I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, “Come and see!” And behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.
When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come!” Another came out: a red horse. To him who sat on it was given power to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword.
When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come and see!” And behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand. I heard a voice in the middle of the four living creatures saying, “A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius! Don’t damage the oil and the wine!”
When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see!”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 This is the second part of this first history…
This is the second part of this first history (which I said was common and of the whole world) of the works of God in the government of all things. Of this part there are generally 3 members, the foresignifying, the caution, and the execution of all the evils which God poureth out upon this world, which hath most hardly deserved of him. The foresignifying is set down in this chapter, the caution for preserving the Church, is in the next chapter, and the execution is described, Rev. 8:9. In every part of the foresignifying, there are three branches: the several and express calling of S. John, to prepare himself to take knowledge of the things that were to be showed unto him in the opening of the seals: the sign and the word expounding the sign: And albeit the express calling of S. John, be used only in four of the signs, yet the same is also to be understood in the rest that follow. The author of the foresignifying is the Lamb, as that word of the Father made the Mediator, opening the seals of the book. The instruments are the Angels in most of the visions, who expound the sign and words thereof. Now this first verse containeth an express calling of S. John to mark the opinion of the first seal.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one…
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.
Ver. 1. One of the seals] That is, the first of the seals, as Gen 1:4; Mar 16:2. Under these seven seals falls Rome pagan (saith Mr Cotton), as under the seven trumpets Rome Christian, under the seven vials Rome antichristian. So all the judgments in the Revelation are still upon Rome. Hence Mr Dent calls his exposition upon the Revelation, The Ruin of Rome.
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The noise of thunder] This beast was like a lion, Rev 4:7, whose roaring is as thunder.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–7 John’s vision continueth still: by the Lamb he means…
John’s vision continueth still: by the Lamb he means Christ, the Lamb oft mentioned Rev 5:1-14; and by
one of the seals, one of the seven seals mentioned Rev 5:1, that were set upon the book which John saw in the right hand of God the Father, given to Christ, Rev 5:7. Christ began to discover the counsels of God relating to that first period of his church. And John heard one of the four living creatures speaking to him with a great and terrible voice, like
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the noise of thunder. Inviting him to come near, or to attend and see.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7 The former chapter acquainted us with Christ’s receiving of…
The former chapter acquainted us with Christ’s receiving of the sealed book; this with the opening of it seal by seal. Christ reveals unto St. John the deep counsels of God, which were hidden and secret: the only-begotten Son, that lay in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed them; he only received authority, and he only was endued with ability to reveal them.
Note, 1. The preparation made for St. John’s vision of the seals; he standing afar off with profound reverence, heard a voice like thunder proceeding out of the mouth of one of the four beasts, who performed the office of a public crier, saying, Come and see. It is dangerous searching into God’s secrets, and prying into his hidden councils, until we have a call and commission, a command and invitation, from God himself so to do; thus had St. John here; one said unto him, Come near, and see.
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Note, 2. The vision itself, I beheld a white horse, and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown, &c. By the white horse is generally understood the gospel, so called in regard of the divinity and spotless purity of its doctrine: the rider upon this horse is Christ, who rode swiftly in the ministry of the apostles, and other faithful teachers in the first ages of Christianity; and he rode with a bow in his hand, and a crown on his head: with a bow, that is, with threatenings and terrors denounced against his enemies before they were inflicted upon them, as the bow is first held in the hand, then the arrow prepared upon the string, and at last shot forth: and with a crown, denoting that royal state of kingly dignity and honour to which Christ, the Lamb that was slain, was now exalted; and thus he rode on conquering and to conquer, until he had consummated his victories, in a glorious triumph over his enemies, namely, in the conversion of some, and destruction of others; thus the opening of the first seal gave the church a very encouraging and comfortable prospect of the victories, successes and triumphs, of Christ, notwithstanding the rage, subtlety, and power, of all his enemies: Christ rode on with a bow in his hand, and with a crown on his head, conquering and to conquer, until his arrows were sharp in the hearts of his crucifiers; and will thus ride on till the people fall under him, and all his enemies become his footstool.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Here, 1. Christ, the Lamb, opens the first seal;…
Here, 1. Christ, the Lamb, opens the first seal; he now enters upon the great work of opening and accomplishing the purposes of God towards the church and the world. 2. One of the ministers of the church calls upon the apostle, with a voice like thunder, to come near, and observe what then appeared. 3. We have the vision itself, Rev 6:2. (1.) The Lord Jesus appears riding on a white horse. White horses are generally refused in war, because they make the rider a mark for the enemy; but our Lord Redeemer was sure of the victory and a glorious triumph, and he rides on the white horse of a pure but despised gospel, with great swiftness through the world. (2.) He had a bow in his hand. The convictions impressed by the word of God are sharp arrows, they reach at a distance; and, though the ministers of the word draw the bow at a venture, God can and will direct it to the joints of the harness. This bow, in the hand of Christ, abides in strength, and, like that of Jonathan, never returns empty. (3.) A crown was given him, importing that all who receive the gospel must receive Christ as a king, and must be his loyal and obedient subjects; he will be glorified in the success of the gospel. When Christ was going to war, one would think a helmet had been more proper than a crown; but a crown is given him as the earnest and emblem of victory. (4.) He went forth conquering, and to conquer. As long as the church continues militant Christ will be conquering; when he has conquered his enemies in one age he meets with new ones in another age; men go on opposing, and Christ goes on conquering, and his former victories are pledges of future victories. He conquers his enemies in his people; their sins are their enemies and his enemies; when Christ comes with power into their soul he begins to conquer these enemies, and he goes on conquering, in the progressive work of sanctification, till he has gained us a complete victory. And he conquers his enemies in the world, wicked men, some by bringing them to his foot, others by making them his footstool. Observe, From this seal opened, [1.] The successful progress of the gospel of Christ in the world is a glorious sight, worth beholding, the most pleasant and welcome sight that a good man can see in this world. [2.] Whatever convulsions and revolutions happen in the states and kingdoms of the world, the kingdom of Christ shall be established and enlarged in spite of all opposition. [3.] A morning of opportunity usually goes before a night of calamity; the gospel is preached before the plagues are poured forth. [4.] Christ's work is not all done at once. We are ready to think, when the gospel goes forth, it should carry all the world before it, but it often meets with opposition, and moves slowly; however, Christ will do his own work effectually, in his own time and way.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 And I saw, when the Lamb opened one of…
And I saw, when the Lamb opened one of the seals,.... Of the sealed book; one of the seven seals of it, as read the Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and the Oriental versions, and the Complutensian edition; that is, the first; so "one" is used for first in Gen 1:5; and as appears from the following seals being called second, third, fourth, &c. These seals express events to be fulfilled; and therefore cannot respect the steps towards, and the signs of Jerusalem's destruction, and that itself, which had been accomplished some years before the vision of the seals; and which vision would have been needless: and these are called seals, because they were sealed among God's treasure, or were resolved on, and decreed by him; and because they were hidden and unknown until they came to pass; and when they were come to pass, they were pledges of what God would do in the destruction of Rome Papal, as here in the destruction of Rome Pagan: for these seals, at least the first six of them, concern the Pagan empire, and the state of the church in it; and are so many gradual steps to the ruin of it, and to the advancing and increasing of the kingdom of Christ; and these, with the seven trumpets, which the last seal introduces, reach from the times of the apostles to the end of time, as appears from Rev 10:6. Now the opening of these seals is the revealing of the events signified by them, and expressed in the hieroglyphics here made use of, and the fulfilment of them;
and I heard as it were the noise of thunder; a voice very loud and sonorous, exciting the attention of John:
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one of the four beasts saying, come and see; this was the of the four living creatures, for the word one is used in the same sense as in the foregoing clause; and this creature was like to a lion, Rev 4:7; wherefore his voice was loud, as when a lion roars, Rev 10:3, and is fitly compared to thunder: there is no need to look out for any particular person, as intended by this living creature; or to conclude him to be Peter, as Grotius, who was dead before this seal was opened; or Quadratus, Aristides, and Justin Martyr, who courageously appeared in the Christian cause, and made very excellent apologies for it, with success, since these lived under the second seal; it is enough in general to understand the ministers of the Gospel, who, as sons of thunder, loudly and publicly preached the Gospel, and, as lions, boldly and bravely defended, and took notice of the power and providence of God in succeeding their ministry, and in weakening the kingdom of Satan in the Gentile world, and particularly in the Roman empire; and therefore are represented as calling to John to "come and see"; observe and take notice of the following hieroglyphic, representing the success of the Gospel ministry, , "come and see", is a phrase often used by the Jews, to stir up attention to what is about to be said; See Gill on Joh 1:46.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–7 The seven seals are not distinguished from each other…
The seven seals are not distinguished from each other by specifying the time of them. They swiftly follow the letters to the seven churches, and all begin almost at the same time. By the four former is shown, that all the public occurrences of all ages and nations, as empire, war, provision, calamities, are made subject to Christ. And instances are intimated of the first in the east, the second in the west, the third in the south, the fourth in the north and the whole world. The contents, as of the phials and trumpets, so of the seals, are shown by the songs of praise and thanksgiving annexed to them. They contain therefore "the power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing," which the Lamb received. The four former have a peculiar connection with each other; and so have the three latter seals. The former relate to visible things, toward the four quarters to which the four living creatures look. Before we proceed, it may be observed,
1. No man should constrain either himself or another to explain everything in this book. It is sufficient for every one to speak just so far as he understands.
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2. We should remember that, although the ancient prophets wrote the occurrences of those kingdoms only with which Israel had to do, yet the Revelation contains what relates to the whole world, through which the Christian church is extended. Yet,
3. We should not prescribe to this prophecy, as if it must needs admit or exclude this or that history, according as we judge one or the other to be of great or small importance. "God seeth not as a man seeth;" therefore what we think great is often omitted, what we think little inserted, in scripture history or prophecy.
4. We must take care not to overlook what is already fulfilled; and not to describe as fulfilled what is still to come. We are to look in history for the fulfilling of the four first seals, quickly after the date of the prophecy. In each of these appears a different horseman. In each we are to consider, first, the horseman himself; secondly, what he does. The horseman himself, by an emblematical prosopopoeia, represents a swift power, bringing with it either,
1. A flourishing state; or,
2. Bloodshed; or,
3. Scarcity of provisions; or,
4. Public calamities. With the quality of each of these riders the colour of his horse agrees. The fourth horseman is expressly termed "death;" the first, with his bow and crown, "a conqueror;" the second, with his great sword, is a warrior, or, as the Roman termed him, Mars; the third, with the scales, has power over the produce of the land. Particular incidents under this or that Roman emperor are not extensive enough to answer any of these horsemen. The action of every horseman intimates farther,
1. Toward the east, wide spread empire, and victory upon victory:
2. Toward the west, much bloodshed:
3. Toward the south, scarcity of provisions:
4. Toward the north, the plague and various calamities.
I heard one-That is, the first. Of the living creatures - Who looks forward toward the east.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–7 What followed on the opening of the seven seals.…
CHAPTER VI.
What followed on the opening of the seven seals. The opening
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of the first seal; the white horse, 1, 2.
The opening of the second seal; the red horse, 3, 4.
The opening of the third seal; the black horse and the famine,
5, 6.
The opening of the fourth seal; the pale horse, 7, 8.
The opening of the fifth seal; the souls of men under the
altar, 9-11.
The opening of the sixth seal; the earthquake, the darkening
of the sun and moon, and falling of the stars, 12-14.
The terrible consternation of the kings and great men of the
earth, 15-17.
NOTES ON CHAP. VI.
Verse 1. When the Lamb opened one of the seals] It is worthy of remark that the opening of the seals is not merely a declaration of what God will do, but is the exhibition of a purpose then accomplished; for whenever the seal is opened, the sentence appears to be executed. It is supposed that, from Re 6:1-11:19, the calamities which should fall on the enemies of Christianity, and particularly the Jews, are pointed out under various images, as well as the preservation of the Christians under those calamities.
One of the four beasts] Probably that with the face of a lion. See Re 4:7.
Come and see.] Attend to what is about to be exhibited. It is very likely that all was exhibited before his eyes as in a scene, and he saw every act represented which was to take place, and all the persons and things which were to be the chief actors.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7 Rev 6:1-2. And — Being all attention to this…
Rev 6:1-2. And — Being all attention to this wonderful scene; I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals — Of the book which he had taken from the hand of him that sat on the throne; and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder — Signifying the great importance of the event about to be disclosed; one of the four living creatures — That is, it seems, the first, which was like a lion, looking forward toward the east, toward Asia and Syria, where the prophecy had its principal accomplishment, and from whence Christ and his gospel came. Saying, Come and see — Pay particular attention to what is now to be exhibited. And I saw, and behold a white horse — The contents of this seal seem evidently to refer to the triumph of Christianity over Jewish and heathen opposition, by the labours of its first preachers. Therefore the person here represented is Jesus Christ, who had received a kingdom from the Father, which was to rule all nations, and concerning which it was foretold, that notwithstanding the efforts that would be made by earth and hell to oppose its progress, and even to destroy it, it should be preserved and prevail, so that at length all enemies to it should be subdued, and the kingdoms of this world should become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. The white colour of the horse, the bow which he had that sat on it, shooting arrows afar off, the crown given unto him, and his going forth conquering and to conquer — All these circumstances betoken victory, triumph, prosperity, enlargement of empire, and dominion over many people. And all these figurative representations of authority, government, success, and conquest, may be properly applied to the gospel and the kingdom of Christ, which was now beginning to spread far and wide, and would tend greatly to comfort the faithful in Christ Jesus, assuring them that, however the Jews on the one hand, or the heathen Roman empire on the other, opposed and persecuted them, yet they should see the punishment of their enemies, both Jews and heathen, and the cause of Christianity prevailing over both, in the proper and appointed time. These expressions, and this interpretation of them, are elucidated by the words of the psalmist, Psa 45:3, &c: Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, and in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth, &c. Thine arrows are sharp, &c., whereby the people fall under thee. Thy throne, O God, is for ever, &c. The application of this prophecy to Christ is still further justified by Rev 19:11, I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse. &c., a passage which all allow was intended of Christ; he only being worthy of being called, as he is there, Faithful and True, and THE WORD OF GOD. Thus, with great propriety to the order and design of this revelation, the dignity and power of Christ, and the protection and success of his gospel, are the first part of its prophecy for the consolation of his followers, which, it seems, is the chief end of the whole book.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 And I saw - Or, I looked. He fixed…
And I saw - Or, I looked. He fixed his eye attentively on what was passing, as promising important disclosures. No one had been found in the universe who could open the seals but the Lamb of God Rev 5:2-4; and it was natural for John, therefore, to look upon the transaction with profound interest.
When the Lamb opened one of the seals - See the notes on Rev 5:1, Rev 5:5. This was the first or outermost of the seals, and its being broken would permit a certain portion of the volume to be unrolled and read. See the notes on Rev 5:1. The representation in this place is, therefore, that of a volume with a small portion unrolled, and written on both sides of the parchment.
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And I heard, as it were the noise of thunder - One of the four living creatures speaking as with a voice of thunder, or with a loud voice.
One of the four beasts - notes on Rev 4:6-7. The particular one is not mentioned, though what is said in the subsequent verses leaves no doubt that it was the first in order as seen by John - the one like a lion, Rev 4:7. In the opening of the three following seals, it is expressly said that it was the second, the third, and the fourth of the living creatures that drew near, and hence the conclusion is certain that the one here referred to was the first. If the four living creatures be understood to be emblematic of the divine providential administration, then there was a propriety that they should be represented as summoning John to witness what was to be disclosed. These events pertained to the developments of the divine purposes, and these emblematic beings would therefore be interested in what was occurring.
Come and see - Addressed evidently to John. He was requested to approach and see with his own eyes what was disclosed in the portion of the volume now unrolled. He had wept much Rev 5:4 that no one was found who was worthy to open that book, but he was now called on to approach and see for himself. Some have supposed (Lord, in loco) that the address here was not to John, but to the horse and his rider, and that the command to them was not to “come and see,” but to come forth, and appear on the stage, and that the act of the Redeemer in breaking the seal, and unrolling the scroll, was nothing more than an emblem signifying that it was by his act that the divine purposes were to be unfolded. But, in order to this interpretation, it would be necessary to omit from the Received Text the words καὶ βλέπε kai blepe - “and see.” This is done, indeed, by Hahn and Tittmann, and this reading is followed by Prof. Stuart, though he says that the received text has “probability” in its favor, and is followed by some of the critical editions. The most natural interpretation, however, is that the words were addressed to John. John saw the Lamb open the seal; he heard the loud voice; he looked and beheld a white horse - that is, evidently, he looked on the unfolding volume, and saw the representation of a horse and his rider. That the voice was addressed to John is the common interpretation, is the most natural, and is liable to no real objection.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 I saw that the Lamb had opened one of…
I saw that the Lamb had opened one of the seven seals, or the first seal. The interpreters are much divided in expounding what is to be understood by the sealed up contents, and in applying them to such and such persecutions, persons, and events, by all which it appears that there is no certainty as to such applications and expositions, even of particular ancient fathers; though at the same time it is both certain and evident that many pretended interpretations, (that is, arbitrary inventions, from the private spirit of heretics) are both false and groundless, contrary to the unexceptionable authority (to use Dr. W.’s words) of the primitive fathers, and inconsistent with the doctrine and belief of the Catholic Church, as I may have occasion to shew that the ridiculous fable is of this number, of so many popes being antichrist, and the beast of the Apocalypse. I shall, for the satisfaction of the Christian reader, as I hinted in the preface of this book, give a short account of those expositions that are not improbable. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain On v1 Revelation Chapter 6
Revelation Chapter 6
What is to follow on earth now begins, when the seals are opened. It will be remarked here, that John, standing in the ruin of the assembly, gives prophetically all that passes from that failure till Christ comes in chapter 19. There is no ascension no rapture, save as far as chapter 12 gives both together.
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The first seals are simple; nor have I anything to offer very new upon them: first, imperial conquests then wars, then famine, then pestilence, carrying with it what Ezekiel calls God’s four sore plagues (sword, famine, pestilence, and the beasts of the earth). They speak of the providential course of God’s dealings, and hence the four beasts call attention to it; but they have God’s voice in them, the voice of the Almighty: that, the ear of him who has the Spirit hears. These complete providential plagues, as spoken of in scripture. Then direct judgments follow; but these are what we may call preparatory measures.
I have to notice that in the full plagues of Rev 6:8 the whole Roman earth is not included. It is a fourth, not a third. The plagues too, note, are limited in extent of sphere, not universal.
The saints are those whom God is really thinking of, and they come in remembrance before other scenes are brought out. Those who had been martyred for the word of God and their testimony demand how long before they were avenged; for we have ever to do here with a God of judgment. Their being under the altar means simply that they had offered their bodies, as sacrifices for the truth, to God. 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 giving white robes is resurrection. The first resurrection is sovereign grace, giving us the same place with Christ (“for ever with the Lord “), consequent on His work and His being our righteousness, which is alike to all of us. White robes thus conferred are the recognition of the righteousness (‘dikaioomata”) [12] of the saints-hence are seen in chapter 19 at His appearing. “They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” I am not denying that we are made clean, and our robes white in the blood of the Lamb. But, even where this is said in chapter 7, I think it refers especially to the way they have been associated by faith with the suffering position of Christ. Here white robes are given them-their service owned; but, for avenging, they must wait till a new scene of persecution had brought them companions who had to be honoured and avenged like them. Still this marks progress, and finds its causein the dealing of God to bring about this new state of things, which issues in final judgment and setting aside of evil. Here the judgments are providential.
The next thing to the claim for avenging is the breaking up of the whole system of earthly government, and the terror of all on earth. How clearly we see here that we are in a scene of judgment, and that God is a God of judgment! The desires of the saints are like the desires of the Psalms. We are not with children before the Father, with grace, with the gospel, and the assembly; but with Jehovah, where God is a God of judgment, and by Him actions are weighed. We are on Old Testament ground, that is, prophecy, not grace to the wicked, though judgment brings in blessing.
The opening of the sixth seal brings an earthquake, that is, a violent convulsion of the whole structure of society. All the governing powers are therein visited; and, seeing all subverted, small and great think (with bad consciences as they have) that the day of the Lamb’s wrath is come. But it is not, though preparatory judgments with a view to His kingdom are there. But God thinks too of His saints on earth (where we must remember, the assembly is never now seen) before the scenes which follow, whether judgments on the Roman earth or the special workings of evil, to secure and seal them for that day.
Footnotes for Revelation Chapter 6
12: It is very possible that the plural “righteousnesses “is a Hebraism for righteousness. It is a common case in moral things. At any rate it is of the saints.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1
B.—EARTH-PICTURE. UNSEALING OF THE SEVEN SEALS. (THE OPENED SEVEN SEALS IN HEAVEN AND THE SEVEN FUNDAMENTAL FORMS OF THE WORLD’S COURSE ON EARTH.)
THE DARK EARTHLY WORLD IN THE LIGHT OF THE HEAVENLY WORLD
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Rev_6:1-17
1. Predominantly Human History of the World
Rev_6:1-8
1And I saw when the Lamb opened one of [from among] the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder [om., as it were the noise of thunder], one of the four beasts [living-beings] saying [ins. as a voice of thunder], Come and see [om. and see].1 2And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had [having] a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went [came] forth conquering, and to[om. to—ins. that he might] conquer.
3And when he had [om. had] opened the second seal, I heard the second beast 4[living-being] say [saying], Come and see [om. and see]. And there went out [came forth] another horse that was red: and power was given [om. power was given] to him that sat thereon [upon him] [ins. it was given to him2] to take peace from the earth, and [ins. in order] that they should [shall3] kill [slay] one another: and there was given unto him a great sword [μάχαιρα.]
5And when he had [om. had] opened the third seal, I heard the third beast [living-being] say [saying], Come and see [om. and see]. And I beheld [saw], and lo [behold] a black horse; and he that sat on him had [having] a pair of balances [balance] in his hand. 6And I heard [ins. as it were4] a voice in the midst of the four beasts [living-beings] say [saying], A measure [chœnix] of wheat for a penny [denarius], and three measures [chœnixes] of barley for a penny [denarius]; and see thou hurt not [om. see thou hurt not] the oil and the wine [ins. injure thou not].
7And when he had [om. had] opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast [living-being] say [saying5], Come and see [om. and see]. 8And I looked [saw], and behold a pale horse: [,] and his name that sat on him was Death [and the one sitting upon him, his name Death], and Hell [Hades] followed [was following] with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword [ῥομφαία], and with hunger, and with death, and with the [ins. wild] beasts of the earth.
2. World-history in its Predominantly Spiritual Aspect, or the Martyr-history of the Kingdom of God as the core of World-history
Rev_6:9-11
9And when he had [om. had] opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were [have been] slain for [on account of] the word of God, and for 10[on account of] the testimony which they held [had]: and they cried with a loud [great] voice, saying, How long [Until when] O Lord [Ruler], [ins. the] holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? 11And white robes were [a white robe was]6 given unto every one of [om. every one of] them [ins. to each]7; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for [om. for] a little8 season [time], until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should [who are about to] be killed as [ins. also] they were, should be fulfilled [fulfill it (the time),—or have been completed (as to number)]9.
3. The Sixth Seal. An Earthquake as a Presage of the End of the World
Rev_6:12-17
12And I beheld [saw] when he had [om. had] opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was [om. lo, there was] a great earthquake [ins. took place]; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the [ins. whole10] moon became as blood. 13And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even [om. even] as a fig tree casteth11 her untimely figs, when she is [om. when she is—ins. being] shaken of [by] a mighty 14[great] wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is [om. when it is] rolled together [up]; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15And the kings of the earth, [ins. and the chief captains,] and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains [om. and the chief captains], and the mighty [strong] men, and every bond man, [om.,] and every [om. every12] free man, 16om.,] hid themselves in the dens [caves] and in the rocks of the mountains; and said [they say] to the mountains and [ins. to the] rocks, Fall on [upon] us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17For the great day of his [or their13] wrath is come; and who shall be [is] able to stand?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
SYNOPTICAL VIEW14
This second eschatologico-cyclical world-picture is as simple, clear, and intelligible in its fundamental features as the first, the world-picture of the Seven Churches. It seems to be the special prerogative of a chronological Church-historical exegesis to close it up again with seven seals and to involve it in the obscurity of night.
Through the Lamb’s opening of the seals, the darkest book has become most clear—the book of the world’s history, in its enigmatical, fearful and gloomy phenomena. The very fact that the book is sealed is a ray of light for us; the highest hand has shut it up, intending that it shall presently be opened. Another hopeful fact is that the Seals are seven, i. e., the riddle is a holy one, and when it reaches its final term it shall meet with a festal solution. The loosing of the very first seal sheds a joyful light over the whole dark history of the world. The Rider upon the white horse rides at the head of all the others. The mere fact that the train is one of horsemen calms our apprehensions; the horses denote the rapid movement of great phenomena of life or death; no one of these phenomena hangs stationary over the world. They all, in their riders, have their governors. Wild though the course of some may seem on earth, their management, their direction, their career, and their limit are fixed in Heaven. But at the head of all is the Rider on the white horse. He is the Prince; the rest are esquires. Thus, all apparently fatal events must serve His purposes, and those purposes are still redemption and its diffusion through the world—not yet judgment, as at His forthgoing in Rev_19:11. The horse of the first Rider is white; holy and pure as heavenly light is the dynamical fundamental movement which governs all other and more conspicuous movements. The Rider is Christ [see p. 178]; to Him, therefore, to His power, His rule, all subsequent facts are subject; not only the three riders, His servants, but also the facts of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seals, the latter of which embraces all items subsequent to its opening. His bow is the bow with the sure arrows of the word; His wreath or crown is the diadem of His principial victory over all the power of the world and of darkness, and when He, notwithstanding, again goes forth to conquer, it is in order to the necessary development and consummation of His principial conflict and victory in a grand succession of world-historical conflicts and victories. He has no need of many attributes; a leading attribute is this: that the three other riders are not before, but behind Him.
The figures of the following three symbolical riders are, manifestly, so general in their conception, that it seems altogether arbitrary to limit War, Dearth, or the Power of Death, to particular times. Manifestly, we have here before us dark forms that traverse the whole stage of the world’s history. From this running back into pre-Christian times, it results that Christ also, the Rider on the white horse, surmounted all historical bounds in the dynamical operation of His Coming, even in those pre-Christian times. A further sequence is that these powers [War, Dearth, Death] have been possessed of the eschatological bent from the very beginning, and have been gravitating toward the end—the judgment. And how could it be otherwise, when the final judgment must adjust the difference between the doing of wrong and the suffering of it in war; when, further, it must strike the balance between those who have revelled in wine and oil and those who have starved on the scanty measure of wheat and barley in dearth? Death is eschatological from the outset. Still, the complete appearance of Christ at the head of the horses proves that we are dealing pre-eminently with forms of the Christian time, and that, too, as the last time.
The second horse is of the color of blood. His rider is War; War as a totality, in its most fearful form—not merely the war of self-defence, of the vindication of rights, but rather that dark power to which it is granted to take peace from the earth, to set on foot a reciprocal slaughtering on countless battle-fields, and in pride and wantonness to flaunt the great sword, the symbol of all deadly instruments down to the present day. It does not say, to take away peace from time to time, for the intervening times of peace are so problematical, so penetrated with warlike commotions and apprehensions, that perfect peace is in reality taken away until the advent of eternal peace.
The black color of the third horse is that of mourning, here especially of hunger and anxiety; of that scarcity of bread which forms a part of the world’s dark history in all times and places. Pauperism, moreover, is inclined to see and to paint all the circumstances of life black—far blacker, indeed, than they are in reality. Dearth, however, is scarcely half a direct dispensation of God, to be referred purely to the failure of crops; it is no more so to be regarded than war or death is to be classed under the head of purely natural phenomena. Dearth is at least half a result of the social exaggeration of the distinction between the rich and the poor. For the most indispensable necessaries of life, wheat and barley, must pass through the scales of the rider and through a rigorous valuation. According to this valuation, a denarius, the entire day’s wages of a man, suffices only for his own support, if he buy wheat (one chœnix of wheat, the eighth part of a Scheffel or German bushel [nearly a quart, English measure.—E. R. C.], for a denarius); whilst even if he buy barley, there remains but a little, over and above his own allowance, for a very small family (three chœnixes of barley for a denarius). This rigor is all the more noticeable since the means of enjoyment and adornment, oil and wine, principally used by the rich, remain untouched. Certainly then, this human exaggeration of a divinely appointed contrast is an act which will have to be accounted for equally with violent war, and only the subordination of the third horseman to the power of the first makes, primarily, an ideal compensation (“to the poor the gospel is preached”—it is not ordained that apostasy should be preached to them, however), which toward the end becomes real. Comp. Mat_24:7.
In connection with this dispensation of Dearth it is especially remarkable that it is announced by a voice out of the midst of the four beasts [Living-beings]. This, doubtless, denotes that all four beasts [Living-beings] are particularly concerned in it [see p. 179 ]. That which the lion, on the one hand, as the mighty power, institutes, is compensated by the ox, on the other hand—self-sacrificing and devoted love. And the eagle like soarings of the spirit above earthly circumstances, are supplemented by the human figure of humanity.
The fourth horse is of a pale color, light yellow, and its rider, whose name is expressly declared, is Death. The whole kingdom of the dead, Hades itself, is in his train. As he himself is an esquire of Christ, so he also, in accordance with his mighty power, has himself an esquire, namely, Hades. This is expressive of the fact that the power of historical Death, as a consequence of sin, reaches down into the realm of the dead, in its dark compartment; and light is also thereby shed upon the Old Testament doctrine of Sheol. Whilst, in accordance with other passages, the gates of the Kingdom of the Dead open wide and covetously towards the actors upon this stage of life (Mat_16:18), here their effect appears in the midst of the stage of the world itself. Thus much there is no difficulty in understanding, namely, that the human idea of the domain of the dead does preach repentance, on the one hand, but that it also is indirectly productive, on the other hand, of a fatal effect of great power and extent (1Co_15:32; Heb_2:15). If it be true that every epidemic draws countless victims into its whirlpool by the mere workings of sympathetic fear, the like is true of the power of Death as a totality. The exhalation of shadowy, terrific and spectral images rising from Sheol goes like the breath of sickness and death over the earth, carrying contagion with it; and this entirely irrespective of real retro-actions of the other world. The pale, yellow color of the horse (pallida mors) points to the element of fear as well as to the hue of a dead body.
And yet to the united action of Death and Hades, power is given over only the fourth part of the earth. Pure mortality in the abstract almost seems to be distinguished from this doom of death; at least there is also a euthanasia; a blessed dying with Christ and according to Christ.
Four is the number of the world; the fourth part, therefore, we believe to be the specifically worldly part, which is given over to the world [see p. 174], as, on the other hand, the third part (Rev_8:7), as a part bearing the number of spirit, is indicative of spiritual circumstances, of events transpiring in the spirit-world.
The worldly powers of Death are also four in number: the sword, hunger, death, beasts. The import of the sword here manifestly passes beyond that of the great war-sword; it embraces all forms of violent death. Hunger, likewise, as a particular power of death, passes beyond Dearth. And no less does specific Death, in the shape of great pestilences desolating the world (λοιμοί, Mat_24:7), exceed the ordinary forms of death. Whether rapacious animals, simply, are meant by the beasts of the earth, or whether there is at the same time a reference to those mysterious and hurtful animal powers which are being discovered in these modern times in the form of parasites of all kinds, we do not venture to decide. The point of departure for clearer glimpses was certainly already in existence; together with a knowledge of the noxious herb, men possessed a knowledge of the worm and its destructiveness (Hos_5:12).
Another point which we wish clearly to bring out is this: that the four horsemen are successively announced by one of the four beasts [Living-beings]. The first beast [Living-being] is signalized by its announcement of the First Horseman, Christ, in a voice like thunder. This fact decides the whole sequence. Understanding, as we do, by the four beasts [Living-beings] the four Fundamental Forms of God’s rule over the world, we claim that their task is completed with the presentation of the four more general fundamental forms of worldly history itself as comprised in the four horsemen [see p. 179]. We cannot, therefore, with Schleiermacher, conjecture that the Seer lacked beasts [Living-beings] for the following seals. Manifestly, a turning-point occurs just here; the forms of the cosmical course of the world are succeeded by the forms of cosmical spiritual history.
First comes the history of the Martyrs in its whole extent, though predominantly New Testamental and eschatological. The Seer beholds them as souls under the altar. The world would fain have sacrificed them as curse-offerings to Moloch, as Caiaphas desired to do with the Prince of Martyrs Himself (Joh_11:50); they themselves, however, have with their faithful testimony sacrificed themselves to God. In this generalness, their sacrifice comes under the head of the burnt offering; the altar is the centre of the sacrificial system, as the altar of burnt sacrifices; here, in respect of its ideal import as appearing in the vision, the symbol of all voluntary sacrifice of life under the hand of hostile powers, in faithful testimony to, and confession of, the truth. They appear as souls, for the world has violently deprived them of bodily appearance; it must be evident from their appearance that they have been slain on account of their faithful confession. In their confession they have been faithful at once to the Logos of God and to the subjective witness in their own breasts. And thus they are united, a congregation of souls, belonging to the other world, yet far removed from Sheol,15 which meanwhile is careering over the earth.
Now though the spirit of the Martyrs is shown in Stephen’s prayer: “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,” the instinct of justice which lies enwrapped in the suffering of wrong, in shed blood (that of Abel, for instance, Heb_12:24), in the full perception of the terrible calumnies perpetrated on just men, of the darkenings of the truth, of the caricatures of the gospel of love and mercy on the part of persecutors, is not in the slightest degree done away with by this prayer. And in this sense, with the ghostly severity of truth, they cry with a loud voice, saying: Lord, the holy and true. As the Holy One, God owes it to Himself to repay; as the True One, having given them His word as the word of life, He has put Himself under obligations to them to repay. [See foot-note, p. 175 sq.—E. R. C.]
The terms employed have other and primary bearings, however. The Martyrs address God (not Christ; Grot, and others) by the unusual name of Δεσπότης, because they must needs bleed under the sword of earthly despots or tyrants, and in contradistinction to their unholy despotism, exercised under cover of lying and arrogant pretensions, they call Him the holy and true (genuine) Despot.
Thus a mighty pressure and urgency of grief, a cry for heavenly justice, rises ever stronger from the depths of worldly and psychical life up to the Throne of righteousness, though mitigated and pacified by the spirit of the Atonement, the blood that speaketh better things than that of Abel. How long dost Thou not judge? Though God’s judgment goes on incessantly through the depths of life, the great wrong-suffering of the Martyrs requires a restitutory final judgment before the whole world. And in hungering after this justice, the great interval may seem a right long one, a hard trial of patience (μακροθυμῶν, Luk_18:7) to all human perception. The fact that they anticipate the avenging of their blood as a consequence of the Divine judgment, and hence call upon God as the Avenger of blood, has nothing in common with a malignant and hateful animosity. The avenging of blood is the religious and moral popular fountain of criminal justice; criminal justice, therefore, in its true shape, is the form into which the avenging of blood has ever developed under the influence of civilization. Where criminal justice is so perverted into its opposite, as to appear as a system of judicial murder of the worst kind, in demonic hostility to Divine justice, in the sufferings and executions of the Martyrs, there the cry for God’s avengement of blood as the Divine Fountain of Justice which men have utterly denied, follows almost as a logical consequence.
But why should vengeance for former blood guiltiness be taken upon those “that dwell on the earth?” Those who now, as inhabitants of earth, belong to and are attached to earth, the old blood-stained tragical order of things, are, as accessories in guilt, placed under the consequences and further development of guilt (Mat_23:32 sqq.).
This holy instinct of justice, however, is appeased in a two-fold manner. First, a white robe is given to each one. In the other world, therefore, they are clothed with the adornment of innocence and righteousness. And so bright are these white robes that even in the history of this world they constantly become more distinctly visible, more admired and more honored; think of the white robes of a Justin, a Polycarp, a Huss, a Savonarola, and many thousand other faithful witnesses. Again, the Martyrs are further comforted by the assurance that their period of waiting is nearing its end, while, as a period of waiting, it is itself under a holy decree, in accordance with which the Martyr-history must attain its completion, the number of Martyrs must be filled up. Herein is the indirect announcement that the season of martyrdom is not yet at an end; that martyr sufferings assume diverse forms throughout the ages, yet continue to be even to the end a fundamental condition of the healthful development of the world’s history, as the history of the Kingdom. The great company of their fellow-servants and brethren, the necessity of suffering in this world and of patience in the other, the glorious aim of a suffering together with Christ (Rom_6:4; 2Ti_2:12), elevate them to an exalted standpoint, from which the perspective of the great and glorious retributive judgment momentarily becomes clearer and more complete. So far as His perfect rehabilitation before the world is concerned, even Christ in His glory must wait until His great Epiphany.
In the grandest contrast, the history of the Martyrs is immediately confronted with the beginning catastrophe of the final judgment in the opening of the sixth seal [see p. 179]. It is as certain that a cosmical change is here indicated as it is that such is the case in the Eschatological Discourse of the Lord, Mat_24:29 sqq., though the figures may have their spiritual back-ground as well. With the great earthquake, the first final convulsion of terrestricosmical things is announced. The sun, wrapped in obscurity as in a penitential garment, is the actual sun; the moon, red as blood, is the literal moon; for what we have here is not a predominantly spiritual history, like Rev_8:7 sqq., but the—ghostly, it is true—finale of this world’s history, and to the theatre of this history our sun belongs. As a matter of course, the occurrences in the sun and moon are to be understood phenomenally. Even now there is no man that dies, to whom the sun is not at the last clothed in the garb of mourning, whilst his senses sigh for “more light.” The same remark applies to the falling of the stars from Heaven. Like every genuine catastrophe, this final catastrophe, above all, seems to make its appearance quite abruptly; hence the stars fall from Heaven as the unripe figs of a fig-tree, suddenly shaken by a storm, fall to the earth. The figure recalls that of “the thief in the night,” the “days of Noah,” and “the coming of the flood.” The Holy Scriptures are thoroughly at home in the law of catastrophes. The fall of the stars also can primarily be understood only phenomenally, for there would not be found room on the earth for them all. But a cosmical change in the astral region belonging to the earth is, doubtless, also indicated. Nay, in reference to the condition of this earth, the metamorphosis is as total as if the old Heavens vanished like the contents of a scroll that is rolled together (Isa_34:4); and this on the basis of the earthquake,—in consequence of a crisis in which the entire old form of the solid land, with the mountains, and the entire old form of the sea, with the islands, pass away.
