Chapter 6 Revelation 6:1-17
CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST SIX SEALS (6.1-17) The Time Periods of the Apocalypse
There are no time periods at all mentioned in this chapter. Yet well-known expositions of the Book of Revelation present us with elaborate time-charts in which the events predicted in the Book are related to specific periods of history, and as a first step to evaluating whether this is the right way of interpreting the Apocalypse, it is well to form an impression as to how important, or how unimportant, actual datings are considered to be by the Author of the Book Himself. Here, then, is a list of the occasions when numbers which might conceivably be indications of periods of time are given:
1.
2.10
Tribulation ten days for the congregation in Smyrna.
2.
8.1
Silence in heaven about half an hour after the opening of the 7th Seal.
3.
9.5,10
Torment of men by locusts for five months.
4.
9.15
The hour and day and month and year at which the 4 angels were released at Euphrates.
5.
11.2
Treading underfoot of the holy city for forty two months.
6.
11.3
Preaching by the Two Witnesses for a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
7.
11.9, 11
The Witnesses' dead body lies in the street for three and a half days.
8.
12.6
The woman is in the wilderness for a thousand two hundred and sixty days.
9.
12.14
The woman nourished in the wilderness for a time, times, and half a time.
10.
13.5
The power of the Beast from the sea exercised for forty two months.
11.
17.12
Ten kingdoms receive power one hour with the Beast.
12.
18.10, 17,19
In one hour the judgement of Babylon is come.
13.
20.2,
The binding of the dragon for a thousand years.
3,7
14.
20.4
The saints reign with Christ for a thousand years.
15.
20.5
The resurrection of "the rest of the dead" after a thousand years.
Some of these periods may prove to be equivalent. Thus 42 months, 3.5 times, and 1,260 days probably represent the same length of time, and could arguably relate to the same actual period. Again, all the "thousand year" references of chapter 20 might prove, as most people including this author believe, to be the same period. The "one hour" of references 11 and 12 above could also be the same, if it refers to a specific length of time at all. Finally, the numbers of reference 4 might refer to a period of 391 days and 1 hour (assuming a year of 360 days), or they might mean, "for that precise instant", without specifying a time-interval at all.
There are at least three supposed precedents in the Old Testament for believing that days may sometimes be symbolic of years, none of them fully adequate. Thus the Prophecy of Seventy Weeks in Daniel, which certainly denotes 490 years, is of seventy "sevens" of the type of unit which Daniel has been enquiring about ("the number of years whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet" Daniel 9.2, 24-27), and is therefore not concerned with weeks of days at all. In Ezekiel 4.4-6 the prophet lies on his side for periods of days which correspond to the experience of Israel and Judah in years: but he is plainly told that this is what he is doing. The one is no cryptic symbol for the other. While in Numbers 14.34 the symbolism is actually reversed! Israel is to suffer for 40 years in the wilderness, corresponding to the 40 days the spies spent in Canaan. This provides an uncertain foundation for any supposed "day-for-year" principle.
In any case, however, even were the principle admitted as proved, the figures in Revelation are quite inadequate to provide a historical framework. Most of the dates offered in interpretations which assume this principle are obtained from history books, without any kind of confirmation from the Apocalypse itself.
Moreover, the dates are of very uneven length, varying from Vz hour, through 1 hour, to ZVz days and 10 days, on to 1 year 1 month 1 day 1 hour, and then through 3Vz years to 1000 years. If all these figures were interpreted on the day-for-year principle,
they can be seen to vary in length when decoded from 7 l/z days to 360,000 years or more.
This is recognized and disallowed by those who propound the principle. By tortuous double applications of the principle or something like it, the 7'/a days becomes 15 years, and the 3'/a days becomes 3'/a months of days and so 105 years; while the 1000 years is not interpreted at all, but is taken literally.
A "principle" which can be ignored or adjusted at random and which has to be left on one side in the many undated sections of this Book cannot be regarded as a very reliable guide to our understanding of it.
THE HISTORICAL INTERPRETATION OF THE SEALS
While it is the general purpose of this exposition to let the Book of Revelation speak for itself as to its meaning, one cannot ignore the fact that the historical interpretation has secured a very wide following, and it seems important that it should be seen at its true value if alternatives are to be listened to with respect and attention.
Deviating, therefore, from the original intention of "Apocalypse for Everyman" to be purely constructive, and let other views stand or fall by their merits as readers perceived them, I have decided to use some very helpful notes provided by my cousin, J.B. Norris, to put the historical interpretation to a significant test. The following is a summary of his notes on the interpretation of the Seals.
The seals have been held to represent Roman history from the end of the 1st century to the middle of the 4th. Perhaps the clearest presentation of this view is to be found in R. Roberts, "Thirteen Lectures" (on the Apocalypse) (TL), and C. C. Walker, "Notes on the Apocalypse" (NA).
The first four Seals reveal four horses and their riders, said to represent the Roman state, appeal being made to the scholarly work of E. B. Elliott, "Horae Apocalypticae" (HA), Volume I, part I, Introduction. Here the author cites extant coins and other evidences to show the use of the horse as a symbol of Roman power but appears to arrive at his conclusion somewhat negatively by disputing other possibilities. It is not surprising to find the war-horse figuring on certain Roman coins, but normally the coinage pictured some important local event or imperial achievement. The horse is not an outstanding emblem of the Roman empire.
THE FIRST SEAL: THE WHITE HORSE (6.1-2). In TL this appears to be given a double interpretation, first as a work of righteousness and peace to which Rome was subjected by the preaching of the gospel, represented by the rider with a bow "but no arrows" (sic); and second of the peaceful condition of the Roman Empire from 98 to 180. The second is open to ques-
tion, as we can see from this summary:
Trajan (98-117): Two major wars, in Lower Danube (101-106) and against the Parthians (113-117). Bloody struggle with the Jews all over the Mediterranean area (115-117).
Hadrian (117-138). Peaceful on the whole, but at the beginning of this reign he had to crush Samaritans, Moors (twice) and Britons, his celebrated wall being built in 122. Later he had to quell a determined Jewish rebellion (133-135) in which more than '/2 million Jews were slain and many more perished by hunger, fire, and pestilence.
Antoninus Pius (138-161). No major wars, but rebellions and invasions everywhere, including Britain, Mauretania, Germany, Judaea, Greece, Egypt, Dania and North Africa. "It was peace where there was no peace" (Cambridge Ancient History, CAH, 11.337).
Marcus Aurelius (161-180). One long catalogue of war, plague, and famine. Invasions and revolts in Britain, Armenia, and Syria. Years of war with Parthians, Germans, Samaritans and Moors followed.
Conclusion: It is hardly true that "peace . . . prevailed to a great extent during the First Seal Period" (TL, p. 46).
