Revelation 5-8.5-The Seven Seal Judgments
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday October 5, 2008
The Day of the Lord: Revelation 5:1-8:5-The Seven Seal Judgments
Lesson # 18
Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation 5:1.
This morning we will study seven major events that will take place during Daniel’s Seventieth Week, namely, the breaking of the seven seal judgments by the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven.
The Scriptures plainly teach that the wrath poured out during the Great Tribulation period originates with God and is therefore a time of God’s wrath upon a Christ rejecting a world that is deceived by the devil (See Isaiah 34:1-2; Joel 1:15; Obadiah 15; Revelation 15:1, 7; 16:1; Revelation 19:11-21).
The divine judgments that will fall on the inhabitants of the earth are designed to lead men to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ since God desires all men to be saved.
2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”
The divine judgments that will fall on the earth are also designed to destroy Satan’s cosmic system and establish Christ’s millennial rule.
Revelation 11:15, “Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.’”
In Revelation 5, the apostle John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit records for us his vision of Jesus Christ taking from the Father a seven-sealed book that contains the prophecy of events to be unfolded during Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
Revelation 5:1, “I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals.”
This seven sealed document is actually the title deed to planet earth.
Genesis 1:26-30, Psalm 8 and Hebrews 2:7-8 teach that mankind was designed to rule over the works of God’s creation.
So Adam was created and designed in the image and likeness of God in order that he might exercise sovereign authority over all creation (Psalm 8).
The rulership of the creation was lost by Adam and the Woman in the Garden of Eden when they disobeyed the Lord’s prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3).
Satan usurped the rulership of the first Adam over the earth when he deceived the woman into disobeying the Lord’s prohibition to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and Adam ate as well.
However, the Last Adam, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ has regained that rulership over the earth with His obedience to the Father’s will in going to the Cross in order to die a substitutionary spiritual and physical death in the place of all of sinful humanity (Hebrews 2:6-9).
Revelation 5:2-7, “And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals?’ And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it and one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.’ And I saw between the throne (with the four living creatures) and the elders a Lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And He came and took the book out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”
The act of the Lord Jesus Christ taking the book out of the Father’s right hand indicates that all power, authority and judgment have been given to Him.
Revelation 5:8-14 record all the elect angels and redeemed men in heaven worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ.
Revelation 5:8-14, “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.’ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.’ And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.’ And the four living creatures kept saying, ‘Amen.’ And the elders fell down and worshiped.”
Revelation 6:1-2 records the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven breaking the first of the seven seal judgments, which results in the appearance of the Antichrist on the stage of history as a peace maker and who is depicted as riding on a white horse.
Revelation 6:1-2, “Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, ‘Come.’ 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.”
Notice in Revelation 6:1-2 that the rider’s weapon is a bow, yet no arrows are mentioned.
The bow is a symbol of distant victory and since no arrows are mentioned it seems to indicate that he gains his victory by bloodless tactics.
That all this is true is indicated further by the fact that peace isn’t taken from the earth until the second seal.
Antichrist will have a hidden agenda since his purpose is not world peace, but rather world domination since Revelation 6 goes on to say that he goes out conquering and to conquer.
Revelation 6:3-4 records the second seal judgment.
Revelation 6:3-4, “When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come.’ 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.”
This second seal judgment will begin the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
While the white horse was symbolic of a victorious conqueror and one who primarily gained his power by cold war and bloodless peace maneuvers, red is a clear symbol of bloodshed or warfare and the rest of the verse clearly shows this to be the case (Rev. 12:3; Isa. 63:2f).
The events of Ezekiel 38:1-39:24 coincide with second seal judgment recorded in Revelation 6:3-4 and record the Russian led invasion of Israel that precedes Antichrist breaking his treaty with Israel and proceeds after Satan’s expulsion from heaven.
Revelation 6:5-6 records the third seal judgment, which brings world-wide famine.
Revelation 6:5-6, “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. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.’”
