Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Revelation 6:1-8

Immanuel – 2/27/22

Today we come to the part of Revelation of which Douglas Wilson says, “Christian interpreters shake hands with each other in order to part company, not to be reunited again until the resurrection of the dead in chapter 20.” Indeed, the difference of interpretations grows stark from Revelation 6 and onward.

Today I want to show you that the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse have already ridden. The destructions foretold have already fallen. Revelation is not asking us to wait for future wars, famine, and death. As a Postmillennial, I believe the world has seen these four riders already. I want to show you why, and I want to use the Bible as my evidence. As always, we should strive to use the Bible to interpret the Bible, rather than new feeds and sensational claims.

Purpose

The opening of the scroll is the ending of one age and the beginning of another.

The four horsemen are judgements for covenant unfaithfulness.

Connect the symbols to first century events.

God’s Word is powerful and must lead us to worship!

Read Revelation 6:1-8

This whole vision is based upon visions given to Zechariah; visions of four horsemen with similarly colored horses. In Zechariah, these horsemen patrol the earth, moving with the Spirit of God, dispense peace as God determines.

The Turning of Ages

But, before I dive into expositing this passage, let us remember some of the things we have seen in chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation. For the second time, John has been caught up in the spirit and given prophetic visions: not of literal heavenly places, but of symbols revealing things greater than what eyes can see.

In the beginning of chapter 5 a scroll is presented. Once again, it is critical to grasp the meaning of the symbol that is the scroll. The scroll symbolizes the new covenant.

This scroll initiates the turning of the ages. Unlike the old age – with its covenant of law – the new covenant of grace is an age when the dwelling place of God is with man, where death shall be no more, and where the wicked will have no portion. Contained within the scroll is this story of God making all things new. Therefore, once the scroll is opened the old covenant passes away and a new covenant – of the kingdom of God – is forever established.

In chapter 5 we also saw that this scroll is sealed with seven seals. In the ancient world, when a king would send a message, he would roll up the scroll, and drip some hot wax on the edge of the paper. As it began to cool, he would press his ring, or some official stamp, into the wax. Once dried, the only way to open the scroll was to break the seal.

And this scroll in Revelation has not one seal, but seven. The seven seals symbolize a fullness of time, that the contents will not be revealed until God’s determined time. For only then, at the fullness of time, will the scroll be opened and the ages change. This is why Jesus was the only one worthy to open the scroll. He, the crucified and risen Messiah, is the signal that the old age has ended and the new age has begun.

Just as Jesus Himself proclaimed at the beginning of His ministry:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” -Mark 1:15

Let us therefore consider what it means that the time is fulfilled. Puttting it another way, let us consider the impact of opening the scroll. What does the opening of the scroll mean for the world?

Opening the Scroll

All throughout the Old Testament, everywhere you look, the contents of this scroll were prophesied: but they were hints, shadows of the things to come. One of these shadows was prophesied by Jeremiah.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people…For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” -Jeremiah 31:31-34

Jeremiah is prophesying a new covenant: where the law of God will not hang over people like some terrible burden, but will be etched upon our own hearts. Meaning, people will want to obey God. We will obey God out of the overflow of our hearts, out of love, rather than law. Today God writes upon human hearts by indwelling us with the Holy Spirit, the great gift of the new covenant.

Also, God forgives our sins. Of course this happens through the cross, where Jesus bore the penalty of our sins so that we might receive His righteousness. By trusting in Jesus, His blood washes away our every sin. His blood is the blood of a new covenant: a shadow of which we see in Jeremiah’s prophesy.

Notice, also, in Jeremiah’s prophesy, that God says He was like a husband to Israel. He rescued her and cared for her. But Israel left her husband. Through idolatry and self-reliance, Israel abandoned God. Elsewhere in Jeremiah God says this,

“I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest…What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?…For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds; but you said, ‘I will not serve.’ Yes, on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed down like a whore.” -Jeremiah 2:2-3,5,20

Though that was hundreds of years before John’s Revelation; generally speaking, Israel’s hardness of heart maintained. Not only had they abandoned God, they had crucified His Son. It was the ultimate insult to the Father. God’s anger was kindled, and the Days of Wrath were coming to Israel.

Once again, you see this all throughout the Old Testament, the new covenant brings salvation and judgement/redemption and destruction. Even on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon men, Peter quoted Joel 2.

“It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” -Joel 2:28-32

Salvation and judgement: both would come at the establishment of the new covenant.