THE SECOND SEAL: THE RED HORSE (6.3-4). This is said to cover the period 211 to 235 (TL), disgraced by numerous assassinations. But the symbol denotes war, not assassination as claimed by TL and N A, as will be seen in the commentary below. There was warfare, indeed, during this period, but the period was no more remarkable for war than the entire period from 161 to the end of the Western Empire in 476, and for centuries after that.
THE THIRD SEAL: THE BLACK HORSE (6.5-6), said in TL to cover the period 211-235. The black colour is fitting for mourning and woe and near-famine, or at least inflation, as suggested by the rest of the symbolism. But this period was no more marked by famine than were others: indeed, there was worse in the troubled half century which followed, while the last half of the period to which this seal is ascribed was quite good under the beneficent reign of Alexander Severus, to whose mother the Roman Christian Hippolytus dedicated a treatise on the resurrection.
FOURTH SEAL: THE PALE HORSE (6.7-8). The symbolism is a fair representation of the terrible era of Roman history from 235-284, but the rest of the symbolism fits far less well. A weakness is the attempt to link "the fourth part of the earth" with the supposed extreme suffering of Italy, one of the four imperial prefectures. But this is not the case: all parts of the Empire suffered frightfully.
THE FIFTH SEAL: SOULS UNDER THE ALTAR (6.9-11). Certainly the symbolism points to persecution, and it is suggested that the reference is to exceptionally severe persecutions under Diocletian. But there had been severe persecution under Marcus Aurelius (161-180) and Septimus Severus (193-211), Decius (249-251), and Valerian (253-259). For the first 18 years of Diocletian
(284-305) Christians were not persecuted, but really severe persecution began in 303. Suffering was terrible in the East until 311, but in the west the moderation of Constantius and his son Constantine (afterwards emperor), considerably softened the impact of Diocletian's decrees. The statement of TL, p. 53 that "these terrible visitations upon believers extended throughout the Roman Empire" is hardly correct.
THE SIXTH SEAL: THE GREAT DAY. Here the symbolism is held to refer to the overthrow of paganism during the reign of Constantine. The really awesome nature of the symbols is far from supporting this view. It is true that persecution of Christians ceased, and "the church" received many favours and privileges, but paganism was not ended. Constantine and his successors retained the pagan title of Pontifex Maximus (high priest of the old state pagan religion), protected the freedom of worship of pagans as well as of Christians, and showed pagan as well as Christian symbols on their coins. Constantine built two pagan temples in his new capital of Constantinople. His policy was not so much to crush paganism as gradually to undermine its influences. There was no violent overthrow such as is demanded by the symbolism of this Seal.
THE SEVENTH SEAL: SILENCE IN HEAVEN (8.1). This is said to denote the peace which prevailed during the later years of Constantine. But there were wars with Alamanni, Goths, and Persians, and the "church" was greatly troubled by the so-called Donatist schism, and then by the long Arian controversy. There is a comprehensiveness about this seal in any case which cannot be confined within so narrow a compass. This will be discussed in a later historical note.
There is an important moral to be drawn from this survey. One exposition of the Apocalypse produces historical facts, which can only be assessed by a competent historian as to whether they represent a balanced view of the situation. The ordinary reader is not such a historian. It seems to this writer that J.B. Norris has already produced good evidence which is sufficient to make us doubt (to say no more) whether an acceptable interpretation of Scripture can be based on the view of history we have hitherto been offered. This is not to doubt the good faith of those who offered it: there has been, and is, far too much doubting of good faith already, and it is no bad thing if we all seek to be appreciative and understanding of the efforts of others to open to us the Scriptures. But the plain fact is that many Bible-readers have been put off seeking to understand the Apocalypse because of the critical knowledge of history which it has appeared to demand; and many others have been content to accept the view of the Book offered to them by respected leaders, learning the history — if they learned it at all, — in the form in which it was provided, and without either the time or the inclination to put it to critical test. It is this fact, among others, which has made the dogmatism
of many a non-historian about the meaning of the Apocalypse so unbecoming, and the intolerance so — intolerable!
But a further question is raised by this critical survey of the history of the supposed Seal-period. If the layman cannot be sure of the history, how can he ever be sure of the interpretation? And was it really the intention of the Lord Jesus to leave His servants at the mercy of competing historians if they would reap the blessings which He offers to those who read and understand (1.3)? Bible-knowledge, Yes, this is indispensible, and one of the immediate blessings which this Book affords is to require its discerning reader to familiarize himself with other parts of Scripture upon which the Book so heavily depends: but history is not the same: that is man's assessment of what has gone on in the world, and while it can be profitable to make it, one wonders whether it is likely to be essential. If "the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 3.15), may they not do much to provide the wisdom needed to understand their own last Book? We are, at this point of the Book, on the threshold of finding out.
6.1-8: The four horses: white, red, black, and pale.
The interpretation considered historically above assumed that each of the four horses had its own historical period, running consecutively and continuously and not overlapping: that there was a "White Horse Period", a "Red Horse Period", and so on. But this assumption is nowhere suggested by the text itself, and does not conform to the analogy of other parts of Scripture. For:
6.1: When the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, Come!
The words might mean "Come and see!" As in A.V., or they might mean "Come on to the scene!" as implied in R.V., and since John would have been looking intently in any case the latter is the more likely and the more dramatic. At all events the white horse does come out, and there is no indication whatever that at the conclusion of its errand it returned with its rider to stable. There is no command, "Now go back!" and no suggestion that it ever did. The same is true of the other three horses. For all the record tells us to the contrary there could have been a rapid breaking of these four Seals on the sealed scroll, followed by the emergence each in its turn of the four horses, and John might very quickly have seen four horses operating together on the earth's stage.
This is probable on Old Testament grounds. In Zechariah 1.7-11 the prophet sees in vision a man riding a red horse, behind whom there are "horses red, sorrel and white" which, evidently
concurrently, "walk to and fro through the earth". In 6.1-8 he sees four chariots come out from between two mountains, drawn respectively by red, black, white, and grisled bay horses, described as the "four winds of heaven" which go through the earth in different directions, and evidently operate simultaneously. With this background it seems quite clear that, in default of statement to the contrary, the situation in Revelation 6 is the same, and four horses are found together, doing whatever they have to do on the earth at the Lord's command.
Even if we cannot immediately discover it, there must be some relevance in the careful revelation of the Spirit that each successive horse was introduced by a different living creature:
Se
al Living Creature
Horse and horseman
1
First: like a lion
White: rider with bow and crown, conquering and to conquer.
2
Second: like a calf
Red: with power to take peace from the earth, armed with a sword.
3
Third: like a man
Black: rider with a scale; famine or scarcity on the earth.
4
Fourth: like an eagle
Pale green: called Death and followed by Hades.
Nothing systematic emerges at once from this. The creature like a lion reminds us of the Lion of the tribe of Judah which turns out to be the Lamb of God (5.5-6), and we shall see other excellent reasons for believing that it is indeed the work of the Lord Jesus primarily considered under this Seal; but an attempt to fasten similar identifications on the other three living creatures might be judged fanciful, and there is no desire to cumber this book with insubstantial suggestions. Suffice it that all the many facets of God's heavenly entourage — all four living creatures — are involved in and concerned with what is to happen on the earth.
