Crazy Horsemen Or The Evening News? (Revelation 6:1-8)
GIST: Death and destruction will come until Jesus returns; don’t be surprised and don’t be callous, but pray earnestly.
Last week, you guys had to watch a video of me from home since I tested positive for COVID, so thank you for your patience there. Today, three days after the biggest snow storm I’ve seen since living back in MO, we’re picking up in Revelation 6.
I struggled deciding how much of this chapter to cover this morning. Like chapters 4-5, it’s so interconnected, part of me wants to just dive in and tackle it in one hit. However, there are at least three distinct points that I want to be able to develop without them getting lost in the shuffle of all the imagery we have here. That being said, you might get three shorter sermons in a row! And since that might be all you’re going to hear at this point, let me dive straight into two “disclaimer-ish” statements, so I don’t make myself a liar and drag this one out ☺️.
1. Don’t Freak Out, But Let’s Approach This Humbly. This is where Revelation gets even more intimidating. After starting with a seemingly complex vision in chapter one, chapters two and three provided us with the more accessible portions of the letter (the letters to the seven churches). Then, four and five, though admittedly more complex, presented us with a picture of God’s glory and power and pointed to His plan. Chapter six shifts toward a pattern which will be repeated throughout the book, and is packed with the images most often associated with Revelation (all the destruction stuff). Parts like this are where people start really going crazy with trying to map out timelines. However, we know this was given to us to be understood, so we cannot allow ourselves to be lost in the noise surrounding possible interpretations. We will try our best to understand the core message, and when there are portions we cannot understand, it is most fair to just to prayerfully admit that. Albert Barnes made an excellent point on this when he said:
“He does no service in a professed interpretation of the Bible who passes over a difficulty without attempting to remove it, or who, to save his own reputation, conceals the fact that there is a real difficulty; and he does as little service who is unwilling to confess his ignorance on many points, or who attempts an explanation where he has no clear and settled views.”
2. There Be Parallelism Here! Furthermore, though there is much we might not fully understand about passages like these, keeping the structure and genre of the piece in mind is key. We’ve already addressed that this is apocalyptic writing, which means it will be steeped in imagery. Revelation, like much Hebrew writing, also uses parallelism. That means, it repeats certain truths to emphasize them. What we see happening in this letter in particular is what many call progressive parallelism. It’s important to understand this not so you can throw out a fancy word, but so we don’t get lost when we move through the letter. Events are repeated from different angles. That is why you will see the same types of things happening again and again. It is also why you will see things like worldwide destruction (possibly even whole-world destruction) more than once. We are getting several perspectives on the same events. Each time, however, there is also an intensification of the events. The idea here is not one of chronology, but type. Many people will look at Revelation and try and pin down when exactly in history this or that event occurred or will occur. The problem is, as we’ll see in this chapter, many of these events will continue to occur until Christ returns. They are not just a single event.
All that being said, today, I just want us to look at the first eight verses of chapter six this morning. Like last week, we’ll take the verses as we come to them, but here’s our gist for this morning: Death and destruction will come until Jesus returns; don’t be surprised and don’t be callous, but pray earnestly. Let’s dive into that!
I. Death & Destruction Will Come
1 Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, "Come!"
Here we pick immediately up with where chapter 5 left us. This perfectly sealed scroll (7 seals) is the plan and purposes of God. Only Jesus is worthy to open it, but He’s not just going to open it and read it. He’s going to make it happen. That’s why we see→
The Lamb Is Opening These Seals. What we end up seeing in the seven seals is probably two-fold. We see the destruction from which we need rescued: the natural results of sinning freely. We also see His plan of judging wickedness and working in the midst of brokenness. In both, don’t lose sight of the one who’s still in control even when the chaos we’re about to walk through is happening.
2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
First, let just clarify this point. Though Jesus is depicted as returning on a white horse later in Revelation, it’s unlikely He is being depicted here. White horses were symbolic of conquest, and that’s really the picture that we have here. In the world there is and will continue to be an ever present and constantly growing→
Conquering Spirit. It’s a desire to win, to be on top, to get what we want. That’s the selfish sin we all have within us, right? We have chosen to reject our true king, and have taken that crown upon ourselves. Jesus tells us the result of that decision will always be coming to conquer…and then succeeding in doing so. Ultimately, though, that will lead to seal two→
3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Destructive War. That’s what we see here. And that’s what we see all over the world, right? Last week, I wrote an article for the Farmington Press about my parents having to evacuate Ukraine. I quoted Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 where He says until He returns there will be wars and rumors of wars. This will continue to happen. People will be ripped from their homes. Lives will be destroyed. Why? Because Jesus is permitting, allowing us to do what our sinful hearts want to do. Which leads to the third seal→
5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!"
Scarcity and Inflation. Does this one hit too close to home? It’s almost impossible to turn on the news and not hear about shortages and inflation hitting out country…and we’re still better off than nearly everywhere else in the world!
Now, what’s the deal with the oil and wine? There seem to be two prevailing thoughts. One is that the world will be hit with these shortages, but the wealthy won’t be hit as hard. I think we all see that has always been the case, so I think that’s a reasonable interpretation. The other prevalent interpretation seems to be that this is actually God’s grace because not everything is gone. We see this kind of picture in the other seals, and it seems like the command is coming from the throne of God, so I think this is reasonable, as well.
So, we have a desire to dominant, leading to war, leading to scarcity, leading to→
7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
Death. Death and Hades are personified here, which is why the English translation has them capitalized. So we have death and the place you go when you die symbolically riding in. Then, the description of how death was going to come (Sword, Famine, Disease, Beasts) were the most common forms of death in the ancient world. They’re not too uncommon now either. ☺️ The picture is clear. Death is going to come. It’s the natural result of living in a broken world tainted by sin.
Now, we have a number ¼. What should we do with that? Well, it’s important to note that this is→
Not meant to be a literal fraction. This is one of the points where it’s important to remember these pictures are going to show us repeatedly the kinds of things that will keep happening until Jesus returns. We’ll see portions of the earth and the population wiped out in several of the images. If we try to start taking these numbers and adding them up, pretty soon, the math won’t work ☺️. It wasn’t supposed to! The picture is of widespread devastation. But→
Not everybody! And that’s grace. Even in the midst of such destruction, not all will be lost.
Now, I know that was actually pretty quick, and not revolutionary in any way. Nonetheless, I want us to let these sink in a bit→
TAKEAWAYS
This will continue to happen, so don’t be surprised. I titled this sermon “Crazy Horsemen Or The Evening News?” because this picture should be a very familiar one. Why? Because since Jesus ascended into Heaven, we have been living in the last days. Don’t let news of this world’s brokenness shake you. Stand firm on His promises that He is still in control of this mess! But→
This will hurt, so don’t be callous. When thinking about the situation in Ukraine, I’ve been struck with this truth. All over the world, real people are facing real loss and real fear. It’s so easy to become cold to that truth until it’s happening to someone you love. I’m guilty of this for sure. Let’s pray to have eyes to see the reality of their tears because→
Sin is destroying lives, and that should bring us to our knees. Not surprised. Not unmoved. Praying. Can we do that right now?
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