The Word Made Fresh
1Then I saw the Lamb open one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures call with a voice like thunder, “Go!”
2I looked then, and saw a white horse. Its rider had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came out conquering.
3When the second seal was opened I heard the second living creature call, “Go!” 4And another horse, this one bright red, came out. Its rider was empowered to take peace from the earth so that people would kill each other. He was given a great sword.
5When the third seal was opened I heard the third creature call, “Go!” I saw a black horse. Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius. But don’t spill the olive oil and the wine!”
7When he opened the fourth seal I heard the voice of the fourth living creature call, “Go!” 8When I looked I saw a pale green horse. Its rider was Death, and Hades followed him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and famine and disease and wild animals.
9When the fifth seal was opened I saw beneath the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the witness they had given. 10They cried out loudly, “Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge and avenge our blood on the earth’s inhabitants?” 11Then each of them was given a white robe and told to rest a bit longer until the number was complete of their fellow servants and families who soon would be killed as had they been.
12When he opened the sixth seal there came a great earthquake. The sun was dark as sackcloth. The full moon was like blood. 13The stars fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a storm. 14The sky disappeared like a scroll being rolled up, and all the mountains and islands were removed from their place. 15Then the kings and governors and generals and the rich and powerful – everyone, slave and free – hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16They called out from the mountains, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17The terrible day of their anger has come, and no one will survive!”
Commentary
1-2: The four living creatures were described earlier (4:6-7), and mirror the four living creatures in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezekiel 1:10). John hears one of them summon the first of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse.” Commentators have speculated on the identity of the four with often fantastic imagination. The most likely interpretation of the white horse with the bow-wielding rider is that it represents the kingdom of Parthia, Rome’s major opponent toward the east. Parthia stretched from the Middle East into Persia and from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. The Parthians were the only bow-carrying cavalry in the world of that day, and were known for their white horses. Any reader in the 1st and 2nd century would have recognized the white horse and rider with bow as a Parthian military unit, and would have concluded that John is describing a threat to the Roman Empire at the hands of Parthia.
3-4: The second rider to be summoned is on a red horse and is to take peace from the earth. The Romans called their particular brand of subjection the “Pax Romana,” the “Peace of Rome.” John’s first readers would have concluded that the second rider heralded the doom of the Roman Empire.
5-6: The third horse is black, its rider carrying a set of scales. John hears a voice among the four living creatures chanting a formula for the escalation of food prices; but wine and oil, commodities mostly purchased by the wealthy, are unaffected.
7-8: The fourth horse is a pale green horse ridden by Death with Hades close behind. The prophecy is that a fourth of the population of the world will die from famine and disease, war, and wild animals.
9-11: Remember that John is writing after a number of persecutions against the church have already taken place. When the fifth seal is opened he “sees” the martyrs of those persecutions asking how long it yet will be before they are avenged. God responds by giving them white robes and telling them to sit tight, that other persecutions are still to come and even more will be killed.
12-17: The destruction becomes world-wide with the opening of the sixth seal. The earth is split with a quake, the sun, moon, and stars become partners in the suffering. John “sees” everyone on earth – rich and poor, powerful and weak – hiding in caves and begging to die quickly.
Takeaway
This is surely one of the most frightening chapters in the Bible, with its terrible destruction of innocent people around the world. Looking back over the last two thousand years, though, much of that destruction appears to have already been unleashed. Let’s pray that the worst is near its end and that the peace God has promised will soon arrive.