The Seals and the Olivet Prophecy
The parallels between Revelation 6-8, the first of these in particular, and the Lord Jesus' prophecy reported in Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, have often been drawn, and the following table may help to bring to mind some of the relevant points:
Revelation
Matthew
Mark
Luke
Topic
Elsewhere in Revelation
6.1-2
24.14
13.10
Conquest (by the gospel)
19.11,19,21
6.3-4
24.6,7
13,7,8
21.9,10
War
6.5-6
24.7
13.8
21.11
Famine
18.8
6.7-8
24.7AV
21.11
Pestilence
6.9
11
24.12
Loss of faith
6.11
24.14
13.10
Witness under persecution
7.13; 20.4; 11.3-10
6.12
24.7
13.8
21.11
Earthquake
8.5; 16.18
6.12
24.29
13.24
21.25
Signs in sun, moon and stars
8.12; 16.8
6.13
24.32
13.28
21.29
Parable of the fig tree
6.14
24.35
13.31
21.33
Passing away of the heavens
16.20
6.16
(23.30)
Hiding in mountains and rocks
6.17
21.36
Who shall be able to stand?
11.16
7.1
24.31
13.27
The four winds
7.3
21.18,28
The servants of God sealed (?)
7.14
24.9-21
Out of the great tribulation
8.3
21.36
Prayers of the saints
5.8
8.5 24.27
Lightning
4.5; 11,19; 16.18
The parallels are unmistakeable, and it is impossible not to suppose that the Seals and the Olivet Prophecy deal with related events. In the Olivet Prophecy, however, the "wars and rumours of wars", "famines and earthquakes in divers places", and "this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world", to name only a few examples from the Matthew record, are not located at particular periods during our dispensation. There are no doubt special periods when these things are more evident than at others, but the phemonena are characteristic of the entire epoch since the Lord Jesus ascended. Though there were particular manifestations at, say, the destruction of Jerusalem, there have been plenty of other occasions when war, famine, pestilence and earthquakes have devastated the world, and the first four Seals can be readily understood as the Lord Jesus' revelation that the world in which the gospel is being preached will not be making constant progress towards the Utopia of the kingdom of God, but will be beset with evils which will plague it until the Lord returns. "Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth," He had said, "I am not come to send peace, but a sword," (Matthew 10.34). All the phenomena will doubtless be at their worst just before the Lord returns, but there is no warrant in the description of the Seals for supposing that special epochs are designated for the operation of the first four, either separately or together.
6.2:7 saw and, behold, a white horse, and he that sat thereon had a
bow; and there was given to him a crown: and he came forth
conquering and to conquer.
The association of whiteness with righteousness makes it natural to associate this Seal with preaching the gospel of the righteous Saviour. No attention should be paid to the fact that no arrows are mentioned, since a bow would be useless without
arrows, and the argument would at best be one of silence. In the Old Testament bows are often referred to without mention of arrows, and arrows without bows, yet no one doubts that the one requires the other. On the next page the references to both are set out in full, with crosshatching when they are mentioned together. The result is convincing reason for rejecting all talk of an "arrow-less bow". The rider of this horse was given the weaponry He needed for the work He had to do.
In Zechariah 10.4 the "corner stone, the nail, and the battle bow" are all associated with the tribe of Judah, and all together give a strongly messianic flavour to the symbol (Psalm 118.2; Isaiah 22.23, 25). Moreover, a bow is an excellent symbol for the power of the Lord to operate from afar, as the Old Testament examples on the next page will show.
There was given Him a crown.
The Rider is now identified, either as the Lord Jesus Himself, or as someone acting on His behalf. The original Outworker of the gospel is here, though no doubt the conquests which He wins are done through His servants bearing His message among men. He, the Lord, though made lower than the angels, is now "crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2.7, 9), but on account of this those who have been made to their God a royal priesthood have also gained a crown which it is" their duty to guard (Revelation 3.11). The preachers of the gospel do their work as the legates of their King.
Conquering, and to conquer.
The Lord has already conquered sin and death for Himself, and in principle for His followers also. In the present context the word "conquer" practically defines the One to Whom, with His followers no doubt, it refers. For it is nikaff, rendered so many times "overcome", already encountered in this Book in 8 places, and again, with the rendering "prevail" in 5.5. Indeed, of all its 28 occurrences in the New Testament (all save 3 in the writings of John), there are only three (Luke 11.22; Revelation 11.7; 13.7) which do not refer to the victory of the Lord Jesus, or His followers through Him, over sin and its agents. Certainly this Horseman is the Lord, and His weapon is the ministry of the word. But the conquest is past, present and future. He has overcome sin and death; He is acting still, with the "weapons of our warfare which are mighty through God for the casting down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10.4) for the conversion of sinners who will receive Him. And there is the final victory to come, for Him and for His followers (Revelation 15.2; 17.14).
6.4: Another horse came forth, a red horse, and to him that sat thereon it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another: and there was given ti him a great sword.
The passage already quoted (Matthew 10.34) shows how true this message of bloodshed was to be in the Christian era. It was not just that wars would continue, but that their cause would often lie in the reaction of men to the message of the gospel, "Christian" peoples fighting against "heretics", and claiming the blessing of God on their own part in the bloodletting. "Wars and rumours of wars" (Luke 21.9), again heightening in intensity as the end draws near, were never to cease even in the era when so many men professed to bear the banner of the Prince of Peace.
A great sword.
This may be an unhappy translation of the word makhaira. No doubt the real "great sword" is the rhompaia which is found in Luke 2.35, and in this Book in 1.16;2.12, 16; 6.8; 19.15,21. Butit is going altogether too far to equate the word with a specialist term for a 'dagger', and so refer it particularly to a time supposed to be characterized by a spate of assassinations. The word is easily the most common one for sword in NT, and very clearly refers to an ordinary fighting weapon on every assignable occasion, rather than the assassin's knife. The references in full are: Matthew 10.34; 26.47, 51, 52, 55; Mark 14.43, 47, 48; Luke 21.24; 22.36, 38, 49, 52; John 18.10, 11; Acts 12.2; 16.27; Romans 8.35; 13.4; Ephesians 6.17; Hebrews 4.12; 11.34, 37; Revelation 6.4; 13.10, 10, 14. On none of these occasions is the idea of assassination in mind, and on most of them it would be incongrous, even grotesque. Death in battle is the clear import of the sword in this Seal.
6.5: I saw, and behold a black horse; and he that sat thereon had a balance in his hand.
