It is about to begin! The Lamb, whose worthiness took centre stage in chapter 5, has taken the scroll from the hand of God and is going to break the seals. This precedes the opening of the scroll upon which is written the events that will take place before this part of world history
There is no doubt Who breaks the seals and thus opens the book: the Lamb. When each of the first four seals is broken, one of the four leaving creatures says: “Come!” The Lamb breaks the seals and the living creatures shout for the apocalyptic horsemen to come
Who is this rider on the white horse, with a victor’s crown on his head and a bow in his hand? White always represents something to do with God and Christ in the Book of Revelation.
The first beast, living creature—lion—calls up the first horse with its rider. Due to the parallel with the ‘discourse on the last things’ we said that this is the preaching of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
The Lamb opens the third seal. The third ‘living creature’—the face of a man—says: Come! The third horse appears, with his rider, who has a pair of scales in his hand. There is something to be weighed, but it is very scarce, and it is very expensive, because of the market mechanism of supply and demand, a kilogram of wheat for a day’s wages, and three kilograms of barley for a day’s wages.
The Lamb opens the fourth seal and the fourth ‘living creature’—flying eagle—says: “Come!” Then the pale horse appears with its rider.
The pale colour ‘chloros’ is also translated as green, the colour of grass.
It always goes like this. If man wants to be like God, to take might and right in his own hand, and to set up his own kingdom as ‘Babylon’, as the city and culture of man, he immediately starts to persecute and oppress those who do not expect any good to come forth from sinful and fallen ‘man’.
The souls of the martyrs are under the altar. There is personal existence after death, therefore. The martyrs are conscious of themselves and they remember how their innocent blood was shed. The Bible does not teach soul-sleep.
Who are these martyrs? If we continue drawing parallels with the Lord Jesus’ ‘discourse on the last things’, the great tribulation He speaks about has yet to come. In that case they must be people who have been killed during the past centuries—slaughtered Jews and slaughtered Christians, one group because of the Word of God, the other because of the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God?
Now cosmic catastrophes are coming into view. Again, a parallel exists between Jesus’ discourse on the last things, at the Mount of Olives, about signs in the sun, the moon and the stars—the shaking and staggering of the very Creation itself.
A strong wind blows and all at once the figs fly through the air ‘en masse’, like a sudden hailstorm. A foretaste of this event is not only found in the seventh plague in Egypt, but also in the events Joshua describes at the battle near Gibeon.
The Lord Jesus says that there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars, and that, on earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and the tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming upon the world, for the Heavenly bodies will be shaken.
