BOOK OF REVELATION
Lesson 15 - Chapter 6
The first half of Revelation chapter 6 that we studied last time is about what begins to happen
on Earth as the Lamb in Heaven begins breaking the 7 seals on the secret scroll that was
handed to Him by God the Father. After each of the first 4 seals is broken one and then
another of the 4 living beings that surrounds God's throne orders a horse and his rider to go
and create war and killing among humanity. Each horse and rider is in some way associated
with one particular living being; what that connection is, is vague. The wording may only
indicate a poetic way of showing the involvement of all 4 living beings as God's agents or it
could be that in some sense each one of the 4 living beings was in charge of one or another of
the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse that was sent out along with the particulars of the
catastrophe they were to cause.
The first horse was a white horse that carried a rider with a crown and a bow. We discussed
that there is much disagreement within Christianity about the identity and purpose of this
horseman. Some identify Him as the Christ; others as the anti-Christ. Some identify the rider
as going forth to fight evil; others regard him as going forth to cause evil. The truth is that both
sides of the debate have merit. That said, when we look at the overall purpose of the 4
horsemen it is certainly not to do good. Among the same Bible scholars who declare the next 3
horsemen to be satanic in nature there are also those who want to separate the first horseman
(on the white horse) from the group such that He is good and the rest are evil. There is little in
this passage to warrant this conclusion other, perhaps, than trying to skew the revealed
information to validate a predetermined position on the matter. Clearly the 4 horsemen were
sent as a group to act as a group with each assigned a different task; but their overall goal was
to sow evil and discord among humanity.
The second horse was a red horse whose rider was given the authority to take whatever peace
existed on Earth and destroy it. The third horse was a black horse whose rider carried a
balance scale, which symbolized commerce. The idea was worldwide famine whereby food
became more scarce and therefore more expensive. It seems that the staples of life, wheat
and barley, were the items affected most heavily because the oil (meaning olive oil) and wine
production appear to have survived the pestilence. Oil and wine were representative of the
luxury items; therefore the idea is that while the average man and his family suffered greatly
the wealthy and elite were able to weather the bad conditions rather easily. Why would God
permit the rich to thrive and instead target the poor? Because this would be likely to cause
tremendous class warfare to erupt with social justice becoming the watchword.
The fourth horse was a pale horse (more correctly translated as a green horse); its color was
to denote its sickly condition. The rider was given 2 names: Death and Hades (or better, death
and She'ol....that is, Death and the grave). Thus death and its aftermath would erupt all over
the globe on a massive scale. Chapter 6 verse 8 says that through war, famine, plague and
even through attacks by wild animals caused by these 4 horsemen, fully a quarter of all
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inhabitants on our planet would die; however this is highly unlikely to occur in a proportional
way. I think we can speculate to a small degree on how this might look.
One of the things that caught my eye was how attacks by wild animals would lead to many
deaths. Is that merely symbolic or even just an ancient possibility that has since bypassed us?
No. We're already seeing the effects of burgeoning human population centers impinging on the
natural habitats of wild animals. We regularly hear of bears rummaging through trash cans in
suburban areas, coyotes roaming neighborhoods of tract homes, elephants coming into towns
and villages in India and Africa and killing villagers, and in places like Alaska the number of
moose versus human clashes are on the increase. So just as for humans, when the food
supply runs short through some calamity, wild animals are also affected and they'll go where
they have to go and do what they have to do to survive. Humans and wild animals suddenly
become competitors for the same limited food supply and the results are inevitable.
Naturally 3rd world countries and their vast populations of poor that perennially live on the
edge of starvation would be the most vulnerable and the first to be severely affected. Those of
us in the West would likely be the least hard hit because our wealth, technology, government
entitlement programs, science and efficient food distribution systems would mitigate the
damage. Nonetheless as we're already seeing in our time, any type of scarcity or disadvantage
or even political disagreement within our society is perceived as gross unfairness and
prejudice against one group or another of people and it takes very little these days to set off
unruly protests and mob violence. But when sheer survival becomes the cause, anger, fear,
and resentment boil over into panic, anarchy, and even civil war. Governments fall and new
ones rise in such times; usually with a strongman at the helm that promises to be the deliverer
of the masses from their plight if only he is given total power. WWII is our most recent example
of this as hard times led to the rise of Hitler and Mussolini and the world is in many ways still
dealing with the aftermath of that time.
