Revelation 6:1–17

The scene now changes from heaven to earth, and we see the Lamb in His power and in His wrath, carrying out judgment. He had redeemed His saints by blood; now He redeems the inheritance by power. It is the Lamb who opens the seals, and judgment at once takes its course (Rev. 6:1).

The hour may be near when the Lamb will open the seals, and the judgments break out one after another on the earth, like the plagues on guilty Egypt. They are providential judgments — famines, wars, diseases, and death. They fall on this world as the seals are opened in order. But notice that the Lamb does not carry out these judgments in person. He opens the seals, and the judgments follow.

Through this long gospel day He has been the expression of the grace of God. Now He is in the very centre of the throne, the One who unfolds the judgments. His voice is like thunder, not now the soft sweet whisper of mercy. The four living creatures command the judgments to start. The unfolding of these seals simply shows us the exact order of the providential judgments that will take place after the Church is removed.

Should we have here, and after the other three horses, the words "and see"? They seem to be missing from the best text in all these passages. In every case the sentence ought to be simply "Come." The difference comes to this. "Come and see" would be spoken to John. But according to the better manuscripts, the living creature says "Come" to the rider on the horse. That clearly makes a considerable difference.

If we keep the words, they make it a call to John to "come and see." But why speak to John in a voice of thunder? If we drop them, the "Come" becomes a summons to the human instrument used in these punishments on earth.

The important point to notice is that the white horse comes out on earth because the Lamb opens the seal in heaven. The rider might be acting from his own will alone, but here we see the source of his activity. He might know nothing of it, yet he is still the instrument of the divine will.

As Christians we have the mind of Christ, that is, the power to discern. So we look behind the bare course of events and trace it all to the unseen source, God Himself. The living creatures, who carry out the will of the throne, call one after another on the human instruments of vengeance to do the task God has given them. They cannot move in judgment until the throne summons them. What strength this gives the heart in days of evil!

The living creatures are emblems of the attributes of God as shown in creation, and they are seen in heaven beside the throne — a throne from which judgment is carried out. If that is so, we are clearly standing on the ground of "the providential course of God's dealings." They are dealings in judgment, remember, by which He is about to make good His character in government on the earth… These complete the providential plagues spoken of in Scripture. Then direct judgments follow. These are what we may call preparatory measures.

The important point to notice is that the coming forth of the white horse on earth is the result of the Lamb opening the seal in heaven. The rider might be acting entirely from his own will, but here we are allowed to see the source of his activity. He might be completely unaware of it, but he is no less the instrument of the divine will. Lust of conquest might be his only motive, just as it was with Nebuchadnezzar long ago. Only God in His infinite wisdom knows how to make the wrath of man praise Him as He accomplishes His purposes.

No doubt Christ later comes from heaven on a white horse (Revelation 19:11). But a white horse only symbolises victorious power. Like the lion, the throne, the crown, and other emblems, Scripture uses it without regard to the moral character of the one it is connected with. Christ is called a lion, and so is the devil. God has a throne, and so has Satan. Christ has many crowns, and so has the dragon. The mere figure of a lion, a throne, or a crown proves nothing about the nature of the one spoken of. This must be learned from the context.

On the face of it, what could be stranger than to picture Him this way? He is the very One who, as the Lamb, opens the seals one by one. And when the sixth seal clearly points to Him, He still keeps the name of the Lamb!

The white horse speaks of the easy, bloodless conquests he makes. The bow speaks of the distant targets he reaches. The crown speaks of the success he attains.

God has used others in past ages to carry out His judgments on earth, and He uses this mighty conqueror in the same way. The man is not a monarch when he first appears. He gets his crown by his energy, his strategy, or his victories. God ordains the authorities that exist. So although this successful warrior may even seize his crown, it is still given to him. No one and nothing can withstand his seemingly irresistible power, as he marches on through victory to victory.

This is clearly a mighty subduing power at work in the earth. It is not only successful but increasingly so. It wins not in man's ordinary way of overcoming, by the sword, but by a quieter yet more powerful influence. The vision shows him with a crown given to him. It is not the many diadems of power and glory that Jesus will wear when He is revealed from heaven. It is a wreath, a garland, such as men award to one another, like the conqueror's wreath at the public games.

