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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's Word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.
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Hello. Welcome to this period of Bible study. We are delighted to have the opportunity to spend just a few minutes in a consideration of God's Word with you. Our study today is going to come from the book of Revelation, chapter six. And so we invite you to get your Bibles and to check what it is that we have to say, to consider not only our understanding of the passage, but our application and make sure that we are faithful in our description and our explanation and in our application and that we are helpful and clear as we try to communicate those things. This program is called Back to the Bible and that is our fundamental focus. We want to please God most of all, and so we believe that in order to do that, we must go back to his revealed will in order to understand what he wants for us, what he expects of us, and also what he has promised for us. And so if we are making efforts and you don't think we're going back to the Bible for it all, then you can reach out to us@backtothebiblepodcast.com and we would love to hear from you there. There are resources available there, there's information about the program, there are archived lessons, there are previous episodes of this program, and we would love for you to use whatever is there to the glory of God. And we hope that that's what our efforts are bringing. Today, as we look at Revelation chapter six, we're going to notice that there is going to be a series of breaking of seals. Now, we met the Lamb in chapters four and five, the Lamb that was standing there as though he had been slain, the one who is described as the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David. And of course, this is a heavenly description, a heavenly picture of Jesus who is going to break the seals. Now, the seals would have been in a scroll, and as the scroll was being unrolled, another seal would have to be broken in order for it to be broken and opened even further. And so what we're going to see is these seven seals are going to be broken in succession. Now, the book of Revelation is fascinating because what you will have is you will have these seven seals broken, which will unfold into seven trumpets being blown, which will end up being seven bowls being poured out. And I don't think we're talking about, I don't think it's the same thing repeated seven Times just using different imagery. But we do have different ideas being communicated to us about what God is doing. Remember, I think the scroll that the one sitting on the throne was holding in his hand was his purposes for his people. And we'll see specifically which people and what purposes, to what end. And then those seals are this being carried out, this being executed, and this is what the Lamb, the lion like lamb, and the lamb like lion is going to do. And then we'll have the trumpets and the bowls, and we'll consider those later on as we move through our study of the book. Now what we do in chapter six is we open up with four seals and then five, the fifth seal, and then the sixth seal. And then what we'll have is, is an interlude or a break. And that will happen very often between the 6th and the 7th. Let's just go ahead and read in the book of Revelation. And we're going to start with verses one through five. Let's go ahead and read all the way through verse 8:1 8. Then I looked when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, come. And I looked, and behold a white horse, and he who sits on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out overcoming and to overcome. And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come. And another a red horse went out, and to him who sits on was given to him to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another. And a great sword was given to him. And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, come. And I looked, and behold a black horse, and he who sits on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, one coinax of wheat for one denarius, and one coinax of barley for one denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine. And when he opened the oil, the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come. Then I looked, and behold a pale horse. And he who sits on it had the name Death. And Hades was following him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth. So we see these first four seals being opened. And when the lamb. Notice that chapter six, verse one, opened the first four seals. A horse appears in each one of them. So you have in verse one and two you have the white horse. Verses three and four you have the red horse. Verses five and six, you have the black horse. And verses seven and eight you have the pale horse. Depending on your translation, it might render that an ashen colored horse. I think one translation even renders it a corpse colored horse. Maybe there's some questions about the precise color. But you have these three different horses. And it looks like the living creatures. I would take it to be those from chapters four and five. The first one calls to come and see the first white horse, and then the second, and then the third living creature, and then the fourth living creature. So I don't know the significance of that necessarily. But you see a connection between. Between what we saw in chapter four and five, that this is being carried out in this heavenly throne room scene. The lamb is opening it. The