Opening the Seals: The Four Horses
Revelation 6:1-8
December 3, 2006

Shortly after the turn of the first century, the elderly Bishop of Antioch, Ignatius, ran afoul of the Roman government. Widespread persecution had abated for the time but particular occurrences took place of those deemed problems by the Roman authorities. Ignatius fell into this camp. After his arrest in Antioch around 106-107 A.D., he and the soldiers guarding him traveled through Asia Minor where he received letters and visitors from the churches along the way. Ignatius, in turn, wrote letters to a number of churches, including churches at Ephesus, Philadelphia, and Smyrna of the Seven Churches fame. His experience surely brought recollections of John’s Apocalypse to their minds. To the Roman church, Ignatius wrote a most enlightening epistle, explaining his desire and willingness to go forward with the government’s plans to throw him to the wild beasts, presumably in the Coliseum. He urged these fellow believers to withdraw their intentions of appealing for clemency on his behalf, saying, “I shall willingly die for God, unless ye hinder me.” Then he writes, “Suffer me to become food for the wild beasts, through whose instrumentality it will be granted me to attain to God. I am the wheat of God, and let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.” Ignatius appeared unflinching as he slowly traveled to Rome and martyrdom. He understood that the Lord of the Church had purposed for some of His disciples to follow this course.

Ignatius wrote of his travels from Antioch of Syria as a time of fighting “with beasts, both by land and sea, both by night and day, being bound to ten leopards, I mean a band of soldiers, who, even when they receive benefits, show themselves all the worse.” In spite of some evidently paying the soldiers to show kindness to Ignatius, who by this time was in his mid-seventies, they continued the mistreatment that Christian prisoners were apt to face. Yet Ignatius saw this mistreatment as a means of instructing him as a disciple, an instrument of purifying his faith in Christ. He did not consider himself to deserve better treatment nor did he complain to the Lord for what he faced. “But I am the more instructed by their injuries [to act as a disciple]; “yet I am not thereby justified.”…Pardon me [in this]; I know what is for my benefit. Now I begin to be a disciple” [“The Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans,” chapters 4-5, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, 75-76; cf. Justo Gonzalez, The Story of Christianity, 41-43].

We must admit that Ignatius’ language appears foreign to us as American Christians. Ideas of deserving comfort and security as Christians until we are carried to heaven “on flowery beds of ease,” have unfortunately, molded our thinking as disciples. Yet for most of the world through most of the centuries, Ignatius’ story seems more realistic for Christ’s followers. Over the past few decades, estimates range from 150,000 to 330,000 for the number of Christians dying as martyrs every year. Some project those figures to increase to 600,000 within twenty years given the anti-Christian climate in the world [“Martyrdom,” J. Ray Tallman, Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, ed. Scott Moreau, 602]. Who can count the number of believers oppressed and persecuted in our world?

In this kind of setting, we find John’s Apocalypse offering encouragement for oppressed Christians at the end of the first century to press on in faithfulness. His prophetic epistle offers no less instruction and encouragement today than it did during the troubling reign of Emperor Domitian. Though couched in apocalyptic language, using vivid metaphors and symbolism to etch the overcoming work of Christ on the believer’s mind, John’s message still resonates with us.

But sometimes we find ourselves stymied by the apocalyptic language. Maybe the most prominent and best known of the pictures in Revelation is that depicted in the opening of the first four seals on the book of decrees—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Many have misinterpreted these symbols to belong to a time when Christians have been evacuated from earth to the comforts of heaven so that what happens in the breaking of the seals doesn’t affect them. Yet that misses John’s context and intention. The Four Horsemen have something to say about the times in which we live. The triumphant Lamb who overcame sin, death, and Satan through the cross governs our world. When we cannot see this and cannot figure out His purposes, we must trust His wisdom and love for us. John reinforces this truth as he unfolds his vision before the throne of God. What do the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have to do with daily living as Christians? Let’s us consider their meaning in light of John’s original intention.

I. Four horses and riders
John did not write in a vacuum. He lived in the context of Roman anti-Christian imperialism at the end of the first century. He also lived in the context of seeing the Old Testament Scripture in light of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ and His Church. So, as he depicted his heavenly vision for us and earlier generations with vivid metaphorical language, he wrote out of a consciousness that understood the Old Testament prophetic books. He borrows heavily from the language and pictures of Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and other prophets, yet he clarifies their messages in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For this reason, John’s vision of God is not a carbon copy of Isaiah’s or Ezekiel’s, yet he uses some of the same rich symbolism to give a fuller picture of revelation through Jesus Christ as the conquering Lamb of God.