People have applied this to a great variety of things and persons — the triumphs of the gospel, Christ's coming again, Antichrist, and who knows what. But we may safely gather from the first seal that God, in judgment, employs a conqueror who is to carry everything before him. This is the notable event among men, the first thing to happen on earth after Christ comes and takes His glorified people to heaven.

There seems little reason to doubt that the seventh head of the beast is before us here… Remember that "the prince who is to come" is decisively a Roman prince. He is the one who will start that seven-year covenant with "the many" of Israel, the covenant that marks out for us the last of the seventy weeks in Daniel's prophecy.

The horses of different colours in the first four seals stand for the human agencies used to carry out these judgments on earth. These judgments are providential in character. But as Christians we have the mind of Christ, that is, the power to discern. So we look behind the course of events and trace everything back to the unseen source, God Himself. The living creatures act for the throne. One after another they call on the human instruments of vengeance to carry out the task God appointed them. They cannot move in judgment until the throne summons them to do so. What strength this is to the heart in days of evil!

It is plain enough that we should not have the words "and see" here, or after the other three horses. They are missing in the best text in all these passages. In every case the sentence should only be "Come." Here is the difference. "Come and see" would be a call to John. But in the better manuscripts the living creature says "Come" to the rider on the horse. That makes all the difference in the world.

It is hardly likely that a call to the Apostle would be accompanied with thunder. The word "Come" would be a call to the horses and riders, and with this, thunder would be quite fitting.

When the second seal is removed, we have the call of the second living being, that is, of the ox. In answer to this call, another horse comes out, red, the colour of blood. This is not the career of a conqueror. It is a general taking away of peace — everyone's hand, as it were, against his brother. So, civil war in all its dreadful reality... This is the fitting answer to the call of the second living creature. The ox is the type of the labourer, the one who meets man's need. It pictures the service that binds all people together.

How wonderfully our Lord bowed Himself to the yoke to serve the will of God and man's need!... It is this creature that calls out the second rider, on a red horse, who takes peace from the earth. Where people refuse the peaceable service of our Lord, war and bloodshed must follow. He would have prevented them.

He receives no definite commission, only liberty and authority to take peace from the earth, so that men kill one another. This liberty and authority — the great sword — lets him do the very thing fallen man is more than ready to do when left to himself.

The world, not the church, is the object of the judgment set out by the four horses. How absurd to look for the gospel in the white horse or any other! A war-horse of any colour never pictures spiritual work, though it is a fitting figure for aggressive power in good or evil.

It has been generally recognised that these first four judgments match those the Lord speaks of as "the beginning of the birth pains." He told His disciples about the future judgments coming on the earth in prophecy. He speaks first of "wars and rumours of wars." Then comes warfare among their own — "nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Next the Lord foretells famines, and last of all pestilence.

The rider is unnamed. It is the day of the Lord's vengeance on the guilty scene. That is why the pronoun "him" is repeated. It stresses that the direct agent of judgment is a man appointed by God for that purpose — "to him it was given." Whatever motives or political ambitions may drive this coming man of blood, he is God's scourge for the time being.

The one who sits on him is not the proud, prosperous victor whom people quietly submit to. He is one who, if he wins, waves his standard over heaps of the slain. So he has a blood-red horse — the symbol of power connected with frightful carnage. The result of the first seal may have been peace and fairly bloodless changes. Under the second seal, all is blood.

The Second Seal presents to us a red horse and a great sword given to its rider. Red is the colour of blood, and it speaks of immense slaughter. The great sword, in contrast to the bow, symbolises close conflict. It emphasises the thought of great bloodshed. Note, it is not only a sword, but a great sword.

He receives no definite commission. He receives only liberty and authority to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. That liberty and authority — the great sword — is simply to do what fallen man is most ready and inclined to do when left to himself. Who can look back at the first scenes of man's history, after God shut him out of Eden, and not sigh at this likeness of fallen Adam stamped on our race of Cain?

He has a divine mandate "to take peace from the earth," and "that they should slay one another." Wherever he goes he stirs up the angry passions of men. It is not "nation against nation" here, but that "they should slay one another." The wild passions of men are let loose, and a time of mutual slaughter follows.

With the opening of the second seal, John sees that a red horse comes forth and peace is taken from the earth. This surely shows what comes of the victorious career of the rider on the first horse. The nations rise in general revolt, fighting among themselves and shedding blood. The result is that peace is taken from the earth.

