REVELATION 6
Read Revelation 6:1-17
Revelation now seems to get very strange on us. After the last two chapters which are full of great images of God as creator and redeemer with the good news that there is someone worthy to carry out God’s plan of redemption, we now get a chapter which is very dark and nothing but bad news. What is going on here? What is all this stuff about opening seals and horsemen?
I think what we have here is a description of what is wrong with the world. As the lamb, Jesus, opens each seal holding God’s redemption plan, we see all that is wrong with the world. We see a rider on a white horse (v1) riding out bent on conquest – the human desire for power and authority. This figure on a white horse is sometimes interpreted as being Jesus, and indeed we do see a picture of Jesus on a white horse later in Revelation (19:11), but in this case I think it is a picture of human sinfulness because all the other seals reveal the sin of this world. The second seal reveals a picture of warfare (vv3-4). The third, illustrated by the scales of justice, hints at the perennial problem of injustice (v5), an issue we see tackled by the prophet Amos who condemned traders of his time for cheating by using false weights on their scales (Amos 8:5). The fourth seal speaks of death (vv7-8), something all humans are subject to because of sin. The apostle Paul noted that ‘the wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23). The fifth seal reveals the persecuted church calling for justice (vv9-11), something we all have to be patient for because it will only happen when Jesus returns. The sixth seal gives us a picture of a world suffering from earthquakes and other cosmic events (vv12-14). This is a reminder that all of creation is marred by sin.
Many people regard Revelation as a look into the future and what will happen at the end times. I think it makes more sense to give it a contemporary perspective. All these things that are revealed as the lamb opens the seals of the scroll are problems caused by sin in the here and now. We live in a world characterised by sin and its consequences. In human terms there seems to be nothing that we can do to deal with all of this. However, we have already seen that there is someone who can deal with sin, and it is the lamb, it is Jesus who will overcome sin and its effects upon this world. Chapter 6 gives us a bleak view of this world, but it is realistic. That is how the world is; but there is a solution.
In typically colourful language Revelation sets out what is wrong with the world; what was wrong in John’s day, and what is wrong in our time. It is all about rejecting God’s word, God’s will, and sinful people doing what they want. Revelation tells us that God will have the victory and that Jesus has already defeated sin and death on the cross and that victory will be fully consummated when Jesus returns.