The Fourth Seal.
“When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave.[a grk ref = hades] These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease[b] and wild animals.” – Revelation 6:7-8. NLT
This fourth seal is the third in a series of deepening disasters. While the language is literal; war, famine and pestilence; the description reflects the progressive spiritual decline of those who reject the gospel. To reject the gospel is like removing light and moisture from the environment. Nothing can grow where water and light are not present.
As the word of God was lost sight of during “the dark ages,” The woes of the world increased. The very thing that could have saved the world from things like the black death, was taken away. The Old Testament had given instruction regarding how to deal with contagious disease and for proper sanitation. But that instruction was now locked away from the people and even the religious leaders of the day were steeped in tradition that had no Biblical foundation. The health laws that had practical instruction for sanitation, like washing hands and burying faeces, were lost to the world as the darkness enveloped the world. Open sewers flowed through towns and residents discarded the “night bucket” out the window. People wore high heeled shoes to stay above the refuse. Incomprehensible – but this is where the world goes when the word of God is discarded. In effect, the church of the day becomes responsible for things like the plague, that ravaged Europe and the Middle East, because they kept the correct and essential knowledge from the people.
Even today some people reject the Old Testament health laws as “only for the Jews,” even though medical science, having recently caught up with the Bible again, validifies the entirety of its counsel.
While the ceremonial law was clearly symbolic and through its symbols and holy days pointed forward to Christ, the health laws were never symbolic of anything. The health laws are today, just common sense. Even Noah knew the distinction between unclean meats and clean. (Genesis 7:2) This was long before Abraham!
As in the Dark Ages, our own spiritual life will also rapidly decline from similar neglect unless nurtured by the light and moisture of God’s Word.
The colour of the horse in the fourth seal is expressed with the Greek word chloros, which is the ashen-grey colour of a decomposing corpse. The rider’s name is Death; Hades, the place of the dead, (the grave) accompanies him. (The KJV had translated hades as “hell” – today modern translations identify ‘hell’ or ‘hades’ as “the place of the dead” – the grave.) These two are allowed to destroy people by sword, hunger, death, and wild beasts over one-fourth of the earth (Matt.24:7-8).
The good news is that the power of Death and Hades is very limited; they are given authority only over a part (one-fourth) of the earth. Jesus assures us that He has the keys of Hades and Death (Rev.1:18).
The contents of the first 4 seals parallel the messages to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira. From light to deepening spiritual darkness.
The scenes of the seven seals portray the future of the church. As was the case with the seven churches, the seals correlate to the different periods in Christian history. During the apostolic times, the gospel rapidly spread throughout the world. This expansion was followed by the period of persecution in the Roman Empire.
From the end of the first century to the beginning of the fourth century, is portrayed in the scene of the second seal. The third seal points to the period of compromise of the fourth and fifth centuries, which was characterized by a spiritual famine caused by a lack of the Bible and its truths, leading to the “Dark Ages”. The fourth seal aptly describes the spiritual death that characterized Christianity for nearly a thousand years.
Rev.6:6 states that “the oil and the wine” will not be affected by the famine of the third seal’s plague. Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit (1Sam.16:13, Acts.10:38), and new wine salvation in Jesus Christ (Mark.2:22). These symbols tell us that, even when the Word of God is scarce, the Holy Spirit is still at work and that salvation is still available to all who seek the truth?