“When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ 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” (Rev 6:7-8).
The fourth living creature seen by John in the throne room of God was like a flying eagle. I love the Commentary Critical description of an eagle: “high-soaring intelligence, and judgment descending from on high fatally on the ungodly, as the king of birds on his prey.”
The eagle flies so high that we often do not know he is near until with sudden flash, his quarry is swept away in a holy rush like judgment, unable to escape from steel-like talons. It is good to remember this when evil appears.
It is the eagle who commands, “Come!” In response, a pale horse appears on earth with the name of Death, and he is followed by Hades, the Devil himself, who is given authority to destroy one fourth of the world with weapons of war and resulting famine and disease and increasing population of wild beasts hunting their prey.
It is important to note that the four first four seals released by the four living creatures do not happen all at once. They stretch through the entire period of church history, past, present, and future up until the appearance of Jesus himself.
So the first four seals are summarized by the first seal with Jesus appearing in person and conquering all of this on his white horse, by preaching the Gospel as a witness to all the nations.
Are we seeing a preview of this as 2020 and 2021 stumble across the finish line? How symbolic is “supply chain blockage” and "pandemic" in our day in comparison with famine in the end days of Revelation? The point is not that we are now in the end days, because we do not know the timing of Jesus’ return.
But our current situation of fear from a virus should be enough to cause those who do not know Jesus to look up and recognize how true the Word of God is and to join now in perfect unity with him.
We have now seen four visible seals broken with implications for our time and beyond. Hurry back for the final three seals which are invisible!
Don't wait until it is too late!
Note: Streamside Unity will take a short publishing break over Christmas weekend. Our next post will be on or about Tuesday December 28, 2021, depending on the wiles of social media (ho, ho, ho). God bless each and every one of you – “Unto us a child is given”!