We continue in Chapter 6 looking at the second judgment.
I want to give you a little object lesson that might help you here. Remember the book that Jesus took from the Father that He is opening right now? It is not a book like how we normally think of books. It was a scroll, and a scroll is rolled up in a cylindrical tube fashion. This scroll has seven seals that kept it from being opened and read. Jesus would take and open the first seal of the top of the scroll and as He did so, it would reveal more and more of the content of the scroll. I think most likely, that this scroll had a seal on the outside and then as it was opened a little further it had another seal on the next level and unrolled further to another seal that needed to be opened in such a way until the scroll was opened and could be read in its entirety. So, that is what is going on here as Jesus opens the scrolls.
Last time we looked at the first seal being broken which I think was the antichrist stepping up to the world arena probably as a hero bringing peace to a world that is in chaos perhaps because the church has been raptured. Could you imagine millions upon millions of people being raptured and removed from the earth all at once? All the havoc and destruction that would go with that. So, someone steps up, someone needs to step up, and it seems to be the antichrist that steps up and gives leadership without any form of violence or war. That changes in the next verse with the next seal. It says, “When He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come.” And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.” So now we have war. The antichrist apparently gives peace for a period of time. That peace is taken from the earth - perhaps because of his policies or perhaps because of some that don’t want him in charge of the world scene, or maybe it is something he does aggressively. We don’t necessarily know, but we do know this second seal is a war that breaks out. It appears to be a worldwide war. Almost certainly like nothing that we have ever seen before.
That leads to the third seal which is famine. In Revelation 6:5, “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. 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.” Now, following this war or during this war, we have famine breaking out. This is very common in ancient times and even today in many places. You have a war, lots of people are killed, the crops are destroyed, the food supply lines are eradicated, and the next thing you know, you have more people dying of famine and disease and so forth than you did at the war. So, we have a picture of that going on here. War was taking place. It was probably a devastating thing throughout the whole world, and the next thing you know you have runaway inflation and you have got famine. It says here for example, in Revelation 6:6, “A quart of wheat for a denarius.” A denarius during the first century was the wage for a normal worker for one day. So, he is receiving this denarius and normally, a denarius would buy about eight quarts of wheat. That would be enough perhaps to feed a family. But, we have here a denarius is able to buy only one quart of wheat. That is a very small amount of food, barely enough to keep one person alive. So, how are you going to feed your family as well as yourself on that little bit of ration? . . .