The lion is the symbol of royalty; the ox is the symbol of labour. This patient animal devotes its great strength to the service of man, working willingly for his good. How wonderfully our Lord bowed Himself to the yoke, to serve the will of God and man's need!… It is this creature that calls out the second rider, on a red horse, who takes peace from the earth. Where men refuse the peaceable service of our Lord, there must be war and bloodshed, which He would have prevented.

The third horse is black, the colour of mourning. The colour tells us that sorrows of a special kind must follow next — caused now not by bloodshed, but by scarcity... A denarius was the daily wage. It was hardly enough for one man's daily food. The choenix of wheat seems to have been a bare minimum, since it was the ration given to a slave... God is laying His hand upon the world.

The "pair of scales" in the rider's hand recalls Ezekiel's prophecy about the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army: "I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety..." (Ezek. 4:16.) It is an image that points straight to scarcity. The prices also show how extraordinarily dear the commonest necessities had become. They run at about eight times the rate current at that time.

Here we have the "high cost of living" pushed to the limit. A "measure" (choenix) was about a quart, and counted as one person's ration for a day. A "penny," as we know from the parable of the labourers (Matt. 20), was a day's wage... So we reach this appalling conclusion. In these coming days of unmatched scarcity, a working man's whole day's earnings will buy just enough food for himself — or for one other person besides himself, if he will eat the coarser food (barley). But what is to become of his family, his children, or others who depend on him?

The Third Seal gives us the black horse and the pair of scales in his hand. This speaks of what usually follows a bloody war: famine. Notice the necessities of the poor — wheat and barley — at impossible prices. Meanwhile the luxuries of the rich — the oil and the wine — go untouched.

The opening of the first four seals is directly connected with the four living creatures, who are not mentioned in the last three seals. The living creatures seem to stand for God's governmental dealings in providential ways. So however terrible the judgments under the first four seals, nothing in them will show a direct, miraculous intervention by God. They will not be unlike events that have happened many times in the history of the world. They may, though, surpass in intensity anything that has yet taken place.

The face of a man suggests intelligence, sympathy and all that is truly human... Our Lord fed the poor. Because of His rejection, the third creature calls forth the third rider, who stands for famine (Rev. 6:5-6). In the Gospel of Luke we have the parable of the great supper and the Father's feast for the son who comes home. Where these are refused, a famine must come — not only for the individual, but for the world which has rejected Him.

The white horse is the symbol of power in victory. The red horse stands for power in bloodshed. The black horse points to power that brings in a time of grief and mourning. Here, as in Zechariah 6:2, the black horse follows the red. "Our skin was black," says the weeping prophet, "like an oven because of the terrible famine" (see Lam. 5:10; Jer. 4:28; Jude 13, etc., for the symbolic force of this colour).

The scales in the rider's hand recall what Ezekiel said about the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar's army: "I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment." (Ezek. 4:16.) It is a picture that strongly suggests scarcity. The prices given also show how dear the commonest necessities of life had become. They work out at about eight times the going rate of the time.

In our country a penny suggests something of no great value. But in those times and places, a choenix of wheat for a denarius was very dear. Not long before, a man could buy seven or eight choenixes for that money. A denarius was the daily wage, and it was barely enough for one man's daily food. The choenix of wheat seems to have been a minimum, since it was the ration given to a slave.

Barley was generally eaten by slaves and the poor, being much cheaper than wheat and of a coarser kind. Here a denarius buys only one measure of wheat — just barely enough, and no more, to keep a person alive. But what about the many aged people, women and children who cannot work? If a denarius can only buy the food one person needs, what about the crowds who cannot work through weakness or other disability?

But while there is widespread desolation and want, God thinks of the needs of His creatures, and limits the effects of the famine by sparing the oil and the wine.

People could not live on oil and wine. Wheat and barley are essentials. People saw oil and wine as luxuries, found only on the tables of the rich (Prov. 21:17; Jer. 31:12; Ps. 104:15). So the punishment under this Seal falls mainly on the working classes. The rich and the ruling classes are clearly left out. But they will not escape. Under the sixth Seal (vv. 12-17) judgment falls on all alike, from the ruler down to the slave.

But the living creatures are not themselves the source of this providential chastisement. They are closely connected with the throne (Rev. 4:6), but God is the One who sits on it, and always will be. The one who sees the vision hears a voice from the very centre, from the throne of the Eternal, announcing a famine. God Himself is the source of these early, providential judgments on people on earth.

