Tagged: red horse

September 12, 2011

A large sword was given to him (Rev. 6:3-4)

Previously: So that people should slay one another (Rev. 6:3-4)

The scripture

Rev. 6:3 – When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” ⁴Then another horse went out, a fiery red one, and its horseman was empowered to take peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another. And a large sword was given to him (HCSB).

The words associated with the second seal end with, “And a large sword was given to him.” Actually, this is the small Roman sword called the machaira. Roman soldiers use it for the capital punishment of Roman citizens, as Paul notes in Rom. 13:4: “But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it [government] does not carry the sword [machaira] for no reason.” This small sword – more like a large knife that may be concealed – is in contrast to the romphaia, the sword a soldier carries marching into battle. W.A. Criswell believes the distinction is important: “A machaira was the kind of a knife with which to cut the throat of an animal or of a man. The red horseman represents not only nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, but, more nearly, the terrible slaughter of class fighting class and party fighting party, as in civil war. The fighters ambush in the night; they assassinate in the day; they murder at twilight and at noontime, and everyone lives in the fear of his life. There is murder and bloodshed everywhere” (Expository Sermons on Revelation, p. 99).

But why is this small sword called “large” or “great” if it is little more than a dagger? Perhaps because the impact of this murderous evil is widespread. Just as “a little yeast leavens the whole lump of dough” (Gal. 5:9), and just as Jesus taught, in the Sermon on the Mount, that adultery and murder begin in the human heart, perhaps the widespread bloodshed begins because of multiplied pettiness in sinful hearts, unrestrained by the departed Holy Spirit. Whatever the reason for the depiction of this small sword as large, we should beware that hidden evil thoughts, if left unconfessed to God, may manifest in the greatest kinds of wickedness. We should always be alert because our adversary, the Devil, “prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

One final thought: “The phrase ‘to make men slaughter one another’ is interesting because in the OT this is one of the means YHWH used to judge His enemies (cf. Judg. 7:22; I Sam. 14:20; II Chr. 20:22)” (R.J.D. Utley, Hope in Hard Times – The Final Curtain: Revelation, Study Guide Commentary Series, Vol. 12, p. 61). It is good for us to remember that God is sovereign over all human activity, even to the point that He sometimes uses our evil as an instrument of His judgment. The ways of the Lord are mysterious, deep and wonderful.

Next: The third seal (Rev. 6:5-6)

September 2, 2011

So that people would slaughter one another (Rev. 6:3-4)

Previously: Empowered to take peace from the earth (Rev. 6:3-4)

The scripture

It’s interesting to note John’s use of the phrase “so that.” This rider is given authority to take peace from the earth “so that people would slaughter one another.” Whatever restraint has been on mankind’s natural tendency to hate and murder is now taken away. This could be the Roman peace that crumbles beneath its own weight and gives way to warfare. Or it could be the uneasy peace that has existed between the Jews and their Roman occupiers, giving way to Jewish rebellion and Rome’s crushing response in 70 A.D. as Jerusalem is sacked, the temple is destroyed, more than 1 million Jews are killed and the rest are scattered in the Diaspora. Or it could be a more timeless statement about the sinful tendencies of the human race throughout the church age, despite the spread of Christianity and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. It could even refer to the martyrdom of so many Christians at the hands of the Jews and Romans in the early centuries of the church.

No doubt the early Christians often bristled at the opposition to their faith and freedoms. The Apostle Paul addresses this in Romans 13, urging Christians to live according to high ethical standards, even when human government is far from perfect: “Everyone must submit to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. So then, the one who resists the authority is opposing God’s command, and those who oppose it will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do good and you will have its approval. For government is God’s servant to you for good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, because it does not carry the sword for no reason. For government is God’s servant, an avenger that brings wrath on the one who does wrong” (vv. 1-4).

The apostle Peter also touches on this subject in 1 Peter 2:13-17: “Submit to every human institution because of the Lord, whether to the Emperor as the supreme authority, or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For it is God’s will that you, by doing good, silence the ignorance of foolish people. As God’s slaves, [live] as free people, but don’t use your freedom as a way to conceal evil. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor.”

One other thought, from a futurist perspective, is that the false peace of the Antichrist during the first half of the tribulation now gives way to widespread warfare. No doubt the days of bloodshed begin not only because the Antichrist wills it to be so, but because the Supreme restrainer of evil – the Holy Spirit – has removed Himself from the earth. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, addressing the false teaching that the Day of the Lord has already come. He comments: “Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy (or rebellion) comes first and the man of lawlessness (or man of sin / Antichrist) is revealed, the son of destruction. He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he sits in God’s sanctuary, publicizing that he himself is God” (2 Thess. 2:3-4).

