Revelation 6: 12 - 17
Pay Day Has Arrived
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. 13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. 14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. 15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and 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 His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
The background to this teaching was our Lord Jesus’ statement, given in reply to the disciples’ expressed admiration of Herod’s Temple which we read in Mark 13, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down’. This leads Peter, James, John and Andrew to ask Him privately, ‘Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign when these things are all about to be accomplished?’.
Now let us consider the circumstances. The apostles have just been told that the Temple they see before them, huge and magnificent and permanent, will be destroyed totally. No wonder their interest is stirred. Indeed they can hardly believe it could happen. That is what leads to their questions. All three writers mention this. It is apparent from this therefore that the writers interpreted our Holy Lord’s discourse as mainly applying to the destruction of the Temple, which took place in 70 AD.
Matthew adds further questions ‘[1] Tell us, when will these things happen, and [2] what will be the sign of your coming and [3] of the end of the age?’. The fact that Mark and Luke did not see fit to include the last phrase is proof positive that their main thought was of the destruction of the Temple.
If you review history you will find out that Matthew was the first to write the first Gospel, then the others. So, the other 2 Gospel writers were not thinking of the ‘end times’ only thinking about the standing Temple in Jerusalem. So it is clear that in our Master Lord Jesus’ reply we will expect to have an indication of when the Temple of Herod will be totally destroyed, as it was in 70 AD. Note the clear distinction Matthew makes between ‘these things’ and ‘the sign of your coming and of the end of the age’
The distinction is important because our Lord Jesus will later state that ‘these things’ will occur within the lifetime of that generation. I have heard a lot of bible teachers butcher these verses where they add all kinds of descriptions of the word ‘generation’ in order to force fit it to their incorrect theology.
Our Lord Jesus at the time on earth did not know when His second coming will take place as indicated in Mark 13.32. Now that He Ascended back into heaven and as we read in His Holy Word all honor and power was given to Him, He now knows when He Is coming back and the expected ‘end of the age’ when God’s kingdom would be established.
As mentioned, besides covering the destruction of the Temple‘[1] Tell us, when will these things happen, our Lord also answered starting with the 5th seal, and [2] what will be the sign of your coming and [3] of the end of the age?’. Many biblical scholars combine these two as one question.
A lot of teachers have presented the book of Revelation as John receiving just one continuous vision that unfolds step by step. This is not so. John in fact received numerous visions and they skipped back and forth.
In today’s study we will see as our Great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, The Precious Lamb of God, flips open the 6th seal that John is fast forwarded to the end of time. The prayers of the Saints throughout time have pleaded with God to deal with those who have done evil. We see partly in this portion of John’s revelation of this pay back by our Supreme Judge to those who have done the evil
The chapter for all who love prophecy is Matthew 24. We should remember that throughout this chapter our Precious Holy Spirit has John dedicate a whole book to our Lord’s teaching brought out in Matthew’s Gospel. The disciples Mark [chapter 13] and Luke [chapter 21] also cover what our Lord said.
Look at what Matthew, Mark, and Luke record relative to what John is expanding upon;
Matthew 24, “27 For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 28 For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together. 29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. 32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!”
Mark 13, “24 “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; 25 the stars of heaven will fall, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. 26 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. 27 And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. 28 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 29 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that it is near—at the doors!”
Luke 21, “25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” 29 Then He spoke to them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 When they are already budding, you see and know for yourselves that summer is now near. 31 So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.”
So now let us look more closely at what John recorded relative to the 6th seal.
12 I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake;
Our Lord Jesus had forecast ‘and earthquakes’ which is recorded in Matthew 24.7. A similar event happened at the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ which is revealed in Matthew 28.2, and Luke tells us in his Gospel in chapter 21.11 that great earthquakes are forecast to take place through the ages, as are world-shaking events which could be described in such apocalyptic language with regard to sun, moon and stars. The Old Testament prophets spoke of them in similar language as happening in their day. Such events are often seen as presaging awesome things to come. And men have regularly hid from them saying that God’s day has come. In one sense therefore the first part of the sixth seal could be seen as having taken place again and again. But the difference here is that we are to see all this as pointing forward to a climax, to the actual final occurrence when that Day does actually come. Here John is not describing only the potential, he is describing the actual.
We will read and understand that the earthquakes will continue to intensify until we come to the ultimate one which causes the whole earth to change.
In John’s revelation of the end we will find that an earthquake is mentioned in chapter 8.5 when the trumpets are about to sound in John’s day. A great earthquake is also mentioned as occurring in Jerusalem (Revelation 11.13 compare ‘where also their Lord was crucified’ - 11.8) as a kind of pre-emptive strike as the last judgment commences, and finally one occurs among ‘the cities of the nations’ (16.19), the latter the greatest ever. They all signify God’s wrath.