So an ordinary famine is meant here. Yet, as already said, there is a further link. The natural is everywhere a picture of the spiritual, and it depends on the spiritual as the lesser depends on the greater. So our everyday mercies are ours through Christ alone. Take away the one, the other goes. A natural famine is the fitting result of rejecting spiritual food. With the substance goes the shadow also.

The fourth seal was a pale, ghastly horse — the colour of death. So the name of its rider is Death, and Hades followed with him. To make the point plainer still, we are told that he was given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death (pestilence, perhaps), and by the wild animals of the earth.

The four seals deal with living men, so death, which carries them off, stands out most. Hades appears only as the one who receives those death has cut off — he acts as death's hearse, and that is why he is given no horse of his own. Hades does not follow after death; he comes with him. The two are keepers, one of men's bodies, the other of their souls. At the close of the thousand years' reign they give up their prisoners, and are themselves destroyed: they are pictured as persons and thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:14). Hades means the state that follows at once after death, the state between death and resurrection, and resurrection brings it to an end. Death and Hades are here used in relation to the ungodly only. The word Hades just means "the unseen," so the English word "Hell" is not a fair equivalent for it.

Each of the earlier seals names one instrument of judgment. Here there are four — the same four the Lord threatened guilty Jerusalem with long ago. The only difference is that here the "beasts" are named last, and "death," third in the list, should be read as "pestilence." The sword of the second seal and the hunger of the third come back under the fourth seal, joined by two more.

Death is given power over "a fourth of the earth," and comes down on it with God's four disastrous acts of judgment — "sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence" (Ezekiel 14:21). The sword ruins whole lands. The survivors are left with wasted fields and supplies, and die of hunger and plague. Wild animals leave their dens and prowl over the ruined country.

This is the natural outcome of what has gone before. Man's pride (the white horse) wants to conquer. That offends the pride of others, and so it leads to bloodshed (the red horse). Bloodshed leads just as surely to famine (the black horse), and the pale look of death from famine, pestilence and the like (the pale horse) follows close behind.

We are reminded again that these judgments — their order, their character, how long they last, how severe they are — all come from the throne of God. "Authority," we read, "was given to him," not to "them." Whether the text reads "him" or "them" is disputed, but the internal evidence decides it.

Here mercy seems to step in with a tighter limit: he is given authority over a fourth of the earth... So this is the natural end of the first series of seals — a complete end, except for the limit God's mercy sets. After all, the rainbow of promise stands over these clouds of terrible judgment.

In the limitations of the woes of the seal period, we see a mark of the lingering mercy of our Lord over this world, who is not willing that any should perish.

So man would explain these things away, and the wise are caught in their own cleverness. But we know in advance, from God's word, that a time of conquest is coming — then bloody warfare, then famine, and last of all the pouring out of God's severe plagues. The heavenly saints must be set in rest and peace in the presence of God, and the church safely sheltered, before these judgments begin.

The Fifth Seal differs from what came before it and what follows: all its action stays in heaven. The Lamb on the throne in heaven opened the seal, and John was there too. But in this one he sees no horses going out to earth, and none of the scenes on earth found in the sixth and seventh. His vision here is entirely of heaven.

The "souls under the altar" (the altar of burnt offering) plainly speak of them as a sacrifice given to God. The blood of such sacrifices was poured out at the base of the altar. In the life-blood, the soul — which is also the life — is said to be poured out. So Isaiah 53 says of Christ that He "poured out His soul to death." Here we have at once the implication that God accepts this offering of His people.

Their souls appear in vision "underneath the altar." On the altar would express the whole burnt offering being offered. But underneath it — where the blood of the sin offering was poured out (Lev. 4:7) — signifies that the sacrifice is complete. The martyrdom of the saints was not taking place. The scene was over… The martyrs are not seen here in life, nor as risen, but in the separate state, "the souls of them that had been slain."

Clearly their bodies were beheaded, for men cannot kill the soul. Their souls survived: they cried out with a loud voice, and they were told to wait for God's time to judge their enemies.