But the spiritual back-ground of the changes set forth in the picture of the convulsed earth and star-world also becomes manifest. This spiritual back-ground consists in a convulsion of the old order of things: in a darkening of the old sun, the time of grace of the economy of salvation; in a transformation of the ancient luminary of night, whose silver radiance filled the night with peace, into a bloody, fiery phenomenon, for a sign that slumber is at an end (Mat_26:45); in a perfect confusion of those earthly relations and spirit-constellations which have hitherto subsisted; and in the wreck of all views of the world conditioned upon the senses. All this is still more prominent in the effects of the great convulsion of things. A general terror at the presages of judgment seizes men of all ranks and conditions. Kings first; they have most to lose. Then princes [great men] and chief captains [principal men of war] are specified in their contrast [civil and military eminence]. Then the rich and the mighty. Finally, together with; the freemen, the slaves. The range of view, therefore, extends far beyond an absolute democracy. In the perspective of the day of wrath, slaves, equally with freemen, appear loaded with guilt and convulsed with apprehension, for it stands to reason that without the servilism of the laity there could be no hierarchs, and without the servilism of political slaves no despots could subsist. When all are said to hide themselves in the clefts and in the rocks of the mountains, we are reminded of the overthrow or removal of the mountains, spoken of before. That, however, all slavish souls would fain find refuge in the ruins of the old order of things; nay, that they would rather share in their destruction than step into the bright presence of the great day, lies in the nature of the grand contrast between their worldly life and the judgment of which they are on the eve. The convulsion described will, however, as a mighty convulsion of souls, be universal (Luk_21:25-26); ay, a holy trembling (as set forth in the Dies Iræ16), shall pass over even the servants of God, for whom the day of judgment is the day of final redemption (Luk_21:28). Hence the appeal of the unprepared 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. The economies of the Godhead seem to have changed, in accordance with the great change of the times. The face of God the Father, the perfect light of His revelation, acts like a judgment of the Spirit, similarly to the face of Christ in His earthly pilgrimage. The wrath of the just and righteous God is now committed to the Lamb, i. e., He is to execute the actual judgment of separation. It is a judgment under the sign of wrath, because it comes as the final decision, after the days of forbearance and long-suffering (Rom_2:5), upon an infinite accumulation of guilt. Wrath, as the synthesis of love and righteousness—the latter having the leadership—is manifested in positive inflictions of death (Exo_4:14; Exo_4:24; Psa_90:6). With the wrath of the Lamb, the danger of the second death is revealed (Mat_25:41). For the great day of His wrath is come (see Zephaniah), and who is able to stand? Here we perceive the tone of worldly mindedness, which sees only wrath in judgment, not judgment in wrath. The day of wrath is characterized as a super-human death-doom. Of a distinction between the blessed and the damned, these exclamations know nothing. For the fact that the words that we are examining have a bearing not upon the dogmatical deliverances of Augustinian theologians, nor upon the terrors of conscience with which all human spirits may be smitten at the dawning of the great day, but upon the outbreaks of a mere slavish anguish of men of the world—an anguish that knows of no blessed existences—is evident from the expressions of despair which precede the final saying. It is the worldliness of the old world in its death-thought.
[Abstracts of Views of Leading Modern English and American Commentators. By the Am. Ed.—It was pertinently remarked by Barnes at the beginning of his comments on this chapter: “It is at this point that interpreters begin to differ, … here commences the divergence towards those various, discordant, and many of them wild and fantastic theories, which have been proposed in the exposition of this wonderful Book.” The Am. Ed. deems it expedient at this point to introduce abstracts of some of the views which have been put forth by leading English and American divines in recent times. His own view will be presented in an Additional Note at the close of the Explanations in Detail, on p. 178. sq.
Elliott.—This author is the most distinguished (English) advocate of what Lange styles the Chronological Church-historical school of interpreters. He has favored the Church with four large volumes on the interpretation of the Apocalypse, replete with extended, rich and varied learning on the subject of which it treats. (Horæ Apocalypticæ, 5th Ed., London, 1862.) One of the chief excellencies of his work, is his constant citation of the infidel historian Gibbon, thus striving to elucidate prophecy, by a historical record prepared by an opponent of the truth of the inspiration of Scripture. He identifies the Horses of the first four seals with the Roman Empire, under different appearances in different times, and the Riders with the Emperors of those times. He regards the period of the first six seals as extending from the date of the Apocalypse (which he fixes at a. d. 95 or 96) to a. d. 395, the year in which Augustine was elevated to the See of Hippo. The character of this period he describes as from the stand-point of the Seer: “The coming temporary prosperity and the decline and fall of the Empire of heathen Rome.” He divides the period as follows: First Seal: From the accession of Nerva to the incipient deterioration of the government under Commodus (a. d. 96–183). Second Seal: From the close of the preceding to the accession of Diocletian (a. d. 183–284). Third Seal: The time of distress from excessive taxation following the Edict of Caracalla. (This æra overlaps the preceding, as Caracalla was assassinated a. d. 217; Elliott assigns no date of its close.) Fourth Seal: The period of fearful mortality from War, Famine, Pestilence, and Wild Beasts (a. d. 248–268). Fifth Seal: The “Æra of Martyrs,”—the Diocletian persecutions (a. d. 303–312). Sixth seal: (Part I.; Rev_6:12-17).—The politico-religious revolution of the time of Constantine, which involved the destruction of the political supremacy of heathenism (a. d. 323); (Part II.; Revelation 7).—The æra of general religious deadness, and special religious life (that of the 144,000 sealed ones), extending from the time of Constantine to that of Augustine.
Barnes, the distinguished American commentator, is mentioned in connection with Elliott, from the fact that he agrees with him in his general principles of interpretation. The scheme he adopts is precisely similar to that of Elliott, so far as the first five seals are concerned. In reference to the Sixth, however, he presents the following as descriptive of its events. “It is, in one word, the impending judgments from the invasions of the Northern hordes of Goths and Vandals threatening the breaking up of the Roman Empire; … the tempest of wrath that was, as it were, suspended yet on the frontiers, until the events recorded in the next chapter (7) should occur, then bursting forth in wrath in successive blasts, as denoted by the first four trumpets of the seventh seal (Revelation 8.), when the Empire was entirely overthrown by the Goths and Vandals. The precise point of time which, I suppose, this seal occupies, is that succeeding the last persecution.”
Moses Stuart, the eminent Professor in the Theological Seminary at Andover, held, as is well known, the view that the Apocalypse was written before the destruction of Jerusalem, and that the prophecies of the greater portion thereof (to the close of Revelation 19) had special and immediate reference to the period closing with that event.17 He entitles his special Introduction to chapters 6–11. (Vol. I., 138 sqq.) “First Catastrophe, or Overthrow of the Jewish Persecuting Power;” declaring therein, “Nothing, in my apprehension, can be further from a correct mode of interpretation than a mere historical and literal application of any of the symbolic part of the Apocalypse. The prophetic portion is all symbolical picture; but not such a picture as to constitute a regular history of wars and calamities. In its very nature, most of it is generic, and not individual and specific.” He continues, in reference to the Seals (p. 151), “The first four seals indicate the assembling and preparing of an awful array commissioned against the enemies of the Church. … A mighty conqueror bedecked with the emblems of victory leads on the hosts of destruction. These hosts, armed with deadly weapons, follow him. Then, in the train comes famine, commissioned against the enemy, and, in the rear of famine, march Death and Hades, the allied tyrants of the under world; while the ravenous beasts of the earth, waiting to devour the corpses of the slain, close the terrific procession.” Concerning the Fifth Seal he continues (p. 159), “The awful array, symbols of the work of destruction about to be accomplished, have been summoned, have taken their places, and formed the ranks of the army. Before marching into the battle their ardor is now to be excited. In accordance with the design of rousing up powerful sympathies on such an occasion, the persecuted and slaughtered Martyrs are presented, lying covered with blood at the foot of the altar where they have been sacrificed, and crying aloud to the God of Justice to take cognizance of their wrongs and vindicate their cause.” And, again (p. 163), “On the opening of the sixth seal, the sun and moon are darkened; the stars fall from heaven; the heavens themselves are rolled away with a mighty wind; and all the people of the land to be smitten are filled with terror and amazement, and fly to the rocks and mountains for refuge from the dreaded invasion which is about to be made.” He explains the celestial phenomena foretold as portending, according to the ideas of those addressed, merely “calamitous events.”
Wordsworth regards the Seals as representing “a prophetic view of the history of the Christian Church, from the first Advent of Christ to the end of the world;” not however in successive eras, the one closing as the other begins. The Rider on the white horse he identifies with Christ, and He “is followed in the second, third, and fourth seals by another (hostile) Power, riding on three horses in succession.” This Power is Death (Satan), who, in the second seal makes an assault by persecution; in the third, by heresy, producing spiritual famine; in the fourth, by various workings: (1) barbarian incursions (ῥομφαίᾳ, the barbarian sword), (2)heresies and schisms producing spiritual famine and death (λιμῷ and θανατῴ), (3) heathen Rome, Papal Rome, the Romish hierarchy—τὰ θηρία τῆς γῆς. The opening of the fifth seal unveils the condition of the faithful departed, in the intermediate state, in Paradise. “The sixth seal reveals the crisis of greatest suffering for the Church; it is the Friday of her Passion Week. But it is also the eve of the Sabbath of her rest.”
Alford regards the openings of these seals as corresponding “to the various arrangements of God’s Providence, by which the way is prepared for the final opening of the closed book of His purposes to His glorified Church.” He classes together the first four, viewing “these four visions as the four solemn preparations for the Coming of the Lord, as regards the visible Creation, which the four Living-beings symbolize.” In his own language, “The whole Creation demands His coming. Ἔρχου is the cry of all its tribes. This cry is answered first by the vision of the great Conqueror (not Christ Himself, but only a symbol of His victorious power) Whose arrows are in the hearts of His enemies, and Whose career is the world’s history. The breaking of this first seal is the great opening of the mystery of God. This, in some sense, includes and brings in the others. The others … hold a place subordinate to this. They are, in fact, but exponents of the mysteries enwrapt within this conquering career: visions of the method of its being carried out to the end in its operations on the outward world.” The Second Seal he regards as representing “the reign of the sword (War) as one of the destined concomitants of the growing and conquering power of Christ, and one of the world-long and worldwide preparations for His Coming.” The third, as Famine, limited, however, “in his desolating action, by the command given, that enough is to be reserved for sustenance,” i. e., (as Lange) Dearth. The fourth, as destroying influences,—sword, famine, pestilence, wild beasts. These seals he believes “to be contemporaneous, and each of them to extend through the whole lifetime of the Church,” although he admits “that they may receive continually recurring, or even ultimate fulfillments, as the ages of the world go on, in distinct periods of time, and by distinctly assignable events.” The opening of the fifth seal brings to view the souls of the martyred saints, and the cry for the Coming of the Lord is now from them. The opening of the Sixth Seal he regards as intimating “(Rev_6:12-17) Immediate approach of the great day of the Lord, Mat_24:29, (7:1–8); gathering of the elect out of the four winds, Mat_24:31, (7:9–17); vision of the whole glorified Church, Matthew 25.”
Lord (An Exposition of the Apocalypse, New York, 1847) identifies the Riders with different classes of Ministers: I. “The pure teachers of Christianity at large.” II. “Diocesan Bishops,” by whom, as he alleges, there was “a usurpation of powers which Christ has not authorized, an interception thereby of religious peace from the earth, and, finally, a compulsion of men to apostasy, in order to confirm and perpetuate that usurpation.” III. Philosophic, mystic, and ritualistic teachers, who “reduced the Church to a destitution of the means of spiritual life, analogous to the dearth of bread produced by oppressive exactions in the Empire.” IV. “Metropolitans, Archbishops, and other superior prelates of the fourth and subsequent ages, and especially the Patriarchs of the Greek and the Popes of the Latin Church. … It wag at this period, and under the promptings and guidance of those great Prelates, that the Church first formally apostatized from the faith and worship enjoined in the Gospel, and embraced a false religion.” Hence followed, he contends, spiritual pestilence and death. In respect of the other seals: he regards the V. As a Heaven scene, symbolizing the appearance of the martyrs in the presence of God, and their reception by Him. “It contains no note either of the commencement or close of the period to which it belongs. The whole representation, however, indicates that it is late in the reign of Antichrist. … Its period is doubtless during the ravages of the fourth horseman,” etc. He represents as follows the VI.: “The events denoted by the symbol are such as must naturally occupy a long period. A political convulsion subverting one form of government and instituting another is itself the work of years. The change of the sun to black, and the moon to blood, denote, not their extinction and disappearance, but their conversion from an agreeable and salutary to a dreaded and disastrous agency; and the change of the new rulers, which it denotes, from justice to oppression, and exercise of a tyrannical sway, requires quite a considerable period. It is subsequently that the fall of the stars takes place, by which their dejection from their stations is symbolized. And the final disappearance of the heavens, the removal of the mountains and islands, and the promiscuous flight of rulers and subjects from the presence of the Lamb, are to follow at a still later period. The first three of these great events have undoubtedly already taken place” (the French revolution, the conversion of the Republic into despotism, the overthrow of that despotism). Then a period, during which the sealing of Revelation 7 takes place; then “the annihilation of the civil governments, the Advent of the Son of God, and a resurrection of the saints.”—E. R. C.]
EXPLANATIONS IN DETAIL
Rev_6:1-2
VISION OF THE FIRST SEAL
Rev_6:1. The literal system is at much trouble to settle upon an adequate conception of the opening of the single Seals and the succession of the single visions. The individual leaves of the book are, manifestly, books in themselves; and the individual books open not into leaves with dead figures, but into living pictures. Each new leaf is a new world-scene, illuminated by a light from the open Heaven. Heinrich’s idea, according to which the six pictures are found upon the unsealed sides of the book, see in Düsterdieck. According to Düsterdieck, the opening of each separate Seal denotes a separate vision; this view is in opposition to the vital connection of the different items. According to Bengel, the two groups of four and three are so divided that the first four refer to visible things, and the last three to invisible things. On Alcasar’s wonderful allegory, see Düsterdieck. There is no reason for referring the four beasts [Living-beings] or Life-forms by name to the four Seals. The general relation between the Life-forms and the Seal-pictures is expressed, not thus: the creation, on the one hand, and the Seal-visions on the other; but thus: the Fundamental Forms of the Divine governance, on the one hand, and on the other, the fundamental forms of worldly history. From καὶ εἶδον ὅτε, Düsterdieck draws the inference that the opening of the Seals was not itself the subject of vision. It is merely necessary, however, to distinguish between the emphasis falling upon the new and leading fact, the forth-coming figure, and that which after the foregoing narrative is more a matter of course, viz.: the acts of opening. Düsterdieck likewise maintains that the hearing of the voice forms no part of the εἶδον. In regard to this, we would remark that the visions in general branch into voices and visible appearances. According to this, the εἶδον of Rev_6:1 will be universal, branching subsequently into a manifestation for the ear, Rev_6:1, and one for the eye, Rev_6:2 (καὶ εἶδον). According to Düsterdieck, the thunder-tone of the voice is to be taken for granted in the case of all four voices after its mention in connection with the first voice; Hengstenberg, on the other hand, justly insists upon the peculiar significance of the first voice.
Düsterdieck cannot positively deny that the formula come and see is not only rabbinic but also specifically Johannean. His declaration that John’s nearer approach is required is void of meaning, since a visional appearance is referred to. For the reasons here intimated, we regard the reading which omits the see as an improper correction.
[The weight of evidence of the Codd. is about equally divided as to the reading (see Textual and Grammatical). Unless, therefore, some new uncial MS. be discovered, having special claims to confidence, we must form our conclusions as to the genuine text from collateral considerations. The fact that “Come and see” is more Johannean than the simple “Come” (if it be a fact), has no bearing on the question at issue, which is, What did John hear? and not, How was John in the habit of expressing himself? If it has any weight, it is rather in support of the hypothesis of interpolation, since a copyist would be more likely to insert a word, that he might bring a sentence into accordance with the style of his author, than to omit a word when the omission would involve a departure from that style.
[If the address of the Living-beings was to the Seer, nothing can be gathered as to its form, since, manifestly, it might have been either Come and see, or the abbreviated Come; if, however, it was to the Symbols, or to Christ, then it must have been simply Come. That it was not to John, Alford thus argues: “Whither was he to come? Separated as he was by the glassy sea from the Throne, was he to cross it? And where shall we find the simple verb ἔρχεσθαι used absolutely in such a sense, ‘Draw near,’ without ὦδε or some such particle? Compare also the place where the Seer is to go and take the little book (Rev_10:8), and see how different is the whole form of expression.” To this it may be added, Was not the Seer already at the point of vision? Why then was he called to draw nearer? Why the repeated call? Are we to suppose that he went back to his former position after the breaking of each Seal? Why the voice of thunder?
The view of Alford, however, as to the object of the call is liable to serious objections. He writes: “In interpreting so unusual a term of address, surely we should begin by inquiring whether we have not the key to it in the Book itself. And in this inquiry, are we justified in leaving out of consideration such a verse as Rev_22:17, τὸ Πνεῦμα καὶ ἡ νύμφη λέγουσιν Ἔρχου κ.τ. λ., and the following ἀμὴν ἔρχου, κύριε Ἰησοῦ, ib. Rev_22:20? This seems to show, in my mind, beyond a doubt, what, in the mind of the Seer, the remarkable and insulated exclamation ἔρχου imported. It was a cry addressed, not to himself, but to the Lord Jesus; and as each of these four first Seals is accompanied by a similar cry from one of the four living beings, I see represented in this four-fold ἔρχου the groaning and travailing together of creation for the manifestation of the sons of God, expressed in each case in a prayer for Christ’s coming.” This view, it must be admitted, is beautifully consistent with Alford’s hypothesis, that the Ζῶα symbolize the different classes of animated beings, and could it be sustained by independent considerations (indeed, were it consistent with other considerations), would give great support to that hypothesis. The objections to it are: 1. In that it lacks any express reference to Jesus, it is altogether unexampled and unnatural as an address to Him. 2. The comparison of Rev_22:17 with Rev_22:20, does not in the least support it; the call of Rev_22:17 is manifestly to the water of life mentioned in the last clause; and Rev_22:17; Rev_22:20 belong to entirely distinct divisions of the Book, the object of the ἔρχου of the latter being fixed by the immediately preceding Ναὶ ἔρχομαι ταχύ (see in loc.). 3. A voice of thunder is a voice of command, and not of prayer. Far better does it seem to the Am. Ed. to regard these voices as commands issuing from the ministers of God in nature (or, on the hypothesis of Lange as to the nature of the Ζῶα, from the Forms of God’s Governance in nature). This view, of course, involves a special hypothesis as to the meaning of the four Riders, for which see Additional Note on p. 178 sq.—E. R. C.]
Rev_6:2. And I saw, and behold, a white horse.—“The horses of the heroes of Roman triumphs were white” (Düsterdieck, p. 253). The single triumph of Christ, as set forth here, has in Rev_19:14 extended through the Church Triumphant; it appears as an array of victorious hosts on white horses.
The horses [of the Seals] may not be specially identical with those of Zec_1:8; yet they are in general related to them, as Divine sendings which proceed over the earth (Zec_1:10). The chariots (Zec_6:1 sqq.) seem to denote the same sendings in involved forms of destiny.
The Rider is here characterized by the bow—not the sword. This distinction, according to Düsterdieck, has no symbolical significance. Such an inference, however, should not be drawn from the abortive interpretations offered, as especially the absurd one of Wetstein, who makes the bow indicative of a Parthian king. Doubtless the bow’s property of being effective at a distance (as is the case in modern times with fire-arms of every description) is the true ground-idea of the picture. Düsterdieck’s remark, that possibly the arrows spoken of in Psa_45:6 were present to the mind of the Seer, excuses the interpretation of Vitringa and others, according to whom the arrows that have to be supplied denote Christ’s numerous Apostles and Evangelists. Here, however, the unity of the Rider and the unity of His bow are the main thing; and inasmuch as arrows are to be taken for granted as accompanying the bow, we are to understand them as signifying, not persons, but the lightning-like spiritual operations issuing from Christ Himself, and traversing the whole earth (Zec_9:14). Thus the weapons which Satan employs are fiery darts, Eph_6:16.
In opposition to Züllig and Hengstenberg, Düsterdieck maintains that στέφανος here (as 1Co_9:25) denotes only the wreath of a warrior—not the crown of a king. But there is a peculiar meaning in the wreath which adorns the brow of Him who is described as victorious over the whole earth. And though a wreath might be given to the Warrior in advance, as a promise of victory, as Düsterdieck maintains, the white horse would scarcely be given Him in advance also. That He, therefore, “already goes forth as a νικῶν,” does not mean simply that His purpose ἵνα νικήσῃ will assuredly be attained; it denotes, rather, that He is the Victor absolutely, that He has conquered and will conquer. The principial victory of Christ through His death and resurrection, and the development of that victory into universal victory, could not be more pertinently represented. Düsterdieck himself comes to a similar conclusion a little further on.
The upholders of the Church-historical and world-historical interpretation necessarily make a special chapter out of the first Rider.
Ebrard: “We pass over those purely allegoristic interpretations according to which this rider is Caligula or Trajan (Bengel and others; consult, however, Düsterdieck’s note on this, p. 255), or war (Herder, De Wette), or the victory of evangelical preaching (Cyr. and others), or the word concerning Christ (Hofm.), or the fall (Berengaud.), and more of the same sort.”
De Wette, without any foundation, even contrasts the mounted figure of Christ in Rev_19:11 with the horseman in this passage.
Hengstenberg recognizes the figure as that of Christ. But what a Christ! Here also He goes forth only to execute judgment upon a godless world. Judgment and ever judgment! Here Christ rides forth for the development of the triumphs of salvation. In Revelation 19. He goes forth in order to the triumph of judgment. Ebrard also remarks here: Christ is a warrior on horseback in reference to the hostile world. According to Ebrard, John has a view of earth from his station in Heaven, having been previously transported to Heaven. But the book of destiny with its earth-pictures is opened in Heaven.18
Rev_6:3-4
VISION OF THE SECOND SEAL
Come [Lange: and see]. From this it appears, it is claimed, that after the disappearance of the first Rider, John drew back and resumed his original place (Düsterdieck). According to Ebrard, he retired from the book during the interim. And this proceeding must necessarily be repeated yet two more times. Then, however, according to this literal apprehension of the passage, in which it is forgotten that we are in the midst of the whole vision, John would remain standing before the book after the opening of the fourth and fifth Seals.19 Neither can we regard the second figure as the form of “personified bloodshed” [Düsterdieck]. There are yet other forms of bloodshed (see Rev_6:8); here its warlike form is intended. Concerning the bloody hue itself there can be no doubt (2Ki_3:22).
Special references:20 To the Jewish war (Grotius, Wetstein, Herder, etc.); to the persecutions of the Christians (De Lyra and others); to Antichristianity, its rider being the Devil (Calov.); to the Roman empire (Vitringa); or the world-powers (Stern). The figure is correctly apprehended as general by some others (Hengstenb., Ebrard, Düsterd.).
Rev_6:5-6
VISION OF THE THIRD SEAL
The black color of the third horse does not, according to Düsterdieck, indicate the mourning occasioned by the dearth, but trouble and vexation in general. It is not to be expected, however, that among colors of specific meaning, white, red, and pale-yellow, we should find one so general in its import, embracing all troubles. In Job_30:30 the blackness of the skin is connected with the drying up of the bones. The following passage in Lamentations, however, Rev_4:8-9, is particularly significant: “But now their visage is dark with blackness [A. V.: blacker than a coal; marg. read.: darker than blackness], so that they are not known in the streets; their skin cleaveth to their bones, and they are as dry as a stick. It fared better with those that were slain by the sword than with those whom hunger slew, etc.” Nothing can be plainer than that the black color spoken of in the third Seal-vision is likewise that of hunger. [“The color is indicative of the mournful nature of the employment of the rider.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
Rev_6:5. A balance.—Hengstenberg: “The balance comes into consideration merely as a symbol of dearth or scarcity. For according to the subsequent verse the fruits of the earth are not weighed out, but measured.” Where there is a superabundance, there is no counting and measuring, Gen_41:49; but where a thing is weighed out, there is none too much of it. Fundamental passages are Eze_4:10 : “And thy food which thou shalt eat (shall be) by weight, twenty shekels a day;” and Rev_6:16 : “Moreover, He said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem; and they shall eat bread by weight and with care.” These passages rest upon Lev_26:26. [So also Elliott, Alford, etc. The last-named continues: “Some, as, e. g., Woodhouse, have defended the meaning ‘yoke’ for ζυγόν. But surely the question is here decided for us by Eze_45:10 [LXX.]: ζυγὸς δίκαιος, κ. τ. λ., where the same words occur in juxtaposition. The assertion of Mr. Barker, in his strictures on Elliott’s Hor. Ap., that ζυγός in the sense of balance absolutely is very rare, is sufficiently answered by the proverb ἀκριβέστερος ζυγοῦ, by Diog. Laert. viii. 18. … Where a word can thus be used figuratively, in common sayings, its literal sense cannot be so very rare.”—E. R. C.]
Rev_6:6. And I heard as it were a voice.—[See Text. Notes]. Gloomy cry, gloomy dispensation! It resounds in the midst of the four Life-forms. That is, all four participate in it. [This is not, by any means, a necessary conclusion; the voice more probably proceeded from one, but which one is not specified.—E. R. C.] It is not, however (as Hengstenberg maintains), a piece of intelligence which concerns the representatives of the living beings on earth (in which category Hengstenberg places the Cherubim).
“The first half of the cry,” says Düsterdieck, “sounds as when something is offered for sale” (Winer). But during a scarcity, produce is not cried for sale. On the other hand, a dearth is limited by a taxation of bread. The taxation here indicated issues from the midst of the four Living-forms.
Hengstenberg: “A measure, chœnix, of wheat is designated by Suidas as the daily maintenance of a man (ἡμερήσιος τροφή). A denarius was the usual day’s wages of a man, according to Mat_20:2.” The dearth fixed by this taxation is certainly no famine as yet; moreover, as a permanent and universal suffering is denoted, the figure of famine would be an exaggeration. Hengstenberg thinks that “if a man should eat barley bread, the usual food of the common people (comp. Joh_6:9; Joh_6:13), which is three times as cheap as wheat bread, he and his family might make shift to live.” Possibly they might, if the family was a very small one. [So also Elliott, Alford, Barnes, etc.—E. R. C.]
An unmeaning remark is that of Bengel, who observes that barley and wheat (see on the contrary, Exo_9:31-32) ripen earlier than oil and wine. Hence there would be only a moderate dearth, because the later productions would succeed better. Still less should the contrast be obliterated by the declaration that the greatest economy should be observed in regard to oil and wine likewise (Rinck). The most utter misinterpretation is found in Ewald’s assumption that the oil and wine remained uninjured in a sort of mockery. Though oil and wine are not, in the strictest sense, articles of sustenance, they are—even in the East, where they are more common—articles of luxury and enjoyment, and the oppressiveness of the contrast lies in the fact that the rich, who can also easily pay for the dear wheat, have their special luxuries at a proportionably cheap rate. Similar contrasts run through social life down to the present day.
Special interpretations:21 The famine under Claudius (Grotius and others); famines in a more general sense (Calov., etc.); the black horse, false brethren whose works are black (Bede); dearth of spiritual nourishment (Vitringa, [Wordsworth and Lord]); heretics (à-Lapide); personified heresies (Stern). For additional fanciful interpretations, see Düsterdieck.
Rev_6:7-8
VISION OF THE FOURTH SEAL
It is not without purpose and effect that of the fourth rider it is expressly said that his name is Death. In this stress upon the name, we might find it indicated that Death is only so called on earth; that he is not really death, but sleep, according to the name whereby faith knows him; nay, that he is even a cosmical birth so far as the name by which he is known in the other world is concerned. The context, however, seems more to favor the idea that he here appears in the light of a terrific object, whom all men call by name, by his dread title. Death here appears as the specific death-power, as a historically aggravated mortality (see Psalms 110). Hence he cannot be reduced to a specific form of death, pestilence, for instance, as Eichhorn supposes. Besides, all Hades follows him, and Hades is not populated by pestilence solely. Hades on earth is the whole terrific retro-action of the Kingdom of the Dead on the race of mortals; it does not, therefore, denote the inhabitants of Hades (Eichhorn, Ebrard); otherwise the earth would be peopled with ghosts. Hengstenberg even tries to make Hades the place of torment, the abode of the damned, after the mediæval fashion, in accordance with his ruling view (p. 339). It is not said, however, that Gehenna spreads itself over the earth. Düsterdieck, moreover, justly remarks that general plagues are treated of here; not special plagues of unbelievers.
The color of the horse is χλωρός, the yellowish green of the fresh-springing verdure, and the greenish yellow of decay; the latter is the symbol here.
On the meaning of the fourth part, see above. It might be said—all men are mortal; but the fourth and pre-eminently worldly part is swept away by an aggravated mortality. In the Prophets, also, the four dark species appear as leading forms of punishment, viz.: the sword, hunger, death (in this special sense contagion [דֶּבֶר, see Düsterdieck, p. 262], of which, again, pestilence is a particular form), and evil beasts (Lev_26:22; Eze_14:21). (Another explanation of the fourth part, see in Ebrard, p. 249.)22
[Alford: “The enumeration comprehends the ‘four sore judgments’ enumerated in Eze_14:21, and in the same terms (LXX.): τὰς τέσσαρες ἐκδικήσεις μου τὰς πονηράς, ῥομφαίαν, καὶ λιμὸν, καὶ θηρία πονηρὰ, καὶ θάνατον. This fixes the meaning of this second and subordinate θανάτῳ as above” (i. e., “pestilence”).—E. R. C.]
Special interpretations:23 The mortal sufferings in the Jewish war (Wetstein and others); the pagan Romans under Domitian (Lyra); migration of nations (Huschke); death-bringing heresy (Bede and others [Wordsworth]); the Saracens (Vitringa).
Rev_6:9-11
VISION OF THE FIFTH SEAL
Rev_6:9. Under the altar.—[“̓Υποκάτω τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου, i. e., at the foot or lower part of the altar, where the victim was laid whose blood had been shed.” Stuart.—E. R. C.] “Two altars are mentioned in Revelation; namely, the golden altar of incense, and the altar of burnt-offering, which is not called golden. The former is denoted in Rev_8:3-4; Rev_9:13; the latter in Rev_14:18; Rev_16:7. [Here it can be only the altar of burnt-offering that is meant. For this, as being the more public of the two, accessible and open to the view of all, is always the one intended in Scripture, and especially in the Revelation, when the altar is simply mentioned (comp. Rev_16:7). And here we can the less think of any other than it, as on it alone were the bloody offerings presented, and only under it could the blood be found, or the souls of those that had been slain.”—(E. R. C.)] (? Hengstenberg). On the embarrassments in which the literal exegesis finds itself in striving to account for the position of the souls under the altar, and for their visibility, see Düsterdieck, p. 264. Idem: “The reason why the souls are conceived of as under the altar, is found in the fact that the blood of sacrifices, as which the martyrs are accounted, was poured out at the foot of the altar.” He rightly adds, in opposition to Züllig and Hengstenberg, that it does not follow from this that by the souls, nothing but the blood is here intended. The altar is, by most commentators, regarded as the altar of burnt-offering [so Wordsworth, Elliott, Alford, Barnes, etc.—E. R. C.]; only De Wette incorrectly apprehends it as the altar of incense, in accordance with Rev_8:3.
[Wordsworth: “The imagery of this vision is derived from the sacrificial service of the Temple (Exo_40:29); ‘the blood of the victims being received by the sacrificing Priest in a vessel was poured out at the foot of the altar’ (Jahn, Archæol., § 377); see Lev_4:7; Lev_8:15; Isa_29:1). The sacrificial word (ἐσφαγμένων), here rendered slain, is the same as is applied to Christ, the True and Faithful Martyr, the Lamb slain (see 5:6, 9, 12, 13:8), and to the Martyrs (in 18:24). This imagery had been already adopted by the Apostle St. Paul at Rome, on the eve of his own martyrdom; ‘I am already being poured out,’ etc. (2Ti_4:6).”—Alford: “The representation here, in which they are seen under the altar, is simply symbolical, carrying out the likening of them to victims slain on the altar. Even as the blood of these victims was poured under the altar, and the life was in the blood, so their souls are represented as under the symbolical altar in Heaven,24 crying for vengeance, as blood is often said to do.”—Barnes: “John saw these souls as if they were collected under the altar—the place where the sacrifice for sin was made—offering their supplications. Why they are represented as being there is not so apparent; but probably two suggestions will explain this: (a) The altar was the place where sin was expiated, and it was natural to represent these redeemed martyrs as seeking refuge there; and (b) it was usual to offer prayers and suplications at the altar, in connection with the sacrifice made for sin, and on the ground of that sacrifice. The idea is, that they who were suffering persecution would naturally seek a refuge in the place where expiation was made for sin, and where prayer was appropriately offered.”—E. R. C.]
On account of the word of God and on account of the witness which they had.—The testimony, according to the ancients, De Wette, and Bleek, is the testimony concerning Christ; according to Hengstenb., Ebrard, Düsterd., it is the testimony (objective or subjective?) which the martyrs have received from Jesus. Düsterdieck says: “This view is demanded, irrespective even of the parallelism of the foregoing τ. λόγ. τ. θ. by the clause ῆν εἶχον, which presupposes that the μαρτυρία which the martyrs had, had been in the first instance by them received, namely, from the true or original Witness, Jesus Christ.” There is an exegetical obscureness here. The testimony is a specific term. The gospel which a man receives from Christ is not in itself a specific testimony or witness. It becomes testimony by faithful confession; and then, doubtless, Christ confesses Himself to the man by whom He is confessed. Here, however, the holding fast of confessors to their confession is denoted. [“The testimony is one borne by them, as most commentators; not one borne to them by the faithful Witness, as Düsterdieck and Ebrard, most unnaturally; for how could the testimony borne to them before the Father by Christ (so Ebrard) be the cause of their being put to death on earth?” Alford.—E. R. C.]
Rev_6:10. They cried (ἔκραξαν).—According to Ebrard, the souls; according to Hengstenberg, the slain. The grammatical reference, it is true, is to the latter; but the slain are the souls. In this vision Hengstenberg, after a more general view of all that goes before it, falls entirely into the church-historical interpretation, and speaks of catastrophes which hold out a prospect of the final judgment. All the seal-visions, from the first on, progress toward the final judgment; and this is assuredly true, therefore, of the vision of the martyrs in particular. Toward the actual end of the world, however, quite different forms of persecution take the place of slaying, see Rev_13:17.
According to Hengstenberg, the souls of the slain are not their spirits as existent in the other world, but their animal souls, identical with the blood, and destroyed in death along with their bodies; he, therefore, apprehends the description as purely poetical; or, rather, he gives a purely prosaic interpretation.25
The souls invoke the Lord as ὁ δεσπότης; i. e., the Lord in His absolute power and authority. They doubt not that He is able immediately to bring the course of the world to a conclusion. The human soul in extreme distress is always prone to appeal to this power. Düsterdieck [also Alford], not without reason, brings out the special reference of the Divine title to the δοῦλοι, as indicated in our text by the σύνδουλοι.
The application of ἀληθινός to God’s faithfulness to His promise (Vitringa, Bengel and others) is opposed by Düsterdieck. The word certainly does primarily denote the true, essential Lord; this, however, is not to the exclusion of an appeal to His faithfulness. [See on Rev_3:7.—E. R. C.]
Them that dwell on the earth.—Antithesis to the servants of God. In demonstration of the ethical nobility of the longing uttered by the martyrs—a longing which contained neither a culpable impatience nor a desire for revenge—Bede has remarked: “Non hæc odio inimicorum, pro quibus in hoc sæculo rogaverunt, orant, sed amore æquitatis, qua ipsi judici ut prope positi concordant” (Düsterdieck).
To Bengel’s observation: “They are concerned for the honor of the holiness and truth of their Lord;” we must add that, for that very reason, they are also concerned for justice and their own justification.
Rev_6:11. And a white robe was given unto them, to each.—This express singular is very significant. Each soul in particular is justified. According to Hengstenberg, this is but an illustration of their felicity, for the benefit of John and the Church. “According to Rev_3:4-5; Rev_7:14, the white robe constitutes the attire of all the blessed, and they, as such, enter into glory immediately upon their departure out of this life. Accordingly, the words, was given, cannot refer to the bestowment itself, but to the consciousness of the Seer.” Düsterdieck opposes this hypothesis of a “poetical fiction,” but also combats the view of Bengel, who supposes that some particular thing over and above eternal salvation and blessedness is intended. “White stolæ, or long white robes, are an excellent adornment and high honor.” Vitringa’s interpretation is, indeed, a more valuable one: “The cause of these martyrs shall be publicly vindicated in the Church, and they shall be recognized and extolled as sharers in the glory and Kingdom of Christ, their cause having for a time appeared in a dubious light.” Bossuet, in accordance with the import of the white robe amongst the Romans, seems to regard it here as indicative of a special expectancy of the resurrection. Martyrdom is certainly a special candidateship for glory; yet, according to the meaning of the white robe elsewhere in the Apocalypse, Vitringa appears to us to have presented the true signification of the present passage.26
[Alford: “The white robe, in this Book, is the vestment of acknowledged and glorified righteousness, in which the saints walk and reign with Christ, comp. Rev_3:4; Rev_7:13 sqq. al. This was given to the martyrs; but their prayer for vengeance was not yet granted. The Seer saw in vision that this was so. The white robe was not actually bestowed as some additional boon, but seemed in vision to be thus bestowed, because in that vision one side only of the martyrs’ intermediate state had been presented, viz.: the fact of their slaughter and their collective cry for vengeance. Now, as over against that, the other more glorious side is presented, viz.: that though the collective cry for vengeance is not yet answered, yet, individually, they are blessed in glory with Christ, and waiting for their fellows to be fully complete.”—E. R. C.]