The link between the Seals and the Olivet Prophecy would certainly associate this Seal with famine (Matthew 24.7), or at least with food shortage. So would the prices mentioned, for a 'measure, is a khoinix, which occurs only in this place, and is said to amount to about 1 litre, less than 2 English pints and about 1 U.S. quart. For that measure, at the prices mentioned here, one would be paying about a day's wage (Matthew 20.2) which, according to Vine (ED) is about 8 times the normal price for those times, and only enough for "a person of moderate appetite for a day". There were very severe famines associated with the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel 4.10; 5.10), and again by the Romans in 70, as Moses had predicted (Leviticus 26.26, 26); but it would not seem that the Lord is concentrating His attention on Jerusalem, since in Matthew 24.7 He speaks of famines and
earthquakes "in divers places". One such fulfillment is reported in Acts 11.28 in the shape of the "great famine which came over all the inhabited earth" in the days of Claudius Caesar, which was certainly not restricted to Jerusalem.
6.6: / heard as it were a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A measure of what for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and the oil and the wine hurt thou not.
Once again the prophecy seems to be general rather than particular, and to be concerned with recurring ills which should afflict the earth over an unspecified period. Doubtless such events, again, will be at their worst in the culmination of the happenings which brings the Lord back to the earth, but a world where famines are by no means rare the Lord's prophecy has been proved to be true many times over, and it would be very difficult, and almost certainly misguided, to try to date events from such a prediction of shortage as this.
Strangely, the strong parallel with the relief of the siege of Samaria in the days of Elisha (2 Kings 7.1-20) appears to have been overlooked. There, when the Syrians fled, food was taken from their deserted camp, and "a measure of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel". The measure here is a s:'ah, said to have been one third of an ephah, itself (from a maze of conflicting estimates occupying more than four close-printed columns in Smith's Bible Dictionary) seems to have been around 8 litres, 1 Vz English gallons or so, and around 2 U.S. gallons. If the shekel of those days was the same as the stater of NT (Matthew 17.27 only), this would be about 4 denarii ('pence'), and so about half the price for a given measure given in Revelation 6.6 (perhaps a little lower if Tine flour' represents a more refined product than wheat). These are still heavily inflated prices, perhaps, but in the case of Samaria they represent the end of a siege in which "an ass's head was sold for 80 shekels, and the fourth part of a cab of dove's dung for five" (2 Kings 6.25).
These figures do suggest, in fact, that the hardships of this Seal are not quite as extreme as one would have expected if real famine, and particularly the famine conditions of a siege, were under consideration. It does not seem the intention of this Seal to present a situation in which men are reduced to despair by sheer starvation. There are shortages, certainly, but if a man could buy three times as much barley as he needed for a day's wage, he was having a hard time, of course, but not absolutely starving. This leads one increasingly to the view that the Seal is primarily concerned with acute and grievous shortages, and "never quite enough to go round", rather than ne.ar-foodlessness. This is an excellent if sad picture of the world as it has been, as it has
increasingly become, and as it shows every sign of continuing: it is a picture of rationing and unsatisfied bellies rather than of ruin. It is by no means a bad picture of the world we know, where the thousands of millions of people continue to explode in numbers, where food-production, if not exactly stationary, cannot at all increase in the necessary proportions, and where many more than half its population are under-nourished or slowly yielding to gross malnutrition.
It is fatal, of course. There may not be involved in this scene the bloodshed by which death comes about under the Second Seal; it does not go to the sudden, crisis lengths which we shall meet again under the Fourth, but it is rightly represented by the black horse. It is funereal rather than catastrophic, but it is death none the less.
The oil and the wine hurt thou not.
The word 'hurt' is adikeo, do wrong, often conveying the thought of doing injury, or damage (Acts 7.26; 1 Corinthians 6.7), used in Revelation of injury to persons or to crops (2.11; 6.6; 7.2, 3; 9.4, 10, 19; 11.5, 5; 22.11, 11). It seems clear, therefore, that though essential foods will be rationed, oil and wine are to be available without restriction. Phillips renders: "No tampering with the oil or the wine", and this may acceptably render the spirit of the phrase: "Hands off our oil and wine!" Oil and wine occur together in Scripture in such places as Numbers 18.12; Deuteronomy 7.13; 28.51; 2 Chronicles 32.28; Joel 2.24 (where the Hebrew word for oil \s ytis: hat); Deuteronomy 8.8;2 Chronicles 11.11; Proverbs 21.17; Jeremiah 40.40 (where the word is she-men, the more common term); and in NT in Luke 10.34 and Revelation 18.13. In nearly all these cases the association betokens a glad and carefree enjoyment of abundance, often of both food and drink. The passage in Luke 10.34 is quite exceptional in its use of these materials for healing, and can hardly provide the pattern for the present passage, in which food and drink are so obviously combined together. When we note that in Proverbs 21.17 the search for wine and oil is compared with the desire for sensual pleasure, and is condemned as an end in itself, does it not seem most likely that here we are being told that, despite shortages of the staple things of life, men will indulge in pleasure for its own sake, so as to forget their troubles without solving them?
This is typical of the attitude of the ordinary men and women of the world to its problems, and it is more than ever so today. The "bread and circuses" which were devised to distract the Romans from their pressing and insoluble problems, are to be compared with the bingo, drinks, and drugs of today, which lead to forget-fulness and abandon, rather than facing the serious facts of life.
The philosophy is: "Let us eat and drink" (while we can and regardless of the future), "for tomorrow we die".
6.7-8: "When He had opened the fourth seal. . . I saw, and behold a pale horse: and he that sat upon him, his name was Death; and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with famine, and with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
This time the sword is the relatively rare rhompaia, which has already been used of that proceeding from the mouth of the Lord (1.16; 2.12, 16: see also 19.5, 21). This is its typical usage (even, perhaps, in Luke 2.35), and it seems to be concerned, not with killing in battle or by the accident of war, but with deliberate, judicial, putting to death. The fact that we now meet 'famine' under its own proper name strongly suggests that the food shortages referred to under the previous seal were indeed that, and not the starvation which confronts us here.
The repetition of 'death' in 6.7, 8 gives food for thought. It is the same standard word thanatos in both cases. Death is the name of the rider of the horse, and Hades, seen by John 'following after', was either on the same horse or another. But how can one kill otherwise than with death? There seems little to commend the alternative 'pestilence' of RVm, and much more probable is that the word is used here to speak of deliberately inflicted death, or execution. The word is often used in this way, as in Matthew 10.21; 15.4; 20.18 and many other cases, so that again this Seal seems to be concerned with acts of judgement, rather than inde-scriminate ravages of war and hunger. It is as though the one who wields the rhompaia is actively directing the evil events with which he is associated, preparing for the greater event to come in which he will reveal himself unmistakeably. Even the reference to "wild beasts of the earth", though it has links with the punishments which God threatened on disobedient Israel (Leviticus 26.22; Deuteronomy 32.24), has uncomfortable associations with the Roman ampitheatre, and as therion is the word for the wild beast itself, so is tKeriomakheo, "fight with beasts," the word by which Paul describes the experience of the ampitheatre (1 Corinthians 15.21). It is surely not without its significance that the arch-enemies of the gospel introduced shortly into this Book are described by the same term (11.7; 13.1-19; 14.9, 11; 15.2; 16.2, 10, 13; 17.3-17; 19.19, 20; 20.4, 10). If this leaves uncertain whether the Seal is dealing with the sufferings inflicted by God on rebellious nations, or by the leaders of the rebels on God's saints, we need not be surprised, for perhaps the ambiguity is intended. Much of the rest of the Book, starting with the next Seal, is occupied with the world's persecutions of the saints, and much
again with the judgements inflicted by God on an impenitent world: the Olivet prophecy, too, is deeply concerned with both. If our recent experience of the behaviour of tyrannical govern- > ments is to guide us, not only are conscientious opponents its victims, but also those who fall foul of the authorities currently in power are as likely as not to face the tumbril and the guillotine.
