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In Revelation 6:7-8, we read this about the fourth seal,
"I looked and, behold, a pale horse. His name that sat on
him was Death, Hell followed with him and power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with
sword and with hunger and with death and with the beasts
of the earth." One fourth of the world’s population being
annihilated through these four means: the sword, which is
another way of saying war; hunger, which is another way of
saying famine; and death, literally pestilence; and beasts
of the earth, wild beasts attacking and killing human
beings.
Now, this is very intriguing. When you go to the Old
Testament, there are places where God indicates that war
and famine are expressions of His wrath; pestilence is an
expression of His wrath; wild beasts killing human beings
are an expression of His wrath. But even more intriguing
is the fact that you sometimes have a number of those four
items lumped together where God is indicating those are
expressions of His wrath.
Perhaps the most significant passage along those lines is
in Ezekiel 14:21. And by the way, in the context of
Ezekiel 14:21, God uses one of the Hebrew words for His
wrath. It is one of the Hebrew words even used for the day
of the Lord wrath in other passages in the Old Testament.
But this is what he says in Ezekiel 14:21, "For thus says
the Lord God, ‘How much more when I send my four sore
judgments upon Jerusalem: the sword and the famine and
the noisome beast and the pestilence to cut off from it
man and beast?’" These are the same four things described
for the fourth seal of Revelation 6, and God says that
those are His four sore judgments.
I was fascinated in studying this that some very
prominent, highly regarded Greek scholars declared that
when John recorded what will happen in the fourth seal, he
was practically quoting Ezekiel 14:21 and basing the
fourth seal on Ezekiel 14:21. So the fourth seal is an
expression of God’s wrath upon the earth.
Who is it that is breaking the seals in Revelation 5 and
6?
Who is it that is breaking these seals? This is very
important to note that it is Jesus Christ who is breaking
these seals. Not Satan, not his Antichrist, not the false
prophet, nor other human beings here on the face of the
earth. It is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Lion of
the Tribe of Judah, who is breaking these seals.
This is indicating that He, with full authority, is the
One who is unleashing these different forms of God’s wrath
upon the earth. Again, this is coming from Christ, this is
not coming from Satan and his forces. So this is the work
of God, the wrath of God, not the wrath of man that’s
being described here in the first four seals.
Doesn’t Revelation 6:12 indicate that the great day of
God’s wrath begins at the breaking of the sixth seal?
Look at Revelation 6, beginning with verse 12:
And I beheld
when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a
great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair and the moon became as blood, and the stars of
heaven fell unto the earth even as a fig tree casts her
untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And
the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled
together and every mountain and island were moved out of
their places. And the kings of the earth and the great
men and the rich men and the chief captains and the
mighty men and every bond man and every free man hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains
and said to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and
hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and
from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of his
wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?"
Perhaps some of you are saying, "Look, isn’t this
indicating that this is where the great day of God’s wrath
begins and up to this point there is no wrath of God?" Or
some would even say, "Well, this is saying that the great
day of His wrath is about to come." And then some would
say that God’s wrath begins with the breaking of the
seventh seal over in Revelation 8:1, and that therefore
you don’t have the great day of God’s wrath in the first
four seals whatsoever.
What do we do with this? Well, first, let me take you to 1
Thessalonians 5 where the Apostle Paul gives some very
specific revelation as to how the future day of the Lord
with its wrath will begin. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5:2,
"For yourselves know perfectly [that is, "accurately"]
that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the
night."
The idea here is that the day of the Lord is going to
catch the unsaved people totally off guard. There will be
no forewarning of any kind at all that the day of the Lord
is coming upon them. It will catch them totally by
surprise. No thief will send a warning to his intended
victim and inform him that he intends to break into his
home on such and such a day at such and such an hour to
rob him of his possessions. Successful thieves rely upon
the element of surprise to catch their intended victims
totally off guard.
So the point here is, no forewarnings of the day of the
Lord coming upon the unsaved. Those who say that with the
breaking of the sixth seal and the unsaved calling for the
mountains and the rocks to fall upon them because the
great day of His wrath has come say, "Well, this is saying
that His wrath is about to come." They claim that the
sixth seal is a forewarning, a precursor to them that the
wrath of God is about to come.
But that contradicts what Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5
concerning the beginning of the day of the Lord with its
wrath. He’s indicating there will be no forewarnings, no
precursors to the unsaved that the day of the Lord is
about to come. It’s going to hit them without any
forewarning, catch them totally by surprise just like a
thief who comes in the night when you’re not expecting him
to rob you of your possessions.
In addition, Paul says here in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, "For
when they shall say, ‘Peace and safety,’ then sudden
destruction comes upon them as travail [literally as the
birth pang] upon a woman with child and they shall not
escape."
Paul is saying that the day of the Lord will come, and the
Greek indicates at the same time that they are saying, "We
have peace. We have safety." When they are convinced that
they have finally established peace and safety in the
world, that’s when the day of the Lord is going to break
in upon them and give them just the opposite of what they
think they have. They’re going to receive incredible
destruction as the wrath of God begins to be poured out
upon them.
Notice in the passage about the first seal in Revelation 6
that the rider on the white horse, the false messiah, goes
out conquering to conquer. That implies warfare, lack of
peace. We also see with the second seal in Revelation 6
that, with the breaking of the second seal, peace is
removed from the face of the earth. Notice, that’s several
seals before the sixth seal, and peace be removed from the
earth there. When you begin reading from the second seal
and read on right up through the Second Coming of Christ
in Revelation 19, there is no peace, lasting peace and
safety upon the face of the earth.
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