These 4 judgments of God sent upon the world that we read about in Revelation 6:1 - 8 are but
the first 4 of a total of 21 of them that we'll read about over the next few chapters. As we're
shortly going to see, the character and nature of these judgments (if we're even correct to call
them that) changes once the 5th seal is opened. Thus there is disagreement within Christianity
as to whether the first 4 judgments are God's supernatural wrath or they're symbolic of
something else or perhaps should not be seen as judgments at all. Clearly, to me, since the 4
Horsemen of the Apocalypse are spirits and not actual physical beings; and since they are evil
in nature and not godly; then what we have is not supernaturally caused calamity (like the
cosmic, God directed fire that destroyed Sodom), but rather it is human upon human evil
increasing because of increasing satanic influence and mankind pulling further and further
away from Godly influence. It is my position that most of this satanic influence is also not of the
supernatural kind, but rather more about mankind allowing, even reveling in, our evil
inclinations ruling without restraint. Greed, covetousness, our search for personal pleasure and
profit and the resulting foolishness may include us harming our environment and misusing our
land and natural resources in ways that lead both to scarcity and to pestilence, and then finally
to famine. It is not as though these same calamities have not occurred in ages past; rather it is
that the severity will increase exponentially such that it brings the human population to the
breaking point.
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I won't give a long list of examples nor will I offer my own creative apocalyptic images; but one
very real living example of what can happen is close to home for Americans, and that is the
nation of Haiti. Haitians in their poverty, ignorance, and need to survive, have virtually
destroyed their land and environment. They, and those seeking to take advantage of the
illiterate and desperate population, have denuded the hillsides of vegetation, which has caused
the run-off from rain to wash their precious top soil into the ocean. Now they have less arable
land with poorer soil than ever and cannot grow enough food to sustain their population; there
is no feasible way to recover the needed top soil. The nutrient rich soil now covers over the
sand in the coastal waters and has destroyed some of the better fishing and claming areas so
the harvest of sea life is harder to get to and is less abundant than years earlier. Sewage
systems are nearly non-existent and human waste causes disease. Water supplies are
insufficient and polluted. Haitians can only survive by massive ongoing aid from the West; if it
is ever stopped a huge portion of the population would starve to death. Now imagine this on a
near global scale when each country is battling simply to grow enough food to feed their own
people let alone having a surplus to sell to others. Thus the underlying nature of what is being
depicted by the 4 horsemen is more about what I would loosely label as tribulation and less
about God's wrath; although the line between the two in Revelation is fuzzy.
Let's look now at the opening of the 5th seal as the character and nature of what is revealed
changes from the first 4 seals.
RE-READ REVELATION 6:9 - end
Just as we saw in chapter 5 regarding the creatures in Heaven and the description of God's
throne room in Heaven, so, too, in chapter 6 regarding the martyred souls under God's
heavenly altar must we take this information in a decidedly Jewish context or the sense of it
either disappears or it can be allegorized into most anything one's imagination can make of it.
In chapter 5 we saw, for instance, how the colored stones used to describe the One sitting on
the throne exactly matched the tribal gemstone colors of the first born and last born of the 12
tribes of Israel, and also how the gemstone color of the 4th tribe that produced the Messiah
matched the color of the rainbow that overarched God's throne. We also received the imagery
of the 24 Elders holding harps and bowls before the Lord and noticed that it matched the
earthly rituals performed by the 24 courses of Priests and Levites who used harps and bowls in
the Temple of Jerusalem. With that understanding then we are finally able to apprehend the
close connection that is being described between the Heavenly Throne room and Israel. So
now in chapter 6 in regards to the vision of the breaking of the 5th seal, we also see Jewish
imagery but it is of a different sort.
Verse 9 says that when the 5th seal was broken John was made aware of the souls of martyrs
that died for their faith living under the altar of the Heavenly Temple. This entire scene sounds
strange and almost out of place until we turn to the Jewish Sages. It seems that the thought of
the righteous dead and of Israelite martyrs being buried under God's Heavenly altar or throne
was already well established within Judaism and so that's why we find it used in the vision. The
2nd century Rabbi Natan HaBavli wrote this:
"HaKadosh, blessed be he, took the soul of Moses and stored it under the Throne of
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Glory....Not only the soul of Moses is stored under the Throne of Glory, but the souls of
the righteous are also stored there....."
In Avot diRabbi Natan 26 we read:
Rabbi Akiva used to say....."Whoever is buried beneath the altar is as though he were
buried beneath the Throne of Glory".