living creatures are calling to pay attention to it. And then you see these different horses. Now, when you look at the white horse in verses one and two, and I want you to picture this, I think that's the most helpful way to read and understand what's being said in the book is you read this and you try to picture it. So picture a white horse and the person who's sitting on it with a bow in their hand and a crown. I don't know that they put the crown on their head, but it was given to him, so I would suppose so. And he goes out. My text says, to overcome is overcoming and to overcome. Your text may say conquering and to conquer. He's having victory all over the place. Well, then in verses three and four, this red horse goes out and. And what he does is he makes war. I like the way that it describes it. There he is taking away peace so that men would slay one another. And he's given a great sword. So you've got a bow on the white horse and you've got a sword on the red horse. And then you have the third horse that's black. And he is given a pair of scales. You know, you think about the scales that kind of take teeter and totter back and forth. You put weight on one side and you put weight that would measure it on the other. So he's given scales. And here there's an interesting idea here about the amount of wheat and the amount of barley that's being sold for one denarius. And we'll talk more about that in just a moment. And then you have this last horse, this pale or ashen colored horse. And what happens with him is that a fourth of the earth is dead. Whether that's by sword or famine or pestilence. You see a fourth, and I don't think it's a literal number, but you have a significant chunk of people dying. Well, what do we know about these horses? There has been all kinds of what I would call wild speculation about these horses, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse and what they mean and what they represent and how they come and when they're coming and things like that. But this is the first place in this section of the book of Revelation where there is so much value in not, not just knowing our Old Testament, but seeing those connections in our Old Testament scriptures. Now, I just want to make mention of this in chapter one. I think we have to see Daniel chapter seven in order to understand it. I think as we go through chapters two and three, there are multiple references to the Old Testament. We have, for example, reference to Balaam and Jezebel. I think we need to know those Old Testament stories to make the application to, from the letters to the churches. And then we come to chapters four and five and we have this language of the lion of the tribe of Judah and the root of David that takes us back to like Genesis 49 and 2nd Samuel and Isaiah 11. So do you see how already how important, how valuable knowing our Old Testament is to understanding this book? Well, now we come to chapter six and I think it. If we don't know what's going on in the book of Zechariah, then I don't think we understand the horses. Because here John is. Maybe to somebody who doesn't know their scriptures, this would seem like a secret code. But I don't think Zechariah is. I don't think, excuse me, John is using a secret code to those who know their Bibles. Because in Zechariah chapter 1 and verse 7 and then over in Zechariah 6:1, in both of those places, you have reference to the horses that are being mentioned here. Now, what's interesting is when we go back to Zechariah chapter one, and we're going to take some time to read here because I think this is a valuable place to see John using the Old Testament In Zechariah chapter 1 and verse 7, on the 24th day of the 11th month, which is the month of Shabbat in the second year of Darius, the word of Yahweh, the word of the Lord, came to Zechariah the prophet, the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, saying, I saw at night, and behold, a man was riding on a red horse, and he was standing among the myrtle trees which were in the ravine with red sorrel and white horses behind him. Does that sound familiar? Then I said, my lord, what are these? And the angel who was speaking with me said to me, I will show you what these are. And the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, these are those whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the earth. So they answered the angel of Yahweh who was standing among the myrtle trees and said, we have patrolled the earth. And behold, all the earth is sitting still and quiet. Then the angel of Yahweh answered and said, o Yahweh of hosts, how long will you have no compassion for Jerusalem and the cities of Judah with which you have been indignant these 70 years? Yahweh answered the angel who was speaking with me with good words, comforting words. So the angel who was speaking with me said to me, call out, saying, thus, says Yahweh of Hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion, but I am very wrathful with the nations who are at ease, for I was only a little wrathful. But they helped increase the calamity. Therefore, thus says Yahweh, I will return to Jerusalem with compassion. My house will be built in it, declares Yahweh of Hosts, and a measuring line will be stretched over Jerusalem. Again call out, saying, thus, says Yahweh of Hosts, my cities will again overflow with good, and Yahweh will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem. Now, who. Whose horses are these? In Zechariah 1, I would say that they are the Lord's horses. Don't you see that these horses belong to Yahweh? They're God's horses. And what