Revelation 6:5-6 – 2024 Aug 01 – The Consequences of Global Slaughter

This evening, we will look at the third of the seven seals that the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world, will break when He begins to claim His rightful title to the Universe. We looked first at the great deceiver, the man of sin, the Antichrist, who rides forth on his white horse (the appearance of purity and goodness) to conquer without battle or weapons, although you could argue a show of force. Then last time we looked at the rider on the fiery red horse, the colour of burning fire, the one given a great dagger for the slaughter of mankind and that will take peace from the earth.

The seal we examine this evening will show the consequences of the second rider, and because of the dark hearts of men who are only interested in what they can get for themselves, it is a closely related consequence of the events of war and slaughter. With the taking of peace from the earth in practical terms, there will be consequences that we are seeing in some limited capacity because of the global shutdowns we have recently experienced in the pandemic lockdowns of the last several years. At the beginning of the lockdowns in 2020, a friend of mine was witness to a fistfight at Costco over toilet paper because apparently the world didn’t have enough toilet paper. Insert heavy sigh here. It was people getting panicky over resources and doing what they could to protect their own, however, at the expense of anyone else. That’s what religion-free society will get you if you look at the evidence on your own. There is no moral code to tell you to share or to put the interests of someone else ahead of your own for any reason. Why? Well, personally, I think it is more proof from absence that Christians are at this point removed from the earth, but you can think what you want. Without Christians to love others, this world will become a very dark and depressing place. Oh, there will be believers on the earth right up until the Lord comes back, but those believers alive in this time will have to run for their lives, hide as best they can, and be hunted to death for their faith in Christ. We will see this when we look at the 5th seal in some measure.

We have some experience with the famine as well in small scale, as stores slowly ran out of supplies and prices started to rise for those same goods and services. We could talk a lot about the causes of this, but that would turn this into a political discussion that is unnecessary, so we will simply address the effects. The causes will possibly be more pronounced here, not just a temporary slowing of production or snarls in the supply chains that bring us these things. There are still persistent reports in the news of people choosing to skip meals to save money, and that will be a part of this as well.

The pandemic itself brought the experience of the pestilence that will be the feature of this seal. Say what you will, it scared most people into walking around with paper masks that the research now definitively says do not work. The level of fear from the populace was incredible, and some did tragically die from the disease, and the vaccines that they touted are now outed as UNsafe and INeffective. And for the YouTube censors, I’m just citing scientific journals, the CDC, and several lawsuits by Attorneys General of at least two states now, those being MO and TX. The coming pandemic will likewise have no known cure and no real defence against it. However, it will be undeniable, people will die this time, and however it arises, in some lab in some forgotten corner of the world or in the wild so to speak, it will be very, very real and very, very deadly. People asked me if I thought the pandemic was the third rider being released at the time, and I had to say no. I didn’t see the bodies piled up on the streets like they were portending then. I think whoever is around for that will see bodies all over the place. As we get into the text this evening, there are things that will go with this that will horrify and disgust you as a child of God, even though it is happening now, maybe especially because of that.

Another thing that will be on display is how there is a group of people who consider themselves for whatever reason to be better than the rest of us, and who therefore deserve to rule over us. This group will rise in power and dominance at this time and no one will be able to withstand them. I know, I know, there are parallels to what is happening in the world today, what with the WEF and UN and their minions all over the planet, and in positions of power at that. This does not mean that we are in the last days of the planet. Why do I think that? Because resistance is still possible and desirable. I don’t think anyone will be able to fight this tyranny when it arises, and the vast majority will not want to fight it, having bought into it wholesale. We aren’t there yet, though we are watching control mechanisms come into being and fall into place. NeuraLink, for all of its humanitarian benefits, is the very first stepping stone to external control of a human mind by technological implant, just as an example.

In my thinking, we are right now going through a dry run for the end of days. The big question is what will you do if you are still here and this stuff starts to happen to you and the ones you love? There is really only one answer, and if you are witnessing it all firsthand, it will be the hard choice, but the only real answer.

