“When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hell was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth” (Revelation 6:7-8).
The words “pale horse” is better translated “sickly green colored horse” or “ghastly green horse.” A rider named death, on a ghastly green horse, with hell following close behind. Hebrews 2:14 tells us that Satan has the power of death, and so a good picture of what is happening here is Satan riding this sickly green colored horse going around killing people with the sword, hunger, famine and plagues and hell is following close behind gathering up all these dead people. People are dying by the millions and once they die they are cast into hell. It has been said that more people will die in this time period than all who have died in all the wars of the history of mankind put together. What a terrible picture for those who have rejected Jesus Christ!
In the first three seals we see that God has turned mankind over to self-destruct, but now it is God sending His judgment onto this sinful earth. If this were to happen today, with 6 billion people on this earth, one-fourth of mankind would die, which would be 1.5 billion people. We can’t even imagine such a catastrophic event in our minds. Further into the book of Revelation it tells us a third of those left will also die, “And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind” (Revelation 9:15). And if you compute all this together it means that about half the world’s population that is living during that time period is going to die.
One of the things mentioned here is that “beasts of the earth” will do some of this killing for Satan. I want you to get out your microscope and look at a flea, mite, or some insect or virus so you can get a picture of what these beasts of the earth look like. Let’s not think of lions, tigers, sharks, or other huge earthly beasts that will kill people. We all know that viruses and insects have a way of eventually getting around our chemicals and drugs. Many of the viruses and diseases are becoming immune to the drugs we have to treat them.
“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, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place” (Revelation 6:12-14). Earthquakes are something that humans have absolutely no control over; they can cause tidal waves that kill hundreds of thousands of people, like the 9.0 earthquake that happened December 26, 2004 that killed over 250,000 people. Even though this was one of the strongest earthquakes in recorded history, this will be a small fry compared to what is coming on this earth.
The August 26-27, 1883 explosion of the Krakatau Volcano (“Krakatoa”) in Indonesia caused darkness for several hours for thousands of square miles because of the ash, it is said that this volcano blew out 20 times more land than the Mount St. Helens volcano. The explosion and collapse of this volcano generated tidal waves that were over 100 feet high that destroyed hundreds of towns and villages in Western Java and Southern Sumatra killing over 30,000 people. The sound was heard over two thousand miles away, and this was a tiny volcano compared to the ones that could happen because of the earthquakes spoken of here in Revelation 6.
“Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 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! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:15-17). The Bible says that if you call upon the name of the Lord you shall be saved (Romans 10:13), and even though these people indicate here that they know this wrath is coming from the Lamb, they pray for the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from God and Jesus Christ. “Because of their pride the wicked do not seek Him; in all their thoughts there is no room for God” (Psalm 10:4).
“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans1:21-23). I am always amazed at how the natural man thinks; he puts worldly knowledge and worldly things in front of Godly wisdom. His mind is occupied totally by earthly things; in fact, the natural man actually worships his worldly things and worldly wisdom. But the result of such thinking is that God will turn such a person over to themselves, “Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind” (Romans 1:28). The word “depraved” means worthless or useless. The mind that rejects Jesus Christ is worthless to God for His purposes. More next time.