Slices
Prepare
‘For waters shall break forth in the wilderness’ (Isaiah 35:6, ESV). Your history does not define your destiny. God is the God of resurrection, the unexpected, and unearned, new life. Lay your ‘wilderness’ before God as you meditate on these words.
Bible passage
The seals
6 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword.
5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A kilogram of wheat for a day’s wages, and three kilograms of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’
7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a quarter of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?’ 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
12 I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, 13 and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig-tree when shaken by a strong wind. 14 The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
15 Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16 They called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?’
Explore
As the scroll of history is opened, scenes of terror emerge. Led by a demonic ‘false Messiah’ (v 2), we see warfare (v 4), famine (v 6), cruel deaths (v 8) and cosmic upheaval (vs 12–14), and the presence of the One who sits on the throne strikes terror into the world’s leaders (15–17).
But did you notice, the fifth seal reveals something different? Here we see God’s people, martyred for their faith (v 9), now alive with him in heaven, crying out for justice (v 10). In the middle of turmoil in the world, God has them safe. Their death was not their end but, like the Lamb whom they followed, they lived on though ‘slain’. Today, Christians around the world are being martyred for their faith, and all Christians live in a world all too similar to that described in this passage. This ancient vision describes a very contemporary world. How do we respond?
At the very least, like the souls under heaven’s altar, we pray, loudly crying out to God for justice, and for God’s final judgement (v 17) to unseat the riders of the four horses and put an end to all causes of suffering, pain, greed and evil.
Respond
There are many organisations working to support persecuted Christians. Pray for their work. Maybe visit their websites for up-to-date prayer requests, and to see how you can get involved.
Deeper Bible study
Thank you for John’s gift of sanctified imagination; help us to dream of a different kind of world. Amen.
If the book of Revelation unveils the truth concerning God and his purposes in human history, it also unveils the often concealed reality of the tragedy of a fallen world.
That world, dominated by the Roman Empire, was described by its rulers as ‘civilised’ and peaceful. Roman conquests and the spread and dominance of its culture were celebrated by writers and philosophers as signalling the end of history. This chapter shows a very different picture of the empire, revealing how it was experienced by masses of people on the underside of society, whether in the slums of Rome or in the countryside where absentee landlords controlled vast areas which they converted into profitable vineyards or olive groves.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse may seem strange to us, but every detail of this chapter would have been recognised by the first hearers as dramatically illustrating the circumstances of their lives. For example, the ‘black horse’ has a rider who holds ‘a pair of scales’ (vs 5,6). In ad 92 the Emperor Domitian attempted to control the endless expansion of vineyards which enriched their owners but led to poverty and hunger among peasant populations. The wealthy elite were outraged by this interference and the emperor had to withdraw his edict, leading to starvation and the situation described here: ‘A kilogram of wheat for a day’s wages … and do not damage the oil and the wine!’ (v 6).
The chapter describes the Christian martyrs in heaven crying out to God with the question asked by Israel’s psalmists in the past: ‘How long...?’ (v 10), but it ends with the promise that the righteous judgement of God will come to all humankind, including ‘the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals’ (vs 15–17).
Do we need to question official depictions of society when they conceal the reality of life among the poor and homeless?
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Leviticus 23,24; Acts 12
Pray for Scripture Union
Please pray for everyone running Guardians of Ancora clubs and for Faith Guides using the resources in the Faith Guide Hub collection. Thank God for the many thousands of children who are encountering stories of Jesus through the app – and pray that there will be a lasting impact.
