Morning Light – Revelation 6: The Opening of the Seven Seals

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Today: [Revelation 6:] The Opening of the Seven Seals. When John sees the first six of the seven seals opening, does this have anything to do with us personally? What does it mean in terms of the scope of future events? Today we will gain in-depth understanding as to this chapters relevance to our personal lives and to the world around us.
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[Rev 6:1-17 KJV] 1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4 And there went out another horse [that was] red: and [power] was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. 9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they [were], should be fulfilled. 12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; 13 And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. 14 And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; 16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
In Revelation 6 John sees the Lamb revealed in chapter 5 opening the first seal of a total of seven seals on a book retrieved from the hand of the Father upon the throne. When this seal is opened the four beasts turn in unison to John and declare “COME AND SEE.” What can we learn from this? Remember that as is the MACROCOSM so is the MICROCOSM. This word of God is like a hologram or a fractal. The smallest component of these quantum artifacts is the replica of the cosmic phenomenon. This is a scientific fact. If Jesus sits on the throne over the cosmos (the macro field of all possibilities), then He likewise sits on the throne over your heart (the micro-field of energy). We showed this at length in our teaching of chapter three.
Is the Lamb enthroned in your heart? Paul declared as much in Eph. 3:17:
[Eph 3:17 KJV] 17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
What is He doing? He is opening things up to you. He is opening doors. He is opening the heavens. He is opening the seals on the book of your life that Moses referred to in Ex. 32:32. How can we know this is happening? When the four living creatures on the inside of you (a type and shadow of the four chambers of your heart) – when they declare to you:
“COME AND SEE…”
Do you ever feel God moving on your heart? Do you feel differently under the anointing then you do at other times? This sense of God’s presence and the fire of God is because what mind/body medicine calls the “emotional body” is responding to the voice of God resonating from within seeking to turn you inwardly toward God sitting on the throne of your heart (in microcosm) even as John turned and saw the Lamb seated upon the macro throne – the throne of God in the heavens.
When John turns, he sees a thunderous release of visionary dimensions opening up before him like a scroll. The first seal is opened, and then the successive seals follow through the next few chapters. The first seal reveals a white horse, and the rider has a bow, and a crown was given unto him. This is a vision with implications for the distant future, but it also brought instant recognition in John’s mind to something he would have been very familiar with.
If you see a picture of a soldier coming out of the water with scuba gear and a submachine gun what do you think of? Our minds go instantly to the Navy Seals because they are the only warriors who conduct warfare in that way. When John sees the rider on the white horse with a bow, he would have thought immediately of an army of horse-mounted archers that were a household name in the ancient world. These were the Parthians. The Parthians were ancient guerrilla fighters. They were the only military force that the Romans had no defense against. The armies of Rome were terrified of the Parthians. The Parthian soldiers would charge the Romans in their locked formations, shield to shield. They would charge straight at them, and their ponies would leap over the first rank of Roman soldiers, and the rider would instantly turn and fire an arrow into the unprotected back of the soldier underneath him. They would do this rank upon rank until the Roman forces were in disarray and fleeing the field of battle. The Parthians were the only warriors that did this, and the Romans never defeated them.
Where were the ancient lands of the Parthians? It is modern day Iran.
In v. 3 when the second seal was opened a rider on a red horse went out with the power to take peace from the earth because he was given a great sword. What do swords represent in the Bible? Hebrews 4:22 tells us that the word of God is a sword. We understand then that this rider on the red horse takes peace from the earth by virtue of a word or narrative that he has control over that casts all of the world into chaos and warfare. Think about WWII. WWII was instigated through the massive oratorical skill and mesmerism of one man – Adolf Hitler. Hitler was not an isolated figure in history. He was not the anti-Christ, but he was an anti-Christ figure as 1 John 4:1 tells us there are many of these anti-Christ figures that have gone out into the world. There were quite a few in ancient times and up through the middle ages. Modern examples would be Hitler and Mussolini. Woodrow Wilson might surprise you as an anti-Christ character. When he went to France after the first world war, he was greeted by the largest crowd ever gathered in history – over 2 million people who swelled the streets of Paris praising Wilson as a messianic figure. Wilson went on to found the League of Nations which was a forerunner of globalism today.
When the third seal was opened a rider on a black horse goes forth with a pair of scales in his hand. John then hears one of the four living creatures declare “a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and see that you hurt not the oil and the wine…” What is this? It speaks of economic upheaval on a global scale during a time of escalating warfare throughout the earth precipitated by the threat that the Parthian aspect of the vision represents. Do you get a sense of seeing an application of this vision to our day? Iran as a nation-state sponsor of terrorism has brought more chaos and financial upheaval into the modern world than we could suggest. If things were to escalate the economic cost and the cost in lives of a conventional war with Iran and her axis allies would bring the world into a global economic failure of epic proportions.
Does this mean that is all the vision John sees implies? Is what John sees only applicable to our day. No that would not be so. You have to understand the cyclical nature of prophetic fulfillment. James 3:6 talks about something called the “course of nature” that the tongue sets on fire. That word course means “wheel.” Life on the micro level and the macro level is cyclical. Quantum theorists who once thought that the cosmos was moving in a linear fashion away from the point of the big bang have now discovered that the cosmos is curving back on itself to its original point of origin. As it is in nature so in the realm of the spirit these prophecies – any prophecy is cyclical in nature through time whether it is on the world scene on in your life while it inevitably comes to final fulfillment after many levels and variations of fulfillment on many planes of experience both personal, corporate and worldwide.
When the fourth seal is opened Death rides out accompanied by Hell. Is Hell a person? Power is given to these two beings to bring about a culmination of suffering brought on by the three former riders. At this point, a tipping point of God’s cosmic timeline is reached, and the souls of those that were slain for the word of God cry out “how long oh, Lord?” The number five is the number of grace. The Father assuages the chagrin of these saints by promising just a little while longer and clothing them in linen ephods. this is almost as though to say “yes, I see you are ready – go ahead and get dressed for what comes next…” This may represent the time for those on the earth who are going to walk into their immortality and put on glorified bodies as described elsewhere in the scriptures.
After this, the sixth seal is opened, and an earthquake commences that precipitates a dimming of the sun. This may very well be a volcanic ejection accompanying the quake. The sun has been dimmed by volcanic explosions before. This happened when Cracatoa erupted and also around the year 1000 the whole of medieval Europe experienced darkness for three days that caused universal panic and anarchy as they thought the advent was at hand and the judgment of all things.
We see the progression then of these seals beginning with the Parthian figure under the first seal which may very well represent the disruptive influence of Iran on the nations of the earth followed by unlimited conventional war, economic upheaval, levels of famine and death coming in aftermath to this season and followed by a succession of unprecedented natural disaster. Then something happens relating to a fig tree which would be Israel and then suddenly a cataclysm whose description is chillingly similar to how one would describe a nuclear weapon detonating with the heavens rolling back as a scroll and the kings of the earth (heads of state) go into hiding in their bunkers. Whatever this is it causes the ungodly of humanity to finally after centuries of iniquity to come to the fear of God as they can only conclude from this succession of events that something is at work that only points to the finger of God.
What is to be our response to this? Terror? Fear? Do we become conspiracy mongers or survivalists hoarding food and building bunkers in our back yards? Absolutely not. This level of upheaval was in the works even during Jesus lifetime and came devastatingly to pass in the decades following the resurrection. The people of God didn’t run and hide. Instead, they scattered to the nations of the earth preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Let us in our day follow their example and demonstrate the triumph of God and the redemption available in Christ to a world reeling in panic and crying out for answers only found in Jesus.