That they should rest.—According to Bengel and De Wette, ἀναπαύσωνται means a cessation from crying; according to Hengstenberg, it denotes the repose of the blessed, the rest from the toils and conflicts of life, with reference to Rev_14:13. This too, then, would be a mere poetic description. As in the humanly conditioned world of feeling, the impulse of justice and the impulse of mercy modify each other, and the latter especially appeases the former (Jam_2:13), so too the impulses of longing in view of the Divine purpose and end of the world are appeased by the impulse of patience in view of the Divine plan of the world. Patience must supplement longing, Rom_8:17; Rom_8:25. The consolation of them, by pointing them to the end of their earthly sufferings, is an independent affair, and its place is not here. The first word of comfort that would be spoken to a man who had been slain would not be—thou art now freed from all trouble [?]. The instinct of justice is æonic, and extends into eternity; this Kant saw.
[Wordsworth: “They enjoy the rest and refreshment of Paradise (Luk_23:43), and are in Abraham’s bosom (Luk_16:22). Therefore, as the Apocalypse says, ‘Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord … for they (that they may [shall]) rest from their labors, Rev_14:13.’—Alford: “Not merely abstain from their cry for vengeance, be quiet; but rest in blessedness, see Rev_14:13; Dan_12:13.”—Barnes: “That is, that they must wait for a little season before they could be avenged as they desired.”—E. R. C.]
Yet a little time.—“Bengel’s reckonings in regard to the length of the ‘χρόνος’ suffer shipwreck on the right reading χρ. μικρόν” (Düsterdieck). The term time in itself is the indefinite form of the future, softened for patience by the epithet: a little time, as also by the idea of the chronos as the legitimately expiring period leading to the καιρός. Then, again, the purpose of the waiting is stated: ἵνα πληρωθῶσιν, etc. That their full number may be made up. Wolf, Ebrard, Düsterdieck, Do Wette: That their career might be completed, or that they might be completed [in the sense of dying, or of moral perfection; De Wette thinks either may be intended.—Tr.]. Similarly Hengstenberg, in accordance with the reading πληρώσωσι. In opposition to Bengel’s view, Hengstenberg remarks: “One must be very full of Judaistic notions to pretend to understand by the fellow-servants, future martyrs from among the Gentiles, and by the brethren, martyrs of Israel.” Being slightly scholastic, however, is not always being Judaistic. Bengel had overcome the Judaistic tendency to a greater degree than many another man. According to Düsterdieck, against De Wette, the numeric completeness has reference only to the future martyrs. But neither can these constitute a separate class, according to John’s view.
[Alford: “Shall have accomplished (scil. their course). Considering that this absolute use of πληροῦν, without an object following, is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, it is strange that Ebrard and Düst. should designate πληρώσωσιν as an explanatory reading for πληρωθῶσιν. If this latter be read, then we must render: shall have been completed (in number); a meaning found Luk_21:24; Act_7:23; Act_7:30; Act_9:23; Act_24:27; comp. also Col_2:10, which suggests another reason for altering to θῶσιν,”—E. R. C.]
The vision of the fifth seal has also been particularized. In the martyrs crying for vengeance, Vitringa discovered the Waldenses. Bengel interposed a chronos=1111/19 years between the Apostolic martyrs that cry for vengeance and the martyrs of the future; thus he also struck upon the Waldenses—not, however, at the beginning, but at the end of the chronos.27
On isolated, allegorizing interpretations of the words, souls under the altar, see Düsterdieck, p. 265.
Rev_6:12-17
VISION OF THE SIXTH SEAL
Ebrard and Düsterdieck maintain with perfect truth that the end of the world is depicted in this vision [so also Wordsworth and Alford. See Add. Note, p. 178.—E. R. C.]. And thus for the second time the cyclical structure of the Apocalypse is established. But as the condition of Laodicea and the Lord’s standing before the door did but lightly touch upon the end, so the present cycle does indeed advance, yet in such a manner as to leave abundance of room for the following cycles. And this inasmuch as it is essentially confined to the cosmical indications of the beginning catastrophe. Our passage reproduces the parallels in the Eschatological Discourse, Mat_24:29-30, in a prophetically developed form. The second vision has its foundation in Mat_24:6; the third and fourth visions have theirs in. Rev_6:7; and the fifth in Rev_6:9. [This sketch, manifestly true in all the particular parallels mentioned, leaves entirely out of view, as will be observed, any parallel to the leading figure, the false Christs of Rev_6:5. See Add. Note.—E. R. C.] Hence, all allegoristic interpretations which deny the reference of the fifth seal to the end of the world, making the vision consist of intermediate forms or more general features, are to be rejected. Prominence, however, must be given to the fact, that the Seer here beholds only the signs of the cosmical end of the world and the effects of those signs, whilst with the seventh seal, or in the trumpet cycle, chs. 7 and 8, the spiritual signs and events are revealed. By this fact exegesis is conditioned, as has been previously intimated. Hoffmann did not understand this sequence when he judged that nothing but a description of the new world could follow this delineation of the day of wrath. See Ebrard on this, p. 261. Whilst Ebrard gathers from our text that the whole firmament, the entire structure of the world, shall be destroyed and cease to be—a view which exceeds every Biblical limit, even 2 Peter 3.—Düsterdieck, on the other hand, justly makes mention of the visional form of the revelation, though that, indeed, does not preclude the reality of the individual features as symbolically presented.
Rev_6:12. A great earthquake.—See Rev_11:13; Rev_16:18; Rev_8:5. In all these passages, however, the context must decide whether the terrestrial or the social and spiritual import predominates.
[“We have no word but earthquake for σεισμός; but it does not, by any means, cover the meaning. For here the heavens are shaken (against Düsterdieck), and the sea, and the dry land. See Hag_2:6-7, and … Heb_12:26-27.” Alford.—E. R. C.]
As sackcloth of hair, Isa_1:3.
The moon like blood, Joe_2:31.
The heavens rolled together, Isa_34:4.
The kings, etc., Mat_25:32. “Kings are filled with anguish in common with the meanest slave” (Düsterdieck). This ought, properly, to be transposed, since the meanest slave has outwardly the least to lose.
Rev_6:17. In the cry of the terrified and trembling ones to the mountains and rocks, the thought that they seek death (Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Düsterdieck) is not the primary idea conveyed by the text. They seek absolute concealment from the face of God and the wrath of the Lamb, from judgment, in their despairing repentance. And the meaning of this is, we admit, that this present life is so transformed for them into an invasion of the terrible beyond, that they now picture even that beyond as more endurable in reality than the life which they now live. Düsterdieck rightly characterizes these exclamations as representative of the utterances of unbelievers.
Special interpretations:28 as applying to the Jewish war, especially the destruction of Jerusalem (Grotius and others); to intermediate historic spiritual events in the Church (Bede, Vitringa and others); particularly to the darkening of prophecy and law (Böhmer), to Christ blasphemed (the darkened sun), etc. See Düsterdieck, p. 269. On similar allegorizings by Hengstenberg, see Ebrard, p. 258.
[ADDITIONAL NOTE ON THE FIRST SIX SEALS]
By the American Editor
[Every proposed Scheme of the Seals must be tried on its own merits, and that only which at once meets the requirements of the individual symbols, which preserves the unity of the whole system of symbolization, and which manifestly lies parallel with the established facts of history, should be accepted.
It is an essential element in the scheme of Stuart, which represents the visions as having had their primary fulfillment in the events which terminated in the destruction of Jerusalem, that the Apocalypse should have been written before that event. This opinion is, in the judgment of the writer, successfully controverted by Lange (see Introduction, p. 59 sqq.) and many of the ablest Commentators. But even if that opinion be correct, and if the visions did find a fulfillment in the events referred to, it seems rational to regard that fulfillment as only typical, in itself prophetic of one greater and more complete. We cannot suppose, in view of ancient history alone, that the tremendous imagery, either of our Lord’s eschatological discourse, Mat_24:5-51, or of the Seals (which seem to lie parallel with the portion of the discourse referred to), should have had relation merely to the events that preceded and accompanied the victory of Titus. Still less, in view of the course of history since the destruction of Jerusalem and the manifest accordance of the symbolization therewith, can we avoid the conclusion that the latter was a forecasting of the former. Stuart himself, it will be observed (see Foot-note, p. 168), does not deny the validity of this conclusion.
The schemes of Wordsworth and Lord, whilst they have many things in them that have the appearance of truth, do not, even where the presentation of historical facts is correct, satisfy the requirements of the Symbols.
Of the many historical views that have been presented, those of Elliott and Barnes have by far the greatest appearance of probability. But even these are liable to serious objections. 1. They fail in presenting well-defined historical periods. The historical hypothesis calls for successive periods which, although they may blend into each other at each beginning and close, shall be distinctly marked as satisfying the symbols in their central portions. The first and second periods presented by these Commentators (I. A. D. 96–184; II. 184 or 193–284) are well-defined (and to a considerable extent satisfy the symbols), but beyond these all is confusion. The third period does not begin at or near the termination of the second, but is embosomed, within it, beginning before A. D. 217, and running on indefinitely; the fourth period is embosomed within the third (A. D. 243–268); the fifth (A. D. 284–310 or 312) does not begin on the termination of the fourth, or even of the third, but of the second. 2. Both these schemes present utterly unsatisfactory explanations of the Sixth Seal. We feel that the awful figures of this vision—a trembling Universe, the sun darkened, the moon as blood, the stars of Heaven falling to the earth—are not satisfied by the merely terrestrial convulsions that terminated in, either the destruction of the political power of Paganism, or the sack of Rome.
The hypothesis, advocated by Lange and Alford, that the first five Seals are synchronous, beginning, as to their development, at the date of the Apocalypse and continuing to the present time, is, in the judgment of the writer, correct, as is also the further hypothesis, that by the Riders on the second, third and fourth horses are meant respectively War, Dearth and Aggravated Mortality. He must, however, express his dissatisfaction with the interpretations of both these distinguished Commentators of the Rider on the first or white horse. Lange identifies this Rider with Christ. A special objection lies against this view, viz.: that it requires us to regard as mixed together symbols of entirely different orders. As the symbols of the second, third and fourth visions are aberrant, and as all the surroundings lead us to group the four Horsemen together, it seems natural to suppose that the first symbol should be aberrant also. Far better is the supposition of Alford, who, ignoring the consideration just mentioned, supports his interpretation that this Rider is not the personal Christ, but Christianity, by language quoted in the Foot-note on p. 171 sq.
But even this modified hypothesis is liable to serious objections. In the first place, it represents Christianity as wearing the golden crown, whilst those who profess it are represented in the fifth Seal as victims falling under the hand of the dwellers upon earth. The crown of this Rider calls for recognized sovereignty in the world, and it is not satisfied by what is called the spiritual kingship of the Sons of God. There is a sense in which Christ was a King in humiliation; but the only crown He wore on Earth was the Crown of Thorns. It is the teaching, not only of the fifth Seal, but of the didactic portions of Scripture, that, throughout the present dispensation, His true followers, as pilgrims and sojourners here, must be partakers of His humiliation. Another objection to this view is, that it places Christianity in apparent subordination to God’s ministers in nature (see last paragraph of the Add. Comment on p. 170 sq.). It is at the call of the Ζῶα that the four Riders come forth. The unity of the complex symbol seems to demand that each one of the Riders should act in one of the realms of God’s natural government.
There is an hypothesis which, in the judgment of the writer, satisfies all the requirements of the entire symbolization, and which brings that symbolization into harmony with the other teachings of the Scripture and the facts of history, viz.: that the Rider on the white horse symbolizes mere Human Culture, or, to adopt the current term, Science.
From the beginning, Science has gone forth in triumph, conquering, and that he may conquer; amongst “the dwellers upon earth” he is the acknowledged and crowned King; his bow, like that of Apollo, is far-sounding and far-reaching. He has proclaimed himself, and now in louder and more triumphant tones than ever is proclaiming himself, to be the true deliverer of men from woe. And yet throughout the long period of his reign, though he has ministered much to intellectual and material advancement, he has been unable to abolish war, and dearth, and aggravated mortality, and the true followers of Jesus have been opposed and persecuted—sometimes with the sword and faggot, sometimes with less apparent, but not less real instrumentalities. As the servant of Christ, Science has been in the past, and will be more gloriously in the future, one of the grandest instrumentalities for human development and blessing; but, as an independent king, he is a mock Christ.
This hypothesis, which is consistent with historical facts, satisfies the Symbols of the first vision, and brings them into unity with those which follow; it places the first Rider in the same order of Symbols with the others; it places him in a realm of nature; it is consistent with the implications of the fifth Seal; it is in harmony with the teachings of the didactic Scriptures as to the condition of the Church throughout the present dispensation; and, lastly, it brings the entire vision into parallelism with the eschatological discourse of our Lord (Matthew 24), in which He forewarned His disciples that in the future before His second Advent there should be (1) false Christs, Mat_24:5; (2) wars, Mat_24:6-7; (3) dearth, Mat_24:7; (4) aggravated mortality, Mat_24:7; (5) persecutions, Mat_24:9-10; (6) to be followed by fearful commotions and woes preceding the Advent, Mat_24:15-17; (7) the Advent, Mat_24:30-31.29
In the opinion of the writer, the fifth Seal, as to its first part (Rev_6:9-10), is an Earth scene representing the condition of the true followers of Christ (or at least the most faithful portions thereof) during the period of His absence. That this is to be a condition of humiliation and suffering, comp. 2Ti_3:12; Mat_24:8-9; Joh_15:18-24; Joh_16:1-4; Joh_16:19-22; Rom_8:18-23; Rom_8:35-36; Gal_4:29; Php_1:27-30; 1Th_2:11-15 with 3:3, 4; 2Th_1:4-7; 2Ti_2:8; 2Ti_2:12; Heb_12:1-5; Heb_13:13-14; Jam_1:2-3; Jam_1:12; Jam_5:7-11; 1Pe_1:6-7; 1Pe_1:11; 1Pe_1:13; 1Pe_2:12; 1Pe_2:21; 1Pe_4:1; 1Pe_4:12-14, etc.30 As to its second part (Rev_6:11), it describes the condition of their departed spirits (see Foot-note, p. 176).
The events of the sixth Seal it seems most reasonable to regard as subsequent to those of the preceding Seals—indeed as still future. Even on the hypothesis that the fearful convulsions therein foretold are to be regarded as symbolic of revolutions in the realm of human government, it may be asked: Have there as yet been such revolutions as satisfy the tremendous symbols? And beyond this—Doubtless, fearful convulsions in human affairs were in the view of our Lord (Mat_24:29) and of the Seer (Rev_6:12-16); but can we regard their words as referring only to such convulsions? If the earth quaked, and the rocks rent, and the sun was darkened, when the God-man died (Mat_27:45; Mat_27:51, etc.), is it not rational to expect, in view of such prophecies as those referred to, that similar portents will precede or accompany His Second Coming in glory?
That the sixth Seal heralds and introduces the End of the Æon and the Coming of the Lord for the Establishment of the Basileia, there can be no doubt; that in any proper sense it can be said to usher in the Final Consummation, the Advent of the Lord for Final Judgment, is exceedingly questionable (Add. Notes, p. 339 sqq.). It brings us to the very Appearing of the Lord; but here, that Advent and its accompanying and succeeding events are not described. We are again brought to the same event at the blowing of the Seventh Trumpet, Rev_11:15; and again Rev_14:11. The full description, however, is reserved until the close of all the collateral visions ending in that event; it is presented to us chs. 19:11; 20:6.—E. R. C.]
Footnotes:
[1]Rev_6:1. [Καὶ βλέπε] Omitted by A. C., etc. Possibly in consequence of exegetical conjecture. [Lange retains here, and also in Rev_6:3; Rev_6:5; Rev_6:7. Lach., Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch. omit with A. C. P.; (Gb. and Sz., with א. B*., give καὶ ἴδε. B*. omits in Rev_6:3. The other Codd. are in Rev_6:3; Rev_6:5; Rev_6:7 as in this place.—E. R. C.]
[2]Rev_6:4. Before λαβεῖν an αὐτῷ. [So Words., Alf., Treg., Tisch., with א*. B*. C. P.; omitted by אc. A.; Lach. brackets.—E. R. C.]
[3]Rev_6:4. The reading σφάξουσιν in acc. with A. C., etc. [So Lach., Alf., Treg. and Tisch. Words., with א. B*. P., gives σφάξωσι.—E. R. C.]
[4]Rev_6:6. Before φωνήν a ὡς according to A. C. [Also א. P. So also Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch. It is omitted by Wordsworth.—E. R. C.]
[5]Rev_6:7. Unimportant variations. [Cod. C. reads τὸ τέταρτον ζῶον; and the Rec. λέγουσαν instead of λέγοντος—E. R. C.]
[6]Rev_6:11. [Critical editors generally, with א. A. B*. C. P., give ἐδόθη and στολή.—E. R. C.]
[7]Rev_6:11. [The reading αὐτοῖς ἑκάστῳ generally adopted in acc. with א. A. C. P.—E. R. C.]
[8]Rev_6:11. Μικρόν is to be retained in acc. with א. A. C. [P.].
[9]Rev_6:11. [Alf., Treg., Tisch., with א. B*. P., give πληρώσωσιν; Gb., Lach., Words., with A. C., read πληρῶθωσιν.—E. R. C.]
[10]Rev_6:12. [Lach., Alf., Treg., Tisch., with א. A. B*. C., insert ὅλη.—E. R. C.]
[11]Rev_6:13. [Tisch. gives βάλλουσα with א. Lach., Words., Alf., Treg., read βάλλει, with A. B.* C. P.—E. R. C.]
[12]Rev_6:15. The second πᾶς not well founded; interpolated for the sake of clearness. [It is generally omitted in acc. with A. B.* and C.—E. R. C.]
[13]Rev_6:17. [Treg. and Tisch. give αὐτῶν with א. and C.: Lach., Words., and Alf., αὐτοῦ with A. B*. P.—E. R. C.]
[14][The Am. Ed. deems it improper to break the continuity of the author’s general statement by the presentation of the views of ot ers, whether coincident or adverse; this presentation he has reserved either for the Explanations in Detail, or the Additional Notes, the one at the end of this section (p. 170), the other at the close of the chapter (p. 178). Ha has taken the liberty, however, of introducing notes of reference immediately after those matters of interpretation which, further on, he ventures to controvert.—E. R. C.]
[15][See the Excursus on Hades, p.364 sqq.—E. R. C.]
[16] [“Quantus tremor est futurus,
Quando Judex est venturus,
Cuncta stricte discussurus.”—E. R. C.]
[17][The views of this distinguished commentator have been by many strangely misunderstood and misrepresented. He has been understood as holding that the entire Book has reference to events that have long since occurred, and yet in his comment on Rev_1:1, he writes “Now, although the closing portion of the Revelation relates, beyond all doubt, to a distant period, and some of it to a future eternity,” etc. He is also by many understood as teaching that the first portion had reference only to events preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, and yet the opening paragraph of his Introduction (Vol. I., p. 9) contains this sentence (the italics being his own): “It lies upon the very face of the whole composition, I mean the prophetic part of it, that the coming and completion of the Kingdom of God or of Christ, or, in other words, the triumph of Christianity over all enemies and opposers, its universal prevalence in the world for a long series of years, and its termination in an endless period of glory and happiness, constitute the main, theme of the writer, and is indeed the almost exclusive subject of his contemplation.” In § 9, entitled “Object of the Book” (Vol. I., p. 155), he writes, “The final and complete triumph of Christianity over all enemies, and the temporal and eternal glory and happiness to which this triumph leads the Church, or, still more briefly, as Lücke has stated it, ’the coming and completion of the Kingdom of God,’ is the generic theme of the Revelation.” And, again, in § 28 (“Apocalypse designed for the Church in every Age,” Vol. I., 478), we find the following, “I regard the Apocalypse as containing matter which is a τύπος of all that is to happen in respect to the Church. I regard the whole Book as (a) particular illustration of a general principle—of a generic truth.”—E. R. C.]
[18] [For the view of the Am. Ed. see Additional Note, p. 178. [Alford, in the main, agrees with Lange in the interpretation of this symbol. There is a difference, however, which is set forth in his answer to the question: “Who is the Rider on this white horse?” He writes: “We must not, in reply, on the one hand, too hastily introduce the Person of our Lord Jesus Himself, or, on the other, be startled at the objection that we shall be paralleling Him, or one closely resembling Him, with the far different forms which follow. Doubtless, the resemblance to the Rider, Rev_19:11 sqq., is very close, and is intended to be very close. The difference, however, is considerable. There He is set forth as present in His triumph, followed by the hosts of Heaven: here, He is working in bodily absence, and the rider is not Himself, but only a symbol of His victorious power, the embodiment of His advancing Kingdom as regards that side of its progress where it breaks down earthly power and makes the kingdom of the world to be the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.”
[Elliott (followed by Barnes) supports his view (see p. 168) as follows: He begins his discussion of the general subject of the Seals with the a priori probabilities that the Apocalyptic horse symbolized a nation, and that this nation was the Roman. He contends that, under this hypothesis, on the comparison of the symbols with the established facts of history, such unity and significance become apparent as to establish the truth of the hypothesis. (And it must be acknowledged, that if the unity and significance be as he claims them to be, it will be difficult to invalidate his conclusion.) He, then, in reference to the description of the character of the even is of this particular seal (Rev_6:2, the crowns and the white color of the horse, indicating triumph and prosperity) asks: “Did not this answer very notably and distinctively to the general state and history of the Roman Empire for eighty or ninety years succeeding John’s banishment? that is, from Domitian’s death, A. D. 96, throughout the successive reigns of Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the two Antonines, until the accession of Commodus, etc.?” In answer to this question, he refers to Gibbon’s description of this period (vol. i., chs 1, 2), quoting the following from the second chapter of the great History: “If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.” He strives to confirm his hypothesis by reference to the στέφανος and the bow of this Rider; showing that during this period of Roman history the στέφανος, and not the διάδημα, was the crown of the Emperor, and that Nerva, who was a Cretan by extraction (his great-grandfather was probably a Cretan! see Hor. Ap. Vol. I., p. 146, notes 2 and 3), was properly represented with a bow, which was the symbol of a Cretan.—E. R. C.]
[19][The call must have had some significance. If addressed to John (and it must have been if the καὶ βλέπε or ἴδε be genuine), it is inconceivable that it should have meant anything else than that he should go forward; and the thrice-repeated call implies that he must have retired after each opening. The further conclusion of our Author, however (which he seems to have presented in ridicule), is by no means necessary; the Seer, after the opening of the fourth Seal, might have retired, as he must have done after the opening of all the preceding. The necessity (on the supposition of the genuineness of the Rec.) of this advancing and retiring is among the considerations that go to establish the fact of interpolation (see Add. Comment on p. 170 sq.).—E. R. C.]
[20] [Elliott and Barnes regard this Seal as symbolizing that long period of war and bloodshed which, commencing shortly after the accession of Commodus, extended to the accession of Diocletian (A.D. 185 or 6–284). As descriptive of this period, they make many citations from Gibbon, and (Elliott) the following from Sismondi (Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I.): “With Commodus’ death commenced the third and most calamitous period. It lasted ninety-two years, from 192 to 284. During that time thirty-two Emperors and twenty-seven pretenders to the Empire alternately hurled each other from the throne by incessant civil warfare.… Ninety-two years of nearly incessant civil warfare taught the world on what a frail foundation the virtue of the Antonines had reared the felicity of the Empire.” They support their hypothesis by such considerations as the following: (1) All the Symbols, the red color of the horse, the peace taken away, the killing, the great sword, indicate a state of war; (2) the taking away of peace indicates that it was a state of war following a period of peace; (3) the μάχαιρα=the Roman battle-sword, not ῥομφαία as in Rev_6:8), that it was a state of civil war; (4) the sword given to the rider, that the “causal agency” in the state of war should be “those whose fitting and distinctive badge was sword-bearing,” i. e. “the military.”
[Wordsworth, who holds that the Rider is Satan making his first assault by persecution, writes: “This is the exposition which all the ancient interpreters have given of this Seal.” On this point, however, he presents only one direct testimony from the Catena.—E. R. C.]
[21] [Elliott and Barnes identify the events of this seal (see p. 168) with the period of distress following the edict of Caracalla, ante A. D. 217. Both these authors refer largely to Gibbon; the latter quotes (from Lord) the following from, Lactantius (De Mort Persec, Rev 23), as furnishing “a painful but most appropriate illustration:” “Swarms of exactors sent into the provinces and cities filled them with agitation and terror, as though a conquering enemy were leading them into captivity. The fields were separately measured, the trees and vines, the flocks and herds numbered, and an examination made of the men. In the cities the cultivated and rude were united as of the same rank. The streets were crowded with groups of families, and every one required to appear with his children and slaves. Tortures and lashes resounded on every side. Sons were gibbeted in the presence of their parents, and the most confidential servants harassed that they might make disclosures against their masters, and wives that they might testify unfavorably of their husbands. If there were a total destitution of property, they were still tortured to make acknowledgments against themselves, and, when overcome by pain, inscribed for what they did not possess. Neither age nor ill-health was admitted as an excuse for not appearing. The sick and weak were borne to the place of inscription, a reckoning made of the age of each, and years added to the young and deducted from the old, in order to subject them to a higher taxation than the law imposed. The whole scene was filled with wailing and sadness. In the mean time individuals died, and the herds and the flocks diminished, yet tribute was none the less required to be paid for the dead, so that it was no longer allowed either to live or die without a tax. Mendicants alone escaped, where nothing could be wrenched, and whom misfortune and misery had made incapable of farther oppression. These the impious wretch affecting to pity, that they might not suffer want, ordered to be assembled, borne off in vessels, and plunged into the sea.” He adds: “Were we now to represent these things by a symbol, we could scarcely find one that would be more expressive than that of a rider on a black horse with a pair of scales, sent forth under a proclamation which indicated that there would be a most rigid and exact administration of severe and oppressive laws, and with a special command, addressed to the people, not for the purposes of concealment, or from opposition to the government, to injure the sources of revenue.”
[Wordsworth thus writes: “The imagery of the Apocalypse is derived from ancient Hebrew prophecy. The ground-work of its language here is that of Hos_12:7, concerning Ephraim. Ephraim in the Apocalypse is a representative of enmity to Judah, the Church of Christ. And Hosea thus describes Ephraim: He is a merchant; the balances of deceit are in his hand, he loveth to oppress; the characteristic of Heresy is to be a merchant, and it bears a balance in its hand. ‘The Rider,’ says Augustine, (?) ‘has a balance in his hand, for he professes that he is teaching equitably, and yet he is doing wrong.’ ”—E. R. C.]
[22][The Am. Ed. must here express his dissatisfaction with every explanation that he has seen of the fourth part; nor can he propose an interpretation satisfactory to himself. In his judgment, there is here either an undiscovered corruption of text, or else a knot in symbolism which it is reserved for some future commentator to unravel.—E. R. C.]
[23] [Elliott and Barnes regard this seal as indicating the period (A. D. 243–268) embracing the reigns of Decius, Gallus, Æmilianus, Valerian and Gallienus. Concerning this period, as to its general characteristics, they quote from Gibbon the following: “From the great secular games celebrated by Philip to the death of the Emperor Gallienus, there elapsed twenty years of shame and misfortune. During this calamitous period, every instant of time was marked, every province of the Roman world was afflicted by barbarous invaders and military tyrants, and the wearied empire seemed to approach the last and fatal moment of its dissolution.” In reference to particular things (the quotations are made from Barnes) we have the following: The sword (ῥομφαία=the barbaric sword): This “was the period of the first Gothic invasion of the Roman Empire; the period when those vast hordes … invaded the Roman territories from the East, passed over Greece, and made their appearance almost, as Mr. Gibbon says, within sight of Rome … As one of the illustrations that the ‘sword’ should be used by ‘Death’ in this period, we may refer to the siege and capture of Philopolis. ‘A hundred thousand persons are reported to have been massacred in the sack of that great city’ ” (Gibbon).
[Hunger: “This would naturally be the consequence of long continued wars, and of such invasions as those of the Goths. Mr. Gibbon says of this period: ‘Our habits of thinking so fondly connect the order of the universe with the fate of man, that this gloomy period of history has been decorated with inundations, earthquakes, uncommon meteors, preternatural darkness, and a crowd of prodigies, fictitious or exaggerated. But a long and general famine was a calamity of a more serious kind. It was the inevitable consequence of rapine and oppression, which extirpated the produce of the present, and the hope of future harvests,’ ” Vol. I., p. 159.
[Pestilence: “Of the pestilence which raged in this period Mr. Gibbon makes the following remarkable statement, in immediate connection with what he says of the famine: ‘Famine is almost always followed by epidemical diseases, the effect of scanty and unwholesome food. Other causes must, however, have contributed to the furious plague, which, from the year two hundred and fifty to the year two hundred and sixty-five, raged without interruption in every province, every city, and almost every family in the Roman empire. During some time, five thousand persons died daily at Rome; and many towns that had escaped the hands of the barbarians were entirely depopulated,’ 1:159.”
[Wild beasts: “These are formidable enemies in the early stages of society, and when a country from any cause becomes depopulated. … Though not adverted to by Mr. Gibbon, there is a record pertaining to this very period which shows that this was one of the calamities with which the world was then afflicted. It occurs in Arnobius, Adv. Gentes, lib. i. p. 5. Within a few years after the death of Gallienus (about A. D. 300), he speaks of wild beasts in such a manner as to show that they were regarded as a sore calamity. … ‘When were wars waged with wild beasts, and contests with lions? Was it not before our times? When did a plague come upon men poisoned by serpents? Was it not before our times?’ ”
[Wordsworth comments as follows: “The word used in the seal for sword is different from that in Rev_6:4, and properly signifies a Thracian sword…The Beasts of the Earth here, are savage powers exercising an earthly dominion for earthly ends. … Observe the article here, the Beasts, showing that although they have not yet been mentioned, they are present to the Divine fore-knowledge, and will be described more fully in later parts of the Apocalypse. … These words, the Beasts of the Earth, thus introduced, connect the time of the seal with the time of other prophecies in other portions of the Apocalypse. The words thus used in this book may be called chronological catch-words. They serve to rivet prophecies of contemporaneous events, and to mark identity of subject, as well as sameness of time. … We find on examination that the word θηρίον, Beast, is used in no less than thirty-seven places of the Apocalypse, and always in a special sense, signifying a particular power; we may therefore reasonably infer that the word is used in the same sense in the passage now before us. This seal, therefore, presents a compendious view of the sufferings which the Church of Christ would have to endure from the various workings of the Evil One.”—E. R. C.]
[24][There is no altar of burnt offering in Heaven; the only altar there is that of incense. In the symbolic Tabernacle, the altar of burnt offering was placed in the open court, before the ναός (the true Temple) and in the way to it; and so, doubtless, in the Apocalyptic vision. In the judgment of the American Editor, the outer altar was symbolic of the Earth as the platform of service (i. e. sacrifice in its broadest sense) offered unto God as the condition of entrance into the Holy Place. For the sinful creature, this service involves sacrifice in the sense of suffering and death. The perfect service, involving the voluntary endurance of suffering and death, which is the efficacious condition of the sinner’s entrance into Heaven, was offered by the Second Adam; and yet those united unto Him are called to a service like His—a service of obedience, involving sacrifice in the narrower sense, the sacrifice of burnt offering. It was in respect of this that the Apostle desired, not only for himself, but for all believers, that they might know the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings, and be made conformable unto His death (comp. Php_3:10 with 17). In the restitution of all things, doubtless, this earth will be brought into the Holy Place, and the brazen altar of burnt offering will become a golden altar of incense (Rom_8:21, Rev_21:3-4), but until that day the earth will remain, before the Temple, an altar of sacrifice. The scene that the Seer beheld was (in the first part) an earth scene during the present æon, in which he beheld the true followers of the Lord partaking in the sufferings of their Head. (See Add. Note, p. 178.)—E. R. C.]
[25][It becomes an exceedingly interesting and important question whether Hengstenberg is not right. He writes: “The Souls of the martyrs, in Rev_6:9, are not the souls in the intermediate state, as expositors commonly suppose; the souls (ψυχαί) are meant, of which it is said in the Old Testament that they are in the blood—the animal souls (see, for example, Gen_9:5, [the term here translated life is in the LXX. ψυχή]); they are murdered souls; but the blood itself might as well have stood, and in Rev_6:10, indeed, is actually put instead of the souls here. This is plain from comparing the original passage, Gen_4:10, where the blood of Abel cries to God from the ground. (Züllig: ‘Only a dramatizing of the thought; your blood demands vengeance, according to Gen_4:10; Gen_9:5, etc.’ [LXX.]) It is in accordance with the phraseology of the Old and New Testaments, in which everywhere the spirits (πνεύματα) only, not the souls (ψυχαί) of the departed are spoken of—see my Comm. on the Psalms, Vol. III., p. 87 (Trans.). It is shown by a comparison of the parallel passage, Rev_20:4, where the discourse is of the souls (ψυχαί) of those who have been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, and where the Prophet sees them live again. It is plain, finally, from the fact that the souls were seen under the altar, in reference to Lev_4:7 (comp. 5:9), ‘And the whole blood of the bullock shall he pour out at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering, which is before the tabernacle of the congregation.’ Accordingly, since the place under the altar has nothing to do with souls in the higher sense, we can only understand by the souls (ψυχαί) the animal souls, which perish with the body.” According to this interpretation, it is the blood, the murdered lives, of the saints that calls to God for vengeance. And this idea is far more in accordance with what we are taught concerning the character of the redeemed than the one commonly received. There is no incongruity in the supposition that the blood of martyred Stephen, like that of Abel, should have called upon God to avenge it; but we cannot entertain the thought that the spirit of him who, like Jesus, departed with a prayer for forgiveness, should, immediately after his departure, have raised the cry, Lord, avenge me, punish, my murderers.—E. R. C.]
[26][Does not a comparison of this verse with Rev_7:9; Rev_7:13-14, indicate that the white robes have reference to a heavenly condition, and not to an earthly vindication?—E. R. C.]
[27][Elliott and Barnes identify this Seal with the persecution under Diocletian (A. D. 303–312). They both give copious extracts from Gibbon and other historians. The latter quotes from Gibbon as follows: “Galerius at length extorted from him (Diocletian) the permission of summoning a council, composed of a few persons, the most distinguished in the civil and military department of the State. It may be presumed that they insisted on every topic which might interest the pride, the piety, the fears of their sovereign in the destruction of Christianity, i. 318.” “It would have been an easy task, from the history of Eusebius, from the declaration of Lactantius, and from the most ancient acts, to collect a long series of horrid and disgustful pictures, and to fill many pages with racks and scourges, with iron hooks and red hot beds, and with the variety of tortures which fire and steel, savage beasts, and more savage executioners, could inflict on the human body, i. 326.”—E. R. C.]
[28] [Elliott and Barnes identify this Seal also with great periods in Roman history (see p. 168).
[The former, who regards the period indicated in this chapter as that in which the political power of heathenism was destroyed, supports his view as follows: By the earth he understands the “Roman earth” (vol. i., p. 103); by the firmamental Heaven above this Apocalyptic earth, “the ruling department in the dominant polity;” and by its luminaries, “the actual rulers and governing powers therein ” (vol. i., pp. 103, 236 sq.). From this point of view he writes concerning this vision: “It surely betokened some sudden and extraordinary revolution in the Roman Empire, which would follow chronologically after the era of martyrdoms depicted under the Seal preceding; a revolution arising from the triumph of the Christian cause over its enemies, and in degree complete and universal.” These conditions he finds fulfilled in the great revolution under Constantine—a revolution concerning which he quotes Gibbon as writing (vol. v.):“The ruin of the Pagan religion is described by the Sophists as a dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered the Earth with darkness and restored the ancient condition of chaos and of night.”
[Barnes fixes upon a different period, viz.: A. D. 365–410. He writes: “The design of these verses (15–17), in the varied language used, is evidently to denote universal consternation and alarm—as if the Earth should be convulsed, and the stars should fall, and the Heavens should pass away.” He quotes largely from historians to show that these figures met their most complete fulfillment in the period closing with the destruction of the Empire by the Goths and Vandals.—E. R. C.]
[29][The four realms of nature brought to view on this hypothesis are (1) human intellect, (2) government, (3) the processes ministering to growth and nourishment, and (4, possibly) the atmosphere as the seat of those influences which minister to health and disease. Is it not possible That the ideal forms of the Ζῶα may have relation to these realms of nature: the Human figure to the first, the Lion to the second, the Ox to the third, and the Eagle to the fourth?—E. R. C.]
[30][As against the position taken above, may be urged the present exemption of the Church from persecution. This suggests the question, whether this exemption may not be the result of undue conformity to the world—a conformity exemplified in the case of the Church of Laodicea, Rev_3:15-17. The only texts in the New Testament with which the writer is acquainted, militating against the truth of his position are such as 1Ti_4:8; Mat_6:33; Mat_19:29; Mar_10:30. These texts, it is urged, promise temporal prosperity to true Christians. It is to be remembered, that they had immediate respect to primitive believers—to those to whom the Saviour directly declared that the world would hate and persecute them. The first passage cited was addressed to that very minister to whom it was declared (2Ti_3:12) “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” To suppose, therefore, that these texts imply a promise of temporal prosperity and freedom from persecution is to place them in direct antagonism with the general run of inspired utterance; and not only so, but it is to suppose the utterance of a promise that manifestly never was fulfilled in the case of those to whom it was primarily given. All the passages can, without straining, be regarded as implying the promise of spiritual prosperity in the midst of temporal adversity. Thus, and thus only, can they be brought into harmony with the declarations of prophecy and the facts of history.—E. R. C.]
SPECIAL DOCTRINO-ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL NOTES (ADDENDUM)
Section Fifth
Earth-picture of the Seven Seals. Their opening. (Ch. 6)
General.—The course of the world in its totality—considered with reference to its predominantly external and predominantly internal phases. Sublime picture of the Four Riders. The cry, as with a voice of thunder, Come and see! Come and see that Christ, upon the white horse, precedes the three dark riders, that He has dominion over them, and that He has brought them into His service, into the service of His Kingdom. Come and see: the bright fundamental thought of world-history, so dark in respect of its predominant visible aspect. The four Horses, or world-history a course, in eternal onward motion. Each horse has its rider, i. e., its idea; its conduct and tendency, regulated by that idea; its goal and purpose. The main tendency of all, however, is regulated and defined by the tendency of Christ. The group of four Riders may be classified under two heads, viz., Christ or personal Victory, contrasted with impersonal War, the desolator of personal life. For as Christ constitutes the three dark Riders His followers and presses them into His service, so the second Rider may regard the third and fourth as his esquires, War being attended by Dearth, in the first place, and secondly by Pestilence.
