Jesus Christ, the Lamb, begins opening the seven seal judgments in Revelation chapter 6. The first six of seven seals unleash both earthly and cosmic judgments against the enemies of Christ and His church. There is an interlude, before the seventh seal is opened in Rev 8:1, in Revelation chapter 7, where believers are sealed, their eventual glorification in heaven assured, before the seventh seal is released in Rev 8:1.
Here's a brief outline of where we are at this point in the Revelavion to John...
Revelation Chapter 6 presents readers with the first of the three sets of seven divine end time judgments.
The narrative of these seven sets belong to the Jewish apocalyptic form of writing. They do not reveal a play-by-play unfolding of the future.
First century Jews and believers in Jesus, would have easily noticed that the trumpets and the bowls echo the plagues of Egypt and the bowls echo the trumpets.
John is helping his readers to recognize the similarities between Pharaoh's persecution of the Hebrew slaves the Roman empire's soon coming persecution of the church.
What's at stake is what has been written to the seven churches, where there is a constant warning of an impending trial and the repeated promise that the faithful will conquer.
The drama itself will unfold with the opening of the seventh seal in Rev 8:1.
These visions introduce the instruments employed by the Lamb, at the end of history, to bring His enemies to justice, in seals 1 through 4. Seals 5 and 7, reveal the rationale for His righteous wrath. Seal 6 reveals the coming climax of justice at the end of history, before the seventh seal is opened in Revelation 8:1.
Revelation 6:1-8 ESV
The Seven Seals
6 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 of wheat for a denarius, 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
John begins Revelation chapter 6 with his vision of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse borrowing from Zechariah's vision of the the four chariots. There are differences in the colors and other elements, but Ezekiel's vision of the chariots of God the Father, are clearly alluded to in John's description of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, in Revelation chapter 6.
These first four seals depict judgments that will happen on earth, against the enemies of Jesus Christ and His church.
Zechariah 6:1-8 ESV
A Vision of Four Chariots
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. 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.”
Readers are faced with four difficulties in understanding Revelation chapter 6:1-8...
Revelation 6:1-2 ESV
The Seven Seals
6 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.
These verses introduce the first of the four horsement of the apocalypse. Revelation chapter 6:3-8, describe the other of the four horses of the apocalypse in similar fashion and purpose. John goes to some lengths to make sure that the reader does not miss what these four hoursemen represent: conquest, war, famine, and death.
That there are four living creatures, represents that the whole earth, the four corners, north, south, east and west, will be affected by the coming divine judgements.
This is the obvious cycle of centuries of conquest by the earthly powers using military forces, with focus on the present one, Rome, but without any overt or covert indication of such.
The description of the rider causes most first time readers to think that this first horseman was Christ Himself...
The difficulty readers have is understanding who or what this first rider represents. That difficulty is the connection between the white color and the fact he was given a crown.
The difficulty, of course, for believers reading this, is that it is the Lamb that sends these destroying judgments against all four corners of the earth.
Believers will suffer as well having during these judgements. God is using the powers of evil as His instruments to deliver His judgment against unbelief and to test the faith of believers.
The rider can't be Christ, because He's the one opening the seal. Furthermore, this rider is identified with activities that eventually leads to death and leads to the martyr's cries in Rev 6:9-10
If the first rider is not Jesus, the best answer is that John is using the rider as a demonic parody of Jesus, just as the Beast in Revelation chapter 12, is a demonic parody of the Lamb.
The theological point to remember here, is that at the End of Days, Jesus isn't the gentle savior, He's the destroying judge. The saints, believers in Jesus Christ, need not worry, their eternal salvation in heaven is sealed.
This rider represents, currently, the Roman Empire, and future governments as enemies of the Lamb, depicting and anticipating the awful events that will befall believers in the near future and beyond.
This identification is confirmed by the 5th and 6th seals in Revelation chapter 6, which anticipate the two major concerns of the Revelation...
Deuteronomy 32:23-25 ESV
23 “‘And I will heap disasters upon them;I will spend my arrows on them; 24 they shall be wasted with hunger, and devoured by plague and poisonous pestilence;I will send the teeth of beasts against them, with the venom of things that crawl in the dust. 25 Outdoors the sword shall bereave, and indoors terror, for young man and woman alike, the nursing child with the man of gray hairs.
These verses are part of the Song of Moses, warning of continued unfaithfullness to Yahweh, God the Father, to the people of Israel, who were about to cross into the promised land.
God has always punished the unfaithful and worked with a faithful remnant. Not even Israel will be exempt from the judgments against unfaithfullness.
Ezekiel 14:1-23 ESV
Jerusalem Will Not Be Spared
Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 And the word of the Lord came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? 4 Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols.
6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the Lord will answer him myself. 8 And I will set my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 9 And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10 And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike— 11 that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God.”12 And the word of the Lord came to me:
13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God.
15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
17 “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, 18 though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
21 “For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
22 But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. 23 They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”
Revelation 6:9-11 ESV
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.
When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, John saw the souls of the martyrs, under the altar in heaven.
The design and contents of the tabernacle and subsequent temple were meant to mimic God's throne room in heaven.
There two altars in the tabernacle and temple,
John most likely alluded to this altar of incense in the opening of the fifth seal.
The altar of incense is specifically mentioned in Rev 8:3-5; 9:13, and its development in Rev 11:1; 14:18; 16:7.
Oddly, John places the martyrs "under the altar" instead of on top of it.
Revelation itself and Jewish writings associate this altar with the throne of God, and His sovereign purposes protecting the saints, believers in Jesus Christ.
John's placing them "under" this altar in Revelation chapter 6, emphasizes divine protection of the human soul, despite even physical death, spefically because of persecution in this instance.
The white robes given to the martyrs signifies their faithfulness and conquering, even in the face of persecution, in the same manner those in the church at Sardis were given white garments in Rev 3:4.
Revelation 6:12-17 ESV
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 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?”
In Revelation chapter 6, John uses many different Old Testament verses to allude to the cosmic judgments of the old heavens and earth being destroyed. Perhaps the clearest example would be Isaiah 34:1-4
Isaiah 34:1-4 ESV
Judgment on the Nations
34 Draw near, O nations, to hear, and give attention, O peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that fills it; the world, and all that comes from it. 2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host; he has devoted them to destruction, has given them over for slaughter. 3 Their slain shall be cast out, and the stench of their corpses shall rise; the mountains shall flow with their blood.4 All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall, as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.
The Hebrew word for "all their host" occurs only four times in the Old Testament, each of these four times refer to celestial objects.
Old Testament and Jewish apocalyptic literature commonly used "falling stars" to represent rebellious spiritual beings.
Isaiah 34:1-4 describes the fall of both human beings and spiritual beings opposed to God and His church.
Isaiah 34:4 describes the end times judgment of the "sons of God" assigned to the disenherited nations at Bable described in Psalm 82.
Psalm 82 ESV
Rescue the Weak and Needy
A Psalm of Asaph.
82 God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: 2 “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. 4 Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.” 5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; 7 nevertheless, like men you shall die, and fall like any prince.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!
Revelation chapter 6 includes the Lamb's opening of six of the seven seals. The first four seals were judgments that would soon happen in John's days and throughout our own history.
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