Free Bible Commentary
“Revelation 6:1-8”
Categories: Revelation“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him. When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.’ When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.”
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“This is the first of a series of three ‘sevens’—seven seals (6:1-8:5); seven trumpets (9:6-9:21); and seven bowls of wrath (15:1-16:21). These three series seem to run parallel to each other in a recapitulation pattern. This becomes most apparent when comparing the seven trumpets with the seven bowls of wrath because the objects affected are the same, only they suffer increased intensity of God’s judgments. The information revealed in the seven seals is more general in nature as the first six seals give a panorama of God’s dealings with mankind on earth, beginning with the coming of Christ and culminating in the scene of final judgment… All three series of sevens are simultaneous, although the trumpets and the bowls of wrath are more limited in time as they deal only with the ‘things which must shortly come to pass’ (1:1). (Harkrider)
When the worthy Lamb broke open the seven seals of God’s holy scroll, the contents were not revealed in written form but by vivid visions. When the first seal was loosened, the first of the fabled “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse” bolted forth. It was “a white horse” and “he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown…and he went out…to conquer” (verse 2). Although opinions vary about who this white horseman is, the evidence strongly suggests that it is Jesus. White is the color of holiness and purity and the Lord is perfect in His virtue. The crown upon His head is the “stephanos,” or victory crown, and Jesus appeared to conquer sin, and destroy mankind’s greatest enemy and his works of evil. This is really the theme of the whole book of Revelation. Jesus came to rescue and redeem a people for Himself by destroying him who had power over death (Hebrews 2:14-15). The scroll with the seven seals begins, appropriately enough with Jesus Himself, the only one worthy to open the book, and His mission in this world of pain and woe.
The breaking of the second seal revealed a red horse, and power was given to the rider “to take peace from earth” (verse 4). When the Gospel enters the picture, persecution is certain to follow closely behind. The rider was given a “sword” with which to wreak his havoc upon the earth. This is the same word that Jesus used when He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). This is the “short sword” and it is used to symbolize the persecution, mistreatment and violence people incur when they give their allegiance to Christ.
When Jesus opened the third seal, John was shown the image of a black horse with its rider holding “a pair of scales in his hand” (verse 5). There is more than one way to persecute a Christian, and this vision represented economic hardship. A denarius was an entire day’s wages for the average “day laborer,” so “a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius” (verse 6) represented extremely exorbitant prices just for the basic nutritional necessities of life. Famine is not depicted here because luxuries were still abundant. The rider was commanded, “do not damage the oil and the wine.” The worldly, wealthy people of society would still have more than enough to eat, but the impoverished would find it nearly impossible to merely scrape by. This type of persecution was a real problem for Christians in certain parts of the Roman Empire who refused to burn incense in homage to the Emperor. They could be branded as heretics or traitors, and ostracized from society with no way left to make a living.
The opening of the fourth seal revealed “an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death” (verse 8). “This fourth horse has a sickly, gruesome color, symbolic of disease and death.” (Harkrider) “Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.” “When these common woes of mankind are added to the specific persecutions brought on the saints, one can easily understand the agonizing plea of the souls under the alter embodied in the fifth seal.” (Harkrider) That distressing plea was, “How long, O Lord?” (verse 10)!!!
Please read Revelation 6:9-11 for tomorrow.
Have a wonderful day!
-Louie Taylor