1. History of the world in its predominantly human aspect. First Seal. Christ, as the Logos, also the dynamic Force, the fundamental and leading Power of worldly history—a Power victorious in holy suffering. The great Victor in all the wars of worldly history—(1) He has conquered, (2) He is conquering, (3) He will conquer.—Second Seal. War. Its dark side or abnormity. Its light side in the train of Christ. Comp. the author’s pamphlet: Vom Krieg und vom Sieg.—Third Seal. Dearth. Terrestrial sufferings. Social sufferings. Wealth and poverty. Usury and pauperism. Care of the poor. Socialistic projects. Infinite increase of pauperism through the luxury of those that are at ease; infinite decrease of it through the plainness and simplicity of Christian sentiment and classical culture.—Fourth Seal. Death. Circumstances of mortality. Pestilences. Poisons. Wild beasts. Suicides. Lust and cruelty in their reciprocal action. Death of children. Offerings to Moloch. Macrobiotic counter-agencies.—2. History of the world in its predominantly spiritual aspect. Fifth Seal. The Martyr-history of the Kingdom, as the kernel of the history of the world: the suffering Christ. The martyrs, beginning with Abel. In respect of human wickedness, slain on the field of the curse, without the sacred camp, on the Place of a Skull; in respect of the Divine counsel, sacrificed on God’s altar, buried beneath the altar. Connection of all martyr-sufferings with the holy sacrifice and expiatory sufferings of Christ in the centre. All martyr-sufferings for the sake of God’s Word (or for the sake of truth, in the heathen world), cleansed from sin, purified and perfected through the sufferings of Christ. The blood of the heavenly-minded, shed by the earthly-minded, animated by the spirit of intercession, and yet a real historic impulse after justice, demanding recompense. Old Testament martyrologies (Matthew 23). Apostolic martyrologies. Old-Catholic martyrologies. Mediæval Protestant martyrologies. Evangelic martyrologies. The grand history of spiritual martyrdoms. Even John and all like-minded with him, though they died a natural death, are true martyrs. True martyrdom, faithfulness in confession, enduring unto death. Witness as confession. There are none save persecuted confessions—no persecuting ones. Christianity itself a confession. Consolation concerning all martyr suffering, and pacification of all martyrs. Pacification in view of the whole matter: a. The great company of sufferers; b. The Divine counsel concerning the completion of their number; c. Rest in patience and in the hope of perfect retribution; d. The white robes beyond this life, glistening ever clearer in historic lustre even in this present world. The memory of martyrs is revived even through the canonization of their murderers. The terrors of the Inquisition are, from the fact of their becoming more and more an object of detestation to mankind, also a precursory rehabilitation of the slain.—Sixth Seal. The triumphant Christ. Symbolic presages of the Coming of Christ, spiritual and cosmical: the great earthquake. Darkening of the sun and moon (Matthew 24). The sun of the spiritual life veils itself in black; the moon of the natural life becomes as red as blood. The stars of Heaven fall, i. e., our old cosmical system is dissolved. The old Heaven and the old earth-phase (mountains, islands) vanish in the process of metamorphosis. Dissolution of the old social order of things: the kings, etc., are afraid (Rev_6:15). The Coming of the Lord to judgment; a coming to the terror of all the earthly-minded (Rev_6:16). The great Day of Wrath (see Zeph.). Its convulsing effect. The great Day of Wrath also, however, the great Day of final Redemption. The Seventh Seal, yet to be opened, the envelope of all those Trumpets calling to conflict and repentance which, as judgments of God, complement and transrupt the course of the world.
Special.—[Rev_6:2.] Attributes of the First Rider, or the individual traits in His appearance.—[Rev_6:4.] Symbolic traits of the Second Rider; [Rev_6:5] of the third; [Rev_6:8] the fourth.—[Rev_6:4]. War as a Divine ordinance; to him it was given to take peace from the earth. To him a great sword was given.—[Rev_6:5.] Famine or Dearth on earth, a distressful state with which the celestial ones are acquainted (Rev_6:6), which they modify, limit, and direct.—[Rev_6:8.] Death as a judgment; as a judgment transformed into a blessing. The Death of Christ, the death of Death.—Hades also in the service of Christ.—[Rev_6:9-11.] The souls of the martyrs: they are all in existence still, and visible to the eye of the Seer.—How their faithfulness to the Word of God and their witness of Jesus were imputed to them as a crime.—Their common character.—As the avengement of blood contains a germ of righteous retribution, so the judgment of God is a great and holy analogue of unholy avengement of blood.—White robes: a favorite image of John; a favorite adornment of the Church.—Wait a little while. Sadness and peace in the consolatory assurance that the sufferers for Christ’s sake constitute a great company.—The anxious question of the weak human heart as to how God the All-Ruler, in His holiness which hates evil and in His truth whereby He is the Covenant-God of the pious, can suffer His children, servants, and witnesses to be slain by His enemies—suffer them to be slain for His name’s sake, and even make them wait so long for His retribution.—The heavenly answer to this question.—[Rev_6:17.] The Day of Wrath, in relation to its appearances in the Scriptures (or as predicted) and in the history of the world (or as presaged).—The Day of Wrath in its effects.
Starke: The Rider on the white horse is Christ; this is clearly manifest from Rev_19:11-16. A white horse was held in particular esteem by the heathen; when the kings of Persia wished to sacrifice to the sun, they offered up a white horse to that luminary. It gave prestige to generals to ride before their armies on white horses; victors used white horses in celebrating their triumphs, and the Romans had their triumphal chariots drawn by white horses.—Red is a sign of war; hence the Persians and Lacedemonians wore red garments when they went to war.—The color of the horse in Rev_6:5 is indicative of hunger, which makes people look black and parched (Lam_4:2; Lam_4:7-8).—A balance in his hand. Such as spices were weighed with. Indicative of want is the fact that provisions are not measured, as usual, by the bushel, but weighed by the scale (Lev_26:26); not the greatest want and famine are indicated, however, for where it is necessary to weigh out grain, there is, indeed, scarcity, but not yet famine.—Χλωρός, pale, sallow, betokens the pale yellow hue of dry and withering herbs and leaves of trees; thus Constantius was called Chlorus, on account of his paleness. Because Death is commonly called pale, and makes men of a clayey hue, yea, turns them to clay, this figure of a pale horse is most appropriate.—On the Fifth Seal. Quesnel: The saints pray for the second Coming of Christ just as patriarchs and righteous men of old sighed for His first Coming (Psa_14:7; Luk_10:24).—The expressions relative to the occurrences under this Sixth Seal are taken from Isa_2:19-21; Isa_13:9-10; Isa_24:23; Isa_34:2; Isa_34:4; Eze_32:7-8; Joe_3:15-16; Mat_24:29; Luk_21:25.
The exposition of the Seals is placed by Starke on the Church-historical platform, and the alternative is discussed as to whether the first five Seals are already fulfilled, or whether the fulfillment of all the Seals is still future. Starke gives the grounds for (and therefore, relatively against) each hypothesis.
Graeber, Versuch einer historischen Erklärung, etc. (see p. 73): First Seal. A white, shining horse, and he that sat upon it had a bow, and there was given unto him a crown [Kranz=wreath], and he went forth conquering, and that he might (or should) conquer. This first image exhibits to our view not a pagan, but a Christian Victory—to this effect is the superscription which we must give to this picture. The Rider is himself first described, and then his work is set forth. His work is victory. He went forth conquering and to conquer, i.e., he went from one victory to another. His victory was a triumphal procession through the world. How sublime and how comfortable is it that the first thing revealed to us concerning the government and dominion of Christ on earth, is His victory. His first procedure is victory, and He goes from one victory to another, and ends with victory! According to this, all that He does is victory. He cannot do otherwise than triumph. Fortune changes not under His government, as it does in the wars of earthly kings, nor are His victories purchased at great expense, like those of earthly sovereigns, but He conquers always—absolutely. Whoso in these wars will not suffer himself to be gained over to Christ’s side as His friend, is judged as His foe. Every one is conquered—these to enjoy everlasting felicity, those to suffer the penalty of eternal damnation.—The bow (Psa_7:12-13). He is armed, not with the sword, but with the bow, because the short sword puts the combatant in great danger of being wounded himself, whilst the bow, on the other hand, strikes from afar. (What relation does the “sword in His mouth” bear to the “bow in His hand ?” The sword is, assuredly, His word; the bow, doubtless, is the operation of His Spirit, in its awakening as well as its judging power.)
Pollock, [The Course of Time]. Der Lauf der Zeit, ein Gedicht in zehn Gesängen, übersetzt von Hey. Hamburg, Perthes, 1830. On the Sixth Seal. An attempt to depict the cosmical crisis. [”Meantime the earth gave symptoms of her end; and all the scenery above proclaimed that the great last catastrophe was near. The sun at rising staggered and fell back, etc.”] (The idea that in decaying cosmical nature extremes constantly become more sharply prominent, is suggested, but not worked out with sufficient clearness. According to Scripture, moreover, the cosmical convulsion is first perceptible in earthly life.)
Van Oosterzee, De Oorlogsbode (the messenger of war): Tijdpreek in Augustus 1870, ’s Gravenhage. On Rev_6:1-8. The theme: De Oorlog en zijne ellenden, beschouwd in het licht der christelijke Heilsopenbaring. “Op de tweede vraag, wie hem beschikt, dezen rustverstoorder, antwoordt onze tekst veelbeteekenend, dat hem deze macht is gegeven.
On the seven Seals, and particularly the four Riders, there is a variety of special literature. See Lilienthal, Archivarius, p. 822. See Introduction, p. 74.—L. Hofacker, Ueber das weisse Pferd, etc. Tubingen, 1830.—Cunningham, Dissertation on the Seals, etc. London.
[From M. Henry: Rev_6:16. The wrath of the Lamb. Though Christ be a Lamb, yet He can be angry, even to wrath, and the wrath of the Lamb is exceeding dreadful; for if the Redeemer, that appeases the wrath of God, Himself be our wrathful enemy, (“through our rejection of His atonement,”) where shall we have a friend to plead for us? They perish without remedy, who perish by the wrath of the Redeemer.
Rev_6:17. As men have their day of opportunity, and their seasons of grace, so God has His day of righteous wrath; and when that day comes, the most stout-hearted sinners will not be able to stand before Him.—From Bonar: Rev_6:10. How long? These words occur frequently in Scripture, and are spoken in various ways: 1. As from man to man; 2. As from man to God; 3. As from God to man. Passing by the first mode of their usage—comp. Job_8:2; Job_19:2; Psa_4:2; Psa_62:3—we come to the other two. 1. The Words as from man to God; comp. Psa_6:3; Psa_13:1; Psa_35:17; Psa_74:10; Psa_79:5; Psa_89:46; Psa_90:13; Psa_94:3-4; Hab_1:2; Rev_6:10. In these passages they are the language, (1) Of complaint. Not murmuring or fretting, but what the Psalmist calls “complaining,” an expression of weariness under burdens. (2) Submission. (3) Inquiry. (4) Expectation. 2. The words as from God to man; comp. Exo_10:3; Exo_16:28; Jos_18:3; 1Ki_18:21; Psa_82:2; Pro_1:22; Pro_6:9; Jer_4:14. Taking up these words of God as spoken to different classes, we would dwell on the following points: (1). Long-suffering. It is this that is expressed in the passage in Jeremiah. (2.) Expostulation. How long halt ye between two opinions ? (3) Entreaty. God beseeches man. (4) Earnestness. (5) Sorrow. (6) Upbraiding. (7) Warning.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–7 Evidently Christ, whether in person, or by His angel,…
Evidently Christ, whether in person, or by His angel, preparatory to His coming again, as appears from Rev 19:11-12.
bow-- (Psa 45:4-5).
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crown--Greek, "stephanos," the garland or wreath of a conqueror, which is also implied by His white horse, white being the emblem of victory. In Rev 19:11-12 the last step in His victorious progress is represented; accordingly there He wears many diadems (Greek, "diademata"; not merely Greek, "stephanoi," "crowns" or "wreaths"), and is personally attended by the hosts of heaven. Compare Zac 1:7-17; Zac 6:1-8; especially Rev 6:10 below, with Zac 1:12; also compare the colors of the four horses.
and to conquer--that is, so as to gain a lasting victory. All four seals usher in judgments on the earth, as the power which opposes the reign of Himself and His Church. This, rather than the work of conversion and conviction, is primarily meant, though doubtless, secondarily, the elect will be gathered out through His word and His judgments.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6 III. OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS, Rev_6:1 to Rev_8:1.
III. OPENING OF THE SEVEN SEALS, Rev_6:1 to Rev_8:1.
Four Creational Seals, Rev_6:1-8.
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1. And—By decision of the divine court the seals are now, through the agency of the Lamb, about to be broken. And in each of the three series of sevens, the seals, the trumpets, and the vials—the distinction between the creational four and the divine three is decisively marked; so decisively, indeed, as to be an important aid in the interpretation.
The first four of each seven have to do with external nature; and they so correspond with each other as to show that not so much chronological order, as mutual correlation, is the basis of their succession. This fact discards fatally those methods of interpretation according to which a long consecutive human history, with dates in chronological order, is here sought to be traced. The last three of each seven have to do with more spiritual interests dear to the hearts of the elders—with men rather than physical nature, and with the Church. The six seals, nevertheless, run through a series of successive phases of the entire moral history of the world under the Messianic dispensation. The first four present the world under the aspect of the fall of man; the second, the renovation through the final doom and retribution; which is completed in the picture of the redemption and the glory in chapter 7. We have thus in the six seals the cycle of man’s moral history briefly symbolized, to be more fully evolved under the seven trumpets. The unsealing of chapter vi is a dark and gloomy series, which is gloriously relieved by the pictorial sealing of Revelation 7. Hence chapters sixth and seventh should be read as one great antithetic tableau. It is the great judgment history and contrast; woe to the profane, grace to the holy. However much the Church has misread the Apocalypse, it has ever read this great assuring fact, that with God the finality will be the eternal triumph of the right.
The Lamb opened—So that of this second apocalypse, which draws forth the third, as well as of the first, Christ is the real revealer.
One of the four beasts—Each of the four creational seals is called forth by one of the cherubic beasts. Noise (rather, voice) of thunder—The movement of this great first unsealing thus signally announced.
Come and see—Each of the four beasts utters a Come, and our English version adds, and see, as addressed to John. But the best authorities have only Come. To whom, then, was this Come addressed? Not to John, for the symbol was plainly visible to him without any coming. Clearly it is addressed to the symbol now to be released from detention by the opening of the seal, and ready to be called forth by the cherub. The fancy of Alford, that it is addressed to Jesus, (as in Rev_22:20,) is very far-fetched.
The first seal—of CONQUEST.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7 The First Seal. Chap. 6 Rev_6:1-2
The First Seal. Chap. 6 Rev_6:1-2
1. one of the four] Presumably the Lion, as the other voices are described as those of the second, third, and fourth. But the voice (so the word “noise” should be rendered: cf. Rev_10:3-4) like thunder does not refer to the lion’s roaring: no doubt the other three voices were as loud.
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Come and see] The two last words are almost certainly spurious here and in Rev_6:3; Rev_6:5; Rev_6:7 : the cry is only “Come!” in all four cases. Who then is to come? Some say the received reading, originally no doubt a gloss, is a correct gloss—the Seer is to draw near. But the word is quite different from the “Come hither” of Rev_17:1, Rev_21:9 : also there is no sign that he does draw near or has need to do so, and if he has done so once, why is he bidden to do it thrice again? Others take it to be a summons to the Horseman who in fact does come: and this at least is in harmony with the context, and makes good sense, and applies equally to the opening of the first four seals where the same expression occurs. Others, comparing Rev_22:17; Rev_22:20, take it as addressed to the Lord Jesus. His creatures pray Him to come—and behold, instead of His coming immediately, there come these terrible precursors of His, so increasingly unlike Him. But in an address to the Lord, surely His Name must have been added. It would have been not merely ‘Come,’ but ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 (1) And I saw when the Lamb (the diminutive…
(1) And I saw when the Lamb (the diminutive form of Lamb is still used) . . .—The words “and see” are doubtful. They are found in some MSS. and omitted in others: the authority for their omission and for their retention is about equally divided. Under these circumstances we may fairly be guided by the context. To whom is the summons addressed? Who is bidden to come? If it was taken to be addressed to the seer, we can understand why some copyist should add the words “and see.” But are they addressed to the seer? It seems difficult to see the purpose of such a command. He was near already. He had seen the Lamb opening the seal. There was no object in his drawing near. Are the words, then, addressed, as Alford supposes, to Christ? It is difficult to believe that the living creature would thus cry to the Lamb, who was opening the scroll. The simplest way of answering the question is to ask another: Who did come in obedience to the voice? There is but one answer—the horseman. The living beings cry “Come,” and their cry is responded to by the appearance of the several riders. What is the spiritual meaning of this? The living beings represent, as we have seen, animated nature—that nature and creation of God which groans and travails in pain, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. These summon the emblems of war and pestilence to come on the scene, for these things must needs be, and through these lies the way for the final coming of God’s Christ, for whom creation longs. They bid the pains and troubles come, because they recognise them as the precursors of creation’s true King. Thus their voice has in it an undertone which sighs for the advent of the Prince of Peace, who is to come.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 And I saw. A new departure in the series…
And I saw. A new departure in the series of visions is marked. (see on Rev_4:1) We have here the commencement of the Revelation proper, to which the first five chapters have formed an introduction (cf. Tabular analysis). The vision of the seals, which, although related first, exhibits events concurrent with those symbolized by the trumpets and vials, is contained chiefly in Re 6 Re 7 is occupied with an account of an episodal character, similar to that which occurs in Rev_10:1-11; Rev_11:1-14 after the sixth trumpet; and the vision is completed by the opening of the seventh seal, described in Rev_8:1. The opening of the first seal pictures the triumph of Christ and his Church, for the comfort and hopeful assurance of those to whom St. John was writing, and for the edification of struggling Christians of all time. To this theme, touched upon here proleptically, the apostle returns at the conclusion of the trumpets; the first six of which bear a general likeness to the last six of the seals. When the Lamb opened one of the seals; one of the seven seals (Revised Version). The insertion of "seven" (epta) is supported by A, B, C, a, and others; Vulgate, De Dieu"s Syriac, Andreas, Arethas, Primasius, Victorinus, Aethiopic. (On the right of the Lamb to open the seals, see on Re 5) And I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts; the voice of thunder... four living creatures (Revised Version). (For the four living beings, see on Rev_4:6) Here each living being invites attention to the revelation of the future of that creation of which they are all representative. The thunder is the usual accompaniment of a special revelation of the Divine will, and indicative of the majesty of him whose will is declared. (see Rev_10:3 and Rev_14:2; also Exo_19:16 Act_2:2) Nothing in the text warrants us in particularizing the four living creatures in these four invitations uttered by them, though many writers have endeavoured to do so. Thus, adopting the order in Rev_4:7, they have supposed that the first voice was uttered by the lion, since the revelation of the first seal is distinguished by the prophecy of victory. The sacrificial nature of the second living being the steer is thought to be connected with the slaughter predicted under the second seal by the vision of war and persecution. The man is considered typical of the heresy which it is believed the third seal predicts, and especially of the false opinions concerning the Incarnation; while the eagle is regarded as a symbol of resurrection and the harbinger of the final victory of the just over the death and Hades of the fourth seal. Saying, Come and see. The Revised Version omits "and see." The Textus Receptus, without any apparent authority, reads Ercou kai blepe , "Come and see." Ercou , "Come," simply, is read in A, C, P, fourteen cursives, several versions, two manuscripts of Andreas, etc.; while Ercou kai ide , "Come and behold," is found in a, B, thirty-four cursives, various versions (including the Coptic), two manuscripts of Andreas, etc.; and the Syriac omits Ercou , "Come." The authorities are thus very evenly balanced; but the addition of kai ide , even if not warranted, seems to indicate that the sentence was generally considered to be addressed to St. John; and was intended as an invitation to him to witness the appearances which accompanied the breaking of the seals. Alford contends that the cry, "Come," is addressed, on behalf of creation, to the Lord Jesus, and is a petition to him to speedily bring these things to pass, that his own advent may follow. In support of this, Alford remarks that there is no example of the use by St. John of Ercou in the sense of "Come and see," "Come hither," without wde , or some qualifying particle; but, on the contrary, it is exactly the expression used of our Lord"s advent in Rev_22:17, Rev_22:20, "The Spirit and the bride say, Come," etc. Though there is much reason in this contention, yet, on the whole, the weight of evidence, as stated above, makes it probable that the sentence is addressed to St. John.
Vers. 1-17. Six seals opened.
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The ground thought of this book is "The Lord is coming." Concerning this Professor Godet remarks, "L"histoire du monde dans son essence se resume dans ces trois roots: Il vient; il est venu; il revient. C"est sur cette idee que repose le plan du drame apocalyptique." Even the prophecies of the Old Testament, which dealt so largely with the first coming, shot far ahead and reached even to the second, e.g. Joel. Our Lord himself is very clear on this topic. (Mt 24 and Mt 25) So also are Paul, Peter, and John. Nor should we think of our Lord"s second coming as if it were merely a far distant something with which we are as yet unconcerned. We are told that star touches star by means of an ethereal invisible medium which joins them. Even so the first and second comings of our Lord touch each other by means of the events now going on, whose train began from the one and will reach to the other. Not a moment is lost in the interval. During these apparently slow lingering centuries, in which day follows day with unbroken regularity, one day so much like another that comparatively few leave any distinct impression on the mind, not a moment is there but some work is being done to prepare for our Lord"s return. He is now on his way, and at the appointed time "he that shall come will come, and will not tarry." The plan of this book gives us
(1) the point of departure,
(2) the final consummation,
(3) a symbolic setting of the events which will fill up the space between the two termini; in which we have "l"epopee de la lutte supreme entre Dieu et Satan, pour la possession de l"humanite comme prix du combat." In this chapter we have set before us in marvellous vividness six features by which the way is to be marked which leads to the consummation. These we will take in order, not omitting to press home their teachings for the conscience and the heart.
I ALREADY OUR LORD HATH GONE FORTH CONQUERING AND TO CONQUER. (Vers. 1, 2) One of the four living ones says, "Come." It is a call to the apostle, not a representation of the Church"s cry to her Lord. The apostle responds. He sees under the first seal emblems which point plainly and distinctly to the Lord Jesus. The white horse. (cf. Rev_19:11-13) The bow. (cf. Psa_45:3-5) The crown; (Rev_14:14) symbol of conquest and might. The errand on which he goes forth, "conquering and to conquer;" conquering as he goes, as a matter of fact; speeding on, that he may conquer still. Certainly the mission of our Lord is the only one which can be thus described. He is to know nothing but success. His progress may seem to be retarded, as we judge of things, but it never is so according to the Divine conception. We may not be in a position to trace continuous advance. But we know who it is that has gone forth; we believe in his might, his wisdom, his love. He has never yet lost an hour, and never will.
II MANIFOLD FORCES, INCIDENTS, AND AGENCIES ARE ALSO AT WORK UPON THE EARTH. The first seal certainly indicates triumph; the second, war (vers. 3, 4); the third, famine (vers. 5, 6); the fourth, death, whether by sword, famine, pestilence, or wild beasts (vers. 7, 8); the fifth, martyrdom (vers. 9-11); the sixth, convulsions, terrible and appalling, of various kinds. Now, what do these symbols triumph, war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion mean? Some say, The changing phases of the Church itself; the progress of the Christian power going forth in triumph; then degeneracy, corruption, and controversy creeping in; then darkness, ignorance, and a famine of the Word; then the pestilential mystery of iniquity; then martyrdom; then great upheavings and mighty tribulation, preparing the way of the Lord. Others regard them as indicating a state of things which had occurred before John"s exile the triumph and peace of the Augustan era; war under Caligula; famine under Claudius; pestilence following on famine; martyrdom under Nero; the convulsive breaking up of the Jewish state and polity. Certain it is that before John"s exile these six or seven features followed each other, and exactly in this order. Whence some may conclude that that must have been the intent of the symbols. But, singularly enough, if we begin with John"s exile, it is the fact that in the Roman empire, hastening to its fall, these varied phases triumph, war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion also succeeded each other in this very order, so much so that if any one had desired to write from the history of the changing fortunes of that empire an illustrative commentary on this chapter, he could scarcely have used more fitting phraseology than Gibbon has done in is history of its decline and fall. Yet we are sure that he, at any rate, had no intention of being a Scripture expositor. We learn from him that there was an era of great prosperity in the Roman empire from the year 96. This was followed by a long series of strife and civil war, as if to show on what a frail foundation the virtue of the Antonines had reared the felicity of the empire. That period of strife was succeeded by famine, and that again by pestilence; then followed the dreadful era of the Diocletian martyrdom, and the break up of the Roman empire, the subjection of paganism, and the establishment of Christianity in its place. Be it remembered, then, that not once only can the student put his finger on the map of history, and say, these six triumph, war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion succeeded each other, and in this order, but once and again. And let us not forget that our Saviour named these just these in nearly the same order, and said that they would occur in divers places"War, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion, are to occur repeatedly. Hence we are driven to the conclusion that these symbolic representations of the six seals do indicate the varied features which should mark the progress of the age, ere the Church is brought in, in the fulness of her redemption. All the forces symbolized here have been at work for ages on different parts of the earth; each of them recurs again and again, and will do so through the whole stretch of this dispensation. Here our God seems to say to us, "You see these terrible forces war, famine, pestilence, martyrdom, convulsion. I see them too. There is nothing but what is in the seven-sealed book. Fear not. All the seals will be opened by the Lamb that was slain. All these terrors are but preparatory agencies clearing the way for the "day of the Lord"!
III THE PRESSURE ACCUMULATES AS THE END DRAWS NEARER. While we cannot pretend to draw a sharp line between one seal and another, it is manifest from the entire chapter that, as the end approaches, the pressure increases. The sixth seal is surely indicative of convulsions so great as to produce a consternation which will shake society to its foundations. One of these later phases will be the upheaving of nations, disorganization of visible Churches, and widespread unsettlement of faiths. "Every mountain and island were moved out of their places." Yet this is but the sixth seal, not the seventh; a preparation for the end, not the end itself, although many may think it so. It is "the great tribulation a tribulation so great that many will cry out in agony, "The great day of his wrath is come!" Yet it will not be that, but only a preliminary to it.These words, "The great day of his wrath is come!" are not the sacred writer"s own, but the cry of the terrified ones. God will yet shake, not earth only, but also heaven. (cf. Luk_18:8 Hag_2:6, 7 Heb_12:26 Mat_24:29, Mat_24:31) Let us beware of man"s frequent and false alarms.
Christ"s word in Mat_24:4-6 should be a perpetual guard against them.
IV THE ADVANCE OF THE DAY OF THE LORD WILL SEEM TO THE WORLD AS THE APPROACH OF A DAY OF WRATH. (Vers. 16, 17) "The great day of their wrath is come." Their wrath even that of him that sitteth on the throne, and of the Lamb. Wrath? Why? Should not any signs of the appearing of the Son of God to "judge in righteousness" be hailed with gladness? When our Lord himself actually described such terrors as being the "birth pangs" (arch wdinwn , Mat_24:8) of a new creation, should not his approach be welcomed with song? Why this conception of wrath? Why connect "wrath" with the Lamb of God? It is only on account of the sin in which men have lived; only because, by fighting against the Lord and his anointed, they have treasured up for themselves "wrath against the day of wrath." When their armour in which they trusted is stripped off, and when the playthings with which they toyed are snatched away, and the delusions with which they were spell bound shall be dispersed like the mists of morn, they will cower in terror before the God whom they defied. This "great tribulation" will be a wondrous leveller. They who sported with sin will be no longer in sportive mood. Let us note here the unnaturalness of sin. It is depicted as bringing about five perversions.
1. The unfoldings of God"s plan in the varied workings of his providence, which should be viewed with holy awe and peaceful serenity, do, to a guilty man, bring terror and dread, oft amounting to despair. Let a man be at peace with God, and he can look on to see how Jesus rules the world, with joy and hope; but unbelief and sin prevent all this, and make every new opening full of ominous foreboding.
2. In their anguish and despair they call to the mountains and hills to help them! They dare not address the God whom at their ease they despised! But "Nature," the god of the atheist, will be found to be a god that cannot save.
3. They think to find refuge in being hidden from God. As if that were possible! As if, were it possible, it could bring them ease! Oh, how frightful are the perversions effected by sin! The face of him who is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely, is to the bad a distressing sight, arousing abhorrence and deepening their woe.
4. The sinner who up to the last rejects the Son of God, sees at last in him only wrath. That Being who is only perfect Love, will seem to the wicked to be full of anger indignation, and avenging power.
5. The fifth and last perversion which we notice is that, instead of welcoming the perfect adjustments of a righteous Judge as that which should bring the long-wished-for rest to a weary world, they, knowing they are in the wrong, view them with an affrighted horror for which there is no solace, and with an immeasurable distress for which nature has no balm. He who neglects grace in the "day of salvation" must receive equity when the day of grace is over. And when equity has to deal with wrong, what course is open but entire and everlasting condemnation? The bulwark of righteousness is the doom of sin.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY. Vers. 1-17. The opening of the seals.
The Book of Revelation may be said to consist with the exception of Re 2 and Re 3 of a vast picture gallery. And this not so much because of the number of the pictures, as their sublimity and extent. Re 1 is the portraiture of "the Son of man." Then there is a vast canvas, stretching from Revelation 4 to 11, and representing the judgment and fall of Jerusalem. Then from Revelation 12 to 19 another similar one, representing the judgment and fall of Rome. Then yet another, much smaller, representing the final conflict and overthrow of the enemies of Christ; and then, the last and most precious of all, in Re 21 and Re 22, the glowing picture of the new Jerusalem, the saints" eternal home. Now, in looking at a great picture we need to study it carefully, closely, continuously, and portion by portion. We have tried to do so in regard to the first of these, and also in regard to two most important sections of the second one. In this vast second scene we have viewed the high court of heaven, and the inauguration of Christ"s mediatorial reign, which was the subject of Re 5. And now we come to another most interesting but unquestionably difficult part of the same great subject the opening of the seals. Indeed, the interpretation of this book, from the beginning of this chapter onwards, is one concerning which the only certain thing is that absolute certainty concerning any given interpretation is unattainable. It matters little, however, for the profitable reading of the book, that there is and must be this uncertainty as to the actual meaning of the many mysterious symbols with which it abounds; for whether we regard them as telling of the history of the Church in its relation to the world continuously to the end of time; or whether, as surely is the more reasonable way, we take them as telling of those tremendous events which, when St. John wrote, had begun, and were shortly to come to pass, the time being at hand, and by which the Church of Christ was so much affected, whichever way we read these symbols, their main lessons for us and for the Church in all ages is one and the same; and these, by patient, prayerful study, we may hope to learn. As to this Re 6, the sheet anchor for its interpretation is our Lord"s discourse in Mt 24 and its parallel in Mark. No doubt that discourse, as this book, looks on to the times of the end; but as surely it contemplated, as does this book also, events which many of them not all were nigh at hand. God"s judgment on Judaism and the Jews is its near subject, as the same is of the vision of which this chapter forms a part. And now let us look at
I THE SIX SEALS TOGETHER, or rather, at what is disclosed by the opening of them all. And, without doubt, terror is their one badge and mark. The four horses with their riders all tell of terrible things. The souls under the altar, whom we see at the opening of the fifth, cry for vengeance on their murderers, and all horrors seem accumulated in one at the opening of the sixth. The reading of the chapter makes one"s heart tremble; our flesh shudders with fear at the visions of distress which, one after the other, are unfolded. There is a seventh and a very different vision at the seventh seal; but the opening of that will not be for a long while, and therefore we first consider these six which are near in time and in character also. And whether we read the pages of Josephus, or whether we regard Gibbon as furnishing the more accurate explanation of these symbols, in either there will be found more than enough to warrant all that St. John has here portrayed. The dreadful days of the fall of Jerusalem were drawing on, and none who know the history of the horrors that preceded and accompanied that event can question that they were more than enough to fill up all that these vivid and terrible symbols import. Our Lord says of those days that "except they should be shortened, there should no flesh he saved." And yet and here is the marvel it is "the Lamb," he who is the Ideal of all grace and love, he it is who presides over, directs, and governs all these events, dreadful as they are. And then the highest, the holiest, and most beloved of his ministers, they who cluster closest round the throne of God and the Lamb, appeal to him and pray him to "Come." At the opening of each of the first four seals one of the four living ones thus appeals to Christ. It is evident, therefore, that they are in full sympathy with him in this matter, and would not have him do otherwise. And it is the same with the whole of that high court of heaven. There must be, then, in all these and in all such things and this is their lesson for us a force for the furtherance of God"s blessed will amongst men such as less stern methods could not have. True, in one aspect it is all the result of man"s wild wickedness and folly. "Man, proud man, Dressed in a little brief authority,... Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As makes the angels weep. ("Measure for Measure")
And to many minds, when you have recited the different events that led on, one by one, to the final catastrophe, you have sufficiently explained the whole; there is no need to bring God, as St. John does, into the matter. But we are distinctly taught that all these things are the working of his will, the carrying out of his high plans and purposes. They are not by chance, nor by the will of man, but of God. And accepting this as true, we are led to the inquiry Wherefore uses he such means? Various answers may be suggested: so only can the proud, unruly wills of sinful men be humbled; so only can the Church be roused and stimulated to do her proper work; so only can her faith be disciplined, tried, and developed; so only can men be made to know, "Verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth;" and so only can gigantic obstacles to men"s good and the extension of Christ"s kingdom be got out of the way. All history shows this. But whilst this and far more may be said, it yet remains for us to remember, and that with gratitude, that dark, drear, dreadful, desolating as such events are, and diabolical as are many of the men who are the chief actors in them they yet, all of them; are under the absolute control of him whose love and wisdom and power enable him to know unerringly when to let such events run riot in their rage, and when to restrain them or remove them altogether. And what is best he is sure to do; and always he will make them "work together for good.
II THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SEAL. (Ver. 2) The vision of the white horse and its rider bearing a bow, with its sharp arrows ready for conflict, and wearing a crown, the emblem of victory. In Zec_1:7-11 Zec_6:1-8 Hab_3:8, 9 Isa_41:2 Psa_45:4, Psa_45:5; we have similar representations of the horseman told of here, and his identity seems settled by Rev_19:11-16, where he is distinctly called "the Word of God." When the first seal was broken, then there passed across the stage, as it were, this vision. But of whom else can we think as corresponding to the rider of the white horse, than of him of whom we read in Ps 45, "In thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows shall be sharp in the heart of the king"s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee"? Of the Lord Jesus Christ going forth conquering and to conquer, in spite of, in the midst of, and by means of, all the dread events which are afterwards declared of him we believe the vision tells. Not of any ordinary human warfare; still less of the prosperous condition of the Roman empire under the Antonines; but of Christ our Lord. And most cheering is it to be taught that, let come what will, however calamitous and distressful the events of life, nothing can stay his course. They cannot bar his way, but will be made by him to further that way. This first vision is, therefore, full of good cheer. And let it not be forgotten that the vision has an individual application as well as a world wide one. It tells every believing soul, "Christ will overrule all that happens; thy trials and crosses, thy disappointments and disasters, shall not hinder his purposes of good for thee. He goeth forth "conquering and to conquer," and who can turn him aside?
III THE OPENING OF THE SECOND, THIRD, AND FOURTH SEALS. These give the visions of the red, the black, and the pale horses. Cruel war, black famine, and all-devouring death, by pestilence probably, are meant by these visions. And more summarily and distinctly they are foretold by our Lord. "Wars and rumours of wars," "famines and pestilences, these with other woes he plainly predicts; and his meaning is, we are sure, the meaning of St. John. Famine and pestilence were the common accompaniments of war. But they are not to have unrestrained power. For as in the discourse of our Lord, so here in the vision of St. John, there are plain suggestions that in wrath God remembered mercy. The voice that proclaimed the nearly twelve times enhanced cost of wheat and barley, tells as does also the blackness of the horse which suggests the black lips, the sign of extreme hunger of dreadful famine. But that same voice tells also of distress mitigated, not suffered to become utter destitution. This is the meaning of the added charge, "See that thou hurt not the oil and the wine." It is a difficult saying, but coupling it with the express words of our Lord that "for the elects" sake" these dreadful days should "be shortened," we take them as telling that, whilst owing to the ravages of war there should be, as there could not but be, great scarcity in those things which, as corn and barley, depended upon constant cultivation; yet the olive and the vine should still yield their increase, they not requiring to be replanted year by year, and being in various ways likely to be less affected than the level corn lands which lay along the plains, and which therefore became the common camps and fighting grounds of hostile armies, to the utter destruction of all things grown thereon. Moreover, that to death and Hades were given power, not over all the earth, but over only one-fourth part, this seems also to point to the same blessed truth that the instruments of God"s judgment are held in and not allowed to do their work a hairbreadth beyond their appointed limit. "He does not willingly afflict nor grieve the children of men," though, as these visions do plainly tell, he will ruthlessly both afflict and grieve when man"s sin and folly make it needful that he should. As a loving mother will hold down her own dearly loved child to the surgeon"s dreadful knife, if only so it can be saved from death, so will the Lord, the Lamb of God, pour out upon us of his awful judgments, if by our sin we force him thereto. As we read of these visions, this should be our prayer that never may we thus force him to deal in such manner with us. May his love constrain us, never our sin constrain him.