Summary of the first four seals.
We are dealing with concurrent events, but there is a certain development. (I) the gospel is preached, but brings no peace to the world; (II) wars and bloodshed continue unabated, even enhanced; (III) shortages and hardships occur, and increase in intensity; (IV) men in power inflict hardships and death on the saints of God, and God brings by their own agency condign punishments on such people themselves. No time scale is offered for these events, which are too pervasive, too often repeated, to permit of such a thing, but they are plainly working up to a climax, which in the next Seal looms very close.
6.9: When He opened the fifth seal I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.
We need no more than a moment's delay over trivialities such as the use of this verse to support the view of the immortality of the human soul. This is, indeed, a heavenly altar, for John is still experiencing the heavenly vision which began in 4.1; and the saints lie where, in the old Tabernacle and Temple made with hands, the foot of the altar received the blood of the sacrifices (for "the life is in the blood", Leviticus 17.11). But these souls are enjoying no heavenly bliss. They lie, as it were, where they have been poured out, waiting in sorrow that their death has so far gone unrequited, to all appearances in vain. Though their presence in the vision in this exalted place, and the granting of white robes (6.11) shows that they are approved of God, they are nevertheless dead people still awaiting the reward of their faithfulness unto death. If there were any possible doubt about this, it would be set at rest by 20.4, where John sees "the souls of them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God" coming at last to life, to earn the prvilege of reigning with their Lord.
These are people, then, who have died for their faith. But what most concerns us is now the import and the timing of the cry placed in their lips:
6.10: They cried with a great voice, saying: How long, O Master, the Holy and True, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
'Master' is despotes, used about the Father in Luke 2:20; Acts 4.24; Jude 4; about the Lord Jesus Christ in 2 Peter 2.1; and here, in the light of 3.7 ("He that is holy, He that is true") about the latter again. The word refers to one in authority, with the right to command; as though to plead: "Why do you not exert Your authority and put the nations in their place, and so vindicate us for our sufferings?" A desperate situation confronts the living saints, and their despair is put in the lips of those who have died before: "Have all their sufferings been in vain? When will the Lord return?". Yet in the sense of Genesis 4.10 it is the dead who speak: "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground". The words "How long?", though, are rhetorical: "How much longer do we have to wait?" we should say to-day. As in Psalm 94.3; Zechariah 1.12, this very adequately captures the spirit of the plaint, closely akin as it is to the importunity of the widow in the Parable of the Unjust Judge (Luke 18.1-8);
Shall not God avenge His own elect, which cry to Him day and night, though He bear long with them?
How long dost Thou not avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
The parallel is closer yet, for in the parable the Lord suggests that the persistence of the widow will have become a rare thing when He returns: "When He returns: "When the Son of man cometh, shall He find the faith on the earth?", while in this Seal the cry has all the appearance of being a despairing one. Men "ought always to pray, and not to faint", but here fainting is very near, suggesting that the saints at the time in question are finding the greatest difficulty in maintaining their confidence firm to the end.
But what is the time in question? The question was "How long?", and the answer was "Yet a little time", as though to say, "Not long now!". And when that "not long" period had come to an end, the result would be that God would, through Jesus, "avenge the blood of His martyred saints. This must mean at the time of the Second Advent, for the same expression is used again in 19.2 when, at a time very close to that advent, we are told of the fall of the symbolic Babylon that "God hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand". The 'avenging', using the verb, ekdikeo (as in Luke 18.3, 5, 7, 8) — which in its substantive form is also used of the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 21, 22 which can hardly suit our present context — will take place at a time when saints have almost ceased to expect it, a condition which corresponds very closely to the Lord's words in the Olivet Prophecy again:
"Because iniquity shall abound, the love of the many shall wax
cold" (Matthew 24.12). Though we have no means of saying for
sure what "not long now" means in God's terms, it seems evident
that the time of the Fifth Seal is much closer to the time of the
Lord's Return than it is to the time when the Apocalypse was
given. We are in modern times by the time this Seal is fulfilled,
much nearer the end than the beginning.
6.11: There was given them to each one a white robe, and it was said
to them that they should rest yet for a little time, until their fellow -
servants also and their brethren, which .should be killed even as they
were, should be fulfilled.
Important conclusions arise from this, both expositional and exhortational. The expositional one is quite simply, that if this analysis is at all correct, we are informed from within the Apocalypse itself that its major portion is concerned with the time close to the return of the Lord Jesus. At least as far as the end of chapter 11 the message is so continuous that, once that conclusion has been reached, we cannot look back until, in 11.15, "the kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ". Only nine verses on from the beginning of the real disclosure of the future in this chapter, we are already in the time of the end. If this is really so, then Revelation is doing again what has been done so often in Scripture, leaving out a large section of intermediate history and going on to detail the events which will accompany the time of God's direct intervention in the world's affairs: as though to emphasize that "no man knoweth the day nor the hour" (Matthew 25.13; 24.36; Mark 13.32, 33,35). Such a gap is found in Joel 2-3, in Daniel 11-12, in Daniel 9, and also in the Olivet prophecy.
In the last-named, which we have already found to provide the pattern for much in Revelation 6, there is a period which has proved to be more than 1900 years of which no detail at all is given, and which is covered only with the words, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21.24).
Once this is seen, then the Book of Revelation is no longer to be considered as a gigantic exception to God's previous rule, that saints must in all ages wait and see, and are not to expect a timetable drawn out before their eyes, whereby they can judge how far the world has progressed towards the Second Coming of the Lord. God has not, in this event, been pleased to give us a carefully marked out yardstick, nor yet a code from which we can work out the time of the Lord's coming. We can take some comfort from this fact, for one of the unfortunate obstacles to
faith which, as it were, man has placed before his own feet, is the setting of dates for the coming of the Lord, and then the need to find some reason why the date did not work out. This unhappy process is still going on, and even the lapse of over a century since the first date predicted by a respected name in our midst (and longer yet for predictions by other interpreters) has not stemmed the tide of frustrating speculations. This does not, of course, exhaust the study of the time-periods of the Book (already referred to), but if the remainder of our study should confirm that the Book of Revelation is, indeed, primarily concerned with an advanced time in the purpose of God, we need not be surprised that attempts to establish a chronological framework have met with so little success.