is their role? What is their work here in Zechariah 1? Well, their job are the horses. This is the end of verse 10. These are those whom the Lord whom Yahweh has sent to patrol the earth. These horses are giving a report to the Lord about the conditions and the circumstances that are going on on earth. Now, does God literally need people on horses giving him a report? No, he knows everything. But we have this imagery now, the objects of their work, I want you to notice this, are the enemies of the people of God. So what you have here in verse 11, they have been patrolling, they have been watching, they have been scanning the earth. And what they see is that the enemies of God's people, the earth is sitting at rest, at ease, quiet. Now you would say, well, isn't that a good thing, that everything's quiet? No, because as you have the Description in verses 12 through 17, there are the people that God had used to bring judgment on Jerusalem have exceeded what they were supposed to do, and they have made this judgment into what the Lord calls a calamity, into a disaster. They have acted in an evil way, and so judgment is going to be coming down on them. So what you have here is you have these horses described here in a very similar way as what we're seeing in Revelation 6, right? And these horses are being described as those who patrol, those who see the need for judgment, and really those who make a call for that judgment in Zechariah chapter one. Well, I'm flipping over to Zechariah six. And this is verse one. I lifted up my eyes again and saw, and behold, four chariots were coming forth from the mountains, and the mountains were Bronze Mountains. Verse 2. With the first chariot were red horses, with the second chariot, black horses, with the third chariot, white horses, and with the fourth chariot, dappled horses, all of them mighty. Does that sound familiar? Those colors sound familiar. Then I answered and said to the angel who was speaking to me, who what are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said to me, these are the four spirits of heaven going forth after standing before the Lord of all the earth, with one of which the black horses are going to the north country. The white ones go forth after them, and the dappled ones go forth to the south country. Now the mighty ones went out and they sought to go patrol the earth. And he said, go patrol the earth. So they patrolled the earth. Then he cried out to me and spoke to me, saying, see, those who are going to the land of the north have caused my spirit to have rest in the land of the north. All right, now these horses have chariots with them. But I think we can definitely see the connection between these horses in Zechariah 6, the horses in Zechariah 1 and the horses in Revelation 6. What's their role? Their role is to patrol the Earth, and they're going in every different direction in order to patrol, in order to watch, in order to scan and notice that in verse 8 it says that those are going to the land of the north. I would take it in Zechariah that that would basically be the direction of the primary enemies of God's people. Those horses that are going to the north have made God's spirit to rest. So the world was at peace, and God was not at rest with regards to that. He wanted something done about that in Zechariah. 1. And now those horses that have gone to the north have made God's spirit rest. I take it to be that what he's saying here is, is that they had carried out his task. Okay, so when we come back to Revelation 6, what would we say that someone who's read their Old Testament book of Zechariah would know about these horses? These are horses of God's patrol and God's judgment. They are giving reports to the Lord about the circumstances, particularly of the enemies of God's people. And when they see enemies of God's people at peace or at rest or at ease or in quiet, they're reporting about that and that God will use them to bring judgment on the enemies of God's people. I think all of these horses are parallel. White, red, black, and ashen, or pale. And they all are God's horses exercising God's judgment. Now, we do not know who they are executing judgment on. We do know that the work of these horses in Zechariah was to execute justice on those who oppress God's people. Now, this does not appear to be a total, final, complete, devastating judgment. And what I mean by that is the whole book of Revelation continues to develop, and perhaps there are more opportunities for these people being provided. For example, in the case of the third horse, the horse that brings the famine. Notice that this doesn't appear to be a lengthy drought or a lengthy famine, because the only crops that are affected are the plants with shallow roots like wheat and barley, these annual crops. But it's not the things like the olives or the grapevines. The wine and the oil are not affected. Now, these items, I would say that the wheat and the barley and the grape and the olive, I think they represent the. What we might think of as staple crops of the Mediterranean world. These are what people would have grown and what they would have eaten and what they would have drunk. And so with this description, you have a total picture. And what you have is you have the wheat and barley famine, but not yet the. The wine and the oil. Now, let me say that even with the fourth horse that kills a quarter of the population, this doesn't appear to be total devastation. However, the means that death uses to execute its work is referred to in the same terms as God's judgment that had been brought on his people. Jerusalem, in