Adult Class
March-June 2006
Revelation 6-7
Lesson 5
The scene in heaven is of a Lamb who has forcefully taken hold of a scroll. The scroll is sealed with seven seals and now the Lamb is about to open the scroll. We will see three groups of seven items (seals, trumpets and bowls) and they all follow a similar pattern. The first four are of one type, the fifth and sixth of another, then there is some sort of an interlude before the seventh, unique, one is taken.
John watches as the Lamb opens the first seal. Immediately, one of the four living creatures around the throne commands, “Come!” John sees a rider on a white horse appear, and the rider has a bow and a crown. He rides out as a conqueror. The fact that this rider carries a bow tells John’s readers that the rider is not a Roman soldier. Roman archers were foot soldiers only. The Parthians were horseback archers, and they were the greatest enemies of Rome at this time.
A second seal is opened and another of the living creatures commands, “Come!” A red horse appears, and its rider is given a sword along with power to create war among people on the earth.
A third seal is opened and the third living creature commands, “Come!” This time, the horse is black and its rider carries a pair of scales, a balance. Another voice comes from the area of the throne announcing prices: wheat is twelve times normal, barley is eight times normal—yet wine and oil are abundant. Following war, famine is almost inevitable, and Rome’s wheat supply came from Egypt.
A fourth seal is opened and the fourth living creature commands, “Come!” A horse appears, but it is of a “pale” aspect. In fact, the word means a sickly, pale green color. The rider of this horse was Death, and Hades, the realm of the dead, followed close behind. They had power to kill a fourth of the earth.
The first four seals have been opened, and they each revealed a horse and rider, whose activity was to deal conquest, war, famine and death upon the earth. They do not begin their activities immediately, but they are commissioned by God to their tasks.
When the fifth seal is opened, John sees under the altar the souls of martyrs who had been beheaded for the testimony about Christ. These souls are important, and although this is the first mention of them, we will see them again. They plead for vengeance, but they are given a white robe and told to wait until they are joined by others who will likewise be martyred.
Then the sixth seal is opened and an earthquake erupts. In addition, there are powerful signs in the sky: the sun is darkened, the moon turns red, and the stars fall. Besides this, the sky itself rolls up like a scroll, and the mountains and islands are shaken loose. This language would be very familiar to readers of the Bible, since God had used similar figures to describe the judgments upon kingdoms like Babylon (Isaiah 13:9-10) and Egypt (Ezekiel 32:7-10). In all, it seems that God is announcing a serious shattering of the normal order of things.
When this takes place, all those on earth, the high and the mighty as well as the low, seek to hide from the wrath of the Lamb. They ask who can stand in the day of such wrath and clearly they consider that they do not qualify.
We have seen the first four seals opened and they were all pretty similar: a horse and rider authorized to inflict damage on the earth. The fifth seal was different, as was the sixth seal. Now we are faced with a strange interlude as John is provided yet another vision. When we read, “After this I saw . . .” we know that the scene has shifted somewhat. Now John is watching four angels who are restraining the force of the wind.
Another angel comes onto the scene with God’s personal seal—His mark of ownership. He stops the other four angels from any destructive work until the followers of God have been marked with the seal, for the purpose of identification and protection. John hears the number of those sealed and it totals 144,000—all of these are on the earth, not in heaven.
We are given a list of the tribes (although Dan is missing and Joseph is represented twice), each of which has 12,000. Remember that numbers have significance in this book and the numbers here are important. The number 12 signifies unity between heaven (symbolized by the number 3) and earth (symbolized by the number 4). The number 1,000 stands for very high completeness. Adding and multiplying these numbers only strengthens their meaning. So, it seems clear that 144,000 signifies the number of true disciples of God on the earth, without a single one being overlooked. The true Israel of God is the followers of Christ on the earth (Galatians 3:7, 29; 6:16).
“After this I looked” lets us know that the vision has shifted yet again. John sees a tremendous multitude in heaven from all nations. They are wearing white robes, holding palm branches and singing praises to God. These are they who can stand before the wrath of the Lamb because they have come out of the great tribulation and have been cleansed by the Lamb’s blood. As they praise God, the angels fall down before the throne and worship God.
John is given an explanation for these and he also hears a description of their reward. These have been martyred for the faith, and so they are in heaven. Meanwhile, the 144,000 are still upon the earth, where they are still subject to persecution.
This sequence of events seems clearly to portray a series of judgments on the Roman Empire for its persecution and murder of Christians. Those who lose their lives for the sake of Christ actually gain eternal life in the presence of God. Meanwhile, those who persecuted them must face the awful wrath of God and there will be no escape.