As Christians, we are all familiar with the salvation of the new covenant – with the forgiveness of the cross and eternal life through resurrection and the indwelling of the Spirit. But do we understand the judgements that also came? They fell upon apostate Israel. It came to the people that refused to accept the new covenant, that refused to accept their Messiah. It came to the Israel that continued to bow down on every high hill and under every green tree as a whore.

Jesus said it would happen: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites…you witness against yourselves that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?…On you [will] come all the righteous blood shed on [the land]…Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.”

-Matthew 23:29,31-33,35-36

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate.”

-Matthew 23:37-39

“You see all these [temple buildings], do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” -Matthew 24:2

Salvation comes to any who believe in Jesus, Jew or Gentile. But to those that refused the new covenant and instead insisted on righteousness through law, there was only terrible judgement and great tribulation. They, and their system, was passing away.

In speaking of a new covenant, [God] makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. -Hebrews 8:13

Back in Revelation 6, when the scroll is opened salvation and judgment is unleashed upon the land. Salvation to all who believe in the blood of the new covenant. Judgement to those who insist upon the blood of the old covenant.

You can think of it in another way. The bride that abandoned her husband for countless illegitimate lovers, is being divorced. God is divorcing Israel for her constant faithlessness and infidelity. God now marries a new bride – the bride of Christ, the church. This is exactly where Revelation goes. In chapters 17 and 18 a harlot is destroyed. In chapters 19-22 a marriage occurs.

The scroll that Christ opens is something like the divorce papers and the marriage certificate all rolled into one divine document: a document of salvation and judgement.

Now, finally, lets dive into Revelation 6. Remember, the contents of the scroll cannot be read until every seal is broken. Remember also, time is working a little differently in John’s vision. For within John’s place in time, he is being shown things that were, things that are, and things that will be.

Therefore, each one of the seven seals is like a summary. They are not one single event, but they describe how things unfold in the Last Days – in the turning of covenants. They are the days that start with Jesus’ declaration “The time is fulfilled,” and they end at the destruction of Jerusalem. The Last Days run from about 30 AD to 70 AD. And as I have said before, John receives Revelation somewhere during this period.

Read vs 1-2

The Riders

Many interpreters see in this passage the antichrist. But that interpretation does not come from the context of Revelation. For instance, see that the one upon the white horse has conquered. Who did Revelation just tell us has conquered?

Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered. -Revelation 5:5

And earlier: “The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne.” -Revelation 3:21

If anyone has conquered in Revelation, it is the Lion and the Lamb, Jesus Christ! And He is the one in this book, who rides upon a victorious white horse.

Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war…the name by which He is called is The Word of God. -Revelation 19:11,13

God the Son rides upon the white horse, in righteousness, to judge and make war. And just as the white rider has a crown, so also does Jesus have a crown.

Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud on like a son of man, with a golden crown on His head. -Revelation 14:14

Every single descriptor of the rider of the white horse is used elsewhere in Revelation to describe Jesus. He is the one that John sees; and in righteousness He comes to judge and make war.

Also, the rider has a bow. This is an image clearly drawn from the Old Testament; for when God comes in judgement, He is often seen wielding a bow. Here are two examples:

In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness, let your right hand teach you awesome deeds! Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; the peoples fall under you. -Psalm 45:4-5

You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. You split the earth with rivers. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. -Habakkuk 3:9,11

He who rides upon the white horse, with golden crown, with bow in hand, having conquered and going to conquer; He is none other than Christ Himself. He conquered temptation and sin, and lived a perfect life. He conquered death, and rose from the grave. And His gospel conquers so effectively that the gates of hell cannot prevail against Him and His church.

Jesus is the rider upon the white horse! And when the seal is broken, one of the cherubim says, “Come!” The cherubim does not speak to John. He speaks to the rider. At the word, Come! the white horse, anxious in its waiting, bursts from his stable and runs to conquest. Christ rides to Jerusalem. He rides to conquer.

But the white horse and its rider is just a symbol: a symbol of Christ unleashing a righteous judgement through war. The reality is a foreign army undergirded by a divine purpose.

In 66 AD, Jewish protests and riots turned into an all-out revolt against Rome. Nero was Caesar, and he had enough of these obstinate rebels in Galilee and Judea. In swift response he unleashed the full might of the Roman army upon the Jews; and eventually Rome came to Jerusalem. In 70 AD, Jerusalem would be utterly destroyed and, just as Jesus had prophesied, not one temple stone was left upon the other. The old covenant system of worship was forever eradicated.