Shabbat 152b speaks about the souls of the righteous dead being preserved under the Throne
of Glory. In Deuteronomy Rabbah 11:10 God tells Moses that He would elevate him to the
highest Heaven and cause him to dwell under God's own Throne of Glory that is surrounded by
Cherubim, Seraphim, and an untold number of angels. Thus John is being given a vision that
incorporates standard Jewish understanding for his era. The point being that the notion of
Believers' souls buried under the Throne of Glory was not a new Christian one given to John
by God; it was an established Jewish one and naturally the reference from John's perspective
would be to Jewish Messianic Believers who had died for their faith. Might this include some
gentile Believers as well....Christians (so to speak)? Perhaps; but that doesn't precisely match
with what we've learned so far and neither does it match with what we'll read when we get to
one of the more famous chapters in Revelation: chapter 7.
The souls under the altar ask a question that is often asked by people in the Bible and I can
say is also one that I have asked God on more than a few occasions and I'm sure you have,
too: "How long?" How long, these martyred souls ask, before their blood is avenged by God
judging the evil people on earth who murdered them?
CJB
Psalm 82:2 "How long will you go on judging unfairly, favoring the wicked? (Selah)
CJB
Psalm 94:3 How long are the wicked, ADONAI, how long are the wicked to triumph?
CJB
Jeremiah 12:4 How long must the land mourn and the grass in all the fields wither?
The wild animals and birds are consumed because of the wickedness of those who live
there; for they say, "He will not see how we end up."
So the question coming from the martyred souls under the altar is but a continuation of the
same question that Prophets and Kings had been asking for centuries: how long before God
finally stops not only the wickedness but also before He judges the wicked and condemns
them?
When the martyrs ask God to avenge their blood this usually sets off alarm bells in Christians
because avenging, revenge, and vengeance are supposed to represent a decidedly anti-
Christian mindset and behavior. Usually to help soothe troubled Christians we'll hear words
from the pulpit to the affect that only God can righteously avenge; humans cannot. It follows,
then, that it must be wrong to punish criminals....and especially wrong to execute
murderers....because that is a form of revenge that only God can inflict. Let me set the record
straight on this point. There is a vast gulf between justice as defined by God and our feeling
offended and wanting pay back when we're insulted or cheated. What the martyrs are asking
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for is that God play the biblical role of the Go'el Ha'dam: the blood avenger. Central to the
understanding of this God-principle of the blood avenger is Genesis chapter 9.
CJB
Genesis 9:5-6
5
I will certainly demand an accounting for the blood of your lives: I
will demand it from every animal and from every human being. I will demand from every
human being an accounting for the life of his fellow human being.

6
Whoever sheds human blood, by a human being will his own blood be shed; for God
made human beings in his image.
The big question, of course, is exactly who is authorized to take the life of the killer? In the
days of Genesis there was no police force and justice was usually handled within the family.
Later as human society evolved into having cities and organized government other systems to
mete out such justice were invented and one of those systems involved the legitimate role of
the Go'el Ha'dam. But another question to be asked is: is all killing to be avenged? The
answer is that only killing that is not justifiable can be avenged. For instance killing in self
defense is justifiable. Killing the enemy in war is justifiable. Killing a thief who comes into your
house in the middle of the night is justifiable. Killing someone for angering you is not justifiable.
Killing someone for stealing from you is not justifiable. Exodus 21 lays out some of the
conditions for distinguishing justifiable versus unjustifiable killing and the different levels of
unjustifiable killing (manslaughter versus premeditated homicide) that call for different
penalties.
CJB
Exodus 21:12-19
12
"Whoever attacks a person and causes his death must be put to
death.

13
If it was not premeditated but an act of God, then I will designate for you a place to
which he can flee.
14
But if someone willfully kills another after deliberate planning, you
are to take him even from my altar and put him to death.
15
"Whoever attacks his father
or mother must be put to death.

16
"Whoever kidnaps someone must be put to death, regardless of whether he has
already sold him or the person is found still in his possession.
17
"Whoever curses his
father or mother must be put to death.
18
"If two people fight, and one hits the other with
a stone or with his fist, and the injured party doesn't die but is confined to his bed;
19
then, if he recovers enough to be able to walk around outside, even if with a cane, the
attacker will be free of liability, except to compensate him for his loss of time and take
responsibility for his care until his recovery is complete.
So the modern thought among a large number of Christians that the death penalty for murder
is barbaric and ended with Christ is simply false. God generally expects a life for a
life....IF....the killing was not justifiable.