Paul adds in verses 5-7, “Don’t you remember that when I was still with you I told you about this? And you know what currently restrains [him], so that he will be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; but the one now restraining will do so until he is out of the way …” Futurists contend that this restraining power is the Holy Spirit, Who withdraws to heaven with the saints at the Rapture, enabling the Antichrist to establish a false peace on the earth, only to take it away.

Next: A large sword was given to him (Rev. 6:3-4)

August 29, 2011

Empowered to take peace from the earth (Rev. 6:3-4)

Previously: A fiery red horse (Rev. 6:3-4)

The scripture

The rider on this fiery red horse is empowered, or granted, or literally “given” the authority to take peace from the earth. This, of course, implies that there is some level of peace to be taken. If you take a preterist view and confine the events of Revelation to the Mediterranean world of the first centuries of the Christian era, this peace would be the Pax Romana, or Roman peace that ran roughly from the third decade B.C. until 180 A.D. and resulted in the Romanization of the Western world. Some preterists, who confine the events of Revelation to a pre-70 A.D. time frame, say the peace that is lost is among the Jews, who rebel against the Romans and engage in petty infighting.

Historicists generally refer to this loss of peace as referring to the period from the accession of Commodus (A.D. 180) to Diocletian (A.D. 284), a time of civil wars and bloodshed in the Roman Empire. Futurists, however, see this peace as the first 3 ½ years of the tribulation, during which the Antichrist (the rider on the white horse) lulls the world into a false sense of security. And spiritualists argue that the fiery red horse represents war in general. In all cases, there is agreement that peace – whether regional or global, and whether stable or shaky – exists and is about to be removed.

Determining whether the peace is regional or global depends largely on one’s interpretation of the word translated “earth” in verse 4. The Hebrew use of the word in the Old Testament “is ambiguous in so far as it sometimes expresses this wider meaning of ‘earth’ (i.e. so far as the Hebrews knew it) and sometimes only ‘land’, a more restricted area. In the accounts of the Flood (Gn. 6–9) and of the division of speech (Gn. 11:1) each meaning has its advocates” (D.R.W. Wood and I.H. Marshall, New Bible Dictionary, 3rd ed., p. 285). The use of the Greek word in Revelation is taken by some to mean the entire inhabited earth, and by others to be restricted to the Roman world or even Israel and its surroundings. In some cases, one’s view may be driven more by a particular view of Revelation – preterist, futurist, etc. – than by anything else.

Next: So that people should slay one another (Rev. 6:3-4)

August 22, 2011

A fiery red horse (Rev. 6:3-4)

Previously: The second seal (Rev. 6:3-4)

The scripture

This horse is red – some say the color of blood symbolizing the brutality of warfare. Some commentators, like Matthew Henry, who believe the rider on the white horse is Jesus and whose bow is the gospel, now say the rider on the red horse is an unknown soldier who carries out God’s wrath. As Henry puts it, “Those who will not submit to the bow of the gospel must expect to be cut in sunder by the sword of divine justice” (Re 6:3-8). Others associate this horse and rider with the fiery red dragon of Rev. 12:3 or the scarlet beast of Rev. 17:3. Still others say the rider is the Antichrist, who has exchanged his empty bow for a sword and a pseudo earthly peace for worldwide warfare.

In Revelation, the color red is associated with terror, death and judgment, but throughout scripture it has a variety of contexts. It is the color of the earth from which Adam is made (in Gen. 2:7 the letters for “Adam” in Hebrew may also mean “ruby” or “dust” and can also mean reddish in color). It is the color of Job’s face as he weeps in sorrow (Job 16:16). It is the name of the sea through which the Hebrews pass from Egyptian slavery into freedom – a symbol of the blood of Christ through which sinners are redeemed from the slave market of sin and made free. It is the color of linen hangings in the tabernacle, of wine as it gleams in the cup, and of the sky at night or early morning to signal the weather.

As we will see in our journey through the Book of Revelation, the color red most certainly indicates human warfare, as in this verse. But it also tells us of the warfare the Lamb of God wages against the world’s wicked. Most likely, this red horse is not Christ’s and the rider is not the Lamb. But we can be sure that whoever they are and whatever harm they intend is fully orchestrated by the One who holds the scroll in His hand.

Next: Empowered to take peace from the earth