Let us come back to the present for a moment. Sure, things are difficult, money is tight, and food is expensive, but we still have some freedom to do things like this Bible Study. Money is for now still enough, and we will see in the text that it may not be for a lot of us in that day. Food costs more, but we still have some income for housing and hydro and heating left, and the food is still there and we aren’t eating bugs yet. Not that there is any problem with that, John the Baptist, who the Lord Jesus said was the greatest of all men, ate locusts. I guess for a kid who grew up hunting and fishing while living on a beef and dairy farm in Northwestern Ontario, the aesthetics are unappealing, but as far as nutrition goes, it will meet your daily requirements and there is nothing unbiblical about it. That choice, to repent of your sins and believe that Jesus the Christ paid the price for all of the sins that you daily offend God with, is much less consequential right now. In that turning, you will find a new life, a new Spirit, His Spirit; basically, a new everything. It is now, and will still be then, a gift from God given to all those who will turn to Christ. Right now, you have a community that can meet publicly and proclaim that salvation to the world, and praise God for that. To do it in those days will garner the hostility of all those around you for simply speaking the truth, and you will have to hide who you are just to survive, and in the latter stages of this, you will be hunted, in most cases to death. It does not change the fact that you still need to turn from your sins and repent, and begin to follow the One who has redeemed you, the Messiah Himself, the Christ of God, His holy and Anointed One. He will still have paid the price for you, you will still need to repent and follow Him. It has always been this way and will be right up until the day when it will no longer be required because all will have turned or have been dealt with for not turning.

With all that said by way of introduction, let’s get into the text. I broke it down as follows:

The Third Seal – The Rider on the Black Horse

5-6: The Consequences of Global Slaughter

Again, I didn’t really have a key verse, both verses being key to my understanding here. I see the famine as a direct result of the coming global conflict and slaughter resulting from the last rider. It does not mean it is any less the wrath of God, because as we will see, it is a principle that is in operation in all of humanity because of sin. Let’s look.

The Third Seal – The Rider on the Black Horse

Most commentators name this rider either Famine or Pestilence, a related concept. I see something a bit different here, and we will get into that right now. Whatever is happening here, disease and famine or the insane slaughter of a large portion of the planet, the operative principle here is something that is causing both of these phenomena: Greed. Greed is a result of something very specific–a desire to have what someone else has INSTEAD of them. We don’t want it to share, we want it because we want it, because it pleases us, because we deserve it, because after all, WE are the god we are serving, not YHWH. The final commandment of God’s Moral Law is essentially this: You shall not covet. The Hebrew word is chamad, to desire or to take pleasure in. The Greek equivalent is epithumeō, to desire or lust after. In English, is there a specific word we could use for that? Indeed there is, and that word we have already used: GREED. And before you start in on me, you can be greedy for more than just wealth. You can be greedy for anything your heart desires. Greed for food is called gluttony. Greed for money is called avarice. Greed for power is called despotism or megalomania. Greed for sexual gratification is called lust. Greed for attention is scripturally called “loving the pre-eminence” by John about Diotrephes (see III John). You see? More than just money can be involved. My friends, this rider’s name is Greed, and the text shows this clearly. Let’s jump into the verses here.

5-6: The Consequences of Global Slaughter

I know that my title doesn’t appear to be connected to the theme of a greed-caused famine, but it really is. Just as violence against our neighbours lives in the hearts of all people, so does greed, a desire to do better than your neighbour. Now, there is nothing wrong with working hard to gain something and then enjoying your gains. That is one of the activities of men. The problem arises when we see someone else doing that and then reasoning with yourself about how you deserve that more than they do and set about getting it at their expense. Some call that theft, some call that murder, some call it jealousy, but all of these things are but forms of greed. After surviving the violence of a global slaughter, people will naturally just want to “look after number one,” so to speak. Who is number one? Why themselves, of course, and without the salt of Christianity, removed at a prior event we will call the harpazo, to influence and educate the world about love for others and selflessness, and things like that, it will truly become a “me-first” world, damn everyone else and the horse you rode in on. That is what characterizes this rider. Let’s look at the text and see what John is saying.

5: When He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come.” I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.

Another seal broken by the Lamb who was slain but lives. Another Seraph commanding a horse and rider to come forth. John looks and sees a black horse and its rider. The hose is black because of the famine according to most commentators, but I rather think it is black because of the sin in the hearts of men that is driving the famine and disease with which this rider has been associated. Again, there is clearly a long-standing plan of some kind, right down to who would call the rider and horse forward. As John looks closer and details start to register in his mind, he sees something else.
He sees a pair of scales. Also known definitionally as a “balance,” these scales are used in commerce. A weight of known mass is placed on one side of the balance, and the vendor fills the other side of the scale until the balance is even. The buyer pays in a predetermined currency for the product so measured, and a business transaction has taken place. THAT is the imagery here, not the disease, not the starving people, but the proverbial man in black on a black horse with a commercial balance in his hand. This does not mean that business transactions are evil, as those who would try to turn Christ into a socialist would suggest. It simply betrays what is the real cause of the suffering in this heavenly wrath: the wicked and sinful human heart.
Do you remember all the judgements against Egypt during the exodus of God’s chosen people from that land of Pharaoh, the dark false king of that land? All of those judgements had to do with the things that the people and especially the royalty of Egypt worshipped. That’s a whole set of studies on its own, so you will have to take my word for it or go and try to fact-check me yourself, but it is true. I think this is the case here. Humans at this point worship political power, particularly that power vested in leaders that the people themselves endorse and support. So God gives them a leader that they will all love, at least to begin with, so that sin may be not only the cause of the judgment but also the means of it. When diplomacy fails that leadership, then they will shift into their true form of violent creatures to use violence to achieve their political ends of gaining or remaining in power. We saw that earlier today as President Maduro of Venezuela who was NOT elected the leader claimed not only to win, but to call for a new Marxist revolution (Maduro is communist) to regain the power that he already claims to have. In truth, impartial observers say he got about 30 percent of the vote or so. His biggest rival, who he is currently trying to arrest, got about two-thirds of the national vote. Even the Biden-Harris administration is calling foul here, so there must be something to it. Enter the second rider on the fiery horse, showing that all men are capable of violence and evil to gain what they want or because they are insane about a cause of some kind. This leads to the consequences of famine which leads to disease or pestilence, but even then, there is no compassion available in the hearts of those who will not repent of their sins and turn to Christ in faith. They are still only concerned with getting what they feel (and there’s a problem with the feelings right there) what they deserve. And who gets to decide what they feel they deserve? Why they do, of course. It is betraying that the heart of man is deceitful and sick with sin in everything it does (see Jeremiah 17:9). In this case, greed is the driving force behind what they feel they are owed and it betrays a heart filled with nothing but sin. Once again, it has not only the wrathful judgment of a just and holy God but the very means of delivery for that judgment. Beloved, if this isn’t waking you up to your own sin, I pray that the Lord would wake you up before it is too late and you find yourself with the next verse going on around you.

6: And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Wait, this is coming from the center of the Seraphim? Speaking in something like a voice? Beloved, remember John’s description of the scene around the throne? That means we can logically determine whose voice is making the value pronunciation here. The Seraphim were stationed around the throne with God sitting on it. There is only one being that can be considered here, and that is Almighty God Himself, in the person of God the Father. He is setting the value and boundary of that value and determining what is worth something in this Day-of-the-Lord economy so to speak. Do you STILL think that this is not the wrath of a holy and just God? No? Then we will look at what the voice is valuing. There is a fair bit here, so we will break it down into phrases as we do in these situations.
A quart of wheat for a denarius. The word for quart is the Greek chonix, which is a dry goods measure that is by everything we understand approximately a quart measure. If you wanted to say a Litre, it is still a decent approximation, though apparently a little less accurate on the small side. For this discussion, we are speaking of imperial measures, not US measures. Hey, we’re in Canada, and it’s a thing. Denarius is the Greek word used to define a day’s wage. It has been calculated by guys who live for this kind of thing (and I am not one of them) that a quart of wheat will feed a human for a day. That’s very interesting math. You will work for a day to make enough currency to feed yourself for that day. The word for wheat is the Greek sitos. It can be translated as grain or corn also, so I think it’s just a generic use for the word “food.” Hold that thought.
Barley (the Greek krithé, actual barley wheat) is a lower quality but still edible food. It is estimated by the same nerds (hey, I’m a nerd too, but about different things) that you can sustain a family of four on three quarts of barley. So that same day’s wage can buy you three quarts of basically the stuff we now call heavily processed food. You know, the stuff that will kill a diabetic like me if I keep eating it, or at the least make me sick enough that I wouldn’t be able to work for my daily food allowance of grain. Again, the math is very interesting. You work all day to generate enough currency for you to buy junk food snacks to feed your family.
This raises an interesting thought. Is food the only thing in your budget? If you don’t go to bed with the sun, you know about power requirements, and that is not free. How about heating in the winter? We live in Canada, and it is winter here for 7 months or so every year. Or as we used to tell our neighbours to the south, 11 months of winter and a month of bad dog-sledding. You now have to figure in heating fuel in its various forms. And that is not free. Phone? We pay for it. Internet? We pay for it. All of the other expenses in our budget – where does the money for that come from? I’m not sure I like the answers I can think of here, and I am going to drop that. I leave it for your consideration. I’m moving on to the next phrase that God the Father speaks from His throne, just in case you forgot about that sort of voice from the middle of the Seraphim.
And do not damage the oil and wine. The elaion, or oil, as it is applied here (no pun intended) is a generic commercial expression for all kinds of different oils. I do not think this is used in symbolic language to represent God the Holy Spirit here. Oil as it is used here is a commodity. It has applications in food, in medicine, in transportation, and in all kinds of other areas. Oinos, the general word in Greek for wine is also a commodity. These two things have something in common. These are luxury items. Recall what I said earlier about a group who consider themselves “elite” and therefore better than you in most ways that matter. These are people who will have the means, the currency, to enjoy these luxuries, not the normal citizen of the planet. The Lord is decreeing that these luxuries still be available for these elites for whatever reason. Let me see if I can give you a glimpse of my logic.
Health has become a sort of idol, yes, a false god, in our day and age. The saying goes, “If you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” I can personally put the lie to that. For those of you who know me, you know that I have all kinds of health issues. I am a diabetic heart patient with cholesterol issues for starters. I have all kinds of injuries that have required rehabilitation in some form including surgery on my back in 2002. I had a partial discectomy, meaning they removed about 40 percent of a disc because it was compressing my sciatic nerve, making it beyond painful to walk. I could extend that list for a few minutes if I put my mind to it, but that’s enough to illustrate the point. I do not “have my health” in the sense of that statement. And yet in following Christ, I have everything, and I serve Him joyfully! And you all know it. Yes, I am more than occasionally held back by these and other health issues, as gaps in our livestream schedule show, but I am still here, still loving the life God gave me, and still joyfully serving Him until I no longer can, whatever form that takes, whenever that happens. This is important. That false god of health is being exposed.
Another false idol being exposed is the productivity-leads-to-success model we see here, especially in the West. Beloved, I grew up on a farm. I know what hard work is, and I even enjoy my limit of it. But it is related to this ill-defined success in a non-linear fashion. I used to measure success by dollar amounts. It is a worthless measure in God’s service. Money is a means, not an end in itself, and too many people treat it as the latter. Now, people will spin their wheels all day for barely enough to eat, not to mention a roof over their heads for shelter and warmth or other necessities in colder climates like Canada. There is more to living than work. There will be nothing outside of the work-to-live dynamic when manufactured famine hits because of the greed in the heart of man that will cause anyone and everyone to take advantage – any advantage they can – of anything and anyone else.
The false idol of wealth will be exposed here. Those who live to work will have to work to live, and I can tell you from experience that it is not a lot of fun. And this can lead to hopelessness because there is no clear exit from this cycle if there is one at all. And all those who would have been driven by compassion and the love of God in their hearts to care enough to help…are no longer here. God have mercy on anyone there. Except, wrath has now come. Mercy no longer remains. It is an unimaginable situation for me. I cannot even conceive it in my thinking.

My point here is that just as the wrath of God was shown as debilitating judgments on the nation of Egypt when God Himself led His chosen people out of their slavery in that world, it will be the same thing for the whole world. Just as Egypt saw a new Pharaoh arise who did not know about Joseph, that great type of Christ, a global leader will rise that cares nothing for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moreover, he will care nothing for Christ, seeking instead to usurp His place as ruler of the world. That is the first rider.

Just as Egypt had no metaphorical peace from the violence it showed to the Jews of that time, peace will be taken away from the whole earth for its misdeeds and lack of compassion among other things. As the kingdom then had no figurative peace because Pharaoh would not hear God or treat the people of God with the dignity given to them by God Himself, peace will be removed at a global level, and mankind will be left without mercy or compassion for its lack of mercy and compassion on Christ’s chosen people from all over the globe. That is the second rider.

Just as God visited upon Egypt a number of plagues and divine judgments in the form of frogs, fire, blood, and other things time will not permit us to look at now, God will begin to visit the earth with all sorts of judgment because of the wrath that he is even now storing up for the time of the end. As I have said before, when I can begin to cross-reference the daily headlines with the books of Revelation and Daniel, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, it is time to look to Christ, because something is happening. That something can be nothing but benefit to His chosen people! And it can be nothing but horror and pain for those who will not turn to Him in repentance of their sins and trust that Christ Himself died in their place on the cross.

And just as God visited the house of Pharaoh and the land of Egypt with the death of their firstborn, God will visit the entire globe with death, but that is for next time, the fourth rider.

This is why Paul said in Romans 13:11-14, which reads, “Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Beloved, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2 says, “…for He says, ‘AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.’ Behold, now is ‘THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,’ behold, now is ‘THE DAY OF SALVATION…‘”

It is beyond essential for you to turn now while you still can. Otherwise, how much worse will it be for those who will not turn now but wait too long and miss the escape for the church? And should you decide to wait and see before you turn, I suggest that you may not ever turn. We have no guarantee that once the opportunity to repent and be saved is presented to you that it will ever come again. I pray that in mercy by His grace that you will turn and avoid this horrible wrath of God that is coming on the whole earth, and I among others think sooner, not later.

That is what I saw in the text.