That same idea follows in John’s description of the Four Horsemen in our text. Zechariah 1:7-11 identifies four horses patrolling the earth. They find all peaceful and quiet. Yet in light of Judah’s exile and Jerusalem’s destruction, an angel objects to that peaceful scene—that is, that God’s judgment had not already come to avenge God’s people. There follows a divine promise of judgment and blessing by establishing Jerusalem and God’s house once again, which the New Testament writers understood as the church (Heb. 8:7-13; 1 Pet. 2:4-10; Eph. 2:11-22; 3:1-13; Gal. 6:16). Here the Lord assures the angel that those instruments in the divine hand to punish the recalcitrant Judah went too far; He would avenge their wrong (1:12-21).

In Zechariah 6:1-8, four chariots appear with horses—plural—pulling them. The first were red horses, second black, third white, and fourth dappled horses. “Go, patrol the earth,” the Lord told them. As they did, the Lord explained that the chariots “have appeased My wrath in the land of the north,” which would have been the direction of Israel’s enemies. The chariots fulfilled the dual purpose of refining God’s people and executing God’s judgment.

John borrows some of the language of Zechariah but gives new meaning to them. Rather than chariots pulled by multiple horses there are four horses and riders with each horse’s color adding to the symbolism of his rider’s divinely appointed purpose.

1. White horse—conquering
The other three horses are not too difficult to interpret. The white horse and its rider present students of Scripture with a number of options. “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.”

To begin with, the living creature commands the white horse and rider to “Come.” Or it could be translated, “Go,” so as to begin the task for which he has been appointed. Rather than “come and see,” as some translations have it, the better manuscript evidence is the singular command aimed at the rider not John. So whatever the white horse and rider mean, the living creature commands the horseman to action.

Four primary views have been put forth to explain the white horse and its rider. (1) Some say that the white horse is the Antichrist going out to plunder and destroy Christians. While there is merit to this claim, the symbolism in verse 2 does not support it. First, “white” is used numerous times in Revelation, and in every instance refers to characteristics of holiness, purity, and righteousness. Second, nothing is said about the white horseman doing evil or killing or opposing the church. Third, the “crown” given to him came via the Lord (shown by the passive voice). It is the stephanos or victor’s crown rather than the diadem or royal crown. In Revelation, it is used in all but one instance of the Lord or those belonging to the Lord by having experienced the victory of the cross. Likewise, the use of the verb “conquering and to conquer,” is used almost exclusively of the Lord and those belonging to Him through the work of the cross (the exceptions are 11:7; 13:7). Rather than Revelation heaping accolades on Satan or the Antichrist as victors, John’s intention is to show his defeat; as Simon Kistemaker observes, “Despite all his cunning, Satan is a constant failure” [NTC: Revelation, 222].

(2) Others say that the white horse and its rider represent a specific people that militarily plagued the Roman Empire, particularly the Parthians. They lived east of the Roman Empire in present day Iran and Iraq, and for a century or more had been enemies of Rome. They were exceptional archers that could shoot while riding, thus the “bow” might allude to them. The Parthians won notable battles against Rome in 53 B.C. and 62 A.D. But they never conquered Rome and so, in this case, the white horse and its rider would fail in the endeavor for which it was sent out by the Lord.

(3) William Hendriksen and others give a number of reasons that the rider on the white horse represents Jesus Christ. Among those would be the emphasis on Christ overcoming, the use of “white” to symbolize His holiness, the employment of a crown on His head, and the similar passage in Revelation 19 [More than Conquerors, 93-99]. Yet in spite of his excellent reasoning, it seems odd that one of the living creatures would be commanding the Sovereign Lord who had proved His worthiness by already having conquered or overcome (same word in the Greek; 5:5). Additionally, it is Christ that opens the seals, thus commanding rather than being commanded. Though Psalm 45 uses the image of arrows in the heart of the king’s enemies for the Messiah, no image of that nature is used of Christ in Revelation. He has the two-edged sword coming out of His mouth (1:16; 2:12, 16; 19:15) as His weapon of choice [cf. Kistemaker, 223-224].

(4) Though each of these interpretations has merit, I think that the best is that the white horse and its rider going forth with the victory crown adorning his head, conquering and to conquer, represents the spread of the gospel. As we’ve already noted, John does not follow in detail Zechariah’s description of the horses. He borrows the images but gives them new meaning. Contextually, he is explaining the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ to Christians under the constant pressure of worldly opposition and oppression. What can they expect in the days ahead? How will they be able to have confidence to press on as Christians without giving in to the pressure of the world?

Though John shows the many difficulties that will follow by the other horsemen, he stresses to believers of every generation the triumph of the gospel. Following the pattern found in the Olivet Discourse, where Christ speaks of wars, famine, and tribulation preceding His coming, John also emphasizes as did Christ, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). As early as the third century, the church father Victorinus who lived in Pannonia in modern Hungary, explained that the white horse and its rider represented the spread of the gospel.