IV THE OPENING OF THE FIFTH SEAL. Here no living creature cries: "Come," but the appeal comes from the martyred saints themselves. We have had no mention of an "altar" before, but now it is seen as part of the vision which untolded itself before St. John. "They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you so had our Lord foretold, and here the actual fulfilment of that word is symbolized. Not to the martyrs under Diocletian, yet less to those under papal Rome, but to those who were, in St. John"s own day, fast falling beneath the persecutor"s sword, does this vision specially belong. Nevertheless, it is designed for the consolation and support of all Christ"s persecuted people in every age and in every land. Hence Milton, with all possible appropriateness, sang concerning the martyrs of the Alpine mountains, whose sufferings righteously roused the rage of their fellow believers here in England"Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold; Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones, Forget not: in thy book record their groans Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold Slain by the bloody Piedmontese that roll"d Mother with infant down the rocks. Their means The vales redoubled to the hills, and they To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow O"er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway The triple tyrant; that from these may grow A hundredfold, who having learned thy way, Early may fly the Babylonian woe.
But this vision tells not alone of martyrdoms, but of the righteousness of God in the avenging of their blood upon the earth. We see it is just and what ought to be. Yet more are we shown that "the Lord is mindful of his own." See the condition of these martyred ones. Not yet perfect or complete, but nevertheless, oh, how blessed! At rest, in victory, sanctity, joy so their white robes tell, and expecting some even yet better thing in the triumph of Christ and his Church over all evil which in due time shall surely come to pass. What comfort there would be and is in all this, in regard to those who had suffered death! Those who mourned them would know now that blessed indeed are the dead which die in the Lord. And in regard to the mystery of a persecuted Church, would it not teach them that though "Careless seems the great Avenger; history"s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness "twixt false systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own"?
And when they came to face such death themselves, oh, how would this vision help them, as in fact it did, to be faithful unto death, and to face it unflinchingly, unfalteringly, as Christ would have them do.
V THE OPENING OF THE SIXTH SEAL. (Vers. 12-17) Nearly every detail of this dread event is given by our Lord. (Mt 24) And St. John"s language is modelled largely on that of the older prophets. (Joe_2:30, 31 Isa_50:3 Isa_34:3, 4 2:12, 19 Hos_10:8 Jer_4:23-26) And in the great catastrophe by which Judaism was overthrown, and in the fall of Rome, and in the events which usher in the last great and terrible day of the Lord, have been and shall be seen the fulfilment of this awful vision. There is that which is called "the wrath of the Lamb"! Not Scripture alone, but historic fact alike declare this. And it will be poured out on the ungodly when the Lord shall come again. How will that day find us? Confident, or ashamed and dismayed? The answer may be known. How does Christ find us now? Trusting and obeying him, or disregarding and disobeying? As now, so then. "Lord, in this thy mercy"s day, Ere it pass for e"er away, On our knees we"ll fall and pray, Have mercy, Lord! S.C.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 1, 2. The conquering Lord.
The Revelation has its parts. A division is to be made here. There are many revelations in the one. And the truth to be taught is set forth again and again in differing figures and series of representations. We look not for chronological continuity and sequence. The book has one theme, one truth, dividing into its several streams; that truth is, in the present section, the triumph of the Church"s Lord. With this assurance the Lord gives comfort to his struggling, suffering, persecuted Church. With the breaking of the first seal a vision is revealed: "and I saw." The symbol is simple and comprehensive. It reaches to the end from the beginning. It is a vision of the Redeemer as the conquering Lord. But it is the Lord prepared for battle. Conquest is preceded by conflict. He goes forth to make war. This aspect prevails throughout the book. "The Lord is a Man of war.
I We think of THE FOES AGAINST WHOM THE ANTAGONISM OF THE LORD IS RAISED. Not here named, but implied. In one word sin. Sin lurking in the hearts of men; sin embodying itself in the lives of men. Hence sinners all who ally themselves with evil, who are the agents of evil, "servants of sin," "children of the wicked one." Thought of as an army led forward by "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." In the conquest of this is the conquest of the persecuting foes of the first Churches, the form in which sin was then rampant.
II We think of THE ONE CONQUEROR IN WHOM THE WHOLE IDEA OF THE ARMY IS REPRESENTED. He only is in view, for all victory is of him. He only slays and conquers. We see the Conqueror prepared to do battle, seated on the war horse, carrying the war weapon.
III We think of THE NATURE OF THE CONFLICT. In the symbol this appears only in the person of the Conqueror, and in the colour of the horse it is in righteousness. White is the consecrated colour; it is the symbol of purity.
IV We think of THE INEVITABLE CONQUEST. The crown the laurel crown is upon the Conqueror"s brow. It is the symbol of anticipated victory: "He shall reign.
V THE ASSURING WORD. "He came forth conquering, and to conquer." The whole revelation in this word. Again and again this is represented. Here the true comfort. He shall bring into subjection to himself whatever is not in harmony with his Name, and that in the individual heart and in the universal sphere. R.G.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-17. The seven seals; or, the development of good and evil in human history.
"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," etc. In this chapter we have the breaking open of six of the seals of that mystic roll containing the Divine plan of the government of the world, and as held in the bands of Christ who is the great Expounder. The opening of these seals suggests to our notice and presses on our attention the constant development of good and evil in human history. Notice
I THE DEVELOPMENT OF GOOD IN HUMAN HISTORY. By the good, I mean the true, the beautiful, and the right. Good and evil are here working among the moral tenants of this planet; perhaps it is not so in other planets. In heaven there is good, and good only; in hell, evil, and perhaps evil only; but on the earth the two are at work simultaneously, constantly, and everywhere. Taking the conquering hero as going forth on the "white horse" as an illustration of the right and the good on this earth, it is suggested:
1. That the good is embodied in a personal life. "Behold a white horse, and he that sat on him thereon." The right in this world is not a mere abstraction, it is embodied in human life. In Christ this was so in perfect kind and degree. "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." He was the Right incarnate, breathing, living, acting; and this, not only during his corporeal life here, but in all his disciples through all times. He is in them; he is the conquering Hero destroying the works of the devil.
2. That the good embodied in a personal life is aggressive in its action. "And he went came forth conquering, and to conquer." Right is an invading force; it is ever making aggressions on the wrong. This is according to its very essence. Wherever the sunbeams break, darkness departs; so with the right, it is always conquering. Wonderful are the conquests it has achieved in past ages, and its victories are still proceeding, and will proceed until it becomes the might of the world. This right is not something elsewhere, it is here; not something that has been, but something that is and shall be. The supreme King of righteousness is constantly proceeding on his triumphant march, and one day "every knee shall bow to him, and every tongue confess." In its aggressiveness it moves:
(1) Righteously. "A white horse." The horse is the instrument which the right employs to bear it on to victory. The good is not only pure in its nature and aims, but pure in its methods.
(2) Triumphantly. "He that sat on him thereon had a bow." The bow carries the arrow, and the arrow penetrates the foe. Truth wins its victories by the arrows of conviction.
(3) Royally. "There was given unto him a crown." Right is royal, the only royal thing in the universe, and the more perfectly it is embodied, the more brilliant the diadem. Hence Christ is crowned with glory and honour. He is "exalted above all principalities and powers," etc. Kind Heaven, quicken the speed of this "white horse;" and may the victories of its triumphant Rider multiply every hour; and soon may "the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God," etc.!
II THE DEVELOPMENT OF EVIL IN HUMAN HISTORY. I take the passage as giving illustrations of five great evils at work in human life.
1. War. "And there went out another horse that was red "and another horse came forth, a red horse: and power was given to him that sat thereon and it was given to him to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill slay one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." Mutual murder, man destroying his brother. This evil refers to no particular period or place; it has been going on from the days of Cain and Abel through all times even unto this hour. The spirit of murder burns throughout the race. The "red horse" is ever on the gallop. His ruthless tramp echoes through all souls and communities. "Whence come wars? Come they not from your lusts?" etc. Alas! that there should be found in a country calling itself Christian governments that should be feeding and fattening this "red horse" of rapine and bloodshed.
2. Indigence. "I beheld, and lo I saw, and behold a black horse: and he that sat on him thereon had a pair of balances a balance in his hand. And I heard as it, were a voice in the midst of the four beasts living creatures say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." "Whilst making food scarce, do not make it so that a choenix (a day"s provision of wheat, variously estimated at two or three pints) shall not be got for a penny. Famine generally follows the sword. Ordinarily from sixteen to twenty measures were given for a denarius" (Fausset). The state of want here described means no more than that the whole of a man"s labour is exhausted in the purchase of the bread required for one day; and this certainly does not amount to that indigence which prevails amongst thousands of our countrymen who are starving for bread where wealth and luxury abound. This evil, then, like the others, is not confined to any age or clime, but is here and everywhere. Let every man trace this national indigence to its true source.
3. Mortality. "Behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell Hades followed with him. And power was given there was given authority unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill slay with sword, and with hunger famine, and with death, and with the beasts wild beasts of the earth." "The colour pallid or livid," says Bishop Carpenter, "is that deadly greenish hue which is the unmistakable token of the approach of death. The rider is Death, not a particular form of death, but Death himself. Attending him, and ready to gather up the slain, is Hades. The fourth seal is the darkest and the most terrible. Single forms of death (war and famine) were revealed in the earlier seals; now that the great king of terrors himself appears, and in his hand are gathered all forms of death war, plague, famine, pestilence. For the second time the word "death" is used it must be taken in a subordinate sense, as a particular form of death, such as plague or pestilence." This mortality is, then, another evil confined to no period or place. Death reigned from Adam to Moses, and from Moses to Christ, and from Christ to this hour. Men are dying everywhere all are dying. With every breath I draw, some one falls.
4. Martyrdom. "I saw under underneath the altar the souls of them that were had been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a loud great voice, saying, How long, O Lord Master, the, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood?" Who is the martyr? The words suggest:
(1) He is one who dies for the truth. "Slain for the Word of God." He is not one who has merely been murdered, or one who has been murdered on account of his own convictions, but one who has been put to death for holding right convictions belief in the Word of God. Such a belief which they attested by ample testimony.
(2) He is one who in heaven remembers the injustice of his persecutors. "How long, O Lord!" The Almighty is represented as saying to Cain, "The voice of thy brother"s blood crieth unto me." As if the earth itself was craving for justice, and groaned for retribution of wrong. The cry of the martyr in heaven is not for vengeance, for all heaven is full of love; but the cry is rather for information when justice will be done: "How long?" As if they said, "We know that thou wilt judge and avenge our blood sooner or later: but how long?" The truly good in all ages have an unbounded confidence in the rectitude of the Divine procedure. "I know," said Job, "that my Vindicator liveth." Justice will come sooner or later.
(3) He is one who in the heavenly world is more than compensated for all the wrongs received on earth. "And white robes were given unto every one of them and there was given them to each one a white robe." They have white raiment in heaven the emblem of purity. They have repose in heaven: "rest for a little while." They have social hopes in heaven: "Until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
5. Physical convulsion. "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," etc. Observe:
(1) Our earth is constantly subject to great physical convulsions. Geology reveals some of the tremendous revolutions that have been going on from the earliest dawns of its history; and such changes are constantly occurring. Volcanoes, earthquakes, deluges, tornadoes, seas overflowing their boundaries and engulfing whole continents, etc. Perhaps no generation of men have lived who have not witnessed some of the phenomena here described: "the great earthquake, the sun becoming black as sackcloth, the moon as blood, mountains and islands removed," etc.
(2) Great physical convulsions are always terribly alarming to ungodly men. "The kings of the earth, and the great men princes, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men the rich, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens caves and in the rocks of the mountains. And said they say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the race of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of his their wrath is come; and who shall be is able to stand?" Fear is an instinct of wickedness; terror is the child of wrong. "The wicked flee when no man pursueth." "Oh, it is monstrous! monstrous! Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it; The winds did sing it to me; and the thunder, That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced The name of Prosper: it did pass my trespass. (Shakespeare)
(3) The alarm of ungodly men is heightened by a dread of God. "For the great day of his their wrath is come; and who shall be is able to stand?" Dread of God is the soul of all fear. "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid." How unnatural is this dread of God the dread of one who is at once the Essence and the Fountain of all good! "Hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." The "wrath of the Lamb"! This is a monstrous phenomenon. Who has ever seen a lamb in a rage, meekness aflame with indignation? A more terrific idea I cannot get. "The wrath of the Lamb.
CONCLUSION. In these "seals," then, we have human history. We need not puzzle ourselves about the meaning of the utterances in this chapter, or search for some mystic meaning. It is full of current events occurring in all times and lands, and we are here commanded to study them. At each event some living creature, some Divine messenger in the spiritual empire, says, "Come and see." "Come and see" the triumphant Hero of the good, going forth on the white horse conquering, and to conquer; mark the aspect, the movements, and the progress of good in the world in which you live; take heart and speed it on. "Come and see" the red horse, the spirit of murder and bloodshed, that is creating discords and fightings everywhere, rifling families and communities of all concord, filling the air with the cries of the dying, and the wails of the widow and the orphan. Come and study the demon of war; study it in order to destroy it. "Come and see" the black horse trampling in the dust the food which Heaven has provided, and which man requires, thus leaving millions to starve. Study this national poverty until you realize the true causes and apply the true cure. "Come and see" the pale horse hurrying through the world, visiting in his turn every individual, family, community, nation, trampling underfoot all men, regardless of character, age, position, nation. Study death, its moral causes, its final issues. "Come and see" "the souls of those who were slain for the Word of God." Study martyrdom, despise the persecutors, and honour their victims. "Come and see" the great physical convulsions of nature. Study the physical phenomena of the world, and cultivate that love for the God in all, who is over all, and that confidence in his love, wisdom, and power which will enable you to be calm and triumphant in the most terrible physical convulsions, enabling you to sing"God is our Refuge and Strength, A very present Help in trouble; Therefore will not we fear, Though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried Into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
Brothers, who shall tell the seals that will be broken open in our book of destiny during the year? Ere we commenced our existence, all pertaining to our life through all the ages we have to run was mapped out and registered, even in minutest detail, in the Divine roll of destiny. All the events of our lives are but the breaking of the seals of that book. With every fresh event, every new effort, some fresh seal is broken. What seals are yet to be broken? what Divine archetypes are yet to be embodied? what latent forces are yet to be developed? What these ears have yet to hear, these eyes have yet to see, this mind yet to conceive, this heart yet to experience! "Go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5, 7 The Lamb opened one of the seals.
Rev_6:1-17
The Lamb opened one of the seals.
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The development of good and evil in human history
I. The development of good in human history.
1. The good is embodied in a personal life. He that sat, etc. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He was the Right--incarnate, living, acting; and this, not only during His corporeal life here, but in all His disciples through all times.
2. The good embodied in a personal life is aggressive in its action. He went forth, etc. Wherever the sunbeams break, darkness departs; so with the right, it is always conquering. In its aggressiveness it moves--
(1) Righteously. The horse is the instrument it employs to bear it on to victory. The good is not only pure in its nature and aims, but pure in its methods.
(2) Triumphantly. The bow carries the arrow, and the arrow penetrates the foe.
(3) Royally. There was given unto Him a crown. Right is royal, the only royal thing in the universe, and the more perfectly it is embodied the more brilliant the diadem. Hence Christ is crowned with glory and honour, exalted above all principalities and powers, etc.
II. The development of evil in human history.
1. War (Rev_6:4). The spirit of murder burns throughout the race. The red horse is ever on the gallop.
2. Indigence (Rev_6:5). Famine generally follows the sword.
3. Mortality (Rev_6:8). With every breath we draw some one falls.
4. Martyrdom (Rev_6:9-11).
(1) A martyr is one who dies for the truth.
(2) He is one who in heaven remembers the injustice of His persecutors.
(3) He is one who in the heavenly world is more than compensated for all the wrongs received on earth. In heaven they have--
(a) Purity.
(b) Repose.
(c) Social hopes.
5. Physical convulsion (Rev_6:12-17).
(1) Our earth is constantly subject to great physical convulsions.
(2) These are always terribly alarming to ungodly men.
(3) The alarm of ungodly men is heightened by a dread of God. The wrath of the Lamb. A more terrific idea I cannot get. It is an ocean of oil in flames. ( D. Thomas, D. D.)
A white horse.
The going forth of the gospel
1. That the preaching of the gospel cometh not by guess amongst a people, but is sent and ordered as other dispensations are, and hath a particular commission. It is one of the horses He sendeth here. So, Act_16:1-40., the Spirit putteth them to one place, and suffereth them not to go to another place. There is not a sermon cometh without a commission.
2. That the success of the gospel goeth not by guess. The gospel hath its end as well as its commission (Isa_55:10; 2Co_2:14).
3. The gospel is most mighty to conquer when Christ armeth it with a commission and doth concur therewith (2Co_10:4).
4. From this description of the horse and his rider and his employment, observe that the great end of the gospel, where it cometh, is to subdue souls. Thai is the end of a ministry, to bring souls in subjection to Christ (2Co_10:5). And it hath its end when Christs arrows are made powerful to pierce hearts (Eph_4:8; Psa_68:18).
5. The gospel conquereth more or less wherever it cometh. When Christ is mounted He is going to conquer, if it were but to take one fort or one soul from Satan.
6. Taking this conquest and flourishing estate of the gospel to relate to the first times thereof when it came into the world. Observe that most frequently the gospel at its first coming amongst a people prevaileth most, and hath more sensible success than at any other time. So was it when it came first to the world, its victories were swift and speedy, increasing more for a few years at that time than afterwards in many generations. (James Durham.)
Conquering, and to Conquer.--
The Redeemers conquests
I. The adversaries of our redeemer.
1. The powers of darkness.
2. All men in an unrenewed and unconverted state.
3. False systems of religion, which, although perhaps assuming the name of Christianity, are hostile to its spirit and design.
II. The instruments which our Redeemer employs.
1. The publication of His Word.
2. The agency of His Spirit.
III. The victories of our Redeemer.
1. They are founded upon His right to universal domain.
2. They are continuous, and widely extended.
3. They are essentially connected with the diffusion of pure and perfect happiness.
In conclusion: how important it is--
1. That you should yourselves surrender your hearts in personal subjection to the Redeemers power.
2. That you devote your energies to the further extension of His empire. (J. Parsons.)
The future triumph of our King
I. The illustrious personage described.
1. His spotless charchter. A white horse.
2. His warfare. A bow.
3. His exaltation to regal dignity. A crown.
4. His gradual conquest. Conquering and to conquer.
II. Sentiments and reflections suitable to the subject.
1. We should cultivate and cherish the most exalted estimate of the person of Jesus Christ.
2. The imminent peril in which those are placed who continue among the adversaries of Jesus Christ.
3. Are you among His true and faithful subjects?
4. Strive, by every means in your power, to advance the extent and glory of His dominion. (J. Clayton, M. A.)
The Conqueror
Behold the combat beyond all others important, the combat between Christ and Satan for the human soul.
I. The cause of strife--the soul. A colony of heaven had been taken by the powers of hell, and the effort to restore it to allegiance was the main cause of this celestial war. The domination of Satan over the human soul is despotic, degrading, and destructive.
II. The battle. The Divine Saviour stronger than the strong man armed as our champion. The first grapple seems to have been the temptation in the wilderness, the next in the performance of miracles, the next the death grapple, the last the rising from the dead and ascension into heaven.
III. The victory. It was complete, it was benevolent, it was unchanging. The attack which the Saviour made upon the enemy was such as to tear away the very source and energies of his power. In the time of the Lords victory we do not see traces of carnage, nor hear orphans wailing the dead; but a voice breathes the comfortable word, They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. The triumphs of the Saviour brighten with the lapse of time. Time cannot tarnish their lustre, nor death itself destroy. (W. M. Punshon, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1
CHAPTER I V.
THE SEALED ROLL OPENED.
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Rev_6:1-17.
WITH the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse the main action of the book may be said properly to begin. Three sections of the seven into which it is divided have already passed under our notice. The fourth section, extending from chap. 6:1 to chap. 18:24, is intended to bring before us the struggle of the Church, the judgment of God upon her enemies, and her final victory. No detail of historical events in which these things are fulfilled need be looked for. We are to be directed rather to the sources whence the trials spring, and to the principles by which the victory is gained. At this point in the unfolding of the visions it is generally thought that there is a pause, an interval of quietness however brief, and a hush of expectation on the part both of the Seer himself and of all the heavenly witnesses of the wondrous drama. But there seems to be no foundation for such an impression in the text; and it is more in keeping alike with the language of this particular passage and with the general probabilities of the case to imagine that the "lightnings and voices and thunders," spoken of in Rev_4:5 as proceeding out of the throne, continue to re-echo over the scene, filling the hearts of the spectators with that of awe which they are naturally fitted to awaken. We have to meet the Lord in judgment. We are to behold the Lamb as "the Lion of the tribe of Judah;" and when He so appears, "the mountains flow down at His presence."* (* Isa_64:1)
The Lamb then, who had, in the previous chapter, taken the book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the throne, is now to open it, part by part, seal by seal:
"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, Come (Rev_6:1)."
Particular attention ought to be paid to the fact that the true reading of the last clause of this verse is not, as in the Authorized Version, "Come and see," but simply, as in the Revised Version, Come. The call is not addressed to the Seer, but to the Lord Himself; and it is uttered by one of the four living creatures spoken of in Rev_4:6, who are "in the midst of the throne and round about the throne," and who in Rev_4:8 of the same chapter are the first to raise the song from which they never rest, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord, God, the Almighty, which was and which is and which is to come." The word Come therefore embodies the longing of redeemed creation that the Lord, for the completion of whose work it waits, will take to Him His great power and reign. Not so much for the perfecting of its own happiness, or for deliverance from the various troubles by which it is as yet beset, and not so much for the manifestation of its Lord in His abounding mercy to His own, does the creation delivered from the bondage of corruption wait, as for the moment when Christ shall appear in awful majesty, King of kings and Lord of lords, when He shall banish for ever from the earth the sin by which it is polluted, and when He shall establish, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, His glorious kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
This prospect is inseparably associated with the Second Coming of Him who is now concealed from our view; and therefore the cry of the whole waiting creation, whether animate or inanimate, to its Lord is Come. The cry, too, and that not only in the case of the first living creature, but (according to a rule of interpretation of which in this book we shall often have to make use) in the case of the three that follow, is uttered with a voice of thunder; and thunder is always an accompaniment and symbol of the Divine judgments.
No sooner is the cry heard than it is answered: -
"And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat thereon had a bow; and there was given unto him a crown and he came forth conquering, and to conquer (Rev_6:2)."
Few figures of the Apocalypse have occasioned more trouble to interpreters than that contained in these words. On the one hand, the particulars seem unmistakably to point to the Lord Himself; but, on the other hand, if the first rider be the glorified Redeemer, it is difficult to establish that harmonious parallelism with the following riders which appears to be required by the well-ordered arrangement of the visions of this book. Yet it is clearly impossible to regard the first rider as merely a symbol of war, for the second rider would then convey the same lesson as the first; nor is there anything in the text to establish a distinction, frequently resorted to, by which the first rider is thought to denote foreign, and the second civil, war. Every attempt also to separate the white horse of this vision from that of the vision at Rev_19:11 fails, and must fail. Probably it is enough to say that not one of the four riders is a person. Each is rather a cause, a manifestation of certain truths connected with the kingdom of Christ when that kingdom is seen to be, in its own nature, the judgment of the world. Even war, famine, and death and Hades, which follow, are not literally these things. They are simply used, as scourges of mankind, to give general expression to the judgments of God. Thus also under the first rider the cause rather than the person of Christ is introduced to us, in the earliest stage of its victorious progress, and with the promise of its future triumph. The various points of the description hardly need to be explained. The colour of the horse is white, for throughout these visions that colour is always the symbol of heavenly purity. The rider has a crown given him, a crown of royalty. He has in his hand a bow, the instrument of war by which he scatters his enemies like stubble.* Finally, he comes forth conquering and to conquer, for his victorious march knows no interruption, and at last leaves no foe unvanquished. In the first rider we have thus the cause of Christ in its essence, as that cause of light which, having already drawn to it the sons of light, has become darkness to the sons of darkness. By the opening of the first Seal we learn that this cause is in the world, that this kingdom is in the midst of us, and that they who oppose it shall be overwhelmed with defeat. (* Isa_41:2)
The interpretation now given of the first rider as one who rides forth to judgment on a sinful world is confirmed by what is said of the three that follow him. In them too we have judgment, and judgment only, while the three judgments spoken of - war, famine, and death - are precisely those with which the prophets in the Old Testament and the Saviour Himself in the New have familiarized our thoughts.* They are not to be literally understood. Like all else in the visions of St. John, they are used symbolically; and each of them expresses in a general form the calamities and woes, the misfortunes and sorrows, brought by sinful men upon themselves through rejection of their rightful King. (* Eze_6:11; Mat_24:6-8)
The second Seal is now broken, and the second rider follows: -
"And when He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come. And another horse came forth, a red horse: and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slaughter one another: and there was given unto him a great sword (Rev_6:3-4)."
The second horse is red, the colour of blood, for it is the horse of war: and slaughter follows it as its rider passes over the earth; that is, not over the earth in general, but over the ungodly. Two things in this vision are particularly worthy of notice. In the first place, the war spoken of is not between the righteous and the wicked, but among the wicked alone. The wicked slaughter one another. All persons engaged in these internecine conflicts have cast aside the offers of the Prince of peace; and, at enmity with Him who is the only true foundation of human brotherhood, they are also at enmity among themselves. Of the righteous nothing is yet said. We are left to infer that they are safe in their dwellings, in peaceable habitations, and in quiet resting-places.* By-and-by we shall learn that they are not only safe, but surrounded with joy and plenty In the second place, the original word translated "slay" both in the Authorized and Revised Versions deserves attention. It is a sacrificial term, the same as that found in Rev_5:6, where we read of the "slaughtered Lamb;" and here therefore, as there, it ought to be rendered, not "slay," but "slaughter." The instant we so translate, the whole picture rises before our view in a light entirely different from that in which we commonly regard it. What judgment, nay what irony of judgment, is there in the ways of God when He visits sinners with the terrors of His wrath! The very fate which men shrink from accepting in the form of a blessing overtakes them in the form of a curse. They think to save their life, and they lose it. They seek to avoid that sacrifice of themselves which, made in Christ, lies at the root of the true accomplishment of human destiny; and they are constrained to substitute for it a sacrifice of an altogether different kind: they sacrifice, they slaughter, one another. (* Isa_32:18)
The third Seal is now broken, and the third rider follows: -
"And when He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold a black horse; and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand. And I heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, A measure of wheat for a penny (or a silver penny), and three measures of barley for a penny; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not (Rev_6:5-6)."
The third living creature cries as the two before it had done; and a third horse comes forth, the color of which is black, the color of gloom and mourning and lamentation. Nor can there be any doubt that this condition of things is produced by scarcity, for the figure of the balance and of measuring bread by weight is on different occasions employed in the Old Testament to express the idea of famine. Thus among the threatenings denounced upon Israel should it prove faithless to Gods covenant we read, "And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied."l And so also when Ezekiel would describe the miseries of the coming siege of Jerusalem he exclaims, "Moreover He said unto me, Son of man, behold, 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: that they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity."2 To give out corn by weight instead of measure was thus an emblem of scarcity. The particulars of the scarcity here described are obscured to the English reader by the unfortunate translation, both in this passage and elsewhere, and in the Revised as well as the Authorized Version, of the Greek denarius by the English penny. That coin was of the value of fully eight-pence of our money, and was the recognized payment of a laborers full days work.3 In ordinary circumstances it was sufficient to purchase eight of the small "measures" now referred to, so that when it could buy one "measure" only, the quantity needed by a single man for his own daily food, it is implied that wheat had risen eight times in price, and that all that could be purchased by means of a whole days toil would suffice for no more than one individuals sustenance, leaving nothing for his other wants and the wants of his family. No doubt three measures of barley could be purchased for the same sum, but barley was a coarser grain, and to be dependent upon it was in itself a proof that there was famine in the land. Again, as in the previous judgment, the words of the figure are not to be literally understood. What we have before us is not famine in its strict sense, but the judgment of God under the form of famine; and this second judgment is climactic to the first. Men say to themselves that they will live at peace with one another, and sow, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. But in doing this they are mastered by the power of selfishness; the too eager pursuit of earthly interests defeats its end; and, under the influence of deeper and more mysterious laws than the mere political economist can discover, fields that might have been covered with golden harvests lie desolate and bare. (1 Lev_26:26; 2 Eze_4:16-17; 3 Comp. Mat_20:2)
Nothing has yet been said of the last clause of this judgment: The oil and the wine hurt thou not. The words are generally regarded as a limitation of the severity of the famine previously described, and as a promise that even in judging God will not execute all His wrath. The interpretation can hardly be accepted. Not only does it weaken the force of the threatening, but the meaning thus given to the figure is entirely out of place. Oil and wine were for the mansions of the rich not for the habitations of the poor, for the feast and not for the supply of the common wants of life. Nor would a sufferer from famine have found in them a substitute for bread. The meaning of the words therefore must be looked for in a wholly different direction. "Thou preparest a table before me," says the Psalmist, "in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over."1 This is the table the supply of which is now alluded to. It is prepared for the righteous in the midst of the struggles of the world, and in the presence of their enemies. Oil is there in abundance to anoint the heads of the happy guests, and their cups are so filled with plenty that they run over. In the words under consideration, accordingly, we have no limitation of the effects of famine. The "wine" and the "oil" alluded to express not so much what is simply required for life as the plenty and the joy of life; and, thus interpreted, they are a figure of the care with which God watches over His own people and supplies all their wants. While His judgments are abroad in the earth they are protected in the hollow of His hand. He has taken them into His banqueting house, and His banner over them is love. The world may be hungry, but they are fed. As the children of Israel had light in their dwellings while the land of Egypt lay in darkness, so while the world famishes the followers of Jesus have all and more than all that they require. They have "life, and that abundantly."2 Thus we learn the condition of the children of God during the trials spoken of in these visions. Under the second Seal we could only infer from the general analogy of this book that they were safe. Now we know that they are not only safe, but that they are enriched with every blessing. They have oil that makes the face of man to shine, and bread that strengthened his heart.3 (1 Psa_23:5; 2 Joh_10:10; 3 Psa_104:15)
The fourth Seal is now broken, and the fourth rider follows: -
"And when He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth (Rev_6:7-8)."
The color of the fourth horse is pale; it has the livid color of a corpse, corresponding to its rider, whose name, Death, is in this case given. Hades followed with him, not after him, thus showing that a gloomy and dark region beyond the grave is his inseparable attendant, and that it too is an instrument of Gods wrath. In Rev_1:18 these two dire companions had also been associated with one another; and it is important to notice the combination, as the fact will afterwards throw light upon one of the most difficult visions of the book. "Death" is not neutral death, that separation between soul and body which awaits every individual of the human family until the Saviour comes. It is death in the deeper meaning which it so often bears in Scripture, and especially in the writings of St John, - death as judgment. In like manner Hades is not the neutral grave where the rich and the poor meet together, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. It is the region occupied by those who have not found life in Christ; and, not less than death, it is judgment "Death" and "Hades" then are the culminating judgments of God upon the earth, that is, upon the wicked; and they execute their mission in a fourfold manner: by the sword, and famine, and death, and the wild beasts of the earth. The world, the symbolical number of which is four, instead of blessing such as submit themselves to its sway, turns round upon them with all the powers at its command and kills them. The wicked " are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken."* (* Psa_9:15)
It is not easy to say why authority is given death and Hades over no more than the fourth part of the earth, when we might rather have expected that their dominion would be extended over the whole. The question may be asked whether it is possible so to understand the Seer as to connect a "fourth part" of the earth, not with all the instruments together, but with each separate instrument of judgment afterwards named - one fourth to be killed with the sword, a second with famine, a third with death, and a fourth by wild beasts. Should such an idea be regarded as untenable, the probability is that a fourth part is mentioned in order to make room for the climactic rise to a "third part" afterwards met under, the trumpet judgments.
The end of the first four Seals has now been reached, and at this point there is an obvious break in the hitherto harmonious progress of the visions. No fifth rider appears when the fifth Seal is broken, and we pass from the material into the spiritual from the visible into the invisible, world. That the transition is not accidental, but deliberately made, appears from this, that the very same principle of division marks the series of the trumpets at Rev_9:1, and of the bowls at Rev_16:10. We have thus the number seven divided into its two parts four and three, while in chaps. 2 and 3 we had it divided into three and four. The difference is easily accounted for, three being the number of God, or the Divine, and therefore taking precedence when we are concerned with the existence of the Church, four being the number of the world, and therefore coming first when judgment on the world is described. It is of more consequence, however, to note the fact than to explain it, for it helps in no small degree to illustrate that artificial structure of the Apocalypse which is so completely at variance with the supposition that it describes in its successive paragraphs the successive historical events of the Christian age.
Passing then into a different region of thought, the fifth Seal is now broken: -
"And when He opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slaughtered for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: and they cried with a great voice, saying, How long, O Master, the holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And there was given them to each one a white robe; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, which should be killed even as they were, should be fulfilled (Rev_6:9-11)."
The vision contained in these words is unquestionably a crucial one for the interpretation of the Apocalypse, and it will be necessary to dwell upon it for a little. The minor details may be easily disposed of. By the consent of all commentators of note, the altar referred to is the brazen altar of sacrifice, which stood in the outer court both of the Tabernacle and the Temple; the souls, or lives, seen under it are probably seen under the form of blood, for the blood was the life: and the law of Moses commanded that when animals were sacrificed the blood should be poured out "at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering, which in before the tabernacle of the congregation;"* while the little time mentioned in Rev_6:11 can mean nothing else than the interval between the moment when the souls were spoken to and that when the killing of their brethren should be brought to a close. (* Lev_4:7)
The main question to be answered is, Whom do these "souls" represent? Are they Christian martyrs, suffering perhaps at the hands of the Jews before the fall of Jerusalem, perhaps at the hands of the world to the end of time? Or are they the martyrs of the Old Testament dispensation, Jewish martyrs, who had lived and died in faith? Both suppositions have been entertained, though the former has been, and still is, that almost universally adopted. Yet there can be little doubt that the latter is correct, and that several important particulars of the passage demand its acceptance.
1. Let us observe how these martyrs are designated. They had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held. But that is not the full expression of Christian testimony. As we read in many other passages of the book before us, Christians have "the testimony of Jesus."* The addition needed to bring out the Christian character of the testimony referred to is wanting here. No doubt the saints of old looked forward to the coming of the Christ; but the testimony "of Jesus" is the testimony pertaining to Him as a Saviour come, in all the glory of His person and in all the completeness of His work. It is a testimony embracing a full knowledge of the Messiah, and the inference is natural and legitimate that it is not ascribed to the souls under the altar, because they neither had nor could have possessed it. (*Comp. Rev_1:2; Rev_1:9; Rev_11:7; Rev_12:11; Rev_12:17; Rev_19:10)
2. The cry of these "souls" is worthy of notice, How long, O Master, the holy and the true, where the word "Master," applied also in Act_4:24 and Jud_1:4* to God as distinguished from Christ, corresponds better to the spirit of the Old than of the New Testament dispensation. (*Margin of Revised Version)
3. The time at which the martyrs had been killed belongs not to the present or the future, but to the past. Like all the other Seals, the fifth is opened at the very beginning of the Christian era; and no sooner is it opened than the souls are seen. It is true that the Seer might be supposed to transport himself forward into the future, and, at some point of Christian history more or less distant, to console Christian martyrs who had already fallen with the assurance that they had only to wait a little time, until such as were to be their later companions in martyrdom should have shared their fate. But such a supposition is inconsistent with the fact that St. John in the Apocalypse always thinks of the Christian age as one hardly capable of being divided; while, as we shall immediately see more clearly, it would make it impossible to explain the consolation afforded by the bestowal of the white robe.
4. The altar under which the blood is seen may help to confirm this conclusion, for that blood is not preserved in the inner sanctuary, in that "heaven" which is the ideal home of all the disciples of Jesus: it lies beneath the altar of the outer court.
5. The main argument, however, in favor of the view now contended for, is to be found in the act by which these souls were comforted: And there was given them to each one a white robe. The white robe, then, they had not obtained before; and yet that robe belongs during his life on earth to every follower of Christ. Nothing is more frequently spoken of in these visions than the "white robe" of the redeemed, and it is obviously theirs from the first moment when they are united to their Lord. It is the robe of the priesthood, and at their very entrance upon true spiritual life they are priests in Him. It is the robe with which the faithful remnant in Sardis had been arrayed before they are introduced to us, for they had not "defiled" it; and the emphasis in the promise there given, "They shall walk with Me in white," appears to lie upon its first rather than its second clause.1 Again, the promise to everyone in that church that "overcometh" is that he " shall be arrayed in white garments;"2 and it is beyond dispute that the promises of the seven epistles belong to the victory of faith gained in this world, not less than to the perfected reward of victory in the world to come. In like manner the Laodicean church is exhorted to buy of her Lord "white garments" that she may be clothed, as well as "gold" that she may be enriched, and "eyesalve" that she may see3; and, as the two latter purchases refer to her present state, so also must the former. When, too, the Lord is united in marriage to His Church, it is said that "it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure;" and that fine linen is immediately explained to be "the righteous acts of the saints."4 (1 Rev_3:4; 2 Rev_3:5; 3 Rev_3:18; 4 Rev_19:8)
Putting all these passages together, we are distinctly taught that in the language of the Apocalypse the "white robe" denotes that perfect righteousness of Christ, both external and internal, which is bestowed upon the believer from the moment when he is by faith made one with Jesus. It is that more perfect justification of which St. Paul spoke at Antioch in Pisidia when he said to the Jews, "By Him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."1 It had been longed for by the saints of the Old Testament, but had never been fully bestowed upon them until Jesus came. David had prayed for it: "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow;"2 Isaiah had anticipated it when he looked forward to the acceptable year of the Lord: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels;"3 and Ezekiel had celebrated it as the chief blessing of Gospel times: "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. . . . And ye shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses."4 But while thus prayed for, anticipated, and greeted from afar, the fullness of blessing belonging to the New Testament had not been actually received under the Old. "He that is but little in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John."5 As we are taught in the Epistle to the Hebrews, even Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and all those heroes of faith who had subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight armies of aliens - even "these all, having had witness borne to them through their faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing concerning us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect."6 At death they were not made perfect. They passed rather into a holy rest where they waited until, like Abraham, who had "rejoiced that he should see Christs day," they "saw it and were glad."7 Then the "white robe" was given them. They were raised to the level of that Church which, now that Jesus had come, rejoiced in Him with "a joy unspeakable and glorified."8 (1 Act_13:39; 2 Psa_51:7; 3 Isa_61:10; 4 Eze_36:25-29; 5 Mat_11:11; 6 Heb_11:39-40; 7 Joh_8:56; 8 1Pe_1:8 {R.V., margin})
These considerations appear sufficient to decide the point. The souls under the altar of the fifth Seal are the saints, not of Christianity, but of Judaism. It is true that all of them had not been literally "slaughtered." But it is a peculiarity of this book, of which further proof will be afforded as we proceed, that it regards all true followers of Christ as martyrs. Christ was Himself a Martyr; His disciples "follow" Him: they are martyrs. Christs Church is a martyr Church. She dies in her Masters service, and for the worlds good.
