REVELATION 6:1-8
Main Idea: Though judgment will come on all the earth through deception, war, famine, and death, Christ is sovereign over every step and is working through the trials.
- Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Deception (the White Horse) (6:1-2).
- Deception is under God’s control (6:1).
- Deception will come to conquer (6:2).
- Be Aware of God’s Weapon of War (the Red Horse) (6:3-4).
- Destruction is inevitable (6:3).
- Destruction is immense (6:4).
- Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Famine (the Black Horse) (6:5-6).
- Famine is unstoppable (6:5).
- Famine will be unbearable (6:6).
- Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Death (the Pale Horse) (6:7-8).
- Death is controlled (6:7).
- Death will be comprehensive (6:8).
The fury and thunder of their hoofbeats has been anticipated for centuries. Harbingers of deception, destruction, deprivation, and death—the world has feared and resisted their coming. Yet come they will. God guarantees it! In 1983 Billy Graham addressed their coming in his book Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. There he wrote, “The shadows of all four horsemen can already be seen galloping throughout the world at this moment” (9). Dr. Graham is right. Their shadow looms large, and they could appear at any time.
The mass murderer Charles Manson identified the musical quartet “The Beatles” as the four horsemen. No one questions their popularity and influence, but it will pale in comparison to what the world will experience when the real four horsemen come riding into town.
Revelation 6–19 contains the heart of the end time called the “Day of the Lord.” It is also referred to as the “time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jer 30:7), Daniel’s seventieth week (Dan 9:27), and the tribulation. Though the rapture of believers is never specifically addressed in Revelation, it is my judgment that it occurs sometime before Revelation 6. First Thessalonians 5:9 says we are not destined for the wrath of the Day of the Lord. And the rapture is discussed in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 before the Day of the Lord is addressed in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. This, and the doctrine of imminence, supports a pretribulational eschatology.
The four horsemen introduce us to the first of God’s three series of judgments in Revelation: the seal judgments of chapter 6, the trumpet judgments in chapters 8 and 9, and the bowl judgments in chapters 15 and 16. I believe there is a telescopic relationship to the judgments, with each successive series coming out of the last of the former. In other words, the seventh seal is the seven trumpets and the seventh trumpet is the seven bowls. This would indicate an increase both in rapidity and intensity as the judgments unfold (Patterson, Revelation, 176–77). It will be a time of great sorrow and suffering.
As we investigate the four horsemen, it is important to note their Old Testament background and imagery from Zechariah 1:7-17; 6:1-8; Ezekiel 14:12-23 (esp. v. 21); and even Leviticus 26:14-33. But the words of Jesus are also imperative, as recorded in Matthew 24:5-8; Mark 13:7-9; and Luke 21:9-12. What we discover is a remarkable parallelism between Jesus’ teaching and this passage. And the fact that in Matthew 24:8 Jesus says, “All these events are the beginning of birth pains” must be carefully considered. There is a real sense in which the three series of judgments give us patterns of divine judgment and spiritual conflict that have occurred throughout history. Yet there has been something of a spiraling nature to these judgments as they move us toward the “omega point” of history. Eventually, these judgments come in their final and climactic fullness just before the return of King Jesus (Rev 19:11-21) to establish His earthly kingdom of a thousand years (Rev 20:1-6).
Now, some see the seal judgments as prior to and preparatory for the great tribulation (6:17). This is why Jesus refers to them as “the beginning of birth pains” (Matt 24:8) and why He also says, when these things happen, “the end is not yet” (Matt 24:6). Others believe the four horsemen will come and inflict judgments that fit into the first half of the tribulation, usually understood to be the initial three and one-half years of a seven-year period of tribulation. Dogmatism is unwarranted on these kinds of details. What is clear beyond question is those who “deny that God will judge anybody for anything” are dead wrong (Swindoll, Insights, 109). A day of reckoning is coming. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the first harbingers of this judgment that is unparalleled in human history (Matt 24:21). As they ride forth in all their fury, what spiritual insights and lessons does our God have for every generation of His people to learn and embrace?
Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Deception (The White Horse)
REVELATION 6:1-2
The heavenly throne-room vision of chapters 4–5 sets the stage for the judgments of chapters 6 and following. By virtue of His act of creation (ch. 4) and His act of redemption (ch. 5), our sovereign God has the authority and the right to judge His world. He initiates that judgment by sending forth His four horsemen. The Lamb, King Jesus, opens the seals (6:1). All that unfolds is under His command.
Deception Is Under God’s Control (6:1)
John sees the Lamb of chapter 5 begin to open the seven seals of the scroll He took from God the Father in 5:7. Then he hears “one of the four living creatures [see 4:6-8; 5:6,8,11] say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’” The voice emanates from heaven’s throne with power. The thunder warns of an impending storm of divine wrath and judgment. The command to the first rider is simple and direct: “Come!” Warren Wiersbe notes, “Events will now take place because of God’s sovereign direction in heaven” (Be Victorious, 62). The riders come because God sends them.
Deception Will Come to Conquer (6:2)
John sees a white horse whose rider has a bow and is wearing a crown (Gk stephanos). He goes out “as a victor to conquer.” Exactly who this rider is has generated much discussion and disagreement. Opinions include (1) Jesus Christ (see Rev 19:11-16), (2) the advance of the gospel, (3) Apollo (representing false religion), (4) the antichrist, (5) the spirit of conquest, (6) government persecuting Christians, and (7) Satan’s servants in general.
The rider cannot be Jesus, even though this view goes back at least to the time of the church father Irenaeus (late second century). The riders of 6:1-2 and 19:11-21 have little in common other than being on a white horse. Further, The Lamb opens the seals, and no angel would command Christ to do anything! The better view is that this is the spirit of deception and conquest that will be embodied in the counterfeit Christ, the antichrist (2 Thess 2:3-4), the beast of 13:1-10. This deceptive, conquering rider keeps company with war, famine, and death—the next three riders. This rider fulfills the warning of Jesus in Matthew 24:4-5 where He tells us to be on guard against deception and false christs.
Beale provides helpful commentary:
The first rider represents a satanic force attempting to defeat and oppress believers spiritually through deception, persecution, or both (so 11:7; 13:7). The image of the rider may include reference to (1) the antichrist, (2) governments that persecute Christians, or (3) the devil’s servants in general. An allusion to forces symbolized by the beasts later in the book could be uppermost in mind (see below on 6:8). “White” elsewhere in the book does not primarily connote victory but the persevering righteousness of Christ and the saints (see on 3:4-5). Here white may refer to the forces of evil as they try to appear righteous and thus deceive by imitating Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 11:13-15). The portrayal is intended by John as a parody of Christ’s righteousness and victory in 19:11-16: Satan’s attempts to be victorious are but feeble imitations of Christ, worthy only for ridicule (as in, e.g., 11:7; 13:1-13). Such attempts are doomed to failure from the beginning because they are ultimately decreed by God to contribute to the establishment of his kingdom and glory (cf. 17:17). (Revelation, 377)
God sends this rider to reveal that which is true and that which is false, the real from the inauthentic. There is great deception today. It will increase as the final chapter of history is written.
Be Aware of God’s Weapon of War (The Red Horse)
REVELATION 6:3-4
Some believe the rider on the white horse promises a deceptive peace. If so, it will be temporary and short-lived. He may have carried a bow but no arrows, but the red horse of war brings a rider who possesses a “large sword” of destruction and death. He too comes only at God’s command.
Destruction Is Inevitable (6:3)
Christ is in control as the second seal is opened. What He opens no one can shut or stop. The second living creature, in response to Christ’s sovereign action, beckons the second rider: “Come.” The red horse of war inevitably follows the white horse of conquest.