But there is a darker side to this conclusion. For in this Fifth Seal we are told, not only that martyred saints have been long dead and unrequited, but that living saints are not immune from the earlier sufferings. The former will not rise to glory before the latter have been through fiery trials. The words are now seen to speak clearly of a latter-day persecution.
This conclusion was so unwelcome to the writer that he mediated long and hard before concluding that it was inescapable, and that the duty of saying so could not be evaded. It is only the firmest conviction that the passage plainly states that there is to be a latter-day persecution of the saints of God which has led to the matter being written down at all. Indeed, were it not for the conclusion that the Book is actually and primarily written to prepare the saint for the problems which he will need to face as the coming of the Lord draws nigh, it is doubtful whether this writing would even have been contemplated. This writer know how much, should he be alive and remaining until these things come about, the grace and strength of the Lord will be needed to make it possible for him to endure to the end.
The persecution of the last days.
We must obviously not be satisfied to base so far-reaching a conclusion as this, that saints will be called upon to face a fiery trial before the Lord returns, merely on the evidence of the interpretation of this Seal. If there were no indications elsewhere in this Book, or the rest of Scripture, and especially if there were counter-indications, we might be able to dismiss the present interpretation of the fifth Seal and look for a more palatable one. But when we do face the rest of Scripture, it becomes ever plainer that there is no escape from the conclusions arrived at here.
We have repeatedly stressed the parallels with the Olivet Prophecy: then can the warnings of Luke 21.12-19; Mark 13.9-13; Matthew 24.9-13, be restricted to the events immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem in 70? Plainly they cannot, but must also, perhaps in some cases primarily, refer to the events preceding the Lord's return. It even looks as though the "tribulation (thlipsis) of those days" in Matthew 24.29; Mark 13.24, is intended to point to another such tribulation to come later.
In Revelation itself this persecution becomes a recurrent theme. The saints of God are "sealed" so as to know that the judgements poured out by Him on the nations are not intended for them (7.3; 9.4), but the hatred of men and nations raises itself against God's Two Witnesses (11.7-10), being directed by the dreadful and terrible Beast from the Sea, or from the Abyss (11.7; 13.7, 15-17; 14.12; 15.2), and by the harlot for a time mounted on its back (17.6; 18.6, 24). The reference to the "great tribulation" in 7.14 points the same way. The "prayers of the saints" in 8.3, 4, are doubtless called forth by their urgent need for strength in the face of their problems as the wicked world is visited by the wrath of God. The ominous reference to those "that die in the Lord from henceforth" in 14.13 may not refer to those who die in their beds.
The Tightness of our exposition of 6.11, though, is placed beyond reasonable doubt by 20.4, where a very plain parallel is drawn out:
6.9 The souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony, which they held.
6.11 Their fellow-servants also and their brethren which should be killed even as they were.
20.4 Them that had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God; and such as worshipped not the Beast nor his image and received not his mark.
That is, there are two categories of martyrs, dying for their witness: one is noted in the Fifth Seal as having already died, and no doubt including all those righteous men from Abel to Zacharias the son of Barachias whom the Jews had slain in Old Testament times, as well as Stephen and the New Testament martyrs, and others later yet (Matthew 23.29-39; Acts 7.52, 59; 1 Thessalonians 2.15); and the other arising not long before the Lord's return, predicted in the Fifth Seal, and occuring under the leadership of the Beast which the Lord will destroy in the Lake of Fire after defeating it on His return (17.13; 19.19-21). We are told almost categorically, it would seem that the persecution in issue is a thing of the last times, and so Revelation 20 tells us that the Fifth Seal is close to those times.
The Book of Revelation is doubtless applicable to the saints of all ages, and even though we are now led to the conclusion that it has a special message for the saints at the time of the end, this would not detract from its message to earlier times, for the saints of those days did not know the day nor the hour either, and their own sufferings would no doubt be seen — rightly — as things to be endured in preparation for the blessing promised to those who die in the Lord. Words which we now know were not ultimately fulfilled in the experience of these earlier saints of God would, nevertheless, have their proper message to them. Indeed, as we have already seen, some of the words about persecution addressed to the Seven Congregations of Asia actually do point to things occurring after their days. The constant message to "him that overcometh", reflecting as it does the Lord's own triumph over the world which persecuted Him, has the same overtones (2.7, 11, 17, 26; 3.5, 12, 21; John 16.33; Revelation 12.11; 21.7). The Book if heeded will prepare its readers of all times for the crisis which might overtake them, so that those living at the actual time of crisis will be prepared when the appointed, but as yet unknown, time arrives.
To each one a white robe.
This is the assurance to the living saints as that time of danger comes that the earlier saints have not died in vain. Their lives and their names are safely recorded before God, and their rest will terminate in glory when "all those who died in faith, not having received the promises, will receive that better thing which God hath prepared for us, that they without us should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11.13, 40).
6.12: / saw when He had opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. 6.13: and the stars of the heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs when she is shaken of a great wind.
The Fifth Seal has already taught us that we are near the time for saints to receive their reward: that is, the time of the Lord's return. That in itself locates the Sixth Seal close to that time. If on that ground alone, to place this Seal in the fourth century, in the days of Constantine, is quite unacceptable, for in those days the Christian epoch had scarcely run one sixth of its anticipated course. But there are many other reasons for discarding any such interpretation, of which some have already been given in the historical sketches (pages 110-111).
First there is the great earthquake. In 11.13 such an earthquake immediately precedes the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of God. In 16.17-18, similarly, it is placed at the very end, when the Lord pours out the vial of His last judgement on the earth. That this is the same period is the natural interpretation. Then there are sun, moon, and stars, taking us back again to the Olivet Prophecy (Luke 21.25), and through that to Old Testament prophecies of similar manifestations (Joel 2.31 = Acts 2.17-21; Joel 3.15; and other places). This group of signs points plainly to events occurring on a "day of the Lord", of which in the Christian epoch either the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 or the time close to the coming of the Lord Jesus, represent the only possibilities. In the Luke version of the Olivet prophecy that time is already past (21.20, 25), and the latter in any case is the only event which meets the other details of this Seal. We are, on God's time scale, very close to the time of the Lord's return.
Other passages in Scripture where these heavenly symbols are used include: Genesis 37.9 (Joseph's dream); Deuteronomy 4.19; 17.3; 2 Kings 23.5 (all of heathen worship); Isaiah 13.10 (a'day of the Lord' involving the destruction of Babylon); Joel 2.10 (a 'day of the Lord' on which 'locusts' are brought against Israel); 2.31 (the 'day of the Lord' in days following the outpouring of the Spirit; Acts 2.19-21); 3.15 (the 'day of the Lord' when God sets up His kingdom); Ezekiel 32.7 (the destruction of Egypt); Matthew 24.29; Mark 13.14; Luke 21.45 (just prior to the second advent of the Lord); Revelation 6.12; 8.12 (the Fourth Trumpet).
