Revelation (Apocalypse) #6: ; Opening of the 7 Seals, Judgement will Come ; chapter 6
Introduction
We saw the last time the vision of the throne room (Revelation 4-5). In this view, Jesus, the Lamb who obtained the victory by his death and who is worthy of all honor in the same way as he who sits on the throne, receives the book sealed with 7 seals. This causes a wave of worship so far unseen in the book. 3 sets of seven (heptads) of judgements come in the form of seals, trumpets and cups. Question for thought: The judgements fall on the Nations while the church is in the heavens?
Reflection on the series of seven seals in particular
The same way of reading the three heptads can also be applied to the very interior of each of these groups of seven:
The opening of the first six seals (Revelation 6)
The language used echoes Zechariah 1 and 6, but the visions are different. Only the first four seals correspond to four horsemen (the 4 horsemen of the Apocalypse)
« Come » is addressed to the riders, not to Jean
First seal: A white horse, a rider receives a bow, a crown is given to him, he leaves
as a conqueror and to conquer. Two main interpretations of this rider:
Some people have attributed the rider of this horse as the person of Jesus, as later in Revelation 19 Jesus rides a white horse.
However, others have said this is the antichrist. The antichrist does try to mimic works the Messiah can do such as miracles (2 Thessalonians 2:9), and he seems bent on conquering the world.
Second seal: a fire-red horse, a rider with the power to take away peace on earth, with a big sword.
• Not only war, but:
Third seal: a black horse, the rider of which holds scales in his hand. When an invader practiced a scorched earth policy, fruit trees were destroyed; here the angel is ordered to spare them. The fact that wine and oil are not affected is interpreted in different ways:
Are the rich, who can afford such luxuries, spared?
A sign that there is a limit to divine judgment?
Usually, vines and olive trees recover more quickly from drought and floods?
Fourth seal: a greenish-colored horse (color of death), whose rider is called the death. He is accompanied by Hades (or the world) of the dead, and power is given to them (note the verb in the passive, indicating that it is God who grants them this power).
The power is given to them over a quarter of the earth (meaning that they will kill a quarter of the beings
humans?)
The sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts quartet appears in other places in the OT:
Not just the result of geopolitical or economic forces
The fifth and sixth seals break the cadence. The structure of the seven seals is therefore 4 +3.
Sixth seal: John lists here 7 or 8 events or reactions to the opening of the 6th seal:
• a large earthquake;
• the sun turns black like a sack of horsehair;
• the moon becomes like blood;
• stars from heaven fall to earth;
• the sky recedes like a book being rolled up;
• all mountains and islands are moved out of place;
• all the inhabitants (kings, greats, military leaders, rich, powerful, but also slaves and free) hide in the caves and rocks of the mountains;
• beg the mountains to cover them in order to escape the judgment of God, “from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (note that the same authority of
to judge is given to the Lamb), for the great day of their wrath has come ».
• This language has its origins in AT:
o Ezekiel 32.7-8 (about Egypt)
o Joel 2.10-11 (against Zion)
o Isaiah 2.10, 34.4; Hosea 10.8; Amos 8.9; Haggai 2.6, where it is obviously a question of the judgment of God, without it being necessary to understand this language in the literal sense
• This language is also that of Joel 3.1-5 [read it]. This text is quoted by the apostle Peter (Acts 2), at the effect that these things were fulfilled at Pentecost (but this great Day of the Lord
is now a day of divine grace before the great day of judgment) (the fulfillment in Acts 2 is not only partial).
• Here we have a mixture of poetic and apocalyptic language, paired with real disasters.
• Two possible ways to interpret this seal:
o a judgment, which prefigures the last judgment,
o the Last Judgment itself (I personally lean in this direction).