The first seal being opened, he says that he saw a white horse, and a crowned horseman having a bow. For this was at first done by Himself. For after the Lord ascended into heaven and opened all things, He sent the Holy Spirit, whose words the preachers sent forth as arrows reaching to the human heart, that they might overcome unbelief. And the crown on the head is promised to the preachers by the Holy Spirit… Therefore the white horse is the word of preaching with the Holy Spirit sent into the world. For the Lord says, “This Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world for a testimony to all nations, and then shall come the end” [“Commentary on the Apocalypse,” The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7, 350-351].

2. Fiery red horse—war
Even as the gospel goes forth, it does not happen always in peaceful times. Some of the great triumphs of the gospel have been in the midst of human depravity displayed in all its ugliness. Historians have noted that in the heat of the Civil War in our country, times of revival broke out among both Northern and Southern troops. Even as Mao and his iron red hand hammered down on China in the last century, in spite of much opposition, the gospel spread by unbelievable proportions to the point that there are more Christians in China than in the U. S. or the U. K.—that had long sent missionaries to that country.

With encouragement that the gospel will continue to spread, John warns that in the days between Christ’s ascension and return, war will continue. “When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.” The color red implies war. The red horseman, by divine decree, took peace from the earth by means of war. Sometime war is against other people groups—nation against nation; often it is against one’s own people. The brutality of it is seen in the word translated as “slay one another,” better translated, “so that they would slaughter one another.” The “great sword,” adds to the hand-to-hand brutality associated with it.

The history of humanity, it has been said, is the history of war. For whatever reasons or lack of reasons, war reveals the darkness of human nature, the depth that men will go to achieve their own desires. It was true in John’s day and is true in ours; we cannot escape war until we reside in Heaven. Listen to some of the raw statistics of war-related deaths in the last century.
WWI—15 million
Russian Civil War (1917-22)—9 million
Stalin’s Regime (1924-53)—20-30 million
WWII—55 million
Chinese Civil War (1945-49)—2.5 million
Mao Zedong’s Regime (1949-75)—40 million
Congo (1886-1906)—8 million
Mexican Revolution (1910-20)—1 million
Armenian Massacre (1915-23)—1.5 million
Korean War (1950-53)—2.8 million
Rwanda & Burundi (1959-95)—1.350 million
Second Indo-China (Vietnam) War (1960-75)—3.5 million
Nigeria (1966-70)—1 million
Bangladesh (1971)—1.25 million
Cambodia (1975-78—1.65 million
Afghanistan (1979-2001)—1.8 million
Iran-Iraq (1980-88)—1 million
Sudan (1983-continuing)—1.9 million

3. Black horse—famine
Often the result of war is famine. We’ve seen it with North Korea, Bangladesh, Sudan, and many other countries. John describes it graphically. “When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.” The scales represent the careful rationing of food due to famine, whether brought on by war or by nature. The quart measurement (choniz) represented the normal allotment of wheat for one man per day. The denarius was a day’s wage, enough to normally buy 8-12 times one’s daily need; so the point is that a working man might have just enough to feed himself for the day and not enough for his family due to the famine. Barley was much coarser and less nourishing than wheat, so, though in larger portions, it proved less satisfying. The oil and wine, a normal part of even the poor person’s diet, were plentiful, yet these don’t satisfy one’s hunger.

John uses this image to show that human history will have times of economic hardship, inflationary prices, famine, and need. It’s part of the effects of sin in the world until Christ’s return. It is an aspect of God’s judgment on this fallen world.

4. Deathly pale horse—death
The color of the fourth horse is translated as “ashen” in the NASB and “pale” in the ESV. The word in the Greek is chloros from which we get chlorine. It’s actually a pale, yellowish green coloration and was used to describe the color of a corpse or someone frightened in terror. It is appropriate for this horseman. “When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he 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 with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”

Here is the conglomeration of how death takes place. It follows the same language as Ezekiel 14:12-23 uses in showing God’s judgment on the world and His purifying His people (cf. Lev. 26:14ff.). It comes by “sword,” a term that implies both warfare and personal violence. “Famine” implies the widespread reality of dire-poverty in the world, even as today millions die annually due to hunger. “Pestilence” is actually the word earlier translated as “death,” but in this case it means death caused by a plague or disease. One sociologist pointed out that Christianity grew in the 2nd and 3rd centuries due to the response of Christians to the widespread suffering caused by a smallpox plague. “In 165, during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, a devastating epidemic swept through the Roman Empire. Some medical historians suspect that it was the first appearance of smallpox in the West….During the fifteen-year duration of the epidemic, from a quarter to a third of the empire’s population died from it, including Marcus Aurelius himself, in 180 in Vienna” [Rodney Stark, the Rise of Christianity: A Sociologist Reconsiders History (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1966), 73, quoted by Dennis Johnson, Triumph of the Lamb, 122]. The “wild beasts” were particularly notable in earlier centuries, with death both for entertainment in the Coliseum and other places, as well as death by marauding beasts.

