Revelation 6a
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Revelation 6 starts the end times in full as Christ who last chapter claimed the scroll, which is the title deed to all of creation, from God the Father and is proclaimed worthy to open its seals and begin the ending of the fallen creation into what is to come after. The opening of the seals to the scroll mirror Jesus’s own telling of the end of the age to his disciples in Matthew 24. The first four seals of the judgement of the earth are often referred to as the four horses of the Apocalypse.
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At each opening of the seals on the scroll the contents are not read but acted out as to what is to come from each section. The first seal is opened and John hears one of the four living creatures, most likely cherubim, thunder “Come!” and he sees a white horse, its rider with a bow. Of the four commentaries I am reading for Revelation there is 2 1/2 interpretations on who or what this first horse and rider is.
Three of them are similar but distinct and the other is totally different. The three that share the similar view that the rider is Christ himself, Milligan, Schreiner, and Gill, but differ in the interpretation somewhat. Milligan sees the rider as unmistakably Christ, the living creature not calling the horse and rider to come forth but calling out to Jesus and embodies the longing of redeemed creation that the Lord, for the completion of whose work it waits, will take Him His great power and reign. He argues that this vision of a rider of a white horse is impossible to separate from the vision of Christ on a white horse in chapter 19 Revelation 19:11-15 “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.” White being the color that most often symbolizes heavenly purity, also the rider is given a crown, a crown of royalty according to Milligan, Schreiner and Gill, and he has a bow as a symbol of his war he is about to unleash on sin.
Schreiner mentions that the rider could be the Beast from Revelation 13 and that he has a white horse is a parody of Christ in chapter 19, but he discounts this view and says it is significant that the only other rider of a white horse in Revelation is Jesus, and this is Jesus going out to conquer through the spread of the Gospel.
John Gill ,who seems to be at least a partial preterist, preterist means that the views all of the visions in Revelation as already having taken place, also interprets the rider as Christ but the symbolism is different. He interprets the white horse as representing the ministration of the Gospel in the times of the apostles that were just now finishing, John being the last of them. The horse being a swift, majestic, and warlike creature, fearless of opposition and war and white denoting the purity of Gospel truths, the bow being the word of the Gospel and the arrows the doctrines of it. Gill also sees the crown as a crown of royalty given to Him by God the Father, sending Him out to conquer the world with the Gospel. Gill also mentions that this white horse and rider are the same as the vision in Revelation 19:11.
John MacArthur has a totally different interpretation of the first seal, MacArthur does not see the rider as Christ Himself since Christ opened the sealed scroll He cannot be the rider. He says that some may see the rider as the Antichrist but since the next three seals represent impersonal forces (war, famine, and death) the view of the first seal should be the same. He sees the horse and rider not as Christ, the antichrist, or the Gospel but as worldwide peace, a peace brought on by the antichrist but ultimately shattered by the second seal and its horse and rider. Before the terrors of the Tribulation come and the final battle of Armageddon there will come a period of worldwide peace, but it is a deceptive peace. The world lulled into a false sense of security soon to be followed by war, famine and death. The world’s desperate desire for international peace and security will serve as the bait for Satan's trap. The crown told of in verse 2 is the Greek word stephanos, which is a crown or a wreath given and worn as a prize, like the laurel crowns given to victors of competitions, not the diademas, or diadem, a royal crown that Christ wears in 19:12. Christ carries a sword in the passage of chapter 19 not a bow and the bow that the rider has does not mention having any arrows with it symbolizing that the coup the antichrist will accomplish will be a bloodless one, the world uniting in this false peace without bloodshed.
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The second seal is opened and red horse and rider come forth. There is pretty much a consensus on this horse and rider among the commentators, red is the color of fire and blood, and depicts war. There was some mentioning that some do see this as Christ again because He is depicted riding a red horse in Zech 1:8 ““I saw in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen, and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses.” or the red dragon, Satan who was a murder from the beginning. Despite differences of who the rider is the consensus is that this horse and rider is war.
Several make a point to say that this war is not between the righteous and the wicked but among the wicked alone. MacArthur sees this as a symbol of war but this war is the war brought about by the antichrist. He first brokered an unprecedented peace in the world but quickly turned and brought war to the earth as nations rise against nations.
Notice that the horse and rider were granted to take peace from the earth. This is the will of God and is under His sovereign control.
The sword that is given to the rider is described as great but the type of sword, machaira, refers to a short stabbing sword that a Roman soldier carried into battle or a dagger like weapon used by assassins. The great descriptor is used to describe the extent of the war not the size of the weapon.
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After Jesus breaks the third seal John is astonished to see a black horse with a rider coming, John was startled and shocked at the ominous appearance of this. The color black is associated with famine in the Old Testament and that the rider is holding scales in his hand is another symbol of the rationing of food in times of famine.
The voice John hears from in the center of the four living creatures is most likely God the Father as the four were stationed around the throne. God then tell of how devastating this famine will be, a quart of wheat is barely enough to sustain one man for a day. The KJV translates denarius as penny as in the time that the KJV was written it was taken as a penny was a days wages, but denarius in this context means that a days wages. The cost of food to barely sustain ONE person will be equal to a days wages, not a family but one person. Three quarts of barley can be purchased for that same amount but barley is far lower in nutritional value, it would be barely enough to feed three people but would be very low quality. Barley is commonly used to feed livestock.
MacArthur sees this famine as a continuation of first the false peace, then war which destroys farmland and kills workers leading to a global extreme famine.
The last part about not harming the oil and wine is less clear and the consensus on the meaning of it varies. It could mean that the rich will not be as affected by the famine and will still consume luxury items, or it alludes to Psalm 23:5 “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” and means that God’s people will be fulfilled and joyful. It could also mean that in that time olive oil was used heavily in cooking and wine in the purification of water so these were staple items in the home but because the famine is so severe that basic food staples will become priceless luxuries.
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The fourth seal is broken and this as shocking or more so to John, what comes forth is translated as a pale horse and rider, but the Greek work translated as merely pale is chloros, which is where we get the words chlorophyll and chlorine from. This is a pale green-yellow color and portrays the death characteristics of a decomposing corpse. This horse is the representation of death and its riders name is death. And hades follows him. Hades is the Greek god of the dead and king of the underworld in which his name became synonomous with.
MacArthur explains this as a death on massive scale as a result of the worldwide war and following famine and he said Hades is representing the grave and becomes the grave digger, burying the remains of Death’s victims. At the time that his commentary was written there were 6 billion people living on the Earth and 1/4 of them would be 1.5 billion, that number now just passed over 8 billion and 1/4 of that is 2 billion people that will die. He goes on to say that throughout human history disease has killed on a far more massive scale than war and the inclusion of wild beasts at first seems puzzling, but this is not top tier predictors like lions and bears attacking people, this would be mice, rats, and locust eating dwindling food supplies and them along with flies, mosquitoes, and fleas spreading disease at an unprecedented pace.
Milligan goes farther and says this rider is more than just bodily death this is the deeper meaning of death, death as judgement, the second death and eternal punishment and hades is not just the grave but hell.
These are the four horses of the Apocalypse and unless you hold to the belief that these visions are things that have already happened, which I do not and agree with many that if these things have already happened then why was the scroll sealed? This is the beginning of the troubled times, the Tribulations, these events could happen very quickly and could start at anytime and as we discussed Monday night regardless of our view of the Millennium or the Rapture, the bible is true and is Gods word for us and we are to be prepared for his coming, not cowering in fear and in isolation but actively spreading the Gospel to as many as we can, to save as many as we can before he comes and all of this takes place.