Revelation 6:1–8

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.