We are going to finish Chapter 6 and the sixth seal that God gives us as the Son has taken this scroll from the hand of the Father in Chapter 5. Only He is worthy to break the seals and to reveal the content. The content is the judgment that God is bringing on the earth during what we call the Tribulation Period. This is the greatest judgment the world has ever see. Chapters 6-19 is going to deal with that.
We are going to look at the sixth seal. The sixth seal says in Revelation 6:12, “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.” Notice the term like. It doesn’t mean the moon became blood, but it had the appearance of blood. It looked like blood. Notice also that the four living creatures are not involved here. The first four seals that were broken, each of them was announced by the living creatures who told John to, “Come.” Then in the last one, we had the martyrs underneath the altar. In this one we have an earthquake that sounds the alarm that He is coming, and horrible things are taking place in the atmosphere.
It says in Revelation 6:13, “and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.” Most likely, this is a meteorite shower. The word stars here doesn’t necessarily mean stars as we think of them but as meteorites. So, the earth very likely is bombarded with a meteorite shower that could cause untold damage.
In Revelation 6:14 it says, “The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” So, we have atmospheric issues. The sky being split apart. We have the mountains and the seas, and the islands being moved. This is just a total disruption of the world and the atmosphere. The sky being split open might lead to something we will see in just a moment, and that is some sort of a glimpse or appearance, that the world can see of God Himself. Not that they can see God, but they recognize something here. I want you to keep that in mind as we press on.
Revelation 6:15 continues, “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.” Notice their response. The people on earth, apparently all kinds of people as he mentions all types of people. What did they do when these things took place? When the sky has opened and they begin to see something here, we find they hide themselves. They do not repent, and we will see that refrain several times as we continue our study in the book of Revelation. They don’t repent, they don’t worship God, they don’t turn to Him, but instead they hide themselves from Him.
Let’s pick that up in the Revelation 6:16, “and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hid us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” They want to hide now from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, that would be the Father. They also want to hide from the wrath of the Lamb. It’s very possible that when it talks about the sky being split here that what is taking place is that the Lord is giving them some sort of a glimpse of His throne room and the essence and glory of Himself. When they see that they don’t want anything to do with it and they want to hide from it. On top of that, they also want to hide from the wrath of the Lamb. Who ever heard of anybody hiding from a lamb? And yet, we have the wrath of the Lamb coming at this time, and they know who the Lamb is, that’s Jesus Christ, who we saw back in Chapter 5, who died for our sins and who the beings in Heaven worship. Here the people on earth hide from Him, and they are afraid of Him, but they do not repent from their sin . . .