Here the true and real reason for their martyrdom is named, "slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held." The word of God, faithfully declared with its sharp claims on a person's conscience, always stirs up the hostility of the world. Those who set it out most faithfully in life and public testimony must seal that witness with their blood… "The testimony which they held" is not to the grace of God as it is now, but to the righteous claims of God in setting up His kingdom on earth… The sacrificial word "slain" fits the special character of these witnesses, who are probably Jewish.

Many people think that those in question are Christians. But if we look more closely at the passage, we may learn that this again confirms that the church has already been removed to heaven. Is their prayer or desire in keeping with the grace of the gospel?… Take Stephen's prayer, following our blessed Lord, the pattern of all that is perfect. On the other hand we have similar language elsewhere: but where? In the Psalms and the Prophets.

Their cry, "How long," shows that they know there is a limit to the persecution of God's people… Others are still to follow before the time of judgment is over. So they are told to wait a while longer, until the martyrdom of their brothers is complete. The white robes witness to their practical righteousness and so to God's approval. They witnessed for God as the Holy and the True, and men opposed and killed them, but God approved them and will avenge their blood.

Their being under the altar means simply that they had offered their bodies to God as sacrifices for the truth. The white robes are the witness of their righteousness — God's declared approval of them; but the time for their being avenged was not yet. I do not think that giving white robes is resurrection. The first resurrection is sovereign grace. It gives us the same place with Christ — "forever with the Lord." It follows on His work, and on His being our righteousness, which is the same for all of us. White robes given in this way are the recognition of the righteousness (righteousnesses) of the saints. So they are seen in Revelation 19:8, at His appearing. "They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy."

God hears the cry for vengeance, but delays the answer. In the meantime the Lord gives a token of special approval. He singles out each one of the martyred band for honour and vindication. "Then they were each given a white robe."

White robes are given them as tokens of Christ's approval. But they are still left as souls under the altar; not raised like the elders, who are already perfected by the redemption of their bodies. There are other martyrs yet to die, and they must remain until these also have suffered.

God has vindicated them, though they do not take their place on thrones until Revelation 20. Spirits without bodies are never said to sit there. When they enter the blessedness meant for them above, we do not read of glorified spirits, but of bodies. They will reign with Christ.

Another class of martyrs must yet be made up… No account of the killing of these saints appears here: we must look for it in other and later parts of the book. Meanwhile the earlier sufferers enjoy the result of righteousness, and God owns them. But they must wait. A new and distinct band of martyred brothers has still to be filled up, and these are to suffer right up to the close. Then retribution will come. Wickedness must reach its height and do its worst before the hour of full divine judgment. Another and final outburst of persecution must come first. But notice here too: not one of them is offered the hope that the Lord will take them away without passing through death.

The time of vengeance was measured by "a little while." Another company would swell the ranks of the noble army of martyrs. Here they are called "fellow servants" and "brothers." These verses point to two separate companies of martyred saints. The earlier company was killed under the fifth seal. The later company is killed at a following period, here called "a little while." The cry from "under the altar" can have no full answer until this second group of the martyred band is complete.

Here we have the complete company of God's faithful witnesses. They lived in the time between the coming of Christ for the church and His appearing. They did not count their lives dear to them, but sealed their testimony with their blood. They are now seen to have the blessed reward of a part in the first resurrection. The witnesses of our chapter belong to this company. Meanwhile God gives them white robes as a token of His approval and recognition of their faithfulness.

The next seal shows that God was not indifferent in the meantime. The sixth seal may be seen as something like an immediate result of that earlier cry. When it opens, a vast upheaval follows — a thorough shaking of everything above and below, set out in symbols, as in the previous seals.

The Sixth Seal is the logical outcome of the previous seals. War, bloodshed, famine, pestilence, fearful conditions of life, lead to great political upheaval. The great earthquake speaks of a mighty convulsion of ordered society. Anarchy will sweep all before it.

This cloth of goats' hair was used for tents. It was probably also what we call sackcloth: "The sun became black as sackcloth of hair" (Revelation 6:12). People wore it when they mourned, and when they humbled their souls in repentance.

The sun symbolizes the supreme governing authority (Genesis 37:9; Revelation 12:1). "Black as hair sackcloth" points to the darkening power of Satan. It shows the supreme authority of earth, on which everyone depended, in total collapse. The darkening of the heavenly bodies is a dreadful disaster in the physical world, and that is what makes the figure fit here.