The killing of Believing martyrs is, by definition, not justifiable. A Jew or gentile who professes
his faith in Christ and is killed for that reason alone is an unjustifiable killing. Those martyrs
who are under God's Throne of Glory (or altar) are only asking for what is right and legal in
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God's eyes; and they hear that they will have their justice soon enough.
As I've addressed the issue of Islam in earlier lessons.....a belief system that I characterize as
the anti-Christ Believers religion....I will also address it on the matter of martyrs and vengeance
since Islam has re-emerged in our time as a force. For Islam a martyr is a Muslim who dies in
the process of killing someone of another religion or even when killing someone from another
and opposing sect of Islam. Islamic homicide bombers who walk into hotels and pizza shops
and embassies and blow themselves up while taking the lives of many others are seen in Islam
as martyrs to be admired. Martyrs are offered a special place in Islamic heaven for their
murderous actions, and glorified on earth by their fellow Muslims. The Bible would not accept
this behavior from a God worshipper and in fact regards this person as a murderer worthy only
of the most severe punishment.
In Islam killing in revenge is regularly associated with the loss of face. Certainly Islam has a
criminal justice system that punishes perpetrators, up to and including the death penalty. But
homicide in Islam as often as not is a means of turning one's shame into honor; shame and
honor form a social status system that has nothing to do with criminal activity. Shame and
honor as a social system is not exclusive to Islam and in fact we see this in action among
Israelites in the Bible. Christ spoke against revenge in the name of restoring one's honor after
being shamed in His famous "turn the other cheek" instruction of Matthew 5:38, 39.
So the martyrs under God's throne are merely asking for God's laws on murder to be enforced
in Heaven. This does not necessarily mean that justice was not done on earth; no doubt for
some Believers it was not, and likely for a few it was. But when it comes to sin there is always
a double jeopardy involved. There is whatever civil punishment a person might receive from a
human government on earth; and then there is what that person may receive when they die
and are judged by God. We can speak of paying one's debt to society; but that is separate
from the debt owed to God for our sin. Prison time does not repay what we owe to God. That
debt is not repaid and remains due until and unless we confess, repent, and turn our lives over
to Messiah.
The martyred souls were handed a white robe and told to continue waiting a little while longer
for justice. The white robe indicates absolute purity. However since these are martyrs it may
also be taken as a reward for persevering in their faith even unto death. The white robes, then,
give us closure that for sure these martyred souls are Believers because only Believers in
Christ are so purified as to merit a white robe. The idea of waiting longer is a figure of speech
because the issue of time in Heaven doesn't exist. So the thought is that some other things
need to play out on Earth before God begins to assert His vengeance on behalf of the martyrs.
What might rightfully frighten us a bit, however, is this: the remainder of verse 11 says that the
waiting has much to do with being patient until the full number of martyrs has been reached.
Since we know of never ending Christian martyrdom especially in the Middle East and in parts
of Africa, and we are aware of the biblical prophecies of the world turning against Believers
with a vengeance as the time of the end gets even closer, then folks.....we will soon be in the
crosshairs. We may think of faithfulness until death as more meaning not getting discouraged if
we get sick and die. But I think the admonition has far more to do with persecution and
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martyrdom than with the sorts of afflictions that affect all humans at some point or another. I
imagine John thought that the wait was going to be very short.
This brings up yet another issue. If we are to take it that the souls of the martyrs are aware of
the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse and of their effect on planet Earth, and if there is truly a
chronological sequence that we're seeing taking place whereby FIRST the 4 horsemen are
sent out, and then only afterwards do the martyrs under the altar beseech God for justice
(since they represent the 5th seal to be broken), then asking when God might take justice on
the murderers hints that the first 4 actions associated with the first 4 seals being opened are
not seen by them as part of God's judgment upon humanity (a judgment for which they have
been asked to wait). If that is a correct assumption, then it lends credence to the idea that
perhaps the 4 horsemen represent increased tribulation (defined as man's inhumanity against
their fellow man), but not God judging and pouring out His supernatural wrath. And now with
the 5th seal, there is really nothing that occurs but that martyred souls are given white robes
and told to wait. In other words, the first 5 seals don't seem to be God's wrath being poured out
in judgment..
J. Massyngberde Ford in her comments on the 5th seal point out that as in some ways trivial
as it might seem, in fact the issue of the martyred souls may be the key to the entire chapter.
This is because on the one hand it looks backward at the martyred Lamb of chapter 5 with
whom the martyred souls identify, but on the other hand it looks forward to the number of those
sealed and protected by God and of the configuration of the angels of chapter 7. For one thing
the seals of chapter 7 then must be seen in the context of the just judgment of God. And this
comes only after the political, economic and social upheavals caused by the 4 Horsemen of
the Apocalypse implying that many of the martyrs will come out of that upheaval. However we
are bordering on the edge of speculation and so I think we'll go no further with that.