Though the first of these, Genesis 37.9, links sun, moon, and stars with the family of Jacob, and hence with Israel (a point of importance later when we reach Revelation 12), it is plain that the symbols do not always denote Israel, particularly in view of Isaiah 13.10 and Ezekiel 32.17. Even in Joel 3.15, where the sufferings of Israel and the Land are to the fore, since these are described in literal terms in the context it is not likely that they would be the subject of a symbolic reference too. It seems best, in general, to take the darkening of sun, moon, and stars as a composite picture of portents spoken of by the Lord as, "the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Luke 21.26), a dissolution of the world's existing order of things that "those things which cannot be shaken may remain" (Haggai 2.6; Hebrews 12.26-27), a proper prelude to the inauguration of the "new heavens and new earth, wherein dwel-leth righteousness" (2 Peter 3.7-13; Isaiah 56.17; Revelation 21.1).
But the words, "the stars of heaven fell to the earth", need further consideration. Daniel has "some of the host and of the stars of heaven cast down" by the power called "the little horn of the he-goat" (8.10); the king of Babylon exalted himself "above the stars of God", and was told he must be cast from heaven
(Isaiah 14.13, 14); and the Dragon of Revelation 12.1 casts down "a third part of the stars of heaven" (12.4). In view of this connection, we can reasonably understand the symbol to mean the disruption and destruction of earthly powers and authorities as the time of the Lord's coming draws near.
If it were thought that the stars must have some connection with Israel, this would be strengthened by the words "as a fig tree casteth her unripe figs", particularly in the light of the end of the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24.32-34; Luke 21.29-30), and the very similar words used in "the controversy with Zion" in Isaiah 34.4, 10. But Isaiah is concerned with the destruction of Edom and other nations rather than with that of Israel (34.1-7). The more likely view would be that once again we are concerned with the toppling of earthly powers in the upheaval which accompanies the preparation for the Lord's return.
6.14: The heaven was removed as a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were removed out of their places.
The Lord has already promised in the Olivet prophecy that His word will survive the passing of heaven and earth (Matthew 24.35). In Revelation 20.11 we read that "heaven and earth fled away" before the face of the One seated on the great white throne; and 21.1 is only one more of several passages in Scripture where the passing away of existing heavens and earth is spoken of (see 2 Peter 3.10-13; Hebrews 12.16-27; Haggai 2.6, 21; Isaiah 65.17; 66.22). Apart from all the evidence already adduced, it is impossible to understand the language here being used of any smalltime activity of some human monarch playing God before his friends and enemies. This in context, in language, and in setting, is a message about the activities of God Himself, directed towards bringing to an end the existing order of things and ushering in a new. It is true that the new order does not yet emerge in these verses: much has to be said and done before it does. But we are told that it is on its way, that we are in the "yet a little time" of 6.11, which is to culminate in the "great day of the wrath" of Him from Whom the nations so understandably seek to hide in fear.
Every mountain and island removed. At the first coming of Jesus" every valley was exalted, and every mountain and hill made low" (Isaiah 40.4; Luke 3.5) as John the Baptist cleared the path for His coming to offer salvation. Mountains of obstacles in the way of His saints can be removed before their firm faith (Matthew 17.20; Mark 11.23; I Corinthians 13.2). And at His second coming every barrier will be cleared from the path of the Lord again as He prepares to subdue the rebellious nations and be glorified in that
day in His saints (2 Thessalonians 1.8-10). These words, too, are used again later in the Book at a point when there can be no doubt that the establishment of the kingdom of God is imminent (the Seventh Vial, 16.20). The figure draws on that used in Ezekiel 38.20 when God announces His victory over the hosts of Gog; the terror is the same as that which excepts only the saints in Psalm 46.2-3. It is as though every obstacle which would hinder the triumphant march of God to victory is trampled down or brushed aside; as He plants His footsteps in the sea, the islands are nudged into place to provide His stepping-stones. And we might picture men fleeing to the islands to look for refuge, only to find the refuge withdrawn from them as, in the figure, God moves the very islands themselves where He will.
6.15: The kings of the earth, and the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and freeman, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. All people of all kinds will come within the orbit of God's worldwide purpose. It is impossible to restrict the scope of this language to the fear that some men might have felt in bygone days at the advance of a human conqueror. It is no less impossible to suppose that an earth with many kings can be cut down to the size of a land, even the promised land, with a few kinglets. It is true that the word rendered earth can, on a mere lexicon basis, also be rendered 'land', in Greek as well as in Hebrew. But here we have nothing less than the "LORD coming out of His place to judge the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity (Isaiah 26.21). The language is drawn, of course, from Isaiah 2.2-22, where, just before God establishes His house in the top of the mountains for all nations to worship there (2.2-4), His terrors strike the world so that men "enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD (2.10, 19, 21). Nothing less than the Second Advent can satisfy the language here before us.
6.16: They say to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us. The Lord Jesus is here quoting His own former words, spoken as He went to the crucified (Luke 23.30), themselves taken from Hosea 10.8. In Hosea they were used of the destruction of northern Israel, and in Luke of the pending destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. But here their canvas is extended to cover all nations, and the One who wreaks the vengeance is the Lord Himself.
Hide us from the face of Him thatsitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
Here there can be no doubt at all. The Ones who go into action in the last stages of the conflict with the world are specifically
named. And the Book itself is telling in the most explicit terms how it is to be interpreted. The worst thing we can possibly do in the face of this plainest of all language is to deny it, and suggest an interpretation according to which some misguided men mistook a merely human conqueror, Constantine by name, for Messiah, and mistakenly ascribed to him quasidivine honours.
If we are to interpret Revelation rightly, then when it actually tells tells us in the plainest possible terms what it means, we must humbly listen and accept. If this principle is ever forgotten, we are bound to fall into the most grievous mistakes.
The One who sat on the throne (4.2) is the Father, God, beyond a shadow of a doubt. The Lamb is Jesus Christ, equally emphatically (5.6-7). Such language in which to express their terror could not have been known to the superstitious adulators of Constantine: the Book is telling us that it is the outpouring of the heavenly judgement of the Father and the Son that it is talking about, and we close the door on our understanding of the Book if we refuse to accept its guidance.
6.17: The great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?
Everything in these words points the same way. It is "the day of the Lord" again, on which we have written already. "Who shall be able to stand goes right back to Malachi 3.2: "Who may abide the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth?". Absolutely everything in Scripture cries out that Revelation 6.12-17 is pointing to the time of the end. It may well be that the breaking of this Seal leaves, in terms of our ephemeral lifetimes some years, some decades, before the phase which it introduces actually culminates in the return of the Lord Jesus to the earth; but that it is that return to which this Seal points the way is one of the most certain things in all Scriptural interpretation. At the close of the events depicted by this Seal we are very near, on the cosmic time scale, to the return of our Lord. There may remain much to be done, but on that same time scale it will be done quickly.