How were Christians then, and how are Christians now, to interpret and apply the message of the Four Horsemen to our lives?

II. The Lamb, the book, the seals
Richard Bauckham rightly points out, “Only the Lamb can open the scroll and reveal its contents, because it is his victory which makes possible the implementation of the purpose of God contained in the scroll” [New Testament Theology: The Theology of the Book of the Revelation, 80]. And this is central to making sense out of the opening of the seals. It has to do with the discharge of Christ’s kingly reign over history; it includes both His work of redemption for His people and His righteous judgment for those who do not believe the gospel. The contents of the scroll will come later in chapter 10. For now, the seals serve as a prelude to the end. They are not the end or the culmination of history but the unfolding of what takes place in history. The seals, trumpets, and bowls overlap. They are not necessarily sequential but instead declare the work of Christ to purify, refine, and discipline His people, as well as His definite work to judge the sinfulness of men.

1. The Lamb governs
We notice the governing or ruling authority of Christ by three actions in our text. First, “the Lamb broke…the seals.” In each case, John is careful to show that the seals are opened intentionally by the one found worthy to open the seals, that is, one worthy to exercise kingly dominion over history—Jesus Christ. In this way, John emphasizes the sovereignty of Christ. Though wars, famine, and strife come, they serve the purpose of the Sovereign Lord. That’s how John encourages the beleaguered saints of Asia Minor. Yes, they were suffering, and yes, it might get much worse. But the Lamb was directing the affairs of history to carry out His eternal purposes. Believers, though suffering, must rest in His wisdom and eternal purpose, knowing that all suffering is temporary for the Christian. John will demonstrate this throughout the book. Second, the Lamb commands the horsemen into action through one of the four living creatures around the throne, as they say, “Come.” The creatures do not direct the affairs of history; they are merely instruments serving the Lamb’s sovereign purpose. Third, as our Lord opens the seals, revealing the troubling contents of human history, there is the assurance that He is working things much greater than we can see with our limited knowledge. He judges unrighteousness; yet as those still left in this world, we see face to face the effects of sin and divine judgment, but we do so with hope for the future. Christians have suffered through the centuries by every means we’ve already identified in the last three horsemen. Yet our suffering proves light in comparison with the weight of glory before us (Rom. 8).
 
John helps us to understand that since the Lamb governs, we don’t need to live in terror and fear in this world. That doesn’t mean that Christians will not face trials along with the world. We do; but we do not face His wrath whereas the unbelieving world does. We are taught by this passage to re-focus our attention away from Washington, Tehran, and Moscow to the Lamb on the throne. In the midst of trials and suffering, the white horse reminds us that the gospel of Christ still goes forth “conquering and to conquer.” Let us not grow weary in trials. Let us see our purpose as “white horsemen” bearing the good news of Christ to a world facing His judgment. Be encouraged by His wise rule.

2. The Lamb limits
Notice that the trials are varied—demonstrating limits to their effects. Famine diminishes the availability of the grain but not the olive oil and wine. The expansiveness of “Death…and Hades” killing by sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts is limited, by the Lamb, to “a fourth of the earth.” The intention of such language is to show us that death does not reign, Christ does. Even those who would intend to do great harm to the world will not accomplish what they desire apart from the purpose of Christ being unfolded. Ahmadenajad doesn’t rule the world; Christ does.

3. The Lamb succeeds
If we can put the purpose of the breaking of the seals into two words, it will be these: purification and judgment. For believers, Christ purifies our desires, aims, and ambitions through encountering trials. Our spiritual disciplines are shaped, quite often, by the adversities we live through. We learn in the midst of hardships that Christ is worthy of honor and glory and blessing. We learn to trust Him, trust His kindness toward us, and trust the wisdom of His actions for us. For John’s audience feeling the heat of persecution, he reminds them that it may come with the animosity of sinful men but behind it, it comes with the redemptive purpose of Christ, who prepares us to share His holiness and glory forever.

Christ also judges through the breaking of the seals. They are, as Dennis Johnson explains, “the Lamb’s providential instruments of prewrath wrath and prejudgment justice, foreshadowing the end when God’s victory over his enemies will be total.” So how are we to respond to this? Johnson adds, “As Christians see societies crumble and collapse, our response should not be terrified alarm, as though our security were bound up with a fragile human network of law and order, but anticipation and confidence: the Lamb is now on the throne, with God’s plan for history firmly in hand” [Triumph, 122].

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