In verse12 the Lamb breaks the 6th seal; immediately there was a great earthquake. This, of
course, smacks of something directly caused by God as a judgment. At the same time the sun
turned black and the moon became blood red (it is this passage that instigated the idea of the
dreaded blood moons....much ado about nothing in my opinion!) Next stars fell from Heaven to
earth like a fig tree drops its leaves and the sky rolled back like a scroll. There's been much
conjecture about exactly what this might be describing but one thing is certain: while the 4
horsemen brought upheaval to human society, this opening of the 6th seal brings upheaval to
nature.
Are these descriptions literal or are they symbolic? We must acknowledge that the literature
genre of apocalypse contains much symbolism. On the other hand not all is symbolic and so it
is usually best in the Bible to take everything as literal that can be taken as literal in its plain
sense. I see no reason to take these images of nature being violently shaken as symbolic. For
one reason Christ predicted earthquakes coupled with societal upheaval.
CJB
Matthew 24:7-8
7
For peoples will fight each other, nations will fight each other, and
there will be famines and earthquakes in various parts of the world;
8
all this is but the
beginning of the 'birth-pains.'
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Isaiah prophesied about the sun growing dark. In fact this verse is a direct allusion to this
Isaiah passage.
CJB
Isaiah 50:2-3
2
Why was no one here when I came? Why, when I called, did nobody
answer? Is my arm too short to redeem? Have I too little power to save? With my rebuke
I dry up the sea; I turn rivers into desert, their fish rot for lack of water and they die of
thirst;
3
I dress the heavens in black to mourn and make their covering sackcloth."
The Prophet Joel spoke about frightening sudden changes in the moon along with other
happenings that Revelation tells us will come about upon the End of Days.
CJB
Joel 3:1 "After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and
daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see
visions;
2
and also on male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

3
I will show wonders in the sky and on earth- blood, fire and columns of smoke.
4
The
sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great
and terrible Day of ADONAI."

5
At that time, whoever calls on the name of ADONAI will be saved. For in Mount Tziyon
and Yerushalayim there will be those who escape, as ADONAI has promised; among the
survivors will be those whom ADONAI has called.
Modern day humans would look to the skies and, seeing these things happening, think in terms
of movies and even science documentaries that say that some day, regardless of what
humanity does, our sun will burn out, stars will explode, and meteors will strike a helpless
Earth once again bringing on an extinction level event. Jews of John's day thought of gigantic
cosmic disturbances as directly related to the sin of mankind. And as John witnessed this
vision, it was the thought of massive amounts of sin and its consequences that would have
instantly come upon him. Turns out John would have been right and our science community
wrong for indeed the catastrophe that is being depicted here has everything to do with God's
judgment and wrath for the sins of humanity that have piled up century after century.
We are meant to notice that 7 separate phenomena are recorded. 1) an earthquake; 2) the sun
going dark; 3) the moon turning blood red; 4) stars falling; 5) the heavens (meaning the sky)
rolling up; 6) mountains and islands moving out of the places; and 7) global panic with no
exceptions (verse 15). Then, within the 7th phenomenon 7 classes of people are said to be
affected: 1) kings; 2) rulers; 3) generals; 4) the wealthy; 5) the powerful elite; 6) common
slaves; and 7) common free people.
Thus the idea is that we have not only completeness but finality expressed in this burst of 7's.
That the wrath of the Lamb and of the Lord God Almighty cannot be endured by anyone, or
escaped by anyone, is because it so all encompassing and horrible. John alludes to Hosea's
graphic description of panic from Hosea 10:8:
Hosea 10:8
CJB

8
Destruction will come to the high places of Aven, that is, to the sin of
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Isra'el. Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars; and they will say to the
mountains, "Cover us!" and to the hills, "Fall on us!"
There is no place to run; no place to hide. Better, say millions of traumatized people all over
our planet, to simply be crushed by boulders and get it over with than to keep experiencing the
Great Day of the Lord's fury. This is such a sad commentary to end this chapter because we
are told that instead of the vast world population of Unbelievers (many of them our neighbors,
friends, and family) coming to their senses in the midst of what has become painfully obvious
and calling out to the God of Israel in repentance and begging for mercy, they'd rather be
quickly killed on their own terms to end their misery and fear.
Next week we'll begin chapter 7.
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