The “black horse” speaks of suffering and death and the “balances” of the careful rationing of food because of its scarcity.
Revelation 6:7-8 records the fourth seal judgment.
Revelation 6:7-8, “When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, ‘Come.’ I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.”
The color of this horse is ashen, a pale or yellowish green since the word for “ashen” in the original Greek text of Revelation 6:8 is the word chloros which denotes a yellowish green, the light green of a plant, or the paleness of a person who is critically ill.
“Death” refers to physical death and “Hades” refers to the prison and temporary quarters of the souls of un¬believers between their death and the time of the Great White Throne Judgment.
“Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth” is an amazing statement since it tells us that nearly a billion people by today’s population figures, will be killed by these means mentioned by John.
According to present fig¬ures and estimations this is about 800,000,000, a staggering figure.
In Revelation 6:8, John records four means by which nearly a billion people will be killed.
The first is “the sword,” which refers to death by war and perhaps by the cruelty of the beast and his godless system under the domination of the Red Dragon, Satan.
The second is “famine,” which of course, anticipates death on an even greater scale by starvation.
The third is “pestilence,” which speaks of death by disease and plagues.
The fourth is “wild beasts,” perhaps, as an aftermath of the above, anticipates the fact that people will be weak, un¬protected and easy prey for wild animals.
Next, we come to the fifth seal judgment, which is recorded in Revelation 6:9-11.
Revelation 6:9-11, “When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.”
The fifth seal judgment concerns itself with the martyrdom of both Jewish and Gentile believers during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
The souls underneath the altar are not Old Testament martyrs but rather those who were martyred during the Tribulation since their persecutors are still alive on the earth.
They were killed “because of the Word of God” meaning that anyone who believes the Bible during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week and proclaims its message of faith alone in Christ alone will persecuted and killed.
They are seen crying out for justice but this is not a cry for revenge, but for God’s justice and righteousness to prevail on earth against the sin and the atrocities of man in rebellion to God.
The sixth seal judgment is recorded in Revelation 6:12-17.
Revelation 6:12-17, “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?’”
The sixth seal results in the direct intervention of the Creator upsetting the normal order of His creation.
The nature and effect of this judgment is such that it causes all of mankind from kings to slaves to recognize that God the Creator is acting in human history in righteous indignation.
When the sixth seal occurs God shakes the universe like a rag doll and all the world will know without a doubt not only that there is a God, but that He is acting catastrophically in righteous indignation against man’s rebellion.
This judgment affects the creation, which from the beginning of time has manifested God’s divine nature and is evidence of His existence.
However, mankind has rejected creation as evidence of God’s existence and has attributed creation to evolution (Rom. 1:19 22).
Revelation chapter seven is parenthetic and does not carry the chronological sequence forward, but adds some important details regarding the saved of the Tribulation, many of whom are martyred.
Revelation 8:2-5 records the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ breaking the seventh seal, which results in silence in heaven for about half an hour and the introduction of the seven trumpets judgments.
Revelation 8:1-5, “When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”
The trumpets are used to announce divine judgment (cf. Zech. 1:14-16).
The seven trumpets mentioned in Revelation chapter 8 are all related to the nation of Israel during Daniel’s Seventieth Week.
Trumpets are never used in Scripture in relation to the church but rather Israel.
The trumpet mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:16 is used to sound the alarm to Israel that the worst period of her history, the Great Tribulation period is about to begin.
In Revelation 8, an elect angel is an instrument used by the God to execute judgments (Rev. 7:1; 8:2).
This leads us to the communion service and so therefore, could we have our ushers pass out the communion elements and let us take a few minutes to meditate upon the Lord and prepare ourselves for the Lord’s Supper.
1 Corinthians 11:23, “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread.”
1 Corinthians 11:24, “and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:25, “In the same way {He took} the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink {it} in remembrance of Me.’”
1 Corinthians 11:26, “For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.”
