Day 120

“When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come!” ⁸ I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and the one who sat on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.” Rev 6:7-8 NASB. 

The key OT background to the four horses of Revelation 6 is the covenant and its curses. But there is also a background within the NT. Revelation 6 has strong parallels with what scholars call the Synoptic Apocalypse, the end-time sermon of Jesus, recorded in Mark 13, Matthew 24 and Luke 21. These three chapters, therefore, are the major NT background text for Revelation 6. 

In the Synoptic Apocalypse, Jesus moves through a series of events that will characterize the whole Christian age, from the cross until the Second Coming of Jesus. There are wars and rumours of wars. There are earthquakes, famines, and pestilences (think covid19 at the moment) in various places. There is deception and persecution and a climax in heavenly signs. All of these themes are found also in Revelation 6. The basic message of both passages is that God is in full control of history, even when bad things are happening to God’s people. The course of human history is the consequence of the Lamb opening the scroll. 

For some people, the thought that God was unable to intervene in human history and its atrocities would be even more frightening than the idea that He sometimes chooses not to intervene. On the surface, the world seems completely out of control. But the message of Revelation 6 and the Synoptic Apocalypse is that even when things seem out of control, God is still in control and will set everything right in His good time. 

We need to remind ourselves that this world is the theatre of the universe (1Cor 4:9 NIV) and something is being revealed in regards to the nature of sin and rebellion. (Eph 3:9-10,) See also Romans 3:4 NLT which says God will have His day in court eventually.