Destruction Is Immense (6:4)
The color of the second horse is “fiery red” and rightly depicts his mission of bloodshed and slaughter (Mounce, Revelation, 143). But while he takes peace from the earth, the people slaughter one another. The idea seems to convey civil strife within and between peoples and nations. Assassination and civil unrest, riots in the streets, and rebellion against authority will run rampant. No one will be safe. One will live in constant fear of life not knowing whom to trust. Jesus said in Matthew 24:10, “Many will take offense, betray one another, and hate one another.” No one will be excluded. This rider takes peace from the earth. Anarchy and worldwide bloodshed are signatures of the last days.
World War II General Omar N. Bradley once delivered “An Armistice Day Address” in Boston. He said,
With the monstrous weapons man already has, humanity is in danger of being trapped in this world by its moral adolescents. Our knowledge of science has clearly outstripped our capacity to control it. We have many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. This is our 20th century’s claim to distinction and to progress. (Collected Writings, 1:588–89, emphasis in original)
During World War II, Albert Einstein helped bring a German photographer to the United States. They became friends, and the photographer took a number of pictures of Einstein. One day he looked into the camera and started talking. He spoke about his despair that his formula E=mc² and his letter to President Roosevelt had made the atomic bomb possible, and his scientific research had resulted in the death of so many human beings. He grew silent. His eyes had a look of immense sadness. There was a question and a reproach in them. At that moment the cameraman released the shutter. Einstein looked up and the cameraman asked him, “So, you don’t believe there will ever be peace?” “No,” he answered. “As long as there will be man, there will be wars.”
God has used man as His instrument of judgment. He will do it again as the red horse of war rides and time, as we know it, comes to an end.
Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Famine (The Black Horse)
REVELATION 6:5-6
War has a close companion, an ever-present partner: famine. Conquest, war, famine: these three tend to show up at the same time together. William and Paul Paddock warned in their book Famine—1975, “Today hungry nations, tomorrow starving nations” (40). Some may accuse them of being alarmist. Revelation teaches us tomorrow could come any day.
Famine Is Unstoppable (6:5)
Christ opens the third seal, and the third living creature commands the rider, “Come.” John looks and sees the black horse of famine with its rider holding “a set of scales” or balances in his hand as he rides onto the stage of history. John MacArthur notes that “the color black is associated with famine in Lamentations 5:10 (KJV). Famine is a logical consequence of worldwide war as food supplies are destroyed and those involved in food production are killed” (Revelation 1–11, 182). Christ has released the black horse of famine and starvation, and no one and nothing can deter it. It is coming. It is unstoppable.
Famine Will Be Unbearable (6:6)
From among the four living creatures John hears “something like a voice” saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius.” A quart of wheat was approximately the amount necessary to sustain one person for one day. Barley was the poor man’s wheat, and it was normally fed to animals. It was low in nutritional value and occasionally mixed with wheat to increase the feeding amount. A denarius was basically a day’s wage. In other words, a man will work all day for just enough wheat to sustain himself or enough barley to barely keep his family alive. This means that inflation prices would be 10–16 times above normal according to prices cited by Cicero for wheat sold in Sicily (Beasley-Murray, Revelation, 133; see also Mounce, Revelation, 145).
The phrase “do not harm the olive oil and the wine” is less clear as to its meaning. Some see the phrase as setting a limit on the deprivation caused by the horse of famine. Others argue that oil and wine were the commodities of the wealthy. The former understanding is more likely. Food for the poor will be scarce and in short supply. Still, there are limits, at least for now. However, once the trumpet and bowl judgments are finished, nothing will be left. Nothing.
Today we know that famine and hunger kill more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That’s about one in nine people on earth. The vast majority of the world’s hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is undernourished. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence of hunger by percentage of population, where one person in four is undernourished. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five—3.1 million children each year. One out of six children—roughly 100 million in developing countries—is underweight. This is what hunger and famine are like today. It will get much worse when the black horse rides.