The "whole moon" pictures all authority that comes straight from the supreme power and depends on it. In the physical world the moon is a secondary body, and it stands for borrowed authority in the moral world. It is also the chosen picture of Israel, depending on Christ the Sun of Righteousness… "Became as blood." This points to the moral death and falling away of every lesser authority. "Blood" is a universal figure of death.

This is worth noting. If heaven itself were really rolled up like a scroll, and every mountain and island really moved out of its place, no place would be left to hide in. So to take it as anything other than a symbolic picture would contradict itself… It is a complete overturning of authority, high and low, an unequalled upheaval of every class of people. It overturns the foundations of power and authority for the world, and fills men's minds with the fear that the day of judgment has come.

There is no repentance, no cry for mercy, merely a terror of vengeance… But their horror is premature. The judgments preceding the great day of wrath have begun; but not the day itself. God will let man go on a little longer in his sin, to show that this fear does not change his heart. With him, as with Pharaoh, each judgment that passes only makes his heart harder.

There can be no real question that the description is figurative. If we took it literally, we would clearly be at the end of the Millennium itself, since the first heaven does not pass away until then, and that is what is pictured here... In people's minds the day of the Lamb's wrath has already come. But we will find that much comes in between before it really arrives, near as it may be.

This is only how it appeared to John in the vision. We are not to suppose that heaven and earth will be physically thrown into chaos when this prediction comes true. He saw all this before his eyes as signs, and we have to consider what they mean.

There will no doubt be physical disturbances, such as a great earthquake and the sun, the moon and the stars affected. Yet the spiritual meaning of these things is far more important.

The sun, that is, supreme authority, becomes black. The moon, that is, subordinate authority, becomes like blood. The stars of heaven, the lower authorities, fall. Heaven itself departs too, that is, the whole scene of government. The complete overthrow of all earthly authority takes place.

All the lesser authorities — individual rulers, both civil and religious — morally fell from their high position. They gave up God and their relationship with Him. The unripe, out-of-season figs are the ones hidden under the leaves that never ripen, and a strong wind throws them off in winter. When the wintry winds of God's wrath sweep across the scene, those who were never truly His will openly turn away from Him. However high their position, they will drop every outward connection with Him.

The stars of heaven stand for those who claim to have spiritual light. Their falling to the earth in great numbers points to a widespread falling away — a giving up of any claim to heaven, and a drop to the level of earthly-mindedness. Having no stability, the wind of hard circumstances shakes them easily.

The fig tree is so often a symbol of the Jew. So the reference to it may show that this upheaval will affect that people in particular, and so prepare the way for the acceptance of antichrist.

The whole structure of civil and governmental power on earth breaks up. Disorder rules everywhere. It is not simply the collapse of this or that government. It is the total overthrow of all governing authority, both the highest and the ranks under it... What an awful scene to think about! A world without a magistrate! Without even the appearance of rightful power! Without government! Without any authority to restrain!

In Revelation 6:13 we read of those coming events, when the very stars of heaven will fall to earth... We need to remind ourselves that "now is the day of salvation."

"The heaven was removed as a book rolled up." The political, civil, and religious systems, the constitution, bonds, and framework of society, will disappear as completely as a rolled-up scroll becomes unreadable. The physical removal of the heaven (Rev. 21:1) and of the heavens (2 Peter 3:10) is one of the most staggering events the Word of God records. That does not mean the dwelling place of God, of saints, and of angels, of course. But the entire ending of all governmental order — the moral heaven — is one of the most dreadful events still to come. We have had the ruin of all greater and lesser authorities, but here the whole system in which they were placed itself collapses.

Heaven rolled as a scroll is the whole seat and place of authority overturned; and so of mountains and islands — the stable seats of authority overturned, and what was ordered, and rose above the vague mass of peoples, removed.

If heaven were literally removed as a scroll, and every mountain and island moved out of its place, there would be no place left to hide in. That much is obvious. So to take it as anything other than symbolic representation would be self-contradictory... The prophet did see these objects, heavenly and earthly, in utter confusion. But we must look for the meaning by the ordinary rules of interpretation. It is a complete revolution of authority high and low, an unmatched convulsion of all classes of mankind within its own sphere. Its effect is to overturn the foundations of power and authority for the world, and to fill men's minds with the fear that the day of judgment has come.