One point more ought to be noticed before we leave this Seal. The language of these souls under the altar is apt to offend when they apparently cry for vengeance upon their murderers: How long dost Thou not avenge? Yet it is enough to say that so to interpret their cry is to do injustice to the whole spirit of this book Strictly speaking, in fact, they do not themselves cry. It is their blood that cries; it is the wrong done to them that demands reparation. In so far as they may be supposed to cry, they have in view, not their enemies as persons, but the evil that is in them, and that manifests itself through them. At first it may seem difficult to draw the distinction; but if we pause over the matter for a little, the difficulty will disappear. Never do we pity the sinner more, or feel for him with a keener sympathy, than when we are most indignant at sin and most earnest in prayer and effort for its destruction. The more anxious we are for the latter, the more must we compassionate the man who is enveloped in sin s fatal toils. When we long therefore for the hour at which sin shall be overtaken by the just judgment of God, we long only for the establishment of that righteous and holy kingdom which is inseparably bound up with the glory of God and the happiness of the world.
For this kingdom then the saints of the Old Testament, together with all their "brethren" under the New Testament, who like them are faithful unto death, now wait; and the opening of the sixth Seal tells us that it is at hand:
"And I saw when He opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood; and the stars of the heaven fell unto the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs, when she is shaken of a great wind. And the heaven was removed as m scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains; and they say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come; and who is able to stand? (Rev_6:12-17)."
The description is marked by almost unparalleled magnificence and sublimity, and any attempt to dwell upon details could only injure the general effect. The real question to be answered is, To what does it apply? Is it a picture of the destruction of Jerusalem or of the final Judgment? Or may it even represent every great calamity by which a sinful world is overtaken? In each of these senses, and in each of them with a certain degree of truth, has the passage been understood, Each is a part of the great thought which it embraces. The error of interpreters has consisted in confining the whole, or even the primary, sense to any one of them. The true reference of the passage appears to be to the Christian dispensation, especially on its side of judgment. That dispensation had often been spoken of by the prophets in a precisely similar way; and the whole description of these verses, alive with the rich glow of the Eastern imagination, is taken partly from their language, and partly from the language of our Lord in the more prophetic and impassioned moments of His life.
Thus it was that Joel had announced the purpose of God: "And I will show wonders in the heavens and the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come," and again, "The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining;"1 while, apart altogether from the immediately preceding and following words, which prove the interpretation above given to be correct, this announcement of Joel was declared by St. Peter on the day of Pentecost to apply to the introduction of that kingdom of Christ which, in the gift of tongues, was at that moment exhibited in power.2 In like manner we read in the prophet Haggai, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts; Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations."3 While, again, without our needing to dwell on the connection in which the words occur, we find the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews applying the prophecy to the circumstances of those to whom he wrote at a time when they had heard the voice that speaketh from heaven, and had received the kingdom that cannot be moved.4 The prophet Malachi also, whose words have been interpreted for us by our Lord Himself, describes the day of Him whom the Baptist was to precede and to introduce as the day that "burneth as a furnace," as "the great and terrible day of the Lord."5 This aspect, too, of any great era in the history of a land or of a people had always been presented by the voice of prophecy in language from which the words before us are obviously taken. Thus it was that when Isaiah described the coming of a time at which the mountain of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow into it, he mentions, among its other characteristics, "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth."6 When the same prophet details the burden of Babylon which he saw, he exclaims, "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger to make the land a desolation, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine;"7 and again, when he widens his view from Babylon to a guilty world, "For the Lord hath indignation against all the nations, and fury against all their hosts. . . . And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fade away, as the leaf falleth from off the vine, and as a fading fig from the fig tree."8 Many other passages of a similar kind might be quoted from the Old Testament; but, without quoting further from that source, it may be enough to call to mind that when our Lord delivered His discourse upon the last things He adopted a precisely similar strain: "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken."9 (1 Joe_2:30-31; Joe_3:15; 2 Act_2:16-21; 3 Hag_2:6-7; 4 Heb_12:25-29; 5 Mal_4:1; Mal_4:5; Mar_9:11-13; 6 Isa_2:19; 7 Isa_13:9-10; 8 Isa_34:2; Isa_34:4; 9 Mat_24:29)
Highly coloured, therefore, as the language used under the sixth Seal may appear to us, to the Jew, animated by the spirit of the Old Testament, it was simply that in which he had been accustomed to express his expectation of any new dispensation of the Almighty, of any striking crisis in the history of the world. Whenever he thought of the Judge of all the earth as manifesting Himself in a greater than ordinary degree, and as manifesting Himself in that truth and righteousness which was the glorious distinction of His character, he took advantage of such figures as we have now before us. To the fall of Jerusalem therefore, to every great crisis in human history, and to the close of all, they may be fittingly applied. In the eloquent language of Dr. Vaughan, "These words are wonderful in all senses, not least in this sense: that they are manifold in their accomplishment. Wherever there is a little flock in a waste wilderness; wherever there is a Church in a world; wherever there is a power of unbelief, ungodliness, and violence, throwing itself upon Christs faith and Christs people and seeking to overbear, and to demolish, and to destroy; whether that power be the power of Jewish bigotry and fanaticism, as in the days of the first disciples; or of pagan Rome, with its idolatries and its cruelties, as in the days of St. John and of the Revelation; or of papal Rome, with its lying wonders and its antichristian assumptions, in ages later still; or of open and rampant atheism, as in the days of the first French Revolution; or of a subtler and more insidious infidelity, like that which is threatening now to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect; wherever and whatever this power may be - and it has had a thousand forms, and may be destined yet to assume a thousand more - then, in each successive century, the words of Christ to His first disciples adapt themselves afresh to the circumstances of His struggling servants; warn them of danger, exhort them to patience, arouse them to hope, assure them of victory; tell of a near end for the individual and for the generation; tell also of a far end, not for ever to be postponed, for time itself and for the world; predict a destruction which shall befall each enemy of the truth, and predict a destruction which shall befall the enemy himself whom each in turn has represented and served; explain the meaning of tribulation, show whence it comes, and point to its swallowing up in glory; reveal the moving hand above, and disclose, from behind the cloud which conceals it, the clear definite purpose and the un changing loving will. Thus understood, each separate downfall of evil becomes a prophecy of the next and of the last; and the partial fulfillment of our Lords words in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of St. Johns words in the downfall of idolatry and the dismemberment of Rome, becomes itself in turn a new warrant for the Churchs expectation of the Second Advent and of the day of judgment."* (*Lectures on the Revelation, p. 170)
While, however, the truth of these words may be allowed, it is still necessary to urge that the primary application of the language of the sixth Seal is to no one of such events in particular, but to something which includes them all. In other words, it applies to the Christian dispensation, viewed in its beginning, its progress, and its end, viewed in all those issues which it produces in the world, but especially on the side of judgment.
Nor ought such dark and terrible figures to startle us, as if they could not be suitably applied to a dispensation of mercy, of grace that we cannot fathom, of love that passeth knowledge. The Christian dispensation is not effeminacy. If it tells of abounding compassion for the sinner, it tells also of fire, and hail, and vapor of smoke for the sin. If it speaks at one time in a gentle voice, it speaks at another in a voice of thunder; and, when the latter is rightly listened to, the air is cleared as by the whirlwind.
Although, therefore, the language of the prophets and of this passage may at first sight appear to be marked by far too great a measure both of strength and of severity to make it applicable to the Gospel age, it is in reality neither too strong nor too severe. It is at variance only with the verdict of that superficial glance which is satisfied with looking at phenomena in their outward and temporary aspect, and which declines to penetrate into the heart of things. So long as man is content with such a spirit, he is naturally enough unstirred by any powerful emotion; and he can only say that words of prophetic fire are words of exaggeration and of false enthusiasm. But no sooner does he catch that spirit of the Bible which brings him into contact with eternal verities than his tone changes, He can no longer rest upon the surface. He can no longer dismiss the thought of mighty issues at stake around him with the reflection that "all the worlds a stage, and all the men and women on it only players." When from the shore he looks out upon the mass of waters stretching before him, he thinks not merely of the light waves rippling at his feet and losing themselves in the sand, but of the unfathomed depths of the ocean from which they come, and of those mysterious movements of it which they indicate. He sees sights, he hears sounds, which the common eye does not see, and the common ear does not hear. The slightest motion of the soil speaks to him of earthquakes; the handful of snow loosened from the mountain-side, of avalanches; the simplest utterance of awe, of a cry that the mountains and the hills are falling. The great does not become to him little; but the little becomes great. There is thus no exaggeration in the strength or even in the severity of prophetic figures. The prophet has passed from the world of shadows, flitting past him and disappearing, into the world of realities, Divine, unchangeable, and everlasting.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 1, 2. And I saw when the Lamb opened…
1, 2. And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals. The statement “I saw” means that when the Lamb opened one of the seals John saw the vision which is described in what follows. As it were the noise of thunder. A deep, impressive, awe-inspiring sound. Come and see. Attend closely to the vision.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 THE first catastrophe, or overthrow of the Jewish persecuting…
CALAMITIES ON THE OPENING OF SIX SEALS
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
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THE first catastrophe, or overthrow of the Jewish persecuting power, is the subject of chaps. 6–11. Some take the subject in a more general way, as being the relation of Christianity to great universal evils.
Rev_6:1 One.—ἑνός, the first of the living ones. Come and see.—Properly only the word “Come.” This cry is not to the seer, but to the riders, who immediately begin to appear. Some take the invitation as “addressed to the Lord Jesus. His creatures pray Him to come—and behold, instead of His coming immediately, there come these terrible precursors of His, so increasingly unlike Him.”
Rev_6:2. White horse.—The rider is armed with a bow, and adorned with a victor’s crown. “This is an emblem of the gospel, which, through the instrumentality of preaching, is about to extend itself victoriously through the earth.” For visions of horses see Zec_1:8-11; Zec_6:1-8. There is symbolic significance in their colours. Here the colours of the four horses symbolise triumph, slaughter, mourning, and death. The meaning of the first is disputed. Simeox suggests that it symbolises the “spirit of conquest”; such as animates men like Alexander or Napoleon. Carpenter improves on this by suggesting the spirit of Christian victory. The horses used in Roman triumphs were white.
Rev_6:4. Horse that was red.—The angel of war. “The seal puts in pictorial form the warning of Christ, that wars and rumours of wars would be heard of. Red is the symbol of blood to be shed.”
Rev_6:5. A black horse.—“Whose rider holds a pair of balances in his hand, with which he measures out to men their daily portion of wheat and of barley: this is the angel of famine.” Black is the colour indicative of distress, misfortune, or mourning. It is a picture of “bad times.”
Rev_6:8. Pale horse.—I.e. livid; lit. green, cadaverous. The emblem of contagions sickness or pestilence. Hell.—Is Hades, the shelter-place of the spirits of the dead. The “under-world.” The grave, conceived of as ready to devour those slain by the pestilence. Fourth part.—A mission in strict limitations. But pestilence is not here regarded as a single force; it is associated with war, famine, accidents, and inroads of wild beasts (Eze_14:21). Possibly it represents the special calamities of what are called the Middle Ages.
Rev_6:9. Fifth seal.—No horse is associated with this. It is the announcement of the last persecutions. A scene in the invisible world; the cry of the martyrs whose blood has been shed unjustly, and who demand the appearing of the Judge of the world. Altar.—Here first mentioned. In Old-Testament sacrifices, the blood of the victims was poured out at the foot of the altar. “This seal indicates that the mission of the Christian Church can only be carried out in suffering.” Souls.—This word usually means the mere principle of natural life, as distinguished from “spirit,” the immortal part of man. In Scripture it is often the simple equivalent of life.
Rev_6:10. O Lord.—ὁ δεσπότης, our Sovereign, distinguished from κύριος. “It is a poetical description. The righteous blood shed does fall upon the world in retribution; the laws of God avenge themselves, though the victims do not live to behold the rewards of the ungodly.”
Rev_6:11. White robes.—As sign of the Divine acceptance and favour. Rest.—There was need for checking the impatience of the age for our Lord’s immediate return.
Rev_6:12. Earthquake.—Mat_24:7. Actual natural calamity. The fear produced by earthquake, and its associated effects in nature, is poetically given in this and following verses. “All phenomena of this kind were anciently regarded with great terror, as being the evidences that God was angry, and was about to punish.” Blood.—Compare Joe_2:31.
Rev_6:13. Stars.—Mat_14:29. Fig tree.—Isa_34:4; but see Mat_24:32. Untimely figs.—Those which form too late to ripen, and fall off when spring comes.
Rev_6:14. Departed.—Better, “parted.” Moved.—By force of the earthquake.
Rev_6:15. Dens … rocks.—Shelter-places sought in the senseless fright produced by the earthquake.
Rev_6:16-17. Day of His wrath.—This was the fear, not the fact. This entire picture must be explained by the wild, unreasoning alarm occasioned by an unusually awful earthquake. In every great convulsion of nature, and in every great social convulsion, people rush at once to the idea that the day of judgment has come. But Christians ought not to yield to any such fears.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Rev_6:1-17
The Chief Outward Woes of Human Society which will Bear on the Church.—Just as the individual Christian is left in the world to be disciplined by an ever-varying human experience, so is the Church left in the world, and made subject to the influence of calamities in the sphere of nature, persecutions at the hand of man, and disappointments and failures in the orderings of Divine Providence. The Apocalypse first presents the strain in which the Church is placed by its outward relations, and then the more severe and perilous strain through evils, and evil influences, within itself. (Compare Act_20:29-30.) The more serious strain involved in the presence of an apostate section in the Church, or from a wildly time-serving spirit getting into the Church, is dealt with in the later chapters, under the heading of the seventh seal. The evils are variously represented as the work of Antichrist, the Beast, and the False Prophet; and the Apostate Church within the Church is the Babylon that must come into the overwhelming judgments of God. The first four of the seals are evidently alike in this, that they deal with the things that try the characters of men, and press heavily on human society. The first seal is the most difficult one to understand. Godet thinks the conqueror on the white horse represents the gospel, but that would not harmonise with the other seals. A peaceful conqueror, who covers distances with his bow, is clearly indicated; and the only such conqueror that can be conceived is commerce and colonisation. From one point of view this is a woe, for commerce has its side of financial calamities, and colonisation breaks up family and Church life. The second seal reveals the influence of war; the third the influence of famine, or scarcity; and the fourth the influence of contagious disease or pestilence. It will at once be felt that, in the history of the Christian Church, all these things have exerted disciplinary influence, but that no sort of chronological order need be assigned to them. The fifth seal introduces the actual persecutions to which the Church is subject from outside enemies, which often involve martyrdom. The point of the paragraph, Rev_6:9-11, is not the vision of those who have been martyred, but the assurance that, in the time to come, their fellow-servants would be killed, even as they were. The sixth seal deals with the more terrible convulsions of nature—earthquakes, volcanoes, tempests, etc., and the more terrible portents—eclipses, etc.—which, in those days, filled men with overwhelming fears, and could not fail to influence even the Church of Christ. What St. John presents by his vision of the seals to the oppressed and persecuted Churches of Asia in his day is, that the various outward forms of strain will still be permitted to affect them. Sometimes the strain on faith and steadfastness will take one form and sometimes another. It may be financial distress, or war, or scarcity, or pestilence, or martyrdom, or disasters of nature. The Church life had to be maintained under every form of stress and temptation. And it is precisely to use these various seemingly evil influences for His sanctifying purposes that the Living Lord Jesus is now actually present in His Church, “walking among the seven golden candlesticks.”
M. Renan gives a vivid picture of the extraordinary natural calamities occurring at the time when the Apocalypse was written. “Never had the world been seized with such a trembling fit; the earth itself was a prey to the most terrible convulsions: the whole world was smitten with giddiness. The planet seemed shaken to its foundations, and to have no life left in it. The conflict of the legions (amongst themselves) was terrible; … famine was added to massacre; … misery was extreme. In the year 65 A.D., a horrible plague visited Rome. During the autumn there were counted thirty thousand deaths. The Campagna was desolated by typhoons and cyclones; … the order of nature seemed to be overturned; frightful tempests spread terror in all directions. But that which produced the greatest impression was the earthquakes. The globe was undergoing a convulsion analogous to that of the moral world; it was as if the earth and mankind were taken with fever simultaneously. Vesuvius was preparing for the terrible eruption of the year 79. Asia Minor was in a chronic earthquake. Its cities had to be continually re-built. The valley of the Lycus especially, with its Christian towns of Laodicea and Colossæ, was laid waste in the year 60.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
Rev_6:1. The Call to the Riders.—This invitation indicates that the events revealed are great and wonderful; it consoles the Church with the assurance that, however she may suffer, the voice of the gospels will survive—that all her sufferings will be for her own good and for Christ’s glory.—Wordsworth.
The Living Creatures.—The living creatures represent animate nature—that nature and creation of God which groans and travails in pain, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. These summon the emblems of war and pestilence to come on the scene, for these things must needs be, and through these lies the way for the final coming of God’s Christ, for whom Creation longs. They bid the pains and troubles come, because they recognise them as the precursors of Creation’s true King. Thus their voice has in it an undertone which sighs for the advent of the Prince of Peace, who is to come.—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
Rev_6:8. The Personification of Death.—“The personification of death, in the act of executing the Divine commands, is exhibited with great difference, both as to features and character, amongst different nations. Perhaps the most mean delineation is the common monkish one of a skeleton, with dart and hour-glass; while one of the most terrible is that of the Scandinavian poets, who represent him as mounted on horseback, riding with inconceivable rapidity in pursuit of his prey, meagre and wan, and the horse possessing the same character as his rider. Yet the passage cited from the Apocalypse is, in sublimity and terror, superior to the most energetic specimens of Runic poetry. The word translated pale (chloros) is peculiarly expressive in the original; it might be more adequately rendered “ghastly,” meaning that wan and exanimate hue exhibited in certain diseases.”—Mason Good.
Times of Public Sickness.—Some interpret this of the persecution under Decius and his successors, of the epidemic diseases, consequent upon famine, which prevailed so widely from A.D. 250 to 265, that half the population is said to have been destroyed by war, pestilence, and famine. After the death of Gallienus, the multiplication of wild beasts in various parts of the empire was ascribed to the guilt of the Christians.
Rev_6:9. Martyr Ages.—The burden of this passage is, that there should be a fierce and sanguinary persecution of the Christians during this seal; that that persecution should be terminated by a temporary and judicial deliverance of the oppressed ones, in which should supervene another terrible persecution. The signal triumph of the cause of the martyrs over that of their cruel oppressors satisfies all the requirements of the passage.—Bishop Waldegrave.
Rev_6:12. Natural Signs of Spiritual Events.—We are not to expect a literal fulfilment of the prophecies in this seal, which describe a great elemental convulsion. We are not to look for any terrific changes in the heavenly bodies before Christ’s Second Coming. These prophecies are spiritual, and to be understood spiritually.—Wordsworth.
Rev_6:16-17. The Wrath of the Lamb.—The lamb is the most simply innocent of all animals. Historically, also, it had become a name for sacrifice. Under this twofold reason Christ is set forth as the Lamb. The lamb is but the complemental gentleness of God’s judicial vigour. A most paradoxical, jarring combination of words predicates wrath of the very lambhood of Christ. To some, even to speak of the wrath of God is an offence, though Scripture speaks of His wrath without compunction. But the term “wrath of the Lamb” not only violates a first principle of rhetoric, forbidding the conjunction of symbols that have no agreement of kind or quality, but also shocks our cherished conceptions of Christ as the suffering Victim or the all-merciful and beneficent Friend, in either way the Saviour of sinners. Who will ever speak of a lamb’s wrath? Scripture does. What shall we make of such a fact? Simply this, that while our particular age is at the point of apogee from all the more robust and vigorous conceptions of God in His relation to evil—while it makes nothing of God as a person or governing will, less, if possible, of sin as a wrong-doing by subject wills—we are still to believe in Christianity, and not in the new religion of nature. We must have the right to believe in the real Christ, and not that theologic Christ which has so long been praised, as it were, into weakness, by the showing that separates Him from all God’s decisive energies and fires of combustion, and puts Him over against them, to be only a pacifier of them by His suffering goodness. Our Christ must be the real King—Messiah—and no mere victim; He must govern, have His indignations, take the regal way in His salvation. His goodness must have fire and fibre enough to make it Divine. We take the principle without scruple, that if we can settle what is to be understood by the wrath of God we shall not only find the wrath in God, but as much more intensely revealed in the incarnate life and ministry of Christ as the love is, or the patience, or any other character of God. Since He is the Lamb, in other words, the most emphatic and appalling of all epithets will have its place—viz., the wrath of the Lamb. We want a better English word to express the Scriptural word ὀργή. We have wrath, anger, indignation, fury, vengeance, judgment, justice, and the like, but they are all more or less defective. Indignation is the most unexceptionable, but it is too prosy and weak to carry such a meaning with due effect. Wrath must be kept as a moral, not merely animal, passion, or it will connect associations of unregulated temper that are wholly unsuitable. We understand by wrath, as applied to God and to Christ, a certain principled heat of resentment towards evil-doing and evil-doers, such as arms the good to inflictions of pain or just retribution upon them. It is not the heat of revenge. It is that holy heat which kindles about order and law, and truth and light, going in, as it were, spontaneously to redress their wrongs, and chastise the injuries they have suffered. It is that, in every moral nature, which prepares it to be an essentially beneficent avenger. Is it, then, a fact that Christ, as the incarnate Word of God, embodies and reveals the wrath-principle of God, even as He does the patience, or love-principle, and as much more intensely? On this point we have many distinct evidences.
1. Christ cannot be a true manifestation of God when He comes in half the character of God, to act upon, or qualify, or pacify, the other half. If only God’s affectional nature is represented in Him, then He is but a half manifestation. If the purposes of God, the justice of God, the indignations of God, are not in Him—if anything is shut away, or let down, or covered over—then He is not in God’s proportions, and does not incarnate His character.
2. Christ can be the manifested wrath of God without being any the less tender in His feeling, or gentle in His patience. In the history of Jesus we see occasions in which He actually displays the judicial and the tender, most affectingly, together and in the very same scene, as in His denouncing and weeping over Jerusalem. Indeed, the tenderest, purest souls will, for just that reason, be hottest in the wrath-principle where any bitter wrong, or shameful crime, is committed. They take fire, and burn, because they feel.
3. God, without the wrath-principle, never was, and Christ never can be, a complete character. This element belongs inherently to every moral nature. God is no God without it; man is no man without it. It is this principled wrath, in one view, that gives staminal force and majesty to character.
4. It is a conceded principle of justice that wrong doers are to suffer just according to what they deserve. In Christianity God is not less just or more merciful, but He is more fitly and proportionately expressed.
5. One of the things most needed in the recovery of men to God is this very thing—a more decisive manifestation of the wrath-principle and justice of God. Intimidation is the first means of grace.
6. We can see for ourselves that the more impressive revelation of wrath, which appears to be wanted, is actually made in the person of Christ, as in His driving out the money-changers, and denouncing the hypocritical Pharisees.
7. Christ is appointed and publicly undertakes to maintain the wrath-principle officially, as the Judge of the world, even as He maintains the love-principle officially, as the Saviour of the world. He even declares that authority is given Him to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man. But the wrath-principle in Christ is only that judicial impulse that backs Him in the infliction of justice whenever justice requires to be inflicted. And it does not require to be inflicted always; it never ought, to be when there is anything better that is possible. Put it down, then, first of all, at the close of this great subject, that the New Testament gives us no new God, or better God, or less just God, than we had before. He is the I AM of all ages, the I AM that was, and is, and is to come; the same that was declared from the beginning—“The Lord God, gracious and merciful, forgiving iniquity, transgressions, and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.”—H. Bushnell, D.D.
Rev_6:17. Survivors of the Calamities.—The sixth seal does not give us a completed picture. We see the great and awe-inspiring movements which are heralds of the day of wrath. The whole world is stirred and startled at the tread of the approaching Christ, and then the vision melts away; we see no more, but we have seen enough to be sure that the close of the age is at hand. Yet we are anxious to know something of those who have been faithful, pure, and chivalrous witnesses for truth and right, for Christ and God. In that day, that awful day, the whole population of the world seems to be smitten with dismay; the trees, shaken with that terrible tempest, seem to be shedding all their fruit; the trembling of all created things seems to be about to shake down every building. Are all to go? Are none strong enough to survive? We heard that there were seven seals attached to the mystic book which the Lion of the tribe of Judah was opening; but this sixth seal presents us with the picture of universal desolation. What is there left for the seventh seal to tell us? The answer to these questions is given in the seventh chapter, which introduces scenes that may either be taken as dissolving views, presented in the course of the sixth seal, or as complementary visions. And those scenes show us in pictorial form that the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation; that in the midst of the time of the shaking of all things, when all might, majesty, strength, and genius of men is laid low, and every mere earth-born kingdom is over-thrown, there is a kingdom which cannot be shaken.—Bishop Boyd Carpenter.
The Awful Character of Earthquakes.—One of the most terrible earthquakes on record happened at Lisbon, November 1st, 1755. The morning was fine, and there was no apparent indication of the coming destruction. About nine o’clock a low subterraneous rumbling was heard, which gradually increased, and culminated at last in a violent shock of earthquake, which levelled to the ground many of the principal buildings of the place. Three other shocks followed in rapid succession and continued the work of destruction. Scarcely had the ill-fated inhabitants begun to realise the enormity of the disaster which had come upon them when they were surprised by another visitation of a different, but not less destructive, character. The sea began to rush with great violence into the Tagus, which rose at once as much as forty feet above high-water mark. The water swept over a great part of the city, and many of the inhabitants fled from its approach to take refuge on a strong marble quay recently erected. They had collected there to the number of three thousand when the quay was suddenly hurled bottom upwards and every soul on it perished. A fife broke out in the city. And by the combined effect of these disasters sixty thousand persons are supposed to have perished.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v1 HAVING passed through the Prologue we now enter upon…
PROHETICAL PROGRAM
HAVING passed through the Prologue we now enter upon the prophetical panorama. This and the following chapter are devoted to a programmatical anticipatory presentment of the contents of the book, read in brief from the envelopes wrapped around it. These wrappers, with which the book was sealed, contained a summary of its revelation.
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2. The breaking of the first seal and the removal of the first wrapper introduces the gospel on the prophetic drama, which is destined to prove an important factor and play a conspicuous part in the wonderful tragedies of the latter-day prophecies. A white horse comes forth, with a mounted cavalier, wearing a crown and bearing a bow with arrows. He goes forth conquering and to conquer. Here we see the divine ideal of a gospel preacher is a sanctified circuit-rider, emblematized by the white horse. Riding on horseback, inhaling the pure atmosphere, is not only a first-class gymnasium for muscular development, but a most excellent sanitarium. Hence the pulpit giants of all ages have been educated in “Brush College,” and celebrated for their equestrianship. If I were young again, whether boy or girl, I would certainly be a sanctified circuit-rider, even if I rode a bicycle. Oh, that every reader of these pages may catch the gospel inspiration and turn sanctified circuit-riders!
Upon opening the second seal, behold, the red horse comes forth. This red horse symbolizes bloody Mohammedanism. It constitutes the Oriental hemisphere of anti-Christendom, while Romanism constitutes the Occidental hemisphere. Since Satan conquered the world in Eden, he has deluged it with blood and bleached it with bones. It is estimated that twenty thousand millions of people have been slain in Satan’s wars since the beginning of the world. All wars are the devil’s revivals, gotten up by his majesty for the population of hell. Never is the devil so delighted as on a great battlefield, when men are killing one another by the wholesale, and thus engulfing multitudes into hell. Hence Satan and his people play a most conspicuous part in prophetical fulfillment. The history of this world is mainly the recital of Satan’s work, since he certainly has the big end of it, and is designated by the Holy Ghost “the god of this world.” (2Co 4:4.)
MOHAMMEDANISM
Mohammed began to preach in Arabia, A.D. 607. He boldly proclaimed to the world that he ascended with Gabriel, astride the same donkey which Christ rode into Jerusalem. Having flown through trackless ether, passing glittering spheres, rolling worlds, and blazing suns, with his archangelic escort, he arrives at the first heaven, where he finds Adam and Eve, so crippled by the fall that they have progressed no further, but linger there with many of their children. They sweep on the ethereal void traversed by rolling worlds, till they reach the second heaven, where they find a number of patriarchs and saints. Then onward they fly, halting anon at the third heaven. Then to the fourth, on to the fifth, and finally to the sixth, at all of which he finds multitudes of patriarchs, prophets, saints, and angels. At the sixth heaven Gabriel throws up his commission, alleging his unworthiness to escort him any further, at the same time notifying him that he must proceed alone to the seventh heaven, and there stand before the effulgent majesty of the Almighty, as He sits upon the throne of the universe, and who has sent him all the way down to this world to summon Mohammed to appear in His presence. Now Mohammed proceeds alone up to the seventh heaven, and stands before the Almighty, who notifies him that, having sent prophet after prophet to warn the wicked people of this world to repent, He finally sent His Son Jesus Christ to persuade them, by His condescending love and mercy, to repent of their sins. But all this had proved a failure, since, instead of repenting, they arose up and slew Him. But now Mohammed represents the mighty as sending him into this world, the last and most beloved of all the prophets, even from the beginning of the world. But He does not send him to persuade men to repent, as all the others had come on that line, and signally failed; but He sends him armed with the sword to compel all the people in the world to cast away all other religions and worship God Almighty alone, and receive the Koran, which Mohammed certified that the Almighty revealed to him while he stood in His august presence. Doubtless Mohammed was one of the most intelligent men the world ever saw. Though a son of Esau, he was the master-spirit of the Dark Ages. Satan was one of the brightest of all the archangels before he fell. This wonderful superhuman intellect he retained after his spirit’s apostasy, and utilizes at the present day. Doubtless, Mohammed was wonderfully illuminated intellectually, inspired, energized, invigorated, and empowered by the devil. Thus Mohammedanism, instigated by Satan, was born in blood, death, robbery, and every species of crime. The Koran has no code of morals. It unscrupulously justifies robbery, murder, and licentiousness. It presents the greatest conceivable incentives to the most chivalric heroism on the battlefield. It says: “A night spent in arms is more precious in the sight of God than months of fasting and prayer. Whosoever dies in battle, his sins are forgiven. In the day of judgment, his wounds shall be resplendent as vermillion, and odoriferous as musk. In the Mussulman’s paradise, seventy-two damsels of sparkling beauty shall minister to the most humble of the faithful,” Mohammedanism is an ironclad system of inflexible Monotheism, utterly repudiating and eternally abjuring every form of idolatry. Thus, Mahomet proclaimed to the world that God had sent him to destroy all the idolatry on the globe, and purify the religions of the world. At the time of his ministry, in the seventh century, Asia and Africa, the great apostolic fields of labor, were occupied by the Greek Church, which was full of image worship. Mahomet, born and reared in the wilds of Arabia, did not discriminate between corrupt Christianity, with its image-worship, which everywhere prevailed in the East, and the paganistic Churches. Hence, the Moslem armies exterminated all religions as they went, giving the people the solitary alternative of Koran or death. Thus the loyal Mussulman believes he is to swim to heaven in Christian blood. The Turkish Empire has been the upholder of Mohammedanism the last twelve hundred years. It was a penalty of death to profess Christianity in that empire till the treaty of Ryswick, A.D. 1844, when the united powers of Christendom forced on the Turks the Act of Toleration. This treaty they are now flagrantly violating in the Armenian massacres.
6. BLACK HORSE
The black horse here symbolizes the papacy, which has always been the oppressor of the poor, here indicated by the scarcity of edibles. It has always taught sacramental salvation through priestly manipulations, here indicated by the oil and the wine. Romanism constitutes the great Western hemisphere of anti-Christendom, of which Mohammedanism is the Eastern. The first pope, Boniface the Third, Bishop of Rome, was crowned by Phocas, the king of Italy, A.D. 606; whereas, Mahomet began to preach in Arabia at the same time. Throughout all of these prophecies, the pope is currently denominated the “beast,” and Mahomet the “false prophet.” These two great wings of the Satanic kingdom have thrown their dark shadows around the world the last twelve hundred years, while Mohammedanism has deluged Asia and Africa with blood and whitened them with bones. Romanism, in the dark succession of the pagan emperors, who had slaughtered a hundred millions of saints, comes on and slays a hundred millions more. For a dozen centuries, the pope had his foot on the necks of all European kings, till the Lutheran Reformation jostled him on his pontifical throne, and relaxed his iron grip. This was consummated by Victor Emanuel, A.D. 1870, who shook the pope from his temporal throne. The wonderful vitality and indomitable energy of the papacy was then diverted from the bold and dictatorial altitude of the proud pontificate, swaying his iron scepter over the heads of all kings, bowing, cringing vassals, praying his clemency, and kissing his feet, into clandestine subterranean channels through which, by Jesuitical intrigue, lie is adroitly manipulating all the governments on the globe. He is to-day the greatest political trickster in the world. When I was there last summer, the royal ambassadors were constantly calling on him. Through ten thousand diabolical devices he is doing his utmost to get possession of the democracies, both European and American. He has a majority in the municipal governments of all our great cities, and nearly all of our great popular daily papers of the cities; he is also said to have a majority in the United States army and navy. Roman Catholicism is increasing in the United States vastly more rapidly than the Protestant Churches. Notwithstanding his political dethronement in 1870, and the universal curtailment of the potent superstition with which he has bound the nations for ages by the worldwide circulation of the Bible within the last century, yet it is doubtful whether there was ever a period in the world’s history when the papacy was more influential than at the present day. It is my honest conviction that this wonderful and incorrigible nightmare on human conscience, the summary of all political intrigue, will run right on, with increasing volume and potency, till the Lord comes to take away His bride. Then, with the inauguration of the great tribulations, the pope, as the master-spirit of anti-Christendom, will at once ostensibly and avowedly ascend the throne of antichrist, assume the leadership of the world, boldly antagonize, the Ancient of Days in His castigatory judgments, and impudently gainsay the prerogatives of the Lord Jesus Christ, when He descends with His glorified bride on the throne of His Millennial kingdom.
2 Thessalonians 2, Paul says the glorified Savior will exterminate him by the brightness of His presence. Revelation 19-20, John says he and the false prophet — i.e., Mahomet — will both be cast alike in the lake of fire. When I was in Cairo last summer there were ten thousand students in the Mohammedan university, studying the Koran, preparing to go out and preach the Moslem gospel to all nations. In these Scriptures the horse not only symbolizes character, but velocity being the swiftest animal on the earth. The opening of the first seal reveals the white horse, which is the gospel; and God wants it to move at race-horse speed, as it is a white horse. God has no gospel but sanctification, which makes you white. No wonder Satan is running away with the world; for he has three horses. The red horse, Mohammedanism, offers bloody death to all who reject the Koran. The black horse, Romanism, deals only in sin, delusion, death, and damnation, black as the very fogs of the pit.
PALE HORSE
8. The pale horse revealed in the opening of the fourth seal symbolizes death, and portrays in horrific panoramas the awful horrors of death during the reign of Satan, and the night of sin, which have been on the earth the last six thousand years, doing their utmost to get hell filled up before the Lord comes to reign. It is estimated that the entire globe is depopulated by death every seventeen years. The Greek word chlooros, translated “pale,” means livid, ghastly, corpse-like. This horse looks like he was dead on foot, having famished away till there is nothing left but skin and bones. His rider, the King of Terrors, the grim monster Death, is nothing but a bony skeleton. As Satan gives them all the vitality and power they need, their utter emaciation only adds to their lightning velocity. As this is Satan’s period of the world (2Co 4:4), he is laying under contribution all the agencies of his kingdom for the population of hell.
Thus the red horse, the black horse, and pale horse, with their riders, are moving at race-horse speed to fill up hell before the Apocalyptic angel shall descend and take the devil out of the world.
MARTYRDOM
9. The opening of the fifth seal reveals the martyrs who sealed their faith with their blood from the Apostolic Age till the Lord comes. The souls are the persons of these martyrs seen lying beneath the altar. God’s true martyrs are wholly consecrated; hence, on the altars here they have been slain, and have fallen down and beneath it. They are praying to God for a victory over all their enemies. Two hundred millions of God’s martyrs have already sealed their testimony with their blood since the prophet saw this vision. Here we see that God’s vindicatory answer to their prayers is postponed till their successors are also added to the catalogue of death.
The Armenian Christians are now fast receiving honorable enrollment in the martyr’s catalogue. All the terrible retribution which shall come upon a wicked world and a fallen Church in the appalling castigatory judgments of the Almighty at the close of the Gentile Dispensation will be signal answers to the prayers of the martyrs in bygone ages. These martyrs all cried to God for vindication. Rest assured He has not forgotten a solitary wail or groan. Hence, an awful retribution, with accumulated and compound interest, is on the track of all the people in all ages who have persecuted God’s saints. God never forgets anything. His promises never fail; His word endureth forever. There is but one Greek word for martyr and witness. Martyr is a pure Greek word, translated witness. When Jesus met an infuriated Saul on the Damascus road, He said unto him, “I have appeared unto thee to make thee a minister and martyr.” Hence Paul always afterwards knew that he had to suffer martyrdom. The Holiness people are the martyrs of the present age, living or dying. The opposition to the Holiness movement is purely Satanic, defiant of God, and a most ostensible sign of our Lord’s speedy coming. Hence a dreadful doom awaits the oppressor of the great Holy Ghost revival now traversing all lands, calling out the elect of God to get ready to meet Him descending in a cloud.
Here the sixth seal opens, revealing (12-17)
THE GREAT TRIBULATION
This book of prophecy, which John saw in the hand of the angel, like all ancient books, was a parchment-roll. So precious were the contents that it had seven wrappers around it, every one most diligently sealed. No one but the Lion of the tribe of Judah could open the seals, as He is the omnipotent God, who orders the events of the universe. Daniel saw these wonderful prophecies in thrilling panorama, and fainted because he knew not the vision. God said (Dan 12:9):
“Go thy way, Daniel, close up and seal the book till the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.”
“Oh, Daniel, thou shalt stand in thy lot in the end of the days!” A thousand concurrent prophecies and ten thousand signs of His coming this day confirm the conclusion that we are living in the time of the end of the Gentile Age, which is to be followed by the Millennial kingdom.
The Holiness people are running to the ends of the earth and everywhere increasing the knowledge of entire sanctification and the Lord’s near coming. The very fact that this prophecy was to be closed up and sealed till the time of the end confirms the conclusion that it is to be opened and revealed at the time of the end. Oh, how rapidly is the Holy Ghost everywhere opening and revealing these wonderful latter-day prophecies to His holy people! The rapture of the bride, accompanied by the resurrection of the buried saints, and the translation of the living, will call Daniel from the dust, to stand in his lot; i.e., and see the literal fulfillment of the mighty wonders whose prophetic vision caused him to faint and fall as a dead man. Doubtless, the tribulation period will be characterized quite extensively by earthquakes and other noted physical phenomena. Earthquakes also emblematize the terrible political convulsions which shall shake every potentate on the globe from the mighty thrones of time- honored empires. The sun emblematizes the kings, the moon the queens, and the stars the state governors and all subordinate rulers. So we see, amid these terrible national convulsions and revolutions, every ruler is to be shaken from his throne, and not a government left on the globe competent to protect the life and property of its citizens. Jesus, in His sermon on the pre-millennial judgments, which He preached on Mt. Olivet the day before He was arrested, certifies, “These are the days of vengeance.” While wholesale murder, rapine, and violence are the order of the day, rivers of blood and mountains of the dead everywhere saluting the eyes, and the very winds burdened with the wails of the dying, no wonder the rich, the poor, the high, the low, great and small, will cry for rocks and mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne. Daniel devotes the seventh chapter to a vivid description of these wonderful prophetical fulfillments. During these awful tribulations, the “Ancient of Days” shall sit upon the judgment throne, His garments white as snow, and a fiery stream issuing before Him. God said to His Son, “Sit Thou on My right hand till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.” His snowy-white raiment emblematizes the perfect purity and righteousness of His judgments. The fiery stream going before Him typifies the awful severity of these castigatory retributions, destined to overtake the wicked nations and fallen Churches of the Gentile Dispensation.
Rev 7:1-4. “The four winds” symbolizes the divine wrath about to break out in the awful tribulations, and tear the world all to pieces. Are not these four angels holding the winds Great Britain, Russia, Germany, and France? The Turkish Empire is the great storm-center and the breeder of revolution. She is now dead on foot, and only kept alive artificially by the jealousy of her neighbors. They are all watching the Turkey, their teeth watering to eat her up. The Lion dare not stop to eat for watching the Bear, and vice-versa. These nationalities now serve as pall-bearers, carrying her to her long- merited sepulcher. Though she is now flagrantly and barbarously butchering the Armenian Christians in overt violation of the Toleration Treaty made with the Christian Powers at Ryswick in 1844, yet these Powers are so jealous of one another that every one is afraid to fire a gun;
so they are still holding back the winds of revolution, lest they break out and turn the world upside down.
Meanwhile the Angel of the Lord is in a hurry to seal God’s saints before the awful outbreak, as the Heavenly Bridegroom wants to take them out of the world. The light of salvation began in the East, and moved toward the West. Hence the trend of gospel agencies and Christian progress has always been with the sun — from East to West.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 The Waiting of the Invisible Church.
Rev 6:9
The Waiting of the Invisible Church.
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We may gather with all certainty from this wonderful revelation of the inner mysteries of the heavenly court—(1) that God has a fixed time for the end of the world; (2) that God has fixed that time according to the measures of the work which He has to finish. Even as Christ had a work to finish on earth, so that we read again and again that His "hour was not yet come," in like manner now in heaven He has a definite foreseen scheme for the administration of His mediatorial kingdom; and according to the accomplishing of this work will be the time of His coming. So much in a general way, but in this passage we have something more definite and detailed.
I. He has shadowed out to us the nature of the work that He has to do before the end comes; that is, to make up a certain number whom God has foreseen and predestined to life eternal. This then in general is the nature and direction of the mystery of this seemingly entangled world Out of the midst of it He is drawing the children of the regeneration, knitting them in one fellowship, in part still visible, in part out of sight. When the Son of God passed into the heavens He began to draw after Him a glorious train of saints, like as the departing sun seems to draw after him the lights which reflect his own splendour, till the night starts out full of silver stars.
II. Again, in this gathering out of the mystical body of His Son, God is carrying on the probation of mankind. In the inscrutable secrets of His providential government, He is so ordering the strife of the seed of the woman with the seed of the serpent, of the Church with the world, as to fulfil the manifold purposes of love and of long-suffering. And (1) we see that this long-permitted strife is ordained for the perfecting of His saints. (2) This mysterious work has an aspect of long-suffering towards sinners. It is thus that God gives them a full season for repentance. (3) We see from all this what ought to be the master aim of our lives; that is, to make sure of our fellowship in that mystical number.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. i., p. 333.
Rev 6:11
The Intermediate State.
I. In this passage we are told that the saints are at rest. "White robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season." The great and anxious question that meets us is, What is to become of us after this life? We fear for ourselves, we are solicitous about our friends, just on this point. Now here Scripture meets our need. It is enough, surely, to be in Abraham’s bosom, in our Saviour’s presence; it is enough, after the pain and turmoil of this world, to be at rest.
II. Next, in this description it is implied that departed saints, though at rest, have not yet received their actual reward. "Their works do follow them," not yet given in to their Saviour and Judge. They are in an incomplete state in every way, and will be so till the day of judgment, which will introduce them to the joy of their Lord. (1) They are incomplete inasmuch as their bodies are in the dust of the earth, and they wait for the resurrection. (2) They are incomplete as being neither awake nor asleep; they are in a state of rest, not in the full employment of their powers. (3) There is an incompleteness also as regards their place of rest. They are "under the altar," not in the full presence of God, seeing His face and rejoicing in His works, but in a safe and holy treasure-house close by, like Moses "in a cleft of the rock," covered by the hand of God and beholding the skirts of His glory. (4) The intermediate state is incomplete as regards the happiness of the saints. The blessed in their disembodied state admit of an increase of happiness, and receive it. "They cried out in complaint, and white robes were given them; they were soothed and bid wait a while."
III. Nor would it be surprising if, in God’s gracious providence, the very purpose of their remaining thus for a season at a distance from heaven were that they may have time for growing in all holy things and perfecting the inward development of the good seed sown in their hearts. As we are expressly told that in one sense the spirits of the just are perfected on their death, it follows that the greater the advance each has made here, the higher will be the line of his subsequent growth between death and the resurrection.
J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. iii., p. 367.
Rev 6:16
The Consequences of Sin.
I. The wages of sin are paid with a fearful compound interest, and the real terror of evil is that it does not die with its immediate author. It lives with a strange, vicarious life, ramifying, developing, multiplying, hideously replenishing the earth, till the lust of one ancestor, and the intemperance of another, and the pride, and the jealousy, and the selfishness of others, have intertwined and interwoven and invested their posterity with a thousand incapacities, and hindrances, and weaknesses, and tendencies to evil; and the world has become one great discord of pain, and sorrow, and misunderstanding, and intellectual failure, and moral palsy, and spiritual death.
II. Throughout the ages man has been incessantly impelled to ask, What is there in moral evil more than meets the eye? What will sin turn out to be when we see it in the light of the real world? And if we confine ourselves to observation of history, quite apart from revelation, Shakespeare’s words are literally true,
"The weariest and most loathèd worldly life
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature is a paradise
To what we fear of death."
III. The judgment of man upon himself has been that the consequences of sin cannot but last beyond the grave. If we will from time to time think upon these facts—the fact of the present consequences of moral evil and the fact of the gloomy forebodings with which the sight of these consequences time out of mind has filled the heart of man—we shall be in less danger of the popular modern fallacy which insults alike both the human dignity and the Divine by promising to sin apart from repentance an amiable obliteration, forgetting that hell, after all, may be the last prerogative of the human will.
J. R. Illingworth, Sermons, p. 48.
I. Consider the ideas presented to us and apprehended by faith when Jesus Christ is revealed under the name of the Lamb. (1) One of these, doubtless, is the idea of meekness. It was not as a stern and just Judge that He came to save the world, or as a Monarch in the pride of state, or a Conqueror flushed with victory. He was humble and gentle, of poor parents, and from a despised town, born in a stable and cradled in a manger. He sits on the throne of heaven and earth, but still it is the throne of the Lamb. (2) Another idea comprised in this appellation is that of perfect purity and innocence. Not only was every animal used in the typical services of the Temple to be free from imperfection, but Christ was expressly compared to a lamb without blemish and without spot, and most exactly was the type fulfilled. (3) The leading idea of the title "the Lamb" is the atonement Christ made for sin by the sacrifice of Himself upon the cross.
II. Consider the awful words of our text: "The wrath of the Lamb." The meek and holy Being, who is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, has His wrath; and His wrath is the more terrible because He is meek and lowly and the propitiation for all sins. Mercy neglected is guilt incurred, and in proportion to the love displayed in man’s salvation is the ingratitude of evil, and must be the condemnation of those who reject Him. (1) "Behold the Lamb of God." And who is He? He is a Man, but no mere man, for no man ever spake or lived as this Man. An angel? "He took not on Him the nature of angels." God was manifest in the flesh, and God and man, one Christ, bore our sins and atoned for them on the cross; and can we think that such love, beneath the conception of which the mind staggers, half incredulous of mercy so infinite—can we ever think that it can be neglected without guilt, and may be for ever set at nought with impunity? (2) Again, consider the price paid for our redemption, the exceeding bitterness of the cup which He drained that our souls might be healed. Christ has no recompense except that you should believe and be saved, and in every repenting and returning sinner He sees of the travail of His soul, the reward of all His sufferings, and is satisfied. And if you will not, if all has been suffered for you in vain, surely your ingratitude, cold-heartedness, neglect, must add tenfold terror to the wrath of the Lamb. (3) Remember the plainness of the warnings that are used and the mercy of His invitations. Past mercy will enhance future judgment; the love of Christ will shine at the last day upon the open books; and in its bright beam will stand out, in dark, plain characters, the guilt, the folly, the ingratitude, of those for whom Christ died, and who would not live for Christ.
J. Jackson, Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 780.
References: Rev 6:17.—Homilist, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 153. Rev 7:1-3.—Ibid., 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 134.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Section 2. (Rev 6:1-17; Rev 7:1-17; Rev 8:1-5.)
Section 2. (Rev 6:1-17; Rev 7:1-17; Rev 8:1-5.)
The seals removed in the judgments coming in.
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We are now called to see the actual breaking of the seals, so that the book may be opened. It is the Lamb who removes them, as we know; but the sign of their being removed is in the judgment sent forth which answers to it, and by which the blessing alone can be brought in. With these the mystery of God’s patience is removed. His government becomes what we may call ideal, in regard to the strife between good and evil going on still upon the earth. The long-suffering of God indeed has been salvation; but now, though in a different sense, His judgments are to be for salvation. As in the times of the judges in Israel, spite of divine interventions occurring when the state of things began to be insufferable, yet the call is heard more and more for a king, as the only proper remedy. "There was no king in Israel," says the inspired historian, "every one did that which was right in his own eyes." If the doing of what was right in this way worked disaster, what then as to the constant evil rising up, and that more and more? The king must come. Yet when he came in Israel, he was the mere foreshadow of the true King. Therefore the distress went on still, relieved, but not removed -and soon again with hardly a relief of it. He had not come who was fit to bear rule; and until He comes there is the constant need of patience. He reigns upon the throne of God, while yet it is still the "kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." But now the King is coming forth; the time of patience is just over. God is going to manifest Himself. Judgment is returning to righteousness. The seals upon the book which prevent man’s reading it are being removed.
1. As each seal is broken, a new action upon earth follows. The seals are seven, and that number is noticeable. The prevalence of these numbers characterizes Revelation, as we have seen. They speak everywhere of the undisturbed harmony of God’s ways. Spite of the conflict, this harmony of course must always be; and this is what all through Scripture God means us to discern; but the harmony is becoming open now, and our attention is called to it; and thus we have the number of the seals, and of the trumpets, and of the vials; their order distinctly shown us -the way in which the divine steps move on unhindered to the sure end. Here too, as elsewhere, we find that the seven divides into four and three, the number of the creature and the number of divine manifestation. The first four have therefore a more external character than the last three. They do not reach in the same way (at least not in the same open way) to the heart of things. With this it accords that when the first four seals are opened we have in each case the call of one of the living beings, and in the order in which we have had them brought before us already -the lion, the ox, the human-faced cherub, and the flying eagle.
These calls are very significant; and their significance has hardly been observed by any interpreters. We have seen that these cherubim as they were embroidered on the veil of the tabernacle (which was, as the apostle has taught us, Christ’s flesh, or humanity), so they are seen in the Gospels again in the same order in which we have them here -the Lion of Judah in Matthew’s Gospel; the ox in that of Mark -the Gospel of ministry; the face of the man most evidently in Luke, which is above all the Gospel of Christ’s humanity; while the flying eagle, the bird of heaven, speaks naturally of Him who has come from heaven to us, of the Word made flesh. But if this be so, we should expect that now when the Lamb has taken the book, these cherubim should each represent Him in one of these characters; and it is not in opposition to this that the call should be a call for judgment: for if it be the Lamb slain that is before us, this, while it speaks to us necessarily of the grace of redemption, yet has in it also another side. The death of Christ, on God’s side, for us speaks of grace; but on man’s side it speaks of the rejection by the world of Him who had come into it. Thus the cross is the stamp upon the world, and by which the world is crucified to us and we to it. The Lamb moreover, as arnion, (which speaks of belittling, of diminution,) naturally connects with this. The cross was man’s measure of Christ. Unto the Jew it was an offense, and to the Greek foolishness; while to those who are the called, whether Jews or Greeks, it is "the wisdom of God and the power of God." But Christ rejected by the world, what does it mean but the judgment of the world? -a judgment also which works out (in a certain sense and within limits) often naturally.
Christ rejected means antichrist accepted. But Christ rejected also means, of necessity, the rejection of the blessing that comes alone through Him; and thus the government of God, as signified in the cherubim, makes necessary answer. If Christ be rejected as the King, men must have their own king; and while for the present man’s king himself may be owned of God and is used of Him in the restraint of evil, while His long-suffering lasts, yet this is but -as to His government -a seal as it were, a mystery for the meantime, which, when the time of its removal comes, ends in the full character of man’s rejection coming out. Even the rule of Christ becomes now the rod of iron; and the rule of man, in the end, worse even than the anarchy which it was meant to restrain. How significant, then, the call of the cherubim at this juncture!
(1) As to the first seal, indeed, there is a certain obscurity as to which of the living beings speaks under it. That it is the voice of the cherub that speaks confirms that alteration from the text of our common version which the manuscripts indeed permit, but which we cannot say exactly that they establish by any decisive weight of authority; but the confirmation from all the context here is absolute. The call of divine government is not to John, but to what comes forth in answer to it. Thus the call is not, "Come and see," but simply, "Come." The voice of thunder speaks plainly here. The seer would hardly be summoned after this manner, and moreover again and again as the successive seals are broken. It is the government of God that calls forth the instrument of judgment; and this shows again the character of what is called forth. We should not think, for instance, of Christ as the rider of the white horse if we had things in their proper place here. Doubtless He will come forth, and, according to the figure in the nineteenth chapter, upon a white horse too. This is the symbol of victorious warfare, the horse being the war-horse; and his going forth crowned, conquering and to conquer, seems clearly to harmonize with, nay, to be most fully true of Him who will put all enemies under His feet. But it is not suited that He should be thus called forth; nor is the time yet for Him to come after this manner. We cannot put at the beginning that which comes in fact at the end. As to gospel-triumphs, it is really impossible to speak of them in such a connection.
As already said, there is a slight obscurity as to which of the living beings calls forth the conqueror here; but, plainly, we must recognize that the lion is the most suitable one; and moreover, as in the second seal we have the voice of the second living being; in the third, that of the third; and so with the following one, the lion is thus every way implied, if not expressed, as speaking in the first. No doubt there is suitability even in the measure of obscurity, and we cannot be too attentive to the way in which Scripture speaks, whether we can interpret it or not. But if it be the lion, the lion manifestly is the expression of regal power of the king; and thus it is the king, as it were, that calls forth the king; and if it be Christ as the Lamb slain, (it does not say sacrificed, but "slain" -the rejected One,) then we can understand how suitable it is that the human conqueror should come forth in answer to the call. Alas, the Prince of peace has been rejected, and war and conquest, the overturning of things, naturally ensue, because He whose right it is is rejected and gone. Thus the Lord speaks to His disciples, in His prophecy on Olivet, of wars and rumors of wars characterizing the interim before He comes again.
The white horse does not necessarily speak at all here of purity, or righteousness. It is the symbol of victory; and the bow speaks, apparently, of that which is far-reaching. The crown is given to him as the issue of it. It is not said by whom, but evidently it is acquired by conquest, and thus he goes on for the present time unchecked. A wide rule therefore must naturally be his. Such an one, moreover, one would say, must be given us elsewhere in prophecy, and must have reference to events that are to come afterwards. He must be prominent in these.
It would certainly seem, accordingly, that we can find one who answers to the picture here; and for those who have learnt what the seventeenth chapter will definitely teach us, -that the Roman empire, long since passed away, is yet to revive in an exceptional manner and for a short time only, yet in a way deeply significant of the approaching end, -it will not be difficult to imagine that here we may have what speaks of this. In fact, there seems little reason to doubt that the seventh head of the beast is here before us; although to make this plain requires a reference to much other scripture which it is hardly the place to look at yet. Only let it be remembered that "the prince that shall come," and who is to initiate that seven years’ covenant with "the many" of Israel which defines for us that last week of Daniel’s seventy, (which is the end of the time determined upon Israel and Jerusalem, at the close of which their final blessing is to come,) this prince is decisively a
Roman prince. It is "the people of the prince that shall come" that have already, under Titus, destroyed the city and the sanctuary; but the prince himself is still to come. And if he come, and we are correct as to the period at which we have arrived here, then he must come forth at the very beginning of it, and it would be no wonder to find him thus at the outset brought before us.
It is most naturally by conquest that the place he acquires is to be attained, and we have had already in late history one who, though only for a brief period, yet in connection with this same territory of ancient Rome, has shown us how possible it is for such power to be suddenly acquired. Napoleon was indeed but a shadow of events to come -a shadow which quickly passed; but even thus it is proverbial that the history that is to come has its anticipation often and presage. We must leave this, however, for the present, with this mere reference.
(2) When the second seal is removed, we have the call of the second living being, that is of the ox. In answer to this, another horse comes forth, red, the color of blood; and to his rider it is given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another. It is not the career of a conqueror that is represented here, but a general taking away of peace -every one’s hand, as it were, against his brother; thus civil war in all its dread reality. That a great sword is given to the horseman is meant, of course, to emphasize the destruction following. This is plainly the suited answer to the call of the second cherub; for the ox is the type of the laborer, the minister to man’s need, the expression of a service by which all men are bound together. Such ministry is necessitated by that actual dependence upon one another which God has appointed to hide pride from man, and that love may be called into exercise.
This is what in Christ has fullest expression, this ministry to a need which no one but He Himself could relieve; and Christ rejected can be nothing else but that which surely, however slowly, withers all such service. God manifest in Him has been rejected; and just as, if received and God having His place, all things would be in necessary harmony, so, if rejected, all must be out of joint and in disorder. Man having cast off divine authority, the beasts of the earth cast off the divinely appointed human authority; and affection cast off where it should be most natural, the natural affection necessarily withers. There has been initiated a disorder which cannot stop until all natural ties are sundered, and love is turned (as it may how easily be turned) into deadliest opposition. We see under this second seal that the evil is a growing one. There is in it no tendency to self-healing, but the contrary, -corruption grows worse and worse; return to God is the only possible remedy; but there is no return.*
{*The ox is the badge of patient strength yielded up in service for man’s need, even unto death, laying down its life for man’s food. It is the type of what our blessed Lord’s life was, particularly as set forth in Mark -the Gospel of the perfect Servant. His was a love that sought not its own, but labored ever for man’s need; accomplishing in His death, as sin-offering, that great service which has forever set us before God blameless. For rejectors of such grace what can there be, as a necessary result of the selfishness which ends in slaying others, instead of rescuing them? With the rejection of the peaceful ox, peace is taken from the earth. How plainly can the beginning of this be seen even now, though the One who hinders prevents full development "till He be taken out of the way"! -S.R.}
3 The third seal is now removed, and with this we have the call of the human-faced cherub. At his call a black horse comes forth -the funereal color; and the rider has in his hand a balance, which a voice in the midst of the living beings interprets with the words "a measure of wheat for a shilling, and three measures of barley for a shilling." The measure, or choenix, was at most about a quart, although some would say but a pint and a half. The shilling, or denarius, (the "penny" of the Gospels,) was in fact neither of these, but about the half of a shilling sterling.* It was, as we see in the parable, the ordinary day’s wages, when money was far more valuable than it is at present; and the choenix of wheat was considered the provision for a day. Ordinarily the denarius would purchase about eight quarts of wheat, but now all that a man could earn could scarcely feed himself. No doubt three measures of barley could be got for the same price; but this was not only coarser food, but would even yet imply great scarcity. Yet with all, the oil and the wine were not to be injured. One can see clearly how peace taken from the earth would involve what follows here; the oil and the wine being naturally less injured than the growth of the field, which constantly needs to be renewed. But here, of course, it is divine judgment; and the natural effect is therefore exceeded.
{*What is called a "shilling" in the eastern United States (where the cent is also called a "penny") is the nearest to an equivalent.}
The congruity of this judgment with the call of the third living being is not so easy to be understood as in the former cases. Were we permitted to spiritualize it, and think of what Amos proclaims, -"Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord," -such a famine would, on the other hand, suit well; for the face of a man reminds us how God has met us in Christ and revealed Himself to us, inviting our confidence, speaking with a human tongue that He may be fully understood and appreciated by us: and this familiar intercourse with Him is what is needed for true satisfaction. If then Christ be rejected, the necessary consequence is that the sustenance for the soul is lost, the bread from heaven disappears, and the world is indeed a desert unrelieved. But, as we have seen, the destitution under the third seal seems rather to be the natural result of what has already taken place. Conquest and civil war would necessarily largely interfere with the work of the field and all that was dependent upon it; while the oil and the wine might more easily escape. A literal famine therefore seems to be intended. Yet as the natural is everywhere the type of the spiritual, so it depends upon that to which it witnesses. Our common mercies are ours through Christ alone. Take away the One, the other goes -the shadow with the true substance: and though little heeded, God might thus appeal to those incapable of feeling spiritual famine by the pressure of that which was natural. While, in the long-suffering of God, His sun shines upon the evil and upon the good, and the rain is sent upon the just and upon the unjust, yet how little do men realize this dependence of the natural upon the spiritual, and how Christ rejected strikes at once at every blessing!*
{*In Luke we have the parable of the great supper, and of the feast on the return of the prodigal who but lately had been near to "perish with hunger." The rejection of the blessed Man who came to minister to our need, and to tell of the Father’s house where there is "bread enough and to Spare," may well lead to both literal and spiritual famine. The oil and wine were the food of the rich. The expression may indicate the great care not to waste these products. If, as is intimated in the text, they were not so much injured as the ordinary staples of life, it might show, as is always the case, that the luxuries of the rich are least affected in a time of strait. It is the poor who suffer most, even for that which will sustain life. Luke also dwells on the abundance of the rich as contrasted with the penury of the poor. See the rich fool in Luk 12:1-59, and the rich man and Lazarus, chap. 16 -S.R.}
(4) We have now the fourth seal removed, and the call of the eagle. There follows that which in some sense is evidently final. A pale horse comes forth, and the name of its rider is Death; and hades reaps along his path. Here mercy seems to interpose a stricter limit; but authority is given him over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with death, and by the beasts of the earth. "Death" is the common term for pestilence, as the plague of the Middle Ages, for instance, was called the Black Death; and here God’s "four sore judgments" are let loose at once (Eze 14:21). If we think of the Gospels here, it is plain how the judgment corresponds to the rejection of the blessing which John’s Gospel brings us, the Gospel of love and life and light: and this rejected, what can remain for its rejectors but the awful, eternal rejection which death, as here under the wrath of God, must needs introduce them to? And then we cannot fail to remember that the eagle is itself the symbol of judgment, and, as the Lord says, speaking of this time, "Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together." Here, then, is the natural end of this first series of the seals -a complete end but for the limit of divine mercy. After all, the bow of promise is upon these clouds of most awful judgment, and the earth is to issue from beneath them baptized into a new condition, and with the promise, from the mere goodness of God, that such judgment as this shall be no more.
2. Three seals remain, and now, as it is plain, we have a larger range of view, and God’s side of things comes to be shown us. We have in it redemption’s harvest; and if on the one side there is still an ever increasing catastrophe, we are nevertheless shown how fully all things are in the hands of One who has power, and title also, according to His own nature to act for blessing, spite of the fullest display of creature-evil that can be made.
(1) The fifth seal is now removed, and we have what is wholly different from anything before it: that which on the one hand shows us the present exercise of the righteousness of the government of God, and the answer to it that is to come when divine patience has done all that can be done by it. When the fifth seal is opened there is no cry of a cherub any more, but there is another appeal, the cry of men that have been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they bare for Him. These cry with a loud voice, "How long, O sovereign Ruler, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" Just such a cry has in fact been going up to God since the blood of Abel stained the earth. And so the Lord speaks to those who in His day were joining the ranks of all the persecutors of His own from the beginning: "Shall not," He asks, "God judge His own elect who cry unto Him, though He bear long with them?"
But the cry here is not the general cry of all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, but something special to the time at which we have arrived here. We may notice that the "souls under the altar" (the altar of burnt-offerings) plainly speak of these as a sacrifice that has been given to God. The blood of such sacrifices was poured out at the bottom of the altar; and in the life-blood, the soul -which is also the life -is said to be poured out. Thus in the fifty-third of Isaiah it is said of Christ that He "poured out His soul unto death;" and here we have at once the implication of the acceptance on the part of God of this offering of His people. Offering as it was, there was, as in the Lord’s case, another side to it: cruel hands had shed this blood, -the blood of a numberless multitude, like to the saints upon their thrones above, as we have been contemplating them; for here they are beneath the altar still, and only in answer to their cry is the white robe of manifest approval given to them. Nor is the cry here such as we find in the Lord’s own mouth, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" nor as in Stephen’s case, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." There is not in it the witness of grace, but the call for judgment; and it indicates the taking up of the old martyr cry, the passing of the long parenthesis of grace upon the earth, during which God has been gathering a people for heaven. It is the day of wrath and judgment that is at hand, and thus it is of God that they should cry for judgment. It is this fellowship with God in His thoughts that makes, on the one hand, the prayer for mercy that which alone suits us now, and, on the other, the cry for judgment that which will yet suit those who are here found waiting for a judgment which is ready to be executed.
But we have to notice that they are bidden to rest yet a little while, until their fellow-servants and their brethren who were about to be killed as they were should be fulfilled. Thus there is the intimation of a further company to be added to these still before the final judgment comes; and a comparison with other scriptures will make plain what is intended here. Thus, in the twentieth chapter, we read of what is a supplementary resurrection, an addition to the first resurrection of the righteous, which includes the two companies that are indicated here. We have in it a threefold distinction: First, there are thrones and those sitting upon them, to whom judgment is given. There is in this case, although constantly confounded with the others, no thought of resurrection as then taking place. They are simply living and sit upon the thrones, as we have found living saints so seated already, in that look into heaven which has just been permitted us. Secondly, there are souls -that is, according to a common use of the word at all times, persons -beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, exactly as here. These are a company of martyrs, and all martyrs, as is plain. It is not, therefore, a general resurrection of the righteous dead, who are not all martyrs, nor could be characterized therefore in this way. But there is a third company also -"such as have not worshiped the beast, nor his image, nor received his mark upon their forehead or on their hand." These, too, are martyrs, but martyrs under a persecution which we have yet to look at, and which follows in the course of the prophecy here. It is not now the place to speak of them more particularly, but that they are a special class is undeniably evident. These all together complete the picture of the first resurrection, and they live and reign with Christ a thousand years. Thus we have what explains fully what is given us under this fifth seal.*
{*These martyrs under the fifth seal are apparently those slain during the first half of Daniel’s seventieth week, and not during the last half, or period of the "great tribulation." The whole time will be one of unexampled persecution; but this is intensified during the last three and a half years, the period which for the "elect’s sake" has been shortened. -S.R.}
(2) The opening of the sixth seal follows, and now what is before us comes more distinctly into view. Men are predicting for themselves the wrath of the Lamb, the great day of which is, in their guilty dread, thought to be now come. Thus, when the sixth seal is opened, there is a great earthquake, the sun becoming black as sackcloth of hair and the whole moon as blood, and the stars of heaven falling upon the earth, as a fig tree casts its untimely figs when shaken by a great wind. The heaven is removed as a scroll rolled up, and every mountain and island removed out of their places. Here there can be no right question that the description is figurative; for if we took it literally, then we should be plainly at the end even of the Millennium itself; for not till then does the first heaven pass away, as is here depicted. Otherwise, the signs are much as those which the Lord gives as taking place before the coming of the Son of man. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mat 24:29-30). This is, however, after that great tribulation such as never was, which itself necessarily precedes His coming, and which is in fact that tribulation under the beast which is referred to at the end of the last seal, but referred to there as still future; nor is there room for it in what is before us here. We shall find it spoken of in its own place in the future. But then it is still more evident, if possible, that the signs here are not physical signs, although they take, as one may say, their complexion from that which is coming. In men’s minds, indeed, the day of the Lamb’s wrath is already come; but we shall find that, near as it may be, much intervenes before it will indeed be come.
Such signs as these we have elsewhere in the prophets, as in Joe 2:31: "The sun shall be changed into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come." In Isaiah (Isa 34:4), a prophecy of the destruction of Edom, with its after-desolation, we have, "And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll; and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig-tree." Both passages seem to refer, the last at least ultimately, to the time of the end when the Lord comes; but the expressions in their connection show that we cannot take literally the dissolution of the heavens as pictured in them. After the judgment here, Idumea lies in perfect desolation: From generation to generation," it is said, "it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever;" and when the Lord comes no such convulsion of nature takes place as that which we read here, if we are to take it literally. On the other hand, the meaning of it as a symbol is not hard to apprehend. The heavens are even in a physical sense what rule the earth; and they are used in Scripture as figuring in this way earthly government, the basis of which we have in the typical significance of the work of the second day (Gen 1:6-8). This has been dwelt upon in its place. The earthquake thus may speak of a great political convulsion, in which the royal or imperial power suffers defeat, is as if extinguished, and the lesser dignities, which represent it with derived authority, as the moon would indicate, sharing in the catastrophe, until all rule seems to be gone and no condition is safe -even where there seemed strength as a mountain, or separation from all around as an island. The result is indicated in what follows, that "the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman," hide themselves in fear, seeing in it the wrath of the Lamb. Such an event upon a smaller scale we may find in that French Revolution, out of which came that which for a time altered the face of the earth; and here the political catastrophe involved the ecclesiastical sphere as well. All that spoke of religion seemed for the moment gone. What we have here in Revelation is, of course, of far wider extent, but can scarcely be more radical than that which in a small sphere then took place.*
{*As is intimated in the opening paragraph upon the sixth seal, the fear of those who hide themselves does not prove that the final day of the Lamb’s wrath had come, but rather that the fear of it was upon men’s souls. As a matter of fact, more fearful judgments are yet to be poured out. -S.R.}
Here, in a sense, the seals end; for although there is another, yet it is manifest that it only introduces the trumpet-calls that follow; and if we consider the whole character implied in these seals, it is plain that the opening of the last seal simply opens the book. Those before have been introductory, and show us what opens it. What an introduction is we have fully in them -the elements of that which is still to come before us. We have before the seventh seal a double vision which is evidently parenthetical, itself introductory and manifestly looking on to the future, but of a very different kind from all that has been before. This we will look at fully directly; but in considering the seals as a series, as they have been now before us, we need not enter into it. The question that is naturally suggested now is, how far in these seals we have exact events at all. Their often noted connection with the opening of the Lord’s prophecy on the mount of Olives will show clearly what is meant. In this we have, before the announcement of the abomination of desolation in the holy place and the tribulation following, what is more general in character: "wars and rumors of wars, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; famine, pestilence, and earthquakes in divers places;" then persecutions of the Lord’s people, with the uprising of false prophets, who shall deceive many. This last, with the still worse pretension of false Christs, of which the Lord speaks, we have not yet in Revelation. Otherwise the resemblance, or identity rather, of the two prophecies is evident. Details are as absent from one as from the other. Exact events are not shown us, only that there is a period in which, as one may say, the character of that which is to come is beginning to be seen. It is quite simple that there should be in this way a time in which things are shaping themselves; the Lord no doubt giving to the wise in heart, who can discern, to see what is before them. Of such a period the seals naturally speak. To the wise in heart the book of prophecy is being opened, the seals upon it are being broken, but the full reality has not yet emerged.
(3) We must now look at the parenthetical visions. Here, as already said, we are in a different atmosphere from that which we have realized before. We have the actings of God rather than of man; with the result of these in grace for men. They open the book more thoroughly than anything hitherto: for without them everything would be mere confusion, or almost this. Here we find God’s purpose, what He is accomplishing; and thus we gain fully the point of view from which all the rest can be beheld aright. The vision, as already said, is double. We have, on the one hand, and in the first place, the sealing of 144,000 out of every tribe of the sons of Israel. The specification as to each tribe follows, as if to impress upon us how literally we are to take it; all the more that in the second vision, in contrast with this, we have a multitude that no man can number, but now "out of every tribe, nation, and people, and tongue."
Jews and Gentiles are here, in short, plainly distinguished. Nor can this be strange to those who have considered how we are led up to it. The Church is passed from the earth. The Lord’s people (not Christians only, but those of past generations) are gathered home. They are in glory, reigning upon their thrones around the throne; while the new beginning, which plainly must follow this as to God’s dealings with the earth, is indicated by the Lamb coming forward as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Judah is first among the tribes here sealed. It is the royal tribe, as we know, the tribe of David, and in which the promise of perpetual royalty is made to him. This, it should be plain, has nothing to do with the Church, with her hopes or prospects, except so far as she is associated with Christ in that rule which is now in His hands as Son of man; but if the Jews thus come once more into view as in a distinct way the people of God, the Gentiles naturally have their distinct place also. The Old Testament prophets always speak after this manner, and we have only to read them simply to realize how different is the state of things that we are contemplating from that of the time in which God is, as now, gathering Jews and Gentiles into one body, as co-heirs equally of the inheritance which is to come.
This is what we find, then, intimated on the first view. We see that we have to take Israel here as literal Israel. This is said by some to involve a contradiction of the general principles of the interpretation of the book of Revelation. Interpreters say we must take it all as symbolical, or all as literal; otherwise we are simply interpreting as we please, and all stability of interpretation is set aside. But this, as it is easy to show, is simple misapprehension, and has led those who adopt it as a rule, into manifest absurdities. On the one hand it has presented us with such monstrosities as "supernatural, infernal, not earthly locusts," but which are, nevertheless, to be taken as literally that! We are told "it is a day of miracle, surely a day of wonders, a day of fierce and tormenting wrath. It is everywhere so described in the Scriptures, and we do greatly mistreat the records which God has given for our learning if we allow the skeptical rationalizing of our own darkened hearts to persuade us that such supernatural things are impossible, and therefore must not be literally understood." Yet when we come to the "beast" of the thirteenth chapter, we are told (rightly enough) by the same interpreter, that we have here not a "literal" beast, but "a symbolical presentation of the political sovereignty of this world."
On the other hand, this rule of perfect consistency, as interpreted by others, must require us to blot Israel entirely out of such a prophecy as this, and from all place therefore in those Old Testament promises which the apostle assures us belong to his "kindred according to the flesh" (Rom 9:4). The fact is, the consistency so much advocated cannot be maintained in this way for even the briefest moment in interpreting the book of Revelation. Thus, for instance, under the fifth seal, we have a symbolical altar, and in connection with it "souls" that can scarcely be symbolically slain for the word of God. Nor can this be said of their fellow-servants and their brethren who are about to be killed as they were. Such a mingling of the literal and symbolic in one vision is only a sample of what will be found in almost the whole series of visions; and if it be asked, How then are we to distinguish between the literal and the symbolical? the answer should be plain that we are to judge, as it is so necessary always, by the whole context, and therefore by the wider and more important consistency of such visions as a whole -a thing which is unhappily but too little attended to by such interpreters. Symbols, of necessity, require in us all something of "the mind that has wisdom." They are supposed to require attention and exercise as to their meaning, and are by no means intended to make everything plain to the dullest as to the clearest, spiritually. All is fully open to us, but we must not make any prophecy of Scripture of private (that is, isolated) interpretation, as the apostle warns us; and the observance of this rule (which the apostle gives us as "first of all" to be observed) will necessitate much useful searching of Scripture, as well as what should be most profitable meditation upon it. The Spirit of God is in it and in us also, blessed be His name; and we are dependent upon Him everywhere to guide us into all truth. But the truth will speak to the true, and God deals with us as those who should be competent thus to look everywhere beneath the surface. "In all labor there is profit," and here assuredly our labor shall not go unrewarded.