In 8.5 the earthquake preceded the seven trumpets and their great devastation and judgment, in 11.13 and 16.19 it is part of the great judgment day itself. Each introduces divine activity. Every earthquake is thus intended to be a reminder of the coming judgment of God, and the same applies here. This one is clearly to be seen as very severe, and as also preparing the way for divine activity
Such events, of course, have happened throughout history in different parts of the world, from the first century onwards pointing forward to the final day. Thus each large earthquake has reminded men of the great judgment day that is coming and has turned the thoughts of many to the ‘Day of Judgment’. And each age has experienced tumultuous political events and spiritual attack that could be described in this fashion. But the description here is, in the last analysis, of the ultimate.
I believe that our Lord Is now addressing the questions ‘[2] what will be the sign of your coming and [3] of the end of the age?’ We will see that the description given would cause in people’s minds it that is was the ‘big one’. It is such a large scale earthquake that has taken place that creates so much intensive terror in people that they wind up taking refuge in caves and mountains, and where men’s hearts cried out in fear.
and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
Throughout Revelation we have to take our time to pray and thoroughly study to see if John wants us to interpret his message literally or symbolically. If you look again at the text ‘and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood’, we are able to deduce some things. This description is a figure of speech. It describes something very dramatically happening to the sun. What it is saying through a powerful verbal painting is that the sun will not give light. There will be darkness in the universe.
Critics to this point of view say that what is described here must be symbolic and not literal because if the sun is darkened then the earth will freeze over. However, if you go and take a look at the book of Joshua chapter 10 we read, “So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the Book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day.’
Scientists know that in the event of a solar eclipse the earth becomes dark while at the same time the earth does not freeze.
There are two things I would like to explain to you at this point. The words are metaphors and similes. A metaphor says ‘one thing is another thing.’ Here the use of a metaphor would read, ‘The whole moon is made of blood’. Similes say one thing is like another What we see John use here is a simile, ‘ The whole moon became like blood. You might be saying at this point, ‘So? What’s your point?’ Again John is focusing on the absence of light. You scientist know our Great Creator God made the moon as a reflective source of the sun. As Matthew’s Gospel points out ‘the moon will not give its light.
13 And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
I believe that there are two things that are going on here. One thing is in the physical real and the other in the spiritual realm.
It is impossible for the stars in the heaven to fall to the earth. One star is bigger than the earth. We again see John here using a figure of speech to describe the loss of light. Since the sun and moon are darkened the stars will naturally not give off any light. It will look as though the stars must have fallen from the sky. The whole universe will be in darkness.
There is another spiritual thing happening here I believe also. At this point I believe heaven is cleaned out of all of Satan’s fallen angels. Matthew writes, “29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Please notice how our Wonderful Holy Lord Jesus mentions how the powers of heavens will be shaken.
In the Gospel of Luke chapter 10 our Lord Jesus said, “And He said to them, ‘I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”’ I believe this is the same thing that John is talking about.
14 Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
Our Precious Holy Spirit spoke to the prophet Isaiah to write about the same end times. We read in chapter 34 this, “All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down as the leaf falls from the vine, and as fruit falling from a fig tree.”
Have you ever laminated something a rolled it up and put a rubber band on it? When you want to look at it you have to hold on the top and bottom. What happens when you fingers slip? The laminated item zips back into a roll. The thing John is displaying is that the sky will split apart just like when a scroll is rolled up. The outcome is that everyone on earth will now have a clear view of the 3rd Heaven and personally witness the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to the earth. You see this is the reason of all the darkness. It is because the light source is coming to earth is our Master and King. There will be no other light in the universe. Awesome!
Some teachers try to relate the point regarding that ‘every mountain and island were moved out of their places is the same thing happening in chapter 16 verse 20. Not so, for if you take a look at that verse it says, ‘ no mountain shall be found and every island will flee away.’ It would be therefore very difficult to match what our Precious Holy Spirit says about people trying to hide in the mountains.
15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and 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 His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Here we do have the culmination of world history. When the third horseman rode out the rich were not over-affected, but now all are involved. There is no hiding place. King and commoner, rich and poor, free man and slave, all are involved. It is the day of God. Earthquakes are great levelers, and men have often taken refuge in natural shelters when their own have been collapsing. But this one is perhaps the one beyond all earthquakes, the coming of the wrath of the Lamb.
In the book of Hebrews chapter 10 we read ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
People curse God and use His Holy Name in vain. They do not know Who they are insulting. But in the end all will know and greatly fear. When the earth dwellers who have taken the mark of the beast realize that all along the believers in Adoni Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ were right, there response is to try and go hide. It will be so frightening to them that they plead that the whole mountain fall on them then to face the Lamb of God Who Is returning as The Lion of The Tribe of Judah.
