Revelation (Part 5) Series

(Part 5)

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 10/29/2017

If you’ve been with us the last few weeks, you know we are waist deep in the prophesies and puzzles of Revelation. As I’ve said before, with all of its symbolism and strange creatures Revelation can be the most challenging book of the Bible. Yet, God tells us that we are blessed when we read it and obey its message.

Obviously, God intended for us to understand and appreciate this book. And my prayer is that this series will help you do just that.

Last week, in Revelation 5, tension began building in John’s vision of heaven’s throne room, when the One sitting on the throne presented a sealed scroll. The scroll itself contained God’s seven-fold judgement against Jerusalem. And yet no one could be found in heaven or on earth who was worthy to open the scroll and unleash God’s wrath. That is, until Jesus made a dramatic entrance. Stepping forward to claim the scroll, Jesus—pictured as both the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God—took center stage once again. Suddenly all of heaven and earth break out into a magnificent melody, singing “worthy is the Lamb who was slain!”

But while the melodious music of the colossal choir tapers off, expectation and excitement build as all of heaven anticipates Jesus opening the seven seals.

If you have a Bible or an app on your phone, open it to Revelation 6-7.

In these chapters, Jesus breaks open the seven seals, setting in motion a series of curious scenes centered on three key groups, beginning with the stampeding steeds.

• THE STAMPEDING STEEDS

John may have expected Jesus to read what was written in the scroll, but instead the scroll turns out to be a “pop up” book, whose images leap from the page and stampede across John’s vision. As the Lamb of God breaks the first four seals, an angel shouts “Come,” and John writes:

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… 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… I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand… 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 fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:1-7 NIV)

The first four seals released four horses and their riders, often referred to as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Together these horsemen represent conquest, war, famine, disease and ultimately death. Because war, famine, and disease continue to rage all across the globe, there’s a sense in which these horsemen continue to stampede even today. However, it’s much more likely these horsemen and their steeds represent a specific time in the near future of John’s original readers.

Today, war seems to the norm and peace ever elusive. But for John’s original readers just the opposite was true. They lived during the famed “Pax Romana,” or the Roman Peace. Decades earlier, the mighty Roman empire established peace throughout the known world—peace that lasted two centuries! Imagine that: no wars for two hundred years! For a first-century audience, the suggestion that this peace would be taken from the land and war would break out, was shockingly significant.

This is why Jesus warned his listeners, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars” (Matthew 24:6 NIV). Today this prophecy would be meaningless. Every week, the evening news reports on a new war breaking out somewhere on the planet. But in Jesus’ day, wars and even rumors of wars were unheard of in the Roman Empire, making Jesus’ prophecy much more meaningful. And just as Jesus predicted, this unparalleled Roman Peace would soon be disrupted.

In 66 AD, the Roman emperor Nero needed money, and ordered his representatives in Judaea to confiscate it from the treasure in the Jerusalem Temple. After sixty years of Roman taxation and oppression, the Jews saw this as the last straw. They revolted and Jewish forces laid siege to the Roman garrison within Jerusalem. When word reached Nero Caesar, he commissioned General Vespasian to quell the rebellion and declared war against Israel. The Roman-Jewish war lasted three and a half years and culminated in the total destruction of Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the death of Nero in 68 AD led to civil war within Rome itself.

Flavius Josephus was a Jewish general who fought against the Roman legions, but later defected and became an advisor to General Vespasian. A brilliant scholar, Josephus became a historian for Rome and documented the Roman-Jewish wars in detail, describing the war itself, the famine and disease that swept across the land, and even how wild beast, like dogs and jackals, prowled the ruins picking off survivors.