Excursus VI: The interpretation of prophecy. The certain, the probable, and the possible
THE CERTAIN. A fulfillment of prophecy can only be regarded as certain, for our finite and imperfect minds, when the fulfillment has already come about, or when its terms are absolutely incapable of any meaning save one: both factors would make our assurance doubly sure. Thus, we know that 2 Samuel 7.12-16 and its counterpart in 1 Chronicles 17.11-14 were in part fulfilled in Solomon, because David so understood it in part (2 Chronicles 28.6) as did Solomon himself (2 Chronicles 6.9-11). We know that it
was not entirely fulfilled in Solomon because David clearly looked beyond Solomon's time (2 Samuel 7.19), and because the New Testament tells us explicitly that it referred to Jesus (Acts 13.33; Hebrews 1.5). Again, we know that the Bible promises the literal return of the Jews to the land of Israel, and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the earth, and many other such things plainly taught in Scripture because the terms of these prophecies do not admit of any other faithful interpretation.
THE PROBABLE. A fulfillment can be regarded as probable when the events we see in history are seen to correspond closely with the terms of a prophecy. Thus, it is hard to see that we could be mistaken in regarding the presence of some millions of Jews in the Holy Land today as, in part at least, a fulfillment of the prophecies of their return. It is probable, too, that this heralds the near return of the Lord. Some prophecies about the return of Israel to the land contain such apparently plain indications that they must suffer great afflictions before the final deliverance from their enemies (Ezekiel 36-39; Zechariah 14), that we consider it probable that they will in fact suffer in this way.
THE POSSIBLE. Things "possible" may have all degrees of likelihood from high probability to being highly unlikely, and the decision we come to in any particular case is bound to be in some degree subjective. We can hardly expect absolute unanimity, even among those sharing the same doctrinal foundation. Thus, to take an example already referred to, it is possible to regard the "sun, moon and stars" of Revelation 6.12-13 as referring to the nation of Israel; it is also possible to doubt this, since the symbols are certainly not invariably used in this sense in Scripture. Which conclusion we come to (if we come to a precise conclusion at all) is not, however, of the first importance, since other passages state in plain terms what may or may not here be intended by the symbols. Indeed, it is not at all unlikely that we are sometimes moved to understand symbols in a particular way because we have already concluded on what are quite different grounds that certain things are true: in that event it is not the symbols which are teaching us, but we who are reading (right or wrong) our own meaning into them. This fault is more common than we sometimes realize, and we should be on our guard against it.
Within the category of 'possible', too, must be put all detailed predictions of things yet future which are not most categorically defined in Scripture itself— unless, indeed, our predictions are so outrageous as not to be thought possible at all. And in view of the fact that the New Testament often provides us with interpretations of Old Testament prophecies which we should not have thought of for ourselves (such as those of Hosea 11.1 in Matthew 2.15; and of Jeremiah 31.15 in Matthew 2.18), we need to be very careful before we pronounce an interpretation impossible. Even so, since it required the guidance of the Holy Spirit to enable New Testament writers to offer such interpretations to us, we might feel that our own feet should remain firmly on the ground when we are disposed to adventure our own understanding of Scripture's prophecies.
Since we have arrived in our study of the Apocalypse at the point where we see in the Sixth Seal events no earlier than our own day, and both here and elsewhere will be meeting events which certainly lie in the future — even though the time interval may not be large — it follows that detailed interpretations are bound to be speculative in some degree, even when they are offered at all. It might even be that no detailed interpretation is possible. But this is not in itself to be regarded as any weakness in the expository basis: it may simply be that information is inadequate for any assurance as to the meaning until the events have actually occurred.
To this it cannot properly be objected that a prophecy which one can only understand when it has happened is of little use. For in the first place its general tenor may be plain even when the detail is not; and in the second place it can be very valuable and reassuring to know that we have reached a certain point in the fulfillment of God's purpose, and can look forward now to the next stage. The point we have reached in the present study is such a point: if we combine the fact of Israel's partial return to the Land with the promise of "a time of trouble such as never was", and if we see around us all the ingredients for the time to come when "men's hearts shall be failing them for fear" — a very apt summary of the mood of the Sixth Seal — then we shall not be taken by surprise when the terror does descend. And if we see in the Fifth Seal a promise that such a time will be marked by a period of persecution for the saints, that, too, should find us prepared, and ready to ask our God for strength to endure to the end when it does arise.
In any case, if anyone is disposed to be superior about the weakness of saying, "I do not yet know", it is well to look back on the records of those who thought they did know, and to a greater or lesser degree have been proved to be wrong. Jesus did not return in the mid-1800s, as the Millerites thought He would; He did not return in 1914 as the Russellites thought He would. He has not returned at any of the times when our own associates, and perhaps we ourselves?, thought He would. Current events have not conformed precisely with the detailed predictions of any interpreter we know. This is not a reason for refusing to try to find the solution of the problem ourselves: it is a very good reason for not being over-confident that we are right, and for asking for kindly treatment when we are wrong!
SUMMARY: Revelation chapters 1 to 6
Chapter 1: A vision of the risen and glorified Jesus Christ, in command of the angels in heaven and the Christian congregations on earth.
Chapters 2 and 3: This same glorified Christ sends messages to seven existing congregations in Asia, not as a detailed prediction of the future, but with a view to providing comfort, strength, warning, and the promise of ultimate blessing to the faithful.
Chapters 4 and 5: John is transported in vision to heaven, where he sees the Almighty enthroned with the heavenly powers
around him. He sees, too, a Book sealed with seven seals, the opening of which will disclose the things about come to pass, but which no one is qualified to open: until "the Lion of Judah", in the form of a Lamb which has been slain, appears on the scene, takes the Book and sits down by the Father's side. Having received the praise and blessing of the heavenly multitudes, He prepares to break the seals.
Chapter 6: The first six Seals are broken. The first four reveal forces which will be operating on the earth during the Christian epoch, in which the preaching of the gospel (the First Seal) is unavailing in stemming the forces of evil in the form of war and bloodshed (the Second Seal), grave food shortages (the Third Seal), and violence and tyranny in high places (the Fourth Seal). So little progress seems to have been made towards achieving the fulfillment of God's purpose that the martyred saints are pictured as being in despair (the Fifth Seal) as to whether they have died in vain, and at this late stage in the outworking of God's purpose we are told through words addressed to them that only a little time longer remains before the Lord's return, during which the living saints must suffer yet another persecution. During this last phase (the Sixth Seal) events will reach a climax in which the pending intervention of the Father and the Son provokes the world to a terrified anticipation of what is to come to pass.
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