic that Jesus is called “the rock” and He will cause all unbelievers to flee to the rock to try and find protection and solace. This also makes me think about the elaborate cave like structures that the US government has created for officials to retreat to in times of catastrophe. Did you know that in addition to the huge Norad cave structure in Colorado Springs, CO, that the US government has up to four more extensive underground structures just like it? Again, how ironic that God predicts in these times, the military and political leaders will hide themselves in caves because this is exactly what they will do!
It goes on to say that even hidden in caves there will be no safety and the people will “call to the mountains and rocks, to fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” People will be begging for death and it will not come. What an absolute time of terror and panic this will be. But this is what it will take for people to finally acknowledge God. But alas, they will recognize God, but they will not repent. They will acknowledge that God is destroying the world, but they will continue to follow the antichrist. This will be a dark day for mankind in more ways than just the sun being blotted out.
Studying this passage makes me think of one word…why? “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Why? Why do people refuse to believe? Folks, the most important thing anyone will ever do in their life comes down to one single decision. What will you do with Jesus Christ? He offers us Salvation. He offers us eternal life with Him in Heaven. He offers us an abundant life here on this planet. He offers us the wisdom, comfort, and goodness of His Word. He gives us hope. He gives us joy. Why would anyone refuse this?
Yet here is a world today and one we see in Revelation, that will continue to reject Him in favor of their own way. The human race is indeed an arrogant, prideful, stiff-necked people. I pray today that you know Jesus. That you personally know the saving power of a God that only wants to give you true life. Simply admit that you’ve let God down, that you’ve broken His commands and that on your own you can’t please Him enough to get to Heaven. Tell him you're a sinner and in heart-born faith, tell Him that He is the only One that can forgive those sins. Folks, it’s just that simple. There’s no reason to suffer the torment of a life separated from God and there's no reason to suffer the torment of the 6th seal. God sent His Son and made it so simple for all. Believe in Jesus and accept life.
God bless you all and if you’re reading this you’re being prayed for.
Photo ~ 2 bees, one bloom - Fort Worth, Texas, USA
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