There can be no real question that the description is figurative. If we took it literally, we would plainly be at the end of the thousand-year reign itself, for not until then does the first heaven pass away, as it is pictured here... Isaiah 34 is a prophecy of the destruction of Edom and the desolation that follows it. There we read, "All the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll." ... The words in their setting show that we cannot take the breaking up of the heavens literally... On the other hand, the meaning as a symbol is not hard to grasp. Even in a physical sense, the heavens rule the earth. Scripture uses them in this way to picture earthly government.

A mountain represents a system of settled power (Dan. 2:35; Jer. 51:25) — a long established, stable, and powerful government. The Jews saw islands as sources of wealth, as centres of trade and commerce (Isa. 23:2; Ezek. 27:3-15). This verse declares the removal of all that people count lasting and great, and of the sources of wealth and commerce too.

Men have rejected heaven's rule. So the heaven departing as a rolled-up scroll means that God will leave them for a time exposed to the results of their own folly. It is as if He rolls up the scroll of His direct government. The mountains removed speak of the overthrow of the solid powers of government. The islands show neutral powers who will not be able to stay out of the general upheaval: they cannot keep their neutrality.

It is not simply the collapse of this or that government. It is the total overthrow of all governing authority, both supreme and dependent... The coming crash will sweep into one catastrophe everything on earth that people think secure and strong. It will create a vast civil, social, and political chaos. What an awful scene to contemplate! A world without a magistrate! Without even the appearance of rightful power! Without government!

The whole fabric of civil and governmental power on earth breaks up. Disorder reigns supreme. This is not just the collapse of one government or another. It is the total overthrow of all governing authority, both the highest and the ranks beneath it... A world without a magistrate! Without even the appearance of rightful power! Without government! With no power left to restrain evil!

This is worth noting. If heaven were really rolled away like a scroll, and every mountain and island moved out of its place, there could be no place left to hide. To take it as anything other than a symbolic picture would contradict itself... It is a complete revolution of authority, high and low, an upheaval without parallel among all classes of people, within its own sphere.

The verse lists seven classes of people, and, as usual, these again fall into two groups of three and four. The first is made up of those who govern: "kings," the highest and most exalted; "the great," or princes; and "chiliarchs," the military commanders. The second group is the class that holds no office, given in pairs: "the rich" and "the powerful," "slave and free."

All of them together, great and small, sink to the same level: their hearts fail them for fear. They hide themselves, but not in the secret of God's presence (Ps. 31:19-20). They prefer the dens and rocks of the mountains, which stand for the human institutions people call solid and which have now been so shaken. Though they feel that this is God's judgment and the wrath of the Lamb, they do not repent. They think only of escaping the judgment by protection they have improvised themselves. Yet, little as they realise it, they are in effect inviting their own destruction.

They had been making themselves happy without God... God does not appear in the judgment; but man has a conscience. So, faced with this dreadful blow, all alike fear the wrath of God and of the Lamb... His warriors even tremble in the felt presence of a God whose very existence they had until now denied.

They say in their alarm that His great day has come. God does not say so. He reveals that this is the thought and language of their fear. Those are two very different things, and many readers, old and new, confuse them in their shortsightedness. For how could the seventh seal follow, if the sixth were really the end of man's day?

Their alarm and fear seem to have passed, and unbelief has taken their place in their hearts. They are in full league with the Man of Sin against Christ... Then men will be bold indeed in their hostility to the Lamb, instead of being overwhelmed with anguish and terror, as at the time of the sixth seal.

Adam and Eve had disobeyed God's word. They were afraid, so they tried to hide from His presence among the trees of the garden. People will try to hide in the same useless way on a huge scale in the future.

There is something fearful in the thought of a world crying out for shelter "from the wrath of the Lamb." It is the wrath of the meek and lowly One, who "was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities." But it is a solemn truth. The same voice that now says, "Come to me," will one day say, "Depart from me, you cursed," if His tender invitations are refused. Now is the day of salvation. Then is the day of judgment. Every arrow of judgment will surely be barbed by the memory of grace refused.

In Revelation 6:12-17 it is not the walk, nor the work, nor the worship, but the wrath of the Lamb that we find... What? the wrath of the Lamb? Yes, a paradox, but an awful fact; a seeming contradiction, but a terrible truth! You who despise Him, tremble! The hand you nailed to the cross will hold the sceptre. The brow you tore with the crown of thorns will wear the crown of glory. The One who was led as a Lamb to the slaughter will sit as Judge on the throne.

