“Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Revelation 6:1-2.

As you might find with any legal document, the seals have to be broken to follow the instructions written therein, or as in this case, release the events that are destined for the end times.

There are three distinct forms of judgment in this book, they are, seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls which are the final and worst of the judgments.

Six of the seven seals are broken and the seventh seal introduces the trumpets, six trumpets sound and with the sounding of the seventh the seven bowls are introduced and when the seventh bowl is poured out it is followed by Armageddon at the return of Christ.

There is a meaning to these judgments; the breaking of the seals releases the events of the tribulation. The trumpets herald the coming of the wrath of God, when the trumpets are ignored, the wrath of God is poured out from the bowls in the second half of the tribulation.

There are folks who become incensed at the idea of God pouring out His wrath upon mankind.

Yet they are the same ones who ask, why doesn’t God do something about pedophiles, rapists, drug dealers, and the wanton torturing, sex slavery and murders by perverted reprobate men as well as Muslim jihadists?

“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine. ‘I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible [or tyrants]. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir.’” Isaiah 13:9-12.

When the Lord opens the first seal John hears one of the four living creatures, which would be the lion since he is the first one introduced in Revelation 4:6-7. The lion represents Christ as King.

And this creature with a thunderous voice says, “Come and see.” Some manuscripts have, come and see, while others just have come. Whether the living being is calling the horsemen forth by just saying come, or calling to John to come and see is an interesting question.

With this call a white horse emerges, this is the horse that a conqueror would ride. The rider has a bow, but there is no mention of arrows. This would indicate that the rider comes to power through political machinations, not unlike the Machiavellian politics of today.

The dictionary describes this as: political expediency is placed above morality and characterized by unscrupulous cunning, deception, or dishonesty. Sound familiar?

A crown was given to the rider and he went out conquering and to conquer. Some have said that this is the Lord Jesus. However this does not fit because the crown this person is wearing is a stephanos crown, the crown of an overcomer or victor.

It is not the diadem crown, the crown of royalty like the one the Lord Jesus wears in Revelation chapter 19.

The person on the horse is the Antichrist, whom I prefer to call the beast because the term antichrist does not occur in Revelation, and though he is the Antichrist, it is less confusing if the name beast is used.

The reason for this is that there are three main evil characters in the book, Satan, the beast (Antichrist), and the false prophet, who is also an antichrist.

“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist [the beast] is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour.” 1 John 2:18.

“Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” 1 John 2:22.

This first seal, the number one which means either unity or rebellion, is appropriate because the world is to be unified in rebellion against God.

“When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see.’ And another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.” Revelation 6:3-4.

The second living creature here is the one resembling a calf or an ox, which represents Christ as a servant. This brute on a fiery red horse is indeed the servant of Satan and the beast because the chaos he causes enables the beast to gain power.

The meaning of the words, a great sword, is that this is a sword meant for attacking, not defense, as you have probably already surmised.

You can see that can you? Run your hand down the animals flank, pull it back and your hand is covered in blood, you need to see the horror described here, it is going to happen.

Now here is one of the most unbelievable verses in the Bible for modern man, “And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth”.

What peace? Can there be more than a few square miles on this earth that is not at war, either with terrorists, or civil war, or open rebellion.

Can families sit in their homes and feel at peace? Moreover it says, “that people should kill one another”, people already kill one another over a parking space or an insult, just how can things get worse?

Do not read verse 4 and just move on, meditate on it and give it the strong consideration it deserves. This is the second seal; the number two can stand for, conflict or opposition.

“When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.’” Revelation 6:5-6.

We have the third living creature with the face of a man, which represents Jesus in His incarnation, a Man.

The third living creature calls forth a black horse. The color black has been interpreted as meaning famine in this case. Others have described this color as a deathly funereal color.

Since peace is removed from the earth by the second horseman on the fiery red horse, it is not unlikely that the attendant famine would follow quickly behind.

Couple this with man’s constant meddling with the world’s monetary system (for the benefit of the rich) and you have run-away inflation. As a result a day’s wages will give a person just enough to take care of himself for the day.

A denarius, being a day’s wages in Roman times, would buy 8 measures of wheat or 24 of barley, but here it only buys one measure of wheat or three measures of barley, or as it has been said today, a loaf of bread.

The statement “do not harm the oil and the wine” means that the rich will still enjoy their upscale lifestyles.

The third seal being number three has the meaning of fullness or capacity, as in length times width times the height of an item gives us the capacity of the item in question. And in time all creation will see the full capacity of man’s sin and callous disregard for others, even when they already have more than they could ever use.

Politicians today wring their hands and speak of ending income inequality, and helping the poor, but the truth is that they only want to help themselves, and when they are in power, the poor be damned because now they are rich.

“There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord.” Proverbs 21:30.

Revelation 6:1-6 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 11-7-16, updated on 6-22-22.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.