Be Aware of God’s Weapon of Death (The Pale Horse)
REVELATION 6:7-8
B. F. Skinner was a famous behavioral psychologist who for much of his life was an optimist. However, at the age of 78, his optimism began to fade. At the American Psychological Association Convention on September 25, 1982, Skinner said,
Why are we not acting to save the world? The world is fatally ill . . . it is a very depressing way to end one’s life. The argument that we have always solved our problems in the past, and shall solve this one, is like reassuring a dying man by pointing out that he has always recovered from his illnesses. . . . When I wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity, I was optimistic about the future. . . . A decade ago there was hope. . . . Today the world is fatally flawed. (White, “Hope”)
While I would disagree with B. F. Skinner on many things, his diagnosis of the condition of the world was spot on. The world is fatally flawed. The pale horse of death with the grim reaper riding saddle is just around the corner with nothing less than a global agenda.
Death Is Controlled (6:7)
Thankfully death cannot act apart from the plans and purposes of the sovereign Christ. As with the three previous riders, this horse comes forth at the permission of the Lamb of God and with the command of one of the living creatures. Jesus reminds us in Matthew 10:28, “Don’t fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; rather, fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Death is God’s prerogative. He and He alone decides when it will come and how it will come.
Death Will Be Comprehensive (6:8)
John looks and sees a pale horse, the ashen-green color of a decomposing corpse. Its rider is Death, that which claims the body. Following close behind is its ever-present companion Hades, that which claims the soul. The death visited on the earth is massive and comprehensive in its numbers: one-quarter of the earth. It is also comprehensive in its nature: it kills by the sword (see v. 4), by famine (see v. 6), by plague, and by the wild animals of the earth.
- In 1800 the world reached 1 billion in population.
- In 1930 the world reached 2 billion in population.
- In 1960 the world reached 3 billion in population.
- In 1974 the world reached 4 billion in population.
- In 1987 the world reached 5 billion in population.
- In 1999 the world reached 6 billion in population.
- In 2011 the world reached 7 billion in population.
By 2044, the projection is 9 billion. Think about it. If the Lord were to come back today, in all too brief a time over 1.75 billion people will depart planet Earth not by rapture but by death. Later in Revelation 8:18, because of the sixth trumpet, one-third of those remaining will die. In less than seven years, half of the world’s population will be taken in death (see Ezek 14:21). In a world decimated by war and famine, even the wild beasts will join in the carnage. Does this sound far-fetched and beyond reality? Not really.
Conclusion
In his book Death in the City, Francis Schaeffer said of our modern world, “the dust of death” is on everything (21). His diagnosis is correct, and the dust will only grow thicker until our great God has accomplished His purposes. However, we should not fear or fret. He is in absolute control. The Lamb holds history in His hand. Are you trusting Him? He will determine, to the last detail, history’s consummation. He will orchestrate each and every event according to His perfect plan. God has such a plan for the world. God has such a plan for you. Let Him who is taking the world to its appropriate end do the same for you. The way may not be easy, but I promise you: you will not be disappointed.
Reflect and Discuss
- What does it mean that the “shadows of all four horsemen” are readily seen on the earth today?
- Read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and 5:1-11. How do these passages fit into the messages and teaching of Revelation?
- Read Matthew 24:1-8. What parallels do you see between Jesus’ teaching and REVELATION 6:1-8?
- Why is dogmatism about the precise interpretation of this passage unhelpful? What are the most important lessons that are the clearest?
- Why is it significant that the Lamb is the One who opens the scroll? Why would God unleash these judgments on the world?
- How have you seen the Lord use evils like the ones in this passage for His purposes?
- How can you see elements of the red horse already at play today?
- What other biblical passages speak of famine? How has God used famine throughout Scripture?
- How should Christians respond to the numbers of those who will die at the hand of the fourth judgment?
- These verses reveal God’s mysterious providence, even through judgment and trial. Are there any trials that God is leading you through? How are you trusting in Him?
