Revelation 6

Observations - What’s Going On?

“Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as a with a voice of thunder, ‘Come’”

“Then I” This is again speaking of the Apostle John who is writing this letter to the seven churches in Asia Minor.

“saw” Just a reminder that John is actually seeing these things take place. He is not getting this as second hand information but he himself is witnessing all of this occur.

“when the Lamb” We were introduced to this lamb in chapter 5. Remember that this represents Christ and is glorified on the basis that He has conquered sin and death and has been deemed the victor and overcomer.

“broke one of the seven seals,” The reason the Lamb is worthy to break the seals of the book is because He has been slain and yet He still stands. The book couldn’t be opened by anyone except the Lamb.

“and I heard” John not only has the ability to see in this heavenly experience but has the sense of hearing as well.

“one of the four living creatures” These creatures are mentioned back in chapter 4. We don’t whether this creature was the lion, the calf, the man, or the eagle, but we can know that John has been approached by an elder in chapter 5 and now a living creature. The fact that they are “living” creatures probably draws our attention to the fact that they truly are living.

“saying as with a voice of thunder” This makes us think of chapter 5 when the angel with the loud voiced cried “Who is worthy to open the scroll?” Voices of thunder communicate power and strength.

“Come!” This was an invitation for John to take a look at the next events taking place.

“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.”

“I looked,” John is telling us what he witnessed in this account.

“and behold” Again, John is telling us that this event taking place is very important and worthy to be noted.

Before we continue, let me note that there is a lot of discussion from here on out about the nature of Revelation. Every commentator, teacher, and reader has some sort of opinion about the end times as described in ’ll be honest, I will lean heavily on MacArthur’s understanding of the end times as I believe him to be one of the most faithful Bible interpreters of our day.

Thus said, there is some discussion on the nature of the seals. We will look at the seals as forms of judgement poured out upon the earth.

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“a white horse” As we read this, we should note that the color of this horse is very similar to another horse we will encounter in , which is Christ’s horse that he rides for the final victory. This leads some people to believe that this first horse and its rider are Christ, but we’ll see that although the color of the horse may be the same, there are several differences.

“and he who sat on it had a bow” This is different than our rider in 19:11, namely by the fact that the latter is carrying a sword.

“and a crown” This is a singular use of the word, unlike the rider in 19:11 who had many crowns. In the original language, this was to designate a wreath that one would receive at the end of a game or competition. So this rider isn’t as much the king as he is the winner.

“was given to him” By who? Since the “seal-breaker” is the Lamb, or Christ, Himself it’s reasonable to understand that this rider has been sent out by Christ.

“and he went out conquering and to conquer” This rider is being sent out by the Lamb to conquer the world.

One possible interpretation that MacArthur takes on this first rider is that it represents a false and deceiving peace. One will be sent to conquer the world and create universal peace, which will be quickly broken when the second seal is broken.

“When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come”.

“the second living creature” At first there was doubt about which one spoke to him, but this time he identifies which creature spoke to him.

“And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.”

“take away peace from the earth” This helps our interpretation of verse 2. This assumes that there is some sort of peace left on the earth, but it does not explicitly tell us about a world-wide peace.

“men would slay one another” The rider’s influence is indirect; working through the earthly men to kill each other and create world-wide war.

“a great sword” What does this represent? Probably the extent of the war.

“When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come” I looked and behold a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.”

“Pair of scales”