Though it was Rome who brought the destruction, Revelation is symbolically showing us that it was really Jesus. Rome was merely the tool in the hand of Christ: like a bow used to fell the apostate people of Jerusalem. When Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel; when Babylon conquered the southern kingdom of Judah; both times God says He was the one behind it. He used foreign nations to bring judgement. In fact, I read some of those passages to you.

So it is here. Jesus rides as conqueror, and Rome is His mighty bow. Jerusalem faces divine judgement from the One they crucified.

Read Revelation 1:7

The Lion and the Lamb then breaks the second seal, and in the train of His victorious conquest come horrific tribulations/judgement. The first is war.

Read vs 3-4

As I have mentioned, from 66 – 70 AD, war erupted between the Jews and Rome. The red horse and its rider do not make war; they merely remove peace. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem, He said, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42). Peace is a grace; a fruit of the Spirit. It is a gift from God that only comes through Jesus. When He takes peace, people’s deprave nature results in hatred and conflict.

In verse 4 it says that peace is taken from the earth. But earth is a bad translation. The Greek word, “ge,” is better rendered as land; for these are judgements specific to the land of Israel. Remember, in the old covenant, God’s favor or disfavor was manifest in the land. And now the old covenant is vanishing away, thus the land of Israel – Jerusalem and its temple – were being utterly thrown down in judgement.

And not only was there war with Rome, there was war that erupted among the Jews throughout the land. Various Jewish factions formed to fight against Rome, but they had very different beliefs about what God was doing, how the war should be waged, and how to govern themselves. During the siege of Jerusalem these closely confined factions sabotaged and warred with one another. Thousands were slain by their infighting. Such Jewish infighting was spread throughout the land before the siege.

A Jewish and Roman historian, Josephus, was present for the war between Rome and the Jews. His complete works are available in our Book Nook. Here is what Josephus wrote about the infighting that engulfed the Jews:

“Every city was divided into two armies encamped against one another, and the preservation of the one party was in the destruction of the other; so that day-time was spent in the shedding of blood, and the night in fear…It was then common to see cities filled with dead bodies, still lying unburied, and those of old men, mixed with infants, all dead, and scattered about together; women also lay among them, without any covering for their nakedness; you might then see the whole province full of inexpressible calamities, while dread of still more barbarous practices which were threatened, was everywhere greater than what had been already perpetrated.” -The Jewish War, Book 2

Indeed, peace was removed from the land of Israel. The Jews fought with Rome and they fought themselves. Once more, the words of Jesus were finding their fulfillment.

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its destruction has come near…for these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written…For there will be great distress upon the [land] and wrath against this people. They will fall by the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

-Luke 21:20,22-24

And in the wake of war came famine.

Read vs 5-6

The black horse is famine. The luxuries of wine and oil go untouched, but the necessities of life are destroyed. The black rider carries a scale in his hands. Scales were a common symbol of famine.

“And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall execute vengeance for the covenant. And if you gather within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I break your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in a single oven and shall dole out your bread again by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.” -Leviticus 26:25-26

They ate their food by weight, rationing it on scales, eating what could not sate the hunger pangs.

War, famine, and pestilence in the land; all a consequence of covenant unfaithfulness. Yes, the black horse and his scales, they were symbols of real life famines that swept through Galilee and Judea. Just as Jesus foretold, famines preceded the destruction of the temple.

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” -Matthew 24:7-8

In Acts 11 and 1 Corinthians 16 we read about a famine so severe that the churches throughout the empire sent aid to the Jerusalem church. Other famines also rolled through the Roman empire in these years, but none were so severe as the famine that came to Jewish lands in the wake of war.

Everywhere the legions of Rome marched, they pillaged land and city to feed themselves – mercilessly killing and raping along the way. That which they did not consume, they burnt. The land was so utterly devastated that it has never recovered. Even to this day, in places once fertile there is nothing but a desolate landscape. In the wake of such a famine, countless numbers perished from want of food.

And when the Roman armies had encircled Jerusalem, leaving no escape for its inhabitants, and no possibility of resupply, then the real teeth of famine were felt.

Josephus records that during the siege, friends would fight one another for scraps of food. Men staggered around Jerusalem in bands, stealing anything that could be eaten. In the beginning, a days’ worth of food sold for a week’s wage – even as Revelation 6:6 proclaimed.

Then the food entirely vanished. After the city’s supply of rats were consumed, people began desperately tearing leather from shields and sandals for some semblance of nourishment. Josephus graphically records a very disturbing instance where a nursing mother ate half her infant before being discovered. Even in such a state, this report left the inhabitants of Jerusalem completely appalled and demoralized.

