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— with a voice like a clap of thunder, like when John also says, in his Gospel, that the crowd heard the voice from Heaven like a clap of thunder— thereby seemingly unintentionally confirming John’s authorship of both books!
The four living creatures, who represent Creation before the throne of God, call up the four horsemen – ‘ghost-riders in the sky’ – who are going to pour out their plagues upon creation.
It is good to compare the text with that of the Lord Jesus’ “discourse on the last things, signs of the end of the age’’ on the Mount of Olives, in order to understand what we should be thinking of when considering these four horsemen and the breaking of the seals in general.
In Matthew 24:4–14 He answers the disciples’ question. Tell us, they had said, when will this happen (that there will be no stone of the Temple left on another), and what will be the ‘sign of Your coming (‘parousia’) and of the end of the age’?
His disciples apparently realize themselves at that moment that there must be another Coming of Jesus, a Coming in Glory because Jesus just told them that not a stone will be left upon another of the city of Jerusalem and of the Temple. And they knew from their Bibles – for instance from Isaiah 2:2-4 – that the centre of the worldwide Kingdom to Come would be Jerusalem and the Temple. But if such a destruction is to come first, they realize that there apparently will be another coming of Jesus. They understand that apparently this ‘first coming’ of Jesus will not yet lead to the coming of that Kingdom but to His suffering and death on the cross. It is two days before the Passover, when He will be surrendered to be crucified. His suffering and death still have to take place.
So by now His disciples realize themselves that there must be another coming of Jesus to put an end to this part of world-history with all its misery and to bring in the beginning of the next part of world-history: the coming of a new age for the world, being His worldwide ‘Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness’. When will that be? He then sums up a large number of ‘signs of the times’ that will have to take place first, before He will come in Glory. Mark 13:8 calls them the beginning of birth pangs/pains: hunger, diseases, earthquakes, conflicts, wars, persecution (unto death), and the proclamation of the Gospel of the Kingdom to the uttermost parts of the earth first. A short period of ‘great tribulation’ (which I already mentioned in passing yesterday), a time of such ‘distress’ (Matthew 24:21 NIV) such as the earth has never yet experienced and will thereafter never experience again, are part of it. There will be an ‘abomination of desolation’ in the Holy Place—also, as some people claim, a reference to the antichrist who is to come, even though there have already been many antichrists throughout history? Tremendous oppression will then be unleashed upon the people of God, persecution as never before. Even a kind of shaking of the Universe, with the sun darkened and the moon with no light or red as blood, and stars (asteroids?) falling from the sky, and the celestial bodies shaken to the core. Thereafter, the Coming of the Son of Man will be like the lighting that lights up the sky from east to west. Several things precede His Coming therefore. He says so Himself. “Do not allow anyone to mislead you”, He says. “Do not allow yourselves to become confused. For many false spiritual leaders will come and they will claim to be the long-awaited Redeemer, the Saviour of the world.“ World-leaders, dictators with their own philosophies and ideologies will boast about how to bring in the perfect age, the new age of peace and prosperity for mankind in the name of man. Jesus warned us to hold on to the Good Shepherd and like sheep. Listen only to His voice, for when He comes there will no longer be any shadow of doubt whether this a fake-messiah, an antichrist, or the true Messiah: the Saviour of the world! It will be such a tremendous event that the whole world will look on with amazement.
• The word “Come!” pronounced by each of the four living creatures is a different ‘Come!’ from the word pronounced by the Spirit and the bride and everyone who hears. The latter is the longing cry of the bride to her Bridegroom, to Christ, to come in victorious glory!
• The former? It’s the battle cry of the four Heavenly creatures for the apocalyptic horses and their riders to come out and bring their disasters upon planet earth.
• The Authorised Version renders: ‘come and see’ is considered to be an addition by later copyists of manuscripts that belong to the lesser manuscripts. The addition ‘and see’ does not appear in the best Greek manuscripts.