When John looks for the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he sees a "Lamb as though it had been slain." And when wrath is ready to fall on men, Scripture still calls it "the wrath of the Lamb." Indeed, that is what makes it so terrible. It is the wrath of love itself. It is the judgment of One with whom judgment is a "strange work." It is judgment so unsparing because love itself moves the arm and guides the blow. It is judgment for which there is no remedy... It is judgment that no prayer can turn aside.

In the Book of Revelation we see that the One who sets all the judgments moving, by opening the seals, is the Lamb... I cannot imagine any wrath belonging to Christ as the Lamb — but that is what the princes and leaders of this world will say... Why, you can hardly imagine anything more simple and gentle than a little lamb! Yet the world-leaders dread His wrath, because they know nothing of His atoning sacrifice. In the first chapter of John the word is the ordinary one for lamb, amnos. But when we see Him on the throne in Revelation the word is arnion, a smaller form of the word — a "little Lamb"!

God does not appear in the judgment. But man has a conscience. So when this terrible disaster comes, all alike are afraid of the wrath of God and of the Lamb. Where now is man's courage? Even man's warriors tremble as they feel the presence of a God whose very existence they had denied until now.

There is no repentance and no cry for mercy. There is only terror of vengeance, and a frantic wish to escape. It shows in their call to the mountains and rocks to fall on them and hide them from the dreaded wrath... Man will be allowed to go on a little longer in his sin. This will show that fear does not change his heart. With him, as with Pharaoh, each judgment, once past, only makes his hardness worse.

Revelation 6:16-17 does not show that the day itself has come. It shows a terrible upheaval that produced this fear in men's minds. They said, "the great day of His wrath has come." The Spirit did not say it... These are words of human terror, not God's own words — except that God foretold that men's hearts would fail them for fear.

This present age proclaims God in grace. He is pleading with men to be reconciled to Him. But those who refuse to know Him in this great salvation must come to know Him later in judgment. If a person despises the blood of the Lamb, he must face the wrath of the Lamb.

With the opening of the sixth seal, the judgments will take a more terrible form... Earthquakes would picture the breaking up of all social, religious, and political order. The statements about the sun, moon, and stars would picture the complete overthrow of everyone who governs, from the highest to the lowest. The mountains and islands being removed out of their places set out the break-up of empires. These upheavals will look so terrible to men that they will be struck in conscience as they see the hand of God at work, and will fear that the great day of His wrath has come. But, having rejected the testimony of God's witnesses, they say, "Who will be able to stand?"

Every class of society, from the kings of the earth down to the poor slaves, is filled with abject terror. They had been making themselves happy without God. Like Belshazzar, they were feasting to their hearts' content with their wicked enjoyments. But even as they feasted, the whole framework of man's order, on which they had been resting in imagined security, is struck and shattered into ten thousand pieces. God does not appear in the judgment; but man has a conscience, and so they all fear the wrath of God and of the Lamb. Where now is man's courage? His warriors even tremble in the felt presence of a God whose very existence they had until then denied.

Men will see every established authority here below overturned. The effect will be that they think the day of the Lord has come... It is an error to confuse their saying so with God's declaration. It is not He but they who cry that the great day of the wrath has come. There is no excuse for so mistaken an interpretation. These frightened crowds exclaim it. But in fact the great day does not arrive until a long time afterwards, as Revelation itself proves.

Though the climax of "the great day of His wrath" was not yet, they had entered on that day, for the day of God's grace in the gospel was closed. Men may stand in God's grace, but no one can stand before His wrath.

What? The wrath of the Lamb? Yes, a paradox, but an awful fact; a seeming contradiction, but a terrible truth! You who despise Him, tremble! That hand which you nailed to the cross will hold the sceptre. That brow which you tore with the crown of thorns will wear the crown of glory. He who was led as a Lamb to the slaughter will sit as a Judge on the throne.

After this, so far is the great day of His wrath from being come, that we find in the parenthesis of Revelation 7 God carrying out mighty works of saving mercy. The first is the sealing of 144,000 out of the tribes of Israel... Next the prophet sees a crowd of Gentiles that no one could number.

When the great day of His wrath has come, who will be able to stand? Who? The great, the mighty, the noble of the earth? Who? The well-disposed, the upright, the moral? Only those who are redeemed "with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot."