Revelation 6: Six Seals Opened

• v.1,2 Seal One – a Conqueror
• v.3,4 Seal Two – Peace removed and extreme violence
• v.5,6 Seal Three – Famine
• v.7,8 Seal Four – Death – a quarter of the earth
• v.9-11 Seal Five – Martyrs revealed
• v.13-17 Seal Six – Massive earth & skies upheaval

[Note: In this chapter of six seals being broken (each one along the edges allowing a bit more of the scroll to be unrolled) we first see a series of FOUR ‘judgments’ being released. Some would say these are specific acts of God, but an equal interpretation is that after the first one (that some suggest is the Gospel period) the following three are all increasing effects of sinfulness on the earth: violence, famine, and then increased death by violence, famine & plague. The fifth seal reveals the frustration of the martyrs which paves the way for the sixth seal, mighty destructive upheavals on the earth and in the sky. We have to wait a chapter for the seventh seal to be opened.]

v.1,2 Seal One – a Conqueror

v.1 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!”

v.2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

[Note: The lamb & one of the creatures [a different one each time] herald the first judgment. A white horse [?purity] with a conquering king.]

v.3,4 Seal Two – Peace removed and extreme violence

v.3,4 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.

[Note: Red [?for blood] a remover of peace and bringer of killing.]

v.5,6 Seal Three – Famine

v.5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

v.6  Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

[Note: A black horse [?death] with scales suggesting shortages and measurements suggesting famine & shortages.]

v.7,8 Seal Four – Death – a quarter of the earth

v.7,8 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by [i] sword, [ii] famine and [iii] plague, and by the [iv] wild beasts of the earth.

[Note: A pale horse [?ebbing life] brings Death by four forms. Note one leads on to the other.]

v.9-11 Seal Five – Martyrs revealed

v.9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.

v.10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”

v.11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

[Note: Sacrificed martyrs are shown who call for justice. They are only the first ones.]

v.13-17 Seal Six – Massive earth & skies upheaval

v.12,13 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind.

v.14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

v.15-17 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!  For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”

[Note: Then comes earth & skies upheaval, which if symbolic, then a warning to ‘top people’ of utter devastation. No one feels secure any longer – complete revelation & understanding of what is happening.]

[Additional Notes: In Rom 1:24-28 we are given a picture of God standing back, taking off His hands of restraint from the each and letting sinful mankind go in a downward spiral of self-destruction. There it was limited but here we have a picture of ‘judgments’ which can be largely attributed to the folly of godless mankind. It is only at the end that the catastrophes of the heavens and earth seem to take us beyond that, although the descriptions of v.12-14 are reminiscent of the pictures of a total nuclear holocaust which even now is just waiting to happen.  Time alone will tell. Whether it is the direct hand of God or God opening the door for the folly of mankind, again only time will tell. But remember, behind it is the Lamb of God opening up the way for it all to happen.

Note: In the ‘sevens’ there are six laid out and then a gap. After the first six seals being opened there is the gap of chapter 7 (the martyrs and survivors), and the seventh seal opening appears at the start of chapter 8 as the precursor of the 7 trumpets sounding the next series of judgments]

8:1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

[Note: Silence implies waiting to appreciate the impending doom.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: