Revelation 6:7-8 – 2024 Aug 08 – Death Runs the Round-up, Hell Corrals the Herd

In this study, we will consider at least in part why I think this set of events supports a premillennial eschatology (view of end times). We have talked previously about this, indeed with every rider called forth by the Seraphim, but this in my thinking really clinches this, as well as the idea of a pretribulation rapture. It all comes down to when the Day of the Lord, or the wrath of God begins, and as I have said in previous studies, I believe it begins with the unleashing of an unrestrained Antichrist, that man of sin, the actual Son of Destruction, and that happened with the calling forth of the first horse and rider by the Seraph as a direct result, or perhaps consequence, of opening the first seal by the Lamb who was slain and lives again, God the Son, our Lord Jesus, the Christ or Messiah, the Anointed One of God, Himself part of God and yet is His own independent self. If you’re looking for an explanation, I can’t give one. I don’t have the brain capacity to understand the concept of the triune God. But it is taught throughout Scripture, so I will believe it. To be honest, I don’t think the question can be solved at the human level anyway, and that is even more proof of God, but that’s my opinion.

Last time we considered the consequences of the second rider that the third rider brought. Greed fed a human-caused famine and apparently massive inflation resulting in people barely being able to feed themselves. This would naturally weaken the population and cause pestilence and disease. That will cause death, and death for most will lead to hell, and we will get into what all that means. Anyone having a problem with these being natural consequences of human sin needs to rethink their definitions a little. Nothing happens if it is not God’s will. We have quoted it before, but think about what the 1689 London Baptist Confession says in chapter 3: “God hath Decreed in himself from all Eternity, by the most wise and holy Councel of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to passe; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the Creature, nor yet is the liberty, or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established, in which appears his wisdom in disposing all things, and power, and faithfulness in accomplishing his Decree.” Nothing happens without the stamp of approval from God the Father. It does not matter that it can be assigned other causes, as some have recently suggested. One must as a believer recognize first and foremost the sovereignty of God in all of this. If you have difficulty doing this until the sixth seal, please, I say this as a brother in Christ, consider this. God has planned this for a very long time. Just because the execution of this can be explained in other ways, it does not invalidate that God is releasing His wrath through these events or in these ways by these means.

As followers of Jesus, we must also be supernaturalists. The power of God is always supernatural, or greater than the natural if you will allow that translation of the Latin prefix there. You cannot use the undeniability of the explanation of the event such as the 6th seal not being able to be charged to other means to exclude the first five seals from the wrath of God. Those categories are not mutually exclusive. God works through varied means, and there are more varied means I suspect than the hairs on one’s own head or in fact the sand on a beach. The harpazo event at this point must have already taken place because the husband of the church would not allow His bride to be abused in such a way. You can disagree, but your logic is flawed if that’s what you think. Look, I’m not that smart. And I’m not the best debater around. But I know the truth when I hear it and I’m not so proud as to try to throw up intellectual roadblocks with my God-given intelligence here. It all comes down to when the wrath of God, the Day of the Lord, the time of Jacob’s Trouble begins. It begins with the signing of a treaty that makes Israel safe from the forces allied against it. That has not happened yet, but we can now daily in headlines see those forces start to establish themselves in startling accuracy with Psalm 84 and Ezekiel 38. It hasn’t happened yet, and we have no idea when it will happen. It isn’t really important what we believe here either, because God will do it the way He will do it. He’s telling us in these texts the order the players and events will appear. We ignore this information at our own peril. God forbid, may it never be, not ever, that we should be caught with our guard down when He does begin these things. May He find us walking in the faith He gave us as new creatures in Him in the fruit of the Spirit described in His word. You are allowed to disagree with my hermeneutics. You are NOT allowed to live an unholy and unprepared life because of them, your own, or anyone else’s. You should pursue anything that will increase your holiness on a personal level, and this is the hermeneutic that increases mine because of the fear of the Lord.

With that said, Let’s look at the text for the evening. I broke it down as follows:

The Fourth Seal – The Rider(s?) on the Sickly Green Horse

7-8: Death Runs the Roundup, Hell Corrals the Herd

If there was ever any doubt about this being the Day of the Lord wrath, I doubt there will be after this study. The rider here is named by the text, and his name is Death. He has what the Greek says is a companion that follows him, and his name is Hades. Hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew sheol. Sheol in the Old Testament is sometimes translated as “the grave,” and I have heard it called “the place of the dead.” Here is what Vine says about the word itself:

First, the word means the state of death: “For in death there is no remembrance of thee: in the grave who shall give thee thanks?” (Ps. 6:5; cf. 18:5). It is the final resting place of all men: “They spend their days in wealth, and in a moment go down to the grave (Job 21:13). Hannah confessed that it was the omnipotent God who brings men to she‘ol (death) or kills them (1 Sam. 2:6). “Sheol” is parallel to Hebrew words for “pit” or “hell” (Job 26:6), “corruption” or “decay” (Ps. 16:10), and “destruction” (Prov. 15:11).

Second, “Sheol” is used of a place of conscious existence after death. In the first biblical appearance of the word Jacob said that he would “go down into the grave unto my son mourning” (Gen. 37:35). All men go to “Sheol”—a place and state of consciousness after death (Ps. 16:10). The wicked receive punishment there (Num. 16:30; Deut. 32:22; Ps. 9:17). They are put to shame and silenced in “Sheol” (Ps. 31:17). Jesus alluded to Isaiah’s use of she‘ol (14:13-15) in pronouncing judgment on Capernaum (Matt. 11:23), translating “Sheol” as “Hades” or “Hell,” meaning the place of conscious existence and judgment. It is an undesirable place for the wicked (Job 24:19) and a refuge for the righteous (Job 14:13). Thus “Sheol” is also a place of reward for the righteous (Hos. 13:14; cf. 1 Cor. 15:55). Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16:19-31 seems to reflect accurately the Old Testament concept of she‘ol; it is a place of conscious existence after death, one side of which is occupied by the suffering, unrighteous dead separated by a great chasm from the other side peopled by the righteous dead enjoying their reward.

Clearly, people are dying to get in, right? But once you’re there, there is no coming back barring a miraculous event called the resurrection. For the believer, by the time this rider is on the scene, it is my belief that it has already happened, just prior to the gathering of all the living believers of the time in the harpazo. Paul said that the dead in Christ would rise first and then we who remain would be gathered to meet Him in the air to be with Him forever from that point. If that sounds good to you, it does for me too, let’s get there together! But for those that are on the earth in those days, it is not going to be a good time at all. Let’s get into the text.

The Fourth Seal – The Rider(s?) on the Sickly Green Horse

Because we have already mentioned the two potential riders of the horse, or maybe one rider and one on foot, I don’t know what is best for the imagery here, and it is apocalyptic imagery, so I’ll interpret it the way I understand it. However, rather than give more than one context at a time, we’ll do it as we come across it in the text. That usually prevents me from reading context that isn’t there.

Again, I really didn’t have a single key verse for this because both of these verses go together, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t have one. You can, and if you do, that’s great!

I suppose that the point here is that these two come as a set. You’ll see as we go through the text.

7-8: Death Runs the Roundup, Hell Corals the Herd

Since we are using horses as a theme from John, I tried to keep the spirit of that. Growing up on a farm, I can tell you that we used horses to herd our cattle, and that seems to be what the human race can be at times, although goats and sheep are the usual analogies. This is a kind of soul round-up. We’ll give the details as we go in the text, so let’s ride along and see what is going on in this all-too-real version of Ghost Riders in the Sky. Devil’s herd indeed.

7: When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come.”

John at this point reminds us of who is causing all this to happen, as if we might have forgotten. Who is the one that is breaking the seals? It is that individual that is steering events. It is He who is causing all this to happen. It is He who is enacting the great plan for the consummation of the ages. It is the Lamb who is breaking the seals. To review, this cannot be said to be the wrath of Satan coming to earth. That will come later and we will comment on it then. It is not the rage of man, although He certainly allows it free expression for His own purposes. It is the Lamb who breaks the fourth seal. It is He who is unleashing His pent-up wrath at the proper time according to the will of the Father. That day is already appointed and it coming at the speed of time. I don’t know when it will be, but it will happen, and I think sooner, not later, because of events taking place in the world today. In the time between now and then, God has commanded all people everywhere to repent, that is change their minds, about the sin that they daily anger Him doing. He calls them to turn away from that sin and towards that Lamb, our Lord Jesus, who was made to be the perfect atonement for our sins because we were unable to atone for them ourselves. Turn to Him before it is too late, Friend.
We hear the fourth Seraph, who bears the face of the eagle, representing the divine, command another rider to come forth and ride. The rider he calls forth is perhaps the most frightening yet. Who is it? And why does it look like he is not alone? Next verse.

8: I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

The first thing John sees is what my translation calls an ashen horse, and other translations like the LSB or the King James call pale.” The Greek word is chloros. I take this to be a sort of sickly green. If any of you saw me while I was having my heart attack or just after, I think I was that colour. There is an unnatural feel to it like something is definitely wrong here. That’s the colour of the horse. And it is about to get very sick.
The Rider is named by John. He calls him Death. Thanatos. Vine tells us that this may be defined as “the separation of the soul (the spiritual part of man) from the body (the material part), the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust.” It may also be defined as the separation of man from God, and that is what makes this truly terrifying. Those who are to become victims of death will largely be those who do not believe that Jesus is Himself God and died for their sins. Yes, I know, it is the same now, but here, there are no saints left to tell people this good news and cause faith. Or maybe there are, but these will be young believers who will have to do so at risk of their own lives, and that is a huge disincentive. Yes, I know there will be courageous ones, we’ll say more about them too when we get there, but there are only so many of them, and the lie at this point will be strong enough that any who can expose it will be marginalized and ignored or killed outright. And this rider is not alone.
Hades, it says in the text, follows Death as his close companion. Hades is the Greek word for hell, it is true, but in ancient Greek mythology, Hades is the name of the god of the dead and king of the underworld, where the dead are said to go. You can research all of this online pretty easily, and it isn’t really our topic. Suffice it to say that Death is sending all of his victims to the king of the underworld to hold onto. The two could be riding the horse together, or Hades might be walking behind, the imagery John presents is that they are together but he doesn’t detail how. That Hell is following Death is a horrible warning for all the residents of Earth.
Authority was given to THEM. Death and Hell. Oh boy. Not good. You can just tell that when those two show up things are about to take a turn for the worse for humanity. The authority that was given to them was to kill a quarter of the planet if I read that right. We are about 8 billion people now. That’s 2 billion deaths. Ouch. Who knows what the population will be at that time? These are current population estimates, and this will be a best-case scenario because the population number is growing. They will end a full 25% of the population. How?
Well, how about by the riders? This is why I suggest that Death is running the roundup of souls here. The first way he will manifest his authority is with the sword. Now here the word romphaia is used. This is the military sword, or the body that enforces laws (the state per Romans 13 and other places). This is not the dagger or slaughter, this is the sword of war, but both swords are used in military campaigns. We spoke briefly last time of the Roman gladius being a short sword that specialized in slashing and bleeding. This is not that. This is more like a longsword with a blade that has more reach. That red rider might be involved because there is fighting.
How about that third rider? Famine will be something he brings to the world. Another one is the plagues and diseases (pestilence) that follow wherever war happens and no one cleans up afterward. Unsanitary conditions cause infections of all kinds, and it is not hard to imagine that this will be a part of that.
All of this will be made possible by the policies of bad leadership, beloved. This first rider on the white horse, for all of his genius, will have a human-hostile agenda and his policies will be destructive toward humanity, allowing the very things that Death and Hades will use to separate human souls from human bodies, and at such a time as to keep those souls separated from God by their sins committed in life. Once they are dead, no repentance will be possible, remember. And these two still aren’t done. Horribly, there is more.
Wild beasts of the earth. The prophet Amos speaks about the Day of the Lord, which the Lord Jesus, the Lamb who was slain and now lives, is now in our text initiating by opening the seals on this scroll. See what Amos says:

“Alas, you who are longing for the day of the LORD,

For what purpose will the day of the LORD be to you?

It will be darkness and not light;

As when a man flees from a lion

And a bear meets him,

Or goes home, leans his hand against the wall

And a snake bites him.

Will not the day of the LORD be darkness instead of light,

Even gloom with no brightness in it? (Amos 5:18-20)

Think of it! A man sees a roaring lion and evades it, only to run into a big brown grizzly bear. The bear gives chase, and the man darts away and into a steel door that defends his house or an apartment building. He puts his hand on the wall to catch his breath and a cobra bites him. If you think it cannot happen here in the civilized West, then I will remind you of a human creation called a zoo. All of those animals are regularly kept at a zoo. This might shock you, but statistically, animal attacks on humans are on the rise. Bison have tossed a few people and gored a few more, mountain lion attacks have increased in number and frequency, sharks, and even orcas or other dolphins at sea have attacked humans directly or the boats that convey them. The boats attacked by orcas are interesting. Animal behaviourists seem to think it is teenage orcas essentially involved in the attacks because they are bored! The point is, this is beginning to happen now. We can easily avoid them now by using our intelligence to avoid provoking them or avoiding their locations, taking only big boats, like that. Then, it will be in the streets of the city, and in our very homes. And to be honest, it isn’t the first time that the Lord has used animals to this effect.
Elisha had recently been anointed as Elijah’s replacement and he encountered a group of “young lads.” They were likely a large gang of troublemakers that had come out from the city, and they began mocking the man of God who deserved their reverence and fear. Basically, they called him Baldy, but I’m betting there was more to it because Elisha cursed them in the name of the Lord and two female bears came out of the woods and tore 42 of them apart. If there were 42 of them who died, how many lived? This was in my opinion a group of young ruffians that had no respect for anyone that were out to make trouble and maybe notoriety for themselves. Wild animals were used as the means of dealing with them. We should be amazed at the mercy of God that this does not happen more often. Talk about Paw Patrol!

My point here is that there is nothing here to say that any of this is not the indisputable wrath of God. You can say that there can be no doubt of the stuff in the 6th seal only being able to be attributed to God, but that does not make all the previous things unattributable to God also. And releasing the actual Antichrist as the leader of the world is a divine act of judgement or Romans 1:18-32 means nothing. The best pattern established in Scripture is what happens to a nation that God judges. The very first thing is that they are given really bad leaders. Can any be worse than the Antichrist himself? And you think that isn’t a divine act? Romans 1:24 – Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. That’s it right there. It’s a divine act, Beloved! You fight against God continually, just like Pharaoh in Egypt, there will come a point where God will simply say, “Fine. Have it your own way.” That’s really what this scroll is doing through the seal judgements. It is as if God is saying, “You want to rebel against Me and do your own insanity to that degree? Fine. Have it your own way…with all the consequences that come with it, and everything that will follow from there.” That didn’t end well for Pharaoh and Egypt. It will not end well for the world, and it will not end well for us if we do not repent. It is a divine decree, Beloved, and one we can see throughout Scripture. To separate out the harpazo to be after the 5th or 6th seal seems to me to be contrived and forcing your own human understanding of Scripture for that reason. I am not trying to be insulting or proud when I say that, and I know what that sounds like. That is not the pattern we see in Scripture as a whole. Now, I need to say two important things here. You are free to hold whatever opinion you like, I am giving mine and the reasons I hold it. Second, and this is the important point, when the harpazo occurs is not the important bit here. It is that we are ready for it if it should happen to us.

Think of it. God at a point He has already chosen will say, “Enough.” He will give His Son the scroll. He is already holding it in His hand as He sits on the throne of the cosmos. The Son is present with Him just waiting until the Father says it. The Holy Spirit until He is taken out of the way in terms of restraining sin from having its full effect on humanity is present and helping Christ’s chosen and redeemed people, the real Church, not the one people show up to on Sunday that has false brothers and sisters in it. We’ve all met a few of them. Beloved, we need to pray for these ones. They sit in the same pews we do, singing the same songs we do, hearing the same sermons we do, but they don’t know our God. Some of them are preachers! Think of John Wesley! At the time the Lord saved Him, he was an ordained Anglican minister! It was the Moravian Brethren who witnessed to him so that He was saved by repentance and faith. Those brethren had a single prayer meeting that lasted over 100 years. God has NOT arrived at the point where he is going to say “enough” if we are still here and drawing breath. If we ever needed a clearer signal to go out and be a witness for Christ, it is now. I know that many of you know this, but it bears repeating! Peter said it like this: “For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? AND IF IT IS WITH DIFFICULTY THAT THE RIGHTEOUS IS SAVED, WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE GODLESS MAN AND THE SINNER?” (1Pet. 4:17-18). That judgment began on the cross 2000 years ago when the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, gave up His perfectly lived life as the perfect atonement for our sins to perfectly satisfy the perfect wrath of God. That’s what it costs to redeem you, saint. God Himself loved you so much that He died for you! If you believe that, you should realize the weight of that deed! We now owe Him everything! If he calls us to serve in this grand endeavour we call the Great Commission, we shouldn’t have the slightest hesitation or reservation! We owe Him everything! We will never be able to repay that debt! And He did it not as our creditor but because He loves us!

That is why I must believe that this is after the Holy Spirit is dismissed from restraining sin itself in humanity in general and all of the humans that at that point who are believers and followers of the Lord Jesus Christ have been gathered to be with Him for eternity. That has not happened yet, and may not in our individual lifetimes. It does not change the mission: to preach the gospel to everyone who will listen and then for those who respond to that call to teach them all the things that the Lord commanded us. That is our mission here and now. Let us be about that, not arguing about things that I think God has deliberately obscured so that we would not focus on those things but instead on Him and how to share effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ His Son.

That’s what I saw in the text this evening.