(a) Four angels are now seen standing upon the four corners of the earth, holding in restraint the four winds of the earth, that no wind should blow upon the earth, nor upon the sea, nor upon any tree. Manifestly here again all is symbolic. The winds of the earth are the various influences which from outside affect it; surely not divine influences, or they would not need to be restrained, but rather the power of the enemy working: for Satan, as we learn elsewhere, is "the prince of the power of the air," and the course of this age is thus under his control. God is above all, as we see now. Nothing is but as it is permitted to be, and this is the security of His people, whatever may be the adverse circumstances through which they pass. The earth seems always to speak of that which is settled under government, as we may say, as the sea cannot be, which speaks in general of unrestrained will -thus of the nations, looked at as away from God. The tree is individual, one specially prominent, rooted in the earth, as it might seem. A time is coming which shall test all this.
And now another angel ascends from the sun-rising. Not without significance, surely, is the east so spoken of here. The Sun is about to rise, and with this the action of the angel is associated. He has the seal of the living God, and cries with a loud voice to the four angels, saying, "Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we shall have sealed the servants of our God upon their foreheads." Here it is said that to the four angels it was given to hurt the earth and the sea. Thus the judgment is in the hand of God, although the instruments may be working their own will. The angels have "power to hurt" simply because they have power to restrain, or not, the adverse influences. There is thus a time of quiet and comparative security until God has accomplished His own work in those that serve Him; "until we shall have sealed," says the angel, "the servants of our God upon their foreheads."
We cannot separate from this (in character at least) what we find of the 144,000 in the fourteenth chapter, who there stand with the Lamb upon mount Zion, and upon whose foreheads the name of His Father is seen written. This would be according to what sealing is in Scripture, the seal being a stamp, which here marks out manifestly those who are the Lord’s. The seal is upon the forehead, where most seen, and would seem to intimate the fearlessness of their confession. We have to distinguish here between what we have in the epistle to the Ephesians as to the seal of the Spirit, if only by the fact that here the sealing is angelic, and no angel could put the seal of the Spirit upon men. It may be thought, on the other hand, that the angel here is Christ, as He certainly appears afterwards in such a character (Rev 10:1); but against this there is the fact that he associates others with himself, whether they be the four previous angels or not. He says, "until we have sealed." Even here it might be possibly thought that the "we" was meant to associate the Spirit of God with himself, but the language following -"the servants of our God" -surely forbids this. Christ could Himself speak as man, and, as we know, He commonly does so; but the Spirit of God, while He works in man, has not become man, and thus the language seems inapplicable.
This, no doubt, makes the nature of the sealing less clear than otherwise it might be. On the other hand, the seal of the Spirit, as spoken of in Ephesians, could hardly be found at a time when the Church is gone from the earth, and thus, with the Church, the indwelling of the Spirit. Lange says that we cannot suppose the apostle John to have a lower conception of sealing than the apostle Paul; but that is not at all the question, for the inspired writer does not speak according to any mere conception of his own, but according to the way in which he is instructed, and therefore according to the nature of that which is before him. The purport of the seal is that it marks out the one sealed as belonging to God; and thus, as we find afterwards (Rev 9:4), it becomes security from the locust-plague. It is the seal of the "living God," who, as this, abides to care for and preserve that which is His own. In the Ephesian sense of sealing, we can as little understand the four winds having to be restrained that it might be done, as we can understand the angel being the agent in it. The action of the angels is certainly, as we should say, providential, and operates upon circumstances surrounding, rather than inwardly upon the soul. But we are incompetent, perhaps, to say more than that in some way God manifests His own, perhaps indeed by circumstances that bring them into special prominence, and make plain whose they are; and if we are to judge by the consequent preservation of those sealed under the locust woe, we might think that this seal of the living God marked out those who would be preserved alive for blessing upon the earth, in contrast with those slain under the beast, and who find their place in heaven. God is certainly at work to preserve through all this time of exceeding distress and danger a people for Himself, as we shall find in the flight of the woman into the wilderness, in the twelfth chapter, to a place where she is kept from the power of the dragon. Outside of this, there is a seed more open to attack, and which we find suffering afterwards under the persecution of the beast. But all this, as yet, cannot be entered into.
Those who are sealed are said specifically to be 144,000, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel. The tribes are then named, but in a peculiar manner, which would no doubt reveal to us more as to them if we had more intelligence or capacity. The order in which they are enumerated is found nowhere else, and is peculiar in the way in which the sons of different mothers -wives and concubines -are mingled together. If we follow the usual division of 12 into 4X3, we have, as Lange says, "first, two sons of Leah and one of her maid -Judah, Reuben, Gad. Secondly, Leah’s adopted son Asher, Rachel’s adopted son Naphtali, and Manasseh the first-born of Joseph. The third triad is formed by Leah’s sons, Simeon and Levi, and her adopted son Issachar. In the fourth group Zebulon is conjoined with Joseph and Benjamin -the late offspring of Leah with the late offspring of Rachel." On a general survey, he adds, "The thought forces itself upon our mind that the vision in its symbolistic enumeration of the twelve tribes has obliterated every semblance of a legal prerogative apart from Judah’s place of honor, which again was symbolically significant of the dignity of Christ." Others again take it that such a promiscuous enumeration is given us for the very purpose of intimating that these are not literally Israel’s tribes at all. But this has been, in another way, and quite satisfactorily, decided for us.
We may gather from it apparently one thing, and that is, that we have before us not simply the nation preserved (and thus they are not given in the order in which they would be even in the wilderness camp, and much more in the land), but that here is a special remnant marked out, and of which we ought to be able to see more at another time. The absence of Dan from the enumeration is significant in this way; as assuredly, when the tribes are brought back to their land at last, Dan will not be wanting among them. Here the prophecy of Jacob their father (which is, in a way beyond what is ordinarily seen, significant of their whole future history) will assist us much, as well as in answering the question as to the reason of the omission. Jacob himself lets us know (Gen 49:1-33) that he is speaking of what should befall them "in the last days." It is to these "last days" that Revelation has brought us, so that the application of his words to what is before us here should be the more evident.
Let us listen, then, to what the dying patriarch has to say of Dan: "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels so that the rider shall fall backward. I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord." Evidently there is something here, even in its very enigmatic form, to awaken attention; and it is quite startling in the way that it answers questions which the omission of Dan in this list of the tribes will naturally awaken. Dan, as we see, is not to drop out of the number of these. On the contrary, -and let us remember that it is of the last days that Jacob is speaking, -"Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." Thus the Lord’s grace prevails, whatever may be the failure that we find in Dan. It cannot be that a tribe should perish out of the chosen people. But then, if this be a special company, and if we should find this same company at a later time associated with the Lamb upon mount Zion (Rev 14:1), then one might naturally say that Dan has lost this place of association with the King of Israel. Yet, says Jacob, "Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel." How remarkable is this, put just as if there might be a question about it, and yet, on the other hand, giving Dan certainly no prominence, as in fact in those last days he will be found but as the border tribe in the land (Eze 48:1). Dan shall retain his tribal staff, and that is all. But why should he seem thus to be under question? If not in rejection, yet why, apparently, in this lowly place? Have we not the answer to this also in Jacob’s words, "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse-heels, so that the rider falleth backward"? Here, for those who know the character of these "last days" of which Jacob is speaking, it will not be without significance that Dan is thus associated with and characterized by the power of the enemy, as if it had so far prevailed for his perversion. When we know that the large part of Israel in those days will fall into apostasy, surely the serpent and the adder, here distinctly identified with Dan, must be pregnant with meaning: and how much more so when we find immediately following, as it were, the groan of the remnant of those days, "I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord!"
Notice how, in the final blessing of the tribes by Jacob, we find the suited termination of this. As to Gad, a conflict in which, first overcome, he shall nevertheless overcome at last. Then, with Asher and Naphtali we have what manifestly speaks of blessing following; while Joseph and Benjamin, completing the history, show us in whom the blessing is. All, therefore, is most perfectly in keeping throughout; and we are not arguing from any mere isolated expressions, as some would suggest, but giving everything its due place and connection. The prophecy has already been considered in its place in Genesis.
We have only now to speak of the number 144,000 (12,000 of each tribe). Although it may be according to the literal truth, yet it speaks rather of a symbolical meaning. Twelve, as we everywhere see, is the number of manifest government -ordinarily at least, we may say, if not always, of divine government, though men may be given their place in connection with it. Certainly the number here is suggestive of just such thoughts, the thousand, moreover, being the cube of 10; and 10 as a double 5 (which seems to be all that there is in it) speaks at the same time of responsibility, and capacity, and reward. How suited is everything we see here -even if there be much we have not seen yet -to give such a character to these sealed Israelites as we have suggested!*
{*The fact that those sealed are a remnant out of the mass of the nation will sufficiently characterize them. They are, doubtless, similar in character to the remnant spoken of in Eze 9:4: "Set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst" of Jerusalem. That sealing, too, was preliminary to the slaughter about to be inflicted upon the ungodly mass. That which ever characterizes a remnant is the moral state of grief and horror at abounding evil. Such, says the Lord, "shall be Mine in that day when I make up My jewels." -S.R.}
(b) The apostle now has another vision, which naturally would have connection with the first, as well as probably be in some way contrasted with it. Here there is no more a company of Israelites that demands our attention, but a great multitude which no man can number, "out of every nation, and tribe, and people, and tongue." These then must be, largely at least, Gentiles. If we think of all that has been before us, we should say, rather, that they are exclusively Gentiles. If the Church has gone out to meet her Lord, and the Lion of the tribe of Judah it is who has taken manifest rule, and with Him a special remnant of Israel has already been seen in association, then, being in the line of Old Testament promises, which are Israel’s, we must expect to find the Gentiles having a place indeed in blessing, but still a separate place from these. This company stands "before the throne, and before the Lamb." They are "clothed with white robes, and palm branches in their hands; and they cry with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb." They are thus partakers of the salvation which they have ascribed to God and the Lamb. They are clothed also with white robes, the token of full and final acceptance; and the palm branches in their hands speak of victory gained. Their being "before the throne and before the Lamb," may naturally, at first sight, declare them to be a heavenly company -a company in fact in heaven; and this, though with various application, is the thought in general of interpreters as to them. And indeed heaven is open to us. We see all the angels standing "around the throne and the elders and the living beings," and hear them as they fall upon their faces, worshiping God, saying, "Amen: blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and strength, unto our God, to the ages of ages."
But let us wait for what follows this. One of the elders puts plainly the question to the seer, "These who are clothed in white robes, who are they? and whence came they?" But John himself is evidently at a loss to say. "My lord," he answers, "thou knowest." Then we have the words which clearly and decisively explain who they are: "These are they that come out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple; and He that sitteth upon the throne shall tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more, neither shall the sun in any wise fall upon them, nor any burning heat; because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes." Plainly these words speak of full blessing attained. Some of them would seem as plainly to say, at first sight, that they are as certainly in heaven as the elders themselves; but let us look a little further.
They are all said to come out of the great tribulation, and this is emphasized. It is literally "the tribulation, the great one," as impressing upon us to make no mistake. There is but one tribulation that can be spoken of after this manner -that tribulation of which Daniel speaks (Dan 12:1) as a "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time;" and when Daniel’s "people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Thus it is the time of which Jeremiah speaks, "the time of Jacob’s trouble," but out of which he shall be delivered (Jer 30:7). It is the time also of which the Lord speaks in His familiar prophecy, in which He expressly refers also to Daniel (Mat 24:15-21) -a time of "great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time; no, nor ever shall be." Immediately after this tribulation, there is the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and He comes in the clouds of heaven with the angels. Thus we cannot possibly be deceived as to where this brings us; and we find that we are looking forward in a vision here to what has not as yet had its place in the prophecy. In fact, we are looking on to the time when the Son of man has come. These are a special group, then. They are not the company of all the saints from the beginning, but those of one brief time; for "except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened" (Mat 24:22).
That they are clothed in white robes is of importance in different ways. It shows that they are past the judgment of works; they are not merely themselves accepted personally, but are owned of the Lord in that which has been of Him in their life and ways. The white raiment, we are told in the nineteenth chapter, is the righteousnesses of the saints. There is a needful admonition here against what we are so prone to, the attributing a sort of uniformity to Scripture which is in reality the product merely of the narrowness of our own minds, and which begets confusion instead of clearness. Scripture is larger and more various than we take it to be. It is probable that most Christians take these white robes as being simply Christ as the righteousness of His people; but at once comes the question, How could a robe like this be washed, and made white in the blood of the Lamb? Every one will say that is impossible, of course; then the robe in this case is not the righteousness which is given us in Christ Himself. It is not Christ as righteousness to us, but, as already said, the righteousnesses (the word is plural) of our works and ways, which must have the stamp of His approval before we can be accredited with them, before we can stand in the value that grace may give them in His sight. But how much is there in our works and ways that He can never approve! Here then is where the precious blood must be applied; not to ourselves merely, but to our garments. They must be washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. We see at once how suited this is to the book of the throne and of judgment, which the book of Revelation assuredly is; and we see also how necessary it is to discriminate between scripture and scripture, and to distinguish things in which there may be at first sight apparent similarity. This applies equally to such great truths as those of salvation, redemption, sanctification, nay, even justification, where much of the confusion which obtains among the Lord’s people is the result simply of forgetting how large and various Scripture thoughts are. We do not reach consistent interpretation by ignoring these differences which so constantly exist. Here, as already said, the company before us are plainly seen to have stood before the judgment-seat of Christ, and to have received His estimate of their lives as He has seen them.
Thus "are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple" -words in which again we shall be called to discriminate between apparently similar things. The elders are before the throne, and we naturally think of those who are before it here as being in heaven with the elders, and practically therefore as one company with these. But the words "serve Him day and night in His temple" are just the words which could not be used of the elders, for John explicitly says of the New Jerusalem, "I saw no temple therein." Here we have a temple; and the question necessarily arises, What temple is this, or what is meant by it? If we have not reached God’s thought as to the millennial reign, and seen that there will then be a temple on earth which is the place of His throne, we shall scarcely realize the true position of this Gentile company. As risen saints, if we conceive them such, it will be difficult to imagine their relation to a temple on earth; but where are we shown that these are risen saints? Where are we shown that they have passed through death at all? Such things are constantly read into passages of this sort which do not contain them.
Take -what we cannot but realize to be a similar company at least -those who are assembled before the throne of the Son of man when He comes; when, as we are told, "the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me: I was sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came unto Me" (Mat 25:31-36). And of these it is said finally that the righteous go away "into life eternal." How constantly in this case also it is thought that we are looking at those raised in a general resurrection, and who as sheep or goats pass, as the result of this judgment, to heaven or to hell! But nothing is said about resurrection, or about heaven. The Son of man has set up His throne on earth; and that supposes, of necessity, discriminating judgment of the nations among whom His throne now is. The passage has been examined in its place, and there is no need to repeat what has been already said.
But here it is plain there is a throne, before which men stand; and yet it is a throne on earth, though a divine throne. It is not contended that the companies are necessarily the same; but any one who is familiar with the language of the Old Testament prophets will have little difficulty in realizing what is said here. Take Isaiah’s description of Jerusalem in her blessing in millennial days (Isa 4:5-6), when "the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain." The language here carries us back, of course, to Israel in the wilderness when the glory was such a covering to them. But this is Jerusalem under the almighty wings which would so long since have covered her, but she would not, yet under which she has come at last to rest. Here, too, it is in conflict with the thoughts of many, and yet what Scripture absolutely assures us of, that there will be a temple once more, a literal holy place upon earth which God recognizes, and where He displays Himself so that the very sign of the end of the decreed time of God’s preparatory dwelling in Jerusalem will be, as Daniel tells us, "the anointing of the most holy" place (Dan 9:24). That which Israel has lost, and for so long lost, through their unbelief, shall be restored to them in a more wonderful manner than before; and thus it is, as we find further in Isaiah (Isa 2:3-4), "Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." When this is to be, is absolutely plain from what follows this: "And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."
That time surely is in the future yet. The reinstating of Israel in their land, converted to God and once more gathered, all of them, Judah united with Ephraim, and under One of whom God speaks by the prophet as "My servant David, their Prince forever," will show how little He has repented of His thoughts in connection with them. In the same explicit way does He speak in Eze 37:26-28: "Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore." Thus it is the very sign of His acceptance of His people Israel, an acceptance which will know no change forever that His sanctuary is explicitly in the midst of them. This, of course, is quite contrary to what we have in Christianity; but the difficulty with us has been the making of Christianity God’s final thought as to the earth, as well as heaven, so as to make all these passages really unintelligible to us without such an interpretation of them as implies large modification also. Taken simply as they read, they are everywhere intelligible and most consistent, as God’s words must always be. And the words of the prophets should surely make us understand better how the company that are before us here can be at once upon earth, and "before the throne of God," find "serve Him day and night in His temple," and how "He that sitteth upon the throne shall tabernacle over them."
But a difficulty may be found in another direction. These are, as is evident, a Gentile company. We have already distinguished them from those sealed of Israel in the previous vision. If Israel and the nations are thus apart, how could it be said of Gentiles here that they "serve Him day and night in His temple"? Do not the words show that there is, after all, an inconsistency in applying such language to a people upon earth, and when Israel’s distinctive blessings have been restored to her? Now the prophet has already anticipated this very difficulty; for Isaiah assures us, speaking of the time of Israel’s final restoration, when the Gentiles "shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord," that in that new condition, in testimony of His grace to all, Gentiles should also be admitted to a place of special nearness to Himself: "And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites, saith the Lord" (Isa 66:20-21). And here it is that the assurance follows, "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain." Thus, while Israel has her distinctive place and blessing, at the same time God, in His own grace, will associate others with them from among the Gentiles themselves.
It has been said that the promise "I will take of them for priests and for Levites." merely refers to these Israelites brought back by the Gentiles to Jerusalem; but, as Delitsch well says, "God is here certainly not announcing so simple a thing as that the priests among the returned people should be still priests." He has just declared that the Gentiles "shall bring all your brethren out of all the nations for an offering to the Lord, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." The Gentiles are here, therefore, this clean vessel; and being thus cleansed, they have the further promise, "and of them also will I take for priests and Levites." It is plain, moreover, that such an application of Isaiah’s words brings his prophecy and this passage before us into perfect harmony, and thus the connection, while at the same time the contrast with the former vision of Israel’s 144,000, is preserved. The two together give us a complete picture of blessing for both Israel and the Gentiles -a bow of promise banding for them the storm through which they pass. Neither group is heavenly. Neither is the full number to be saved at that time; but they are, in the language of the fourteenth chapter, a sheaf of the first-fruits of the harvest beyond, and in each case dedicated as this, in a peculiar manner, to the Lord.
The words that follow here do indeed speak of it as the entrance into a blessing which for them shall be eternal; but so, as to Israel even nationally, when thus finally restored, they are past all changes now. Past millennial times, of which the vision speaks, there may be indeed still for them blessing such as we have not here, but that does not affect the permanence of what is promised: "They shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more; neither shall the sun in any wise fall upon them, nor any burning heat; because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them, and shall lead them to fountains of waters of life, and God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes."
Let us remember, also, in this connection, that while it is the earthly aspect of things simply upon which the prophets of old dwell, there is always in the New Testament an additional heavenly side, and we can see in the vision before us an intimation of this -an opened heavens, as one would say, into which at least they gaze; in the presence of which they are; so that the Lord’s words to Nathaniel come to mind, in which He whom Nathaniel’s faith had just acknowledged as the Son of God and King of Israel, prophesies of greater things to those who believe in Him: "Verily, verily, I say to you, henceforth ye shall see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." This, as the whole connection shows, has in view, not dwellers in heaven, but upon earth -those who, with Nathaniel’s faith, will at last acknowledge the King of Israel, and who, in consequence of this, not, shall be in heaven, but "shall see heaven opened," and the angels of God attending upon Him who, wonderful to say, is a Son of man. Just such an opened heavens do we see in the vision before us.
(4) The seventh seal is now loosed, and there is silence in heaven about half an hour: evidently a brief pause only, and quite unsuited to indicate the commencement of eternity. One cannot say that it corresponds either, of necessity, to any pause in events upon earth, although this might follow such a pause in heaven, for heaven is in full government, as we have seen, of the affairs upon earth. There is a more important reference to which Bishop Newton (after Philo) calls attention -that while the sacrifices were made (2Ch 29:25; 2Ch 29:28), the voices, and instruments, and trumpets sounded." "While the priest went into the temple to burn incense (Luk 1:9-10) all was silent, and the people prayed to themselves." Here we have immediately the prayers of the saints offered to God, with incense added to them by the angel-priest; and the prayers are answered in the sounding of the trumpets, which announce more distinctly than ever the judgments of God which are at hand upon a world that has rejected Christ, and still rejects His people. In this case the silence in heaven links the opening of the seal in a very direct way with that which follows; and it would be plain that we have not in the trumpets events which go on side by side with those that have already been before us in the seals, but a new and separate series of judgments: the catastrophe under the sixth seal being in this way still more distinctly seen as by no means the final break-up of earthly governments preparatory to the assumption of the throne on earth by Him to whom of right it belongs. On the other hand, all in the seals hitherto has been preparatory. They are the opening of the book, as on the face of it would be natural to say; and only at this point therefore is the book fully opened. The contents have yet to be made plain to us.
It is in accordance with this that the seventh seal is in some sense an eighth practically, that is, if we take the septenary series as they are numbered for us here. Divisions immediately preceding have given us what can neither be placed under the sixth nor under the seventh seal, but must form a division of its own. This, according to the structure, is the seventh division. The seventh seal is both a seventh and an eighth. We can neither disregard the number specifically attached to it, nor the actual separateness of the preceding visions. The seventh seal is this, as being that which completely opens the book. Seven is the number of completion, as we know, while as an eighth it speaks of a new beginning. The sixth seal is not final judgment, however anticipative of it it may be. The winds have not yet been allowed, as we see in the following vision, to burst forth, as they are about to. The brethren also of the martyrs under the fifth seal, who are to be slain as they were, have not yet given up their lives. In the meanwhile, because the seventh seal in opening the whole book brings us face to face with the most awful period of the world’s history ever to be known, we are first taken apart from the succession of events, to see beforehand the gracious purposes which are hidden behind these coming judgments. The visions are an interruption, a parenthetical instruction, which, coming in the place it does, pushes, as it were, the seventh seal on to be an eighth section, itself filling the seventh place. Surely, if numbers have significance at all, we may read it here. The seventh place is filled by that which gives rest to the heart in the assurance of that which God’s accomplished work must mean in the way of blessing -a sabbatism which no restless will of man, nor power of evil, can any more disturb.
The seventh seal at once leads us on to that which governs the whole course of things before us. The trumpets to sound are war-trumpets. They correspond to the similar compassing of Jericho seven times on the last day of its existence, and show us in detail that judgment of the world prefigured in the downfall and judgment of Jericho. The trumpets, we may remind ourselves, as they are given us in the Old Testament picture, are trumpets of jubilee.
While, on the one hand, they give notes of alarm and judgment, yet it is the time of liberation and restoration that is coming in; and here we are given to see what it is that moves the Hand that moves the universe -that the trumpets sound as the answer of God to the supplications of the saints. We have heard these already under the fifth seal, and have had the assurance that they were to be answered. Now we see that all the judgments following are in answer to them. "I saw," says the apostle, "the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them; and another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all saints at the golden altar which was before the throne." The answer comes in the shape of fire from the altar cast upon the earth, when we hear immediately what characterizes all that follows: "there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake." The sacrifice of this altar, which is the altar of burnt-offering plainly, has gone up from it. There is no offering any more; and alas, the masses of men have only rejected the propitiation made. The fire of the altar therefore does not now consume the victim -it remains but an awful fire of wrath upon those for whom there remaineth no more any sacrifice for sin. They have, in fact, offered victims to God -whose blood they have poured out sacrilegiously beneath God’s altar. God has accepted such sacrifices on the part of His people, but they could work no atonement for the men that shed their blood. On the contrary, they plead, as we have seen, against their persecutors; and the wrath is now coming upon them to the uttermost.
Spite of all this, there is a point which is surely significant: that the Priest who puts the incense to the prayer of the saints is not the human priest whom we should expect. His form is angelic; and yet it is most certain that no angel besides is ever seen in such priestly attitude, and that Christ, in order "that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God," had to be in all things made like unto His brethren (Heb 2:17). It is Christ, surely, who is before us as offering the prayers of the saints to God, and thus we can understand the incense which He can add to them, which is but indeed the fragrance of what He was Himself, and is, for God. But in this case it seems strange that He should be in angel-garb, not human: and this would speak naturally of a certain distance on His part, who is yet interceding. To interpret this, we have to realize the condition of those for whom He intercedes. They are, according to the uniform tenor of what is here, characteristically a Jewish remnant, a remnant chosen by grace out of an otherwise apostate people, and who themselves have to be passed through the refiner’s fire in order that they may at last come out the vessel that they are designed to be, for His use. Thus we can understand that they are not as yet in the full apprehension and enjoyment of what Christ is to them, as in after days they will be. Christ Himself is, in a certain sense, standing aloof. His manner, though not His heart, is strange. They cannot fail of ultimate blessing; but it is the time of Jacob’s trial, out of which indeed he is to be delivered. To use the figure with which the prophet connects this, it is their finding the bitter pangs of travail which are upon the nation, but out of which a new Israel shall be born, when Jacob shall become Israel, answering now fully to his God-given name.
Thus, as we may see, the book is now really opened. We have had before us the elements which make it up. The prophetic history of it all is now to come, but the character of things should be abundantly plain. The seals have been loosed, and the book is opened.
The Revelation of John
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Six Seals
The Six Seals
The afflicted Church has been reminded in Revelation 4 f. that God is over all, and that the future is committed to the Lamb. Now (Revelation 6 - Rev_8:1) she is shown that future, unrolling to its appointed end, i.e. the judgment of the enemies of God and the triumph of those who 'overcome.' The Lamb opens the seven seals. Apparently we are to understand that, as each seal is opened, a portion of that which is written in the book is revealed pictorially. Revelation 7 contains an episode between seals six and seven.
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The first six seals. The key to this vision is the prophecy of Christ in Mat_24:3-31. In that prophecy, Mat_24:4-14 foretell the signs preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, Mat_24:15-28 the destruction of Jerusalem, and Mat_24:29-31 the signs which will precede the coming of Christ. There is the same threefold division in this c., but in place of the destruction of Jerusalem is the appeal of the martyrs to God, while the whole looks forward to the coming of Christ.
St. John had, doubtless, thought long on the prophecy recorded for us in Matthew 24. It was a natural effect of his memory that the vision should follow the lines of that prophecy; and, at the same time, our Lord saw fit to make further use of the thoughts already implanted in the Apostle's mind. The working of the same prophecy appears in the visions of the trumpets and the bowls.
1-8. Four riders are summoned, each by the word 'come' (RV omits 'and see'); cp. Zec_6:1., where the horses stand for the four winds, symbolising the divine judgments (Rev_6:1).
The white horse and the crown of the first rider are symbols of victory, and for the bow cp. Psa_45:4. The victorious progress of the gospel is perhaps represented (cp. Mat_24:14), or, as many think, Christ: cp. Rev_19:11; (Rev_6:2).
The second and third riders represent war and famine respectively (Rev_6:3-5). A 'penny' (cp. Mat_18:28; RM) was the wages of a labourer for a day's work (cp. Mat_20:2.); the 'measure' contained two pints. Judgment is tempered with mercy, for the wheat and the barley are not to be wholly destroyed, and the oil and the wine are to be uninjured (Rev_6:6).
Then Death and Hell (RV 'Hades,' i.e. the 'underworld' of the dead) come to claim a fourth part, i.e. not the whole, of the ungodly, by God's four judgments of sword, famine, death (i.e. pestilence), and wild beasts: cp. Eze_14:21; (Rev_6:8).
9-11. The opening of the fifth seal reveals that the death of the martyrs is not unregarded by God. As they sacrificed their lives, they are represented as having been offered on a heavenly altar, at the foot of which their blood (or 'souls,' or 'lives': cp. Lev_17:11) has been poured out: cp. Exo_29:12; (Rev_6:9). Their blood is said to call out upon God, as Abel's did (cp. Gen_4:10), and as every crime does, for punishment (Rev_6:10). God is not unheeding, but the final judgment must wait till the number of the martyrs is fulfilled. Meanwhile these, having overcome (cp. Rev_3:4.), are given robes of victory (Rev_6:11).
10. Lord] RV 'Master.'
12-17. opening of the sixth seal the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb is impending. The description is founded on the words of Christ: cp. Mat_24:29. The prophets had expressed the awfulness of the 'day of the Lord,' by associating it with terrible catastrophes, and these are heaped together in this passage to create a picture of fear and ruin. The details are not to be literally understood: cp. Isa_2:10.; Isa_34:4; Isa_50:3; Jer_4:24; Amo_8:9; Nah_1:5. Hag_2:6. Luk_23:30; Heb_12:26.
The picture seems to be, as it were, foreshortened to the Apostle, so that he is not able to see the length of the interval which separates the Fall of Jerusalem from the conquest of the empire by Christianity, nor of the interval which separates that conquest from the Day of Judgment. So throughout the book, yet see the 'thousand years' of Revelation 20.
17. His] RV 'their.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 beasts living creatures. (See Scofield "Eze 1:5")
beasts living creatures. (See Scofield "Eze 1:5")
Come and see Come! Omit "and see." So Rev 1:3; Rev 1:5; Rev 1:7
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 The Opening of the Seven Seals
CHAPTERS 6
The Opening of the Seven Seals
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1. The first seal (Rev 6:1-2)
2. The second seal (Rev 6:3-4)
3. The third seal (Rev 6:5-6)
4. The fourth seal (Rev 6:7-8)
5. The fifth seal (Rev 6:9-11)
6. The sixth seal (Rev 6:12-17)
7. Parenthesis: The remnant of Israel (Rev 7:1-8)
8. The saved multitude (Rev 7:9-17)
9. The seventh seal (Rev 8:1-5)
Rev 6:1-2.
The Lamb, invested with all the authority to execute judgment, having received His commission from God, begins now to open the seals of the book which is in His hands, the hands which were once nailed to the cross. It is evident that the breaking of the seals does not begin till His saints are gathered around the throne in glory. Until then it is still the day of grace. When the first seal is opened one of the living creatures said in voice of thunder, “Come.” The words “and see” must be omitted here and in Rev 6:3; Rev 6:5 and Rev 6:7. A rider upon a white horse appears; his is a bloodless conquest. He has a bow, but no arrow. He receives a crown and goes forth to conquer. Many expositors make this rider the Lord Jesus or some power which represents Him. It is positively incorrect. The rider here is a great counterfeit leader, not the personal Antichrist, but the little horn which Daniel saw coming out of the ten-horned beast (Dan 7:1-28). This coming leader of the revived Roman empire will go forth to conquer and become its political head. He is Satan’s man as we shall see later.
Rev 6:3-4.
The second seal reveals a rider upon a red horse. He takes away the false peace, which the rider upon the white horse as a divine judgment act established. The universal peace of which the world dreams without the presence of the Prince of Peace, will be of short duration. Another awful war follows. It will not be war alone between nation and nation, but it will be a world-wide reign of terror and bloodshed, a carnage unknown before in the history of the world. See in Mat 24:1-51 how our Lord mentions the great conflict of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom.
Rev 6:5-6.
The black horse rider brings famine, exactly what our Lord mentions next in Mat 24:1-51: “There shall be famines.” Famine follows war and inasmuch as the second seal brings the greatest war, the third seal will bring the greatest famine. The judgments of God fall then on the earth. Our Lord also mentions famines.
Rev 6:7-8.
The next rider under the fourth seal is named death. And Hades, the region of the unseen (not hell), is populated. Sword, hunger, death, that is pestilences and the beasts of the earth, claim an awful harvest (Eze 14:21). And so our Lord spoke of “pestilences.” These four seal judgments are hardening judgments.
Rev 6:9-11.
The four living creatures have uttered their four-fold “Come.” They are thus seen in connection with the providential government of the world. Under the fifth seal the scene changes completely. John saw under the altar the souls of them that had been slain. And they cry, “How long, O Lord!” Who are they? Not the martyrs of past ages. They are risen from the dead and are in glory with redeemed bodies. The words of the Lord in the Olivet discourse give us the key. Speaking to His Jewish disciples He said: “Then shall they deliver you up, and shall kill you and ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name’s sake” (Mat 24:9).
The Lord speaks of another company of Jewish disciples who will bear a witness during the end of the age, after the rapture of the Church. He will not leave Himself without a witness. He calls a remnant of His people Israel and they bear a witness to the coming of the Messiah, their coming Deliverer and King. Many of them suffer martyrdom. Their cry, “How long?” is the well-known prayer of Jewish saints; and their prayer to have their blood avenged is equally a Jewish prayer. Christians are not supplicating for vengeance on their foes. The prayer for vengeance refers us to the imprecatory psalms prewritten by the Holy Spirit in anticipation of the final persecution of Jewish believers. And the fellow-servants and their brethren, who are yet to be killed (Rev 6:11), are the martyrs of that remnant during the final three and one-half years, which is the great tribulation.
Rev 6:12-17.
Are the things mentioned under this seal to be taken in a literal sense or symbolically? Most of it is symbolical, yet at the same time great physical phenomena are also involved. The earthquake possibly means a literal earthquake. “Earthquakes in diverse places” our Lord predicted. And they increase as the age draws to its close. But the language is symbolical. Everything is being shaken in this poor world. The civil and governmental powers on earth all go to pieces; every class from kings to slaves is affected by it and terrorized. The political and ecclesiastical world is going to pieces. And when these shaking times have come, when thrones fall and anarchy reigns, when the great collapse of civilization and human society has come with signs on earth and in heaven, the earth-dwellers will see in anticipation the approaching day of wrath. Terror fills every breast and those who sneered at prayer, as the Christ-rejectors do now, will gather for a prayer-meeting to appeal to the rocks to cover them. Read the following Old Testament passages in connection with this seal: Isa 24:1-23, Isa 34:2-4; Joe 2:30-31; Zep 1:1-18; Hag 2:6-7.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 The Opening of Six Seals of the Scroll.
The Opening of Six Seals of the Scroll.
The opening of the first three seals:
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v. 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.
v. 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.
v. 3. And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
v. 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.
v. 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.
v. 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.
Here begins the narration of some of the happenings which would strike the Christian Church, the Church Militant, beginning with the time at which John wrote, and ending with the great Day of Judgment. Whenever a seal of the scroll was opened, the special event with which it was connected came forth from the roll and was presented to the seer in a picture or symbol. Of the first seal he relates: And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living beings saying as the voice of thunder, Come and see. The Lamb, Christ, alone was worthy and able to open the seals of the scroll on God’s hand, and He opened them one by one. With the voice of thunder John was here called to be a witness of future things, for the lion-faced cherub, one, or the first, of the four living beings, chap. 4:7, shouted to him to come and see. His attention having thus been arrested, John writes: And I saw, and, behold, a white horse, and him that sat upon him having a bow, and there was given to him a crown, and he went forth conquering and that he might conquer. Since the prophet does not explain the meaning of this symbol, nothing definite may be said about it. Some Lutheran commentators believe the hero to be Christ, who goes forth in triumph to overcome with the power of His Gospel. Others believe that the passage refers to the government, which may, under circumstances, become tyrannical and afflict the Christians with persecutions and other tribulations.
The opening of the second seal: And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living being saying, Come. Here it was the ox faced cherub that invited John to be a witness of the things that should come to pass. This picture is one of terrible aspect: And there went forth another red horse, and to him that sat upon him there was given to take peace from the earth and that men might slap one another, and to him was given a great sword. In this picture everything points to war and bloodshed, the red color of the horse, the fact that men received power to slay one another after peace was taken away from the earth, the fact that this rider was given a merciless weapon. The history of the world, also in the so-called Christian era, is an account of wars and rumors of wars, and the Church of Christ has also suffered the tribulation which come upon men through war and the shedding of blood.
The opening of the third seal: And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living being saying, Come and see. Here it was the man-faced cherub that called upon John to be a witness of the things which were to come upon men in the future. The outlook in this case is still more fearsome: And I saw, and, behold, a black horse, and him that sat upon him holding a pair of scales in his hand; and I heard like a voice in the midst of the four living beings saying, A measure of wheat for a denarion, and three measures of barley for a denarion; but the oil and the wine do not harm. A denarion, the day’s wages for a laboring man, Mat 20:2, was equal to about seventeen cents in normal times; and a measure was a little more than two pints. The description points to a state of famine, when provisions become cruelly expensive, when times are black and dark. At such times, which, as the prophecy shows, were sure to come, it would be a matter of careful measuring and planning to make the small daily income cover all expenses. In such days a man may well be obliged to dispense with the more costly wheat and to be satisfied with the cheaper barley. Only one fact tends to relieve the dreary outlook, namely, this, that some articles of food at least are excepted from the soaring prices. Thus the Church has also been made a sufferer on account of famine and extremely high prices, when the Lord laid His chastening hand upon the world.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 7 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
John continues to describe the events that happened before the throne of God. The Lamb begins to open the seals on the scroll.
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Come!
This is a command to one person, apparently the rider of the white horse who is spoken of in verse 2.
he was given a crown
This kind of crown was a likeness of wreaths of olive branches or laurel leaves, probably hammered out in gold. Examples actually made of leaves were given to victorious athletes to wear on their heads. This can be translated with an active verb. AT: "he received a crown" or "God gave him a crown (See: Active or Passive)
a crown
This was a wreath of olive branches or of laurel leaves like the wreaths that winning athletes received in contests at the time of John.
translationWords
lamb
seal
life
creature
voice
horse
bow and arrow
crown
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7 6:1–16:21 Three sets of seven judgments—the seals, trumpets, and…
6:1–16:21 Three sets of seven judgments—the seals, trumpets, and bowls—form the core of Revelation. Some suggest that the judgments form a chronological sequence from beginning to end, with each set of judgments flowing from the seventh judgment of the previous set for a total of twenty-one successive judgments. More likely, the relationship is cyclical (as in other Jewish apocalyptic works; cp. Dan 2, 7, 8, 11), with each set conveying increasing intensity and adding new details of God’s judgment on those who rebel against him. In this perspective, all three cycles end at the same chronological point, with the return of Christ.
6:1–8:1 The Lamb breaks the seven seals to reveal the significance of history from God’s perspective.
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6:1-8 The four horses and their riders (see Zech 1:8-11; 6:1-8) sum up the power structures of the world; their activities primarily lead to war, violence, economic imbalance, and death. It is pointless to put our hope in these power structures.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.