the book of Ezekiel, in chapter 14, Ezekiel 14:21. As the Lord is describing the punishment that came on Israel, he says, for thus says Lord Yahweh, how much more when I send my four calamitous judgments against Jerusalem, sword, famine, wild beasts and plague, to cut off man and beasts from it. This is what Ray Summers in his commentary called Worthy is the Lamb, says all the above. Military, conquest, war, famine, pestilence, are forces which God can use to destroy the oppressors of his people. His Christians are to take courage. Their cause is not lost by any means. So I think the point of these horses is to communicate in a vivid picture that God sees, God knows, and that God can and will act. Now coming down to chapter six, verses nine through 11, I think this answers why God has to have these horses, that this judgment at work in the first place. And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and because of the witness they maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long, O Master, holy and true, will you not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And a white robe was given to each of them, and it was told to them that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. Alright, so this fifth seal is broken. And when the fifth seal is broken, I think we get a picture of the reason why God's patrolling horses, why his judgment horses are on the earth again. Remember, we're talking about symbols, we're talking about pictures here. Why is God, God concerned? Here we have the picture. Here are God's people. Notice that? That's what's being described here. They're under the altar. They are the souls of those who had been slain. These are people who, because of persecution and because they had maintained their testimony, their commitment to God's word, they have been killed. And they cry out to the Lord. How long? This is where the title of this series comes from. How long, O Lord? This, I think, is the key question of the book of Revelation. I think what you have here are people who are suffering at the hands of evil and ungodly men, crying out to the Lord, saying, how long are you going to let this continue? How long until you avenge us? Now, I don't know if there are literally souls crying out for vengeance, but what I want you to see here is that it is right, it is appropriate. The Lord doesn't say how dare you think about vengeance now? These people didn't get their own vengeance. They gave their lives. And I think those who are in paradise, I think those who have died, I think they are at rest. I think they are at peace. But what we have here is a symbolic description of those people who have been slain. They are crying out, whether they're doing that literally or just because they have been killed for the sake of God and His Word. They are crying out for justice. They're crying out for vengeance. They're crying out. And notice that each one of them is given a white robe and told that they should rest for a little while longer, until now. I think that's an indication that God has not forgotten he's got his horses on patrol. Those horses are tools for judgment as well. But they need to rest for a little while because notice it's not over yet. There are their brothers who were to be killed. The fellow slaves were to be killed even as they had been. And that number, that amount was going to be brought to completion. I don't know if there was a specific number in mind or if it was a period of time that we're talking about, but what the Lord is saying to those souls under the altar is that they are not the only ones who are going to have to suffer in this way. Now, this is the question that Revelation answers. How long, O Lord? The revelation will return to this image of the fifth seal. And we're going to have the idea here that the Lord is going to be responding precisely to this cry and this concern. Now we come to chapter six and verse 12. Then I looked when he opened the seal, sixth seal. And there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree cast its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. And every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong, and every slave and freeman and hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come. Who is able to stand? Now, when you see this sixth seal being open, you see all of these different things happening I think you would say that. You have calamity, you have darkness and you have stars falling and you have earthquakes and you have the sky split and you have all of these things, these, these mountains and islands are being moved. So this is calamity that is coming. It is earth shaking. In this case, it's how it's described. Earth shaking. Events are happening. And how do you the people respond? The people of the earth. Right. The kings of the earth, the great men, the commanders, the rich, the strong. Every slave and rich man. No accident that this is seven different groups. I think that says the total. Everyone is affected by this. And how do they respond to this? The way they respond is they hide and they plead. They would rather the mountains collapse and crush them and than them have to face the wrath of the Lamb. Well, these are descriptions of judgment. And what we're going to see is in the next passage. We're going to have a break, an interlude, to see who is on the Lamb's side in all of this. But until next time, we bid you a pleasant good day.
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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step, in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life.