How woeful was the fulfillment of Jesus’ words!

“Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days!” -Matthew 24:19

We can hardly imagine the horrors of famine that came upon Judea in the Last Days. But come they did, like a raging black horse. And those that refused Jesus, and tried to live by bread alone, died without the living Bread of Life.

Then, with the breaking of the fourth seal, came the final, terrible horseman.

Read vs 7-8

The Greek word translated as “pale” literally means a sickly greenish-pale. It symbolizes death. And Hades, that follows death, is not hell. It is more like the grave – the place of the dead.

This pale horseman is closely linked to the white rider. Because Jesus conquered Death, He is able to say in Revelation 1:18, that He has the keys to Death and Hades. Death rides the pale horse, bringing the grave, precisely because Jesus has commanded them to do so.

See at the end of verse 8 that the pale horse kills by sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beast. These four agents of Death are the exact consequences of covenant unfaithfulness.

“For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgement, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!” -Ezekiel 14:21

Surely, as the four horsemen wielded their four disastrous acts of judgement, the bodies of the dead would fill the land. With terrible fulfillment, Josephus estimated that one million Jews died in the war with Rome. In book 6 of the Jewish Wars, Josephus writes about what the Roman soldiers discovered after finally entering Jerusalem.

[The soldiers] could hardly believe what they found to be true; but seeing nobody oppose them, they stood in doubt at what such an unusual solitude could mean. But when they went in numbers into the lanes of the city, with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook, without mercy, and set fire to the houses where the Jews had fled, and burnt every soul in them, and laid waste a great many of the rest; and when they came to the houses to plunder them, they found in them entire families of dead men, and the upper rooms full of dead corpses, that all died by the famine; they then stood in horror at this sight, and went out without touching anything. But although they had this commiseration for [the dead], they did not have the same for those that were still alive, but they ran every one through whom they met, and filled the very lanes with their dead bodies, and made the whole city run down with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with these men's blood.

Christ conquered His enemies with His bow of judgements in hand. Following His lead came war and famine. Last of all, death came inescapably to Israel; and the grave could not contain its numbers. As horrific as it is to hear of such calamities, these were the very curses for breaking covenant with God.

Deuteronomy 28:15-68 details curses that will come upon the land of Israel for covenant disobedience. It is a very long and detailed section of Scripture; but here is a sampling:

Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl…The Lord will send on you curses…until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of your evil deeds, because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make pestilence stick to you…The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies…you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth…The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, a nation whose language you do not understand…They shall besiege you in all your towns…and you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters.

-Deuteronomy 28:16-17,20-21,25,49,52-53

Just as it was prophesied, the destruction of Jerusalem is a horror for us to behold, in our far-away American kingdom.

The curses for covenant unfaithfulness did indeed come upon apostate Israel. Christ’s words of the destruction of Jerusalem and her temple came true within one generation; just as He said it would. The visions of Revelation were fulfilled, and the four horsemen of the apocalypse rode in judgement upon Jerusalem. Thus the old covenant forever vanished away, leaving only a covenant of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He is the only way to the Father!

But I want you to hear something loud and clear: none of us are better than the first century Jews. In fact, we are the same. If it weren’t for Christ’s intervention in our lives, and Him conquering our own hearts, then we would remain the enemies of God. Without Christ, we deserve every single one of these curses. We deserve judgement. We deserve death.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” – so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith. -Galatians 3:13-14

This is why it is so critical not to reject Jesus. By trusting in Him, He takes away the curse. He removes our sins and makes us righteous. He has made a path to salvation, and it is available to all – Jew or Gentile.

And when you come to Jesus, all covenant blessings are yours to enjoy. Most of all, you are given the Holy Spirit, and the law of God is forever etched upon your heart. Now He dwells with you, and He is your God and you are His people. It is the new covenant of the new creation.

Like Paul writes:

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself. -2 Corinthians 5:17-19

We are the people of the new covenant. We, the church, are the bride of Christ. We are new creations, and through our ministry of reconciliation God is reconciling the world to Himself. For the old has passed away; behold, the new has come!

Praise God for His salvation. Praise God for His judgements. For knowing that the scroll contained both salvation and judgement the 4 living creatures, the 24 elders, the myriad of angels, and every voice in all creation cries out:

To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever! And the four living creature said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshipped. -Revelation 5:13-14

Though there are still tribulations in the world, and trials of our own, God’s word never fails. Fall before Him in worship or fall before Him in judgement.