Revelation 6:7-11
As we look at the next group of verses and the opening of the fourth seal, we start with the last of the four horseman. Though these four horses have all been given differing colors it is the riders of these horses that are bringing God's wrath not the horses, at least in part.
7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
The pale horse with the rider whom John calls Death. How John determined that this horseman was to be named Death we do not know, maybe it was the pale color which reminded him of the skin color of someone deceased.
Is this horseman responsible for the deaths of those whom God is getting ready to inflict His wrath upon? Maybe this horseman is in someway responsible for the unbelievers souls? For sure it is one or the other or both but I'm not sure we have an answer to it in full.
The interesting thing about this horseman is he has another with him, Hades. Hades is the Greek god of the underworld and this would be appropriate for him to be trailing Death in order to acquire the souls of all these unbelievers who will be dying.
God's sovereignty is shown in full display in what we are seeing, every little thing God has thought about, planned out perfectly and willed to happen.
Many will say God is love and only love but as we know from scripture that isn't really true. God hates at times in scripture such as in Romans 9:13 where scripture says ~ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” That is God saying this, he hated Esau a person. There are other verses about God hating evil doers as well in the Old Testament.
It is important for us to understand that God does hate, He hates those who will not come to faith in Christ and do not repent of their sin against Him. God doesn't send those He loves to Hell, that wouldn't make any sense at all.
It is important for us to understand that God's hate is a righteous hate which is something we as humans are incapable of. Our hate is always tainted in someway just like everything else about us. Any righteousness that we have did not come from within us but rather was credited to us at the point that we became believers. It is Jesus' righteousness that is credited to us which is how God sees us the believer now.
Verse eight goes on to say that God gave these two authority over a fourth of the earth in order it says “to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.”
What a well oiled machine God has created here, death and the collection of the souls of the lost at the same time.
Besides those dying by the sword, famine, and pestilence God has even ordained certain animals to kill some of these unbelievers. It would be hard not to conclude that God must be doing all this even if you would say you don't believe in God. This is most assuredly why God has chose these options, to make it clear that it is Him, nothing else would make sense.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
In many countries today death is the end result if that countries government catches you and also as well if some of the people catch you believing in Christ and sharing Him with others.
Here in America there is little fear of this which is maybe why Christianity has become so weak here as a whole. Christians are never tested here and I am fairly sure a large percentage of self professing Christians would crumble if put to the test of life or death.
Upon the opening of the fifth seal the souls of the martyrs who are under the alter in heaven cried it says. They cried for God to take vengeance against those who have killed them for their faith. Scripture says God is the avenger of His people (Romans 12:19). God's wrath against those who have come against His people is more severe than we can ever do.
When we are doing our best to serve Christ we should feel in some way those who come against us and the work we are doing for Him. This doesn't always mean that we need to be martyred just that those who come against us in any way for being His servants that God will be our revenge on them at some point and in some way.
Over the past twenty five years in ministry as I look at those who have come against me in the work that I do for Christ, that you would think I am talking about those who are unbelievers, but that hasn't been normally the case. Self professing Christians at times will come against other believers who are eagerly working for Christ. There is a good possibility that these self professing Christians may not be Christians at all even though they may think they are. They show little to know fruit which is a sign that they have deceived themselves into thinking they are a believer (Matthew 7:15-20).
In verse eleven we see those who have been martyred given white robes to signify in some way who they are. Patience is what they were told to have until the final numbers of the martyrs has come to fruition. God's vengeance for the martyrs cannot happen until the last martyr has been killed. Patience then must be had and faith that God will do exactly as He has stated.
God's timing is always perfect and ours is most times imperfect and it isn't always easy for us as imperfect humans to have such great patience.
