When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” I looked, and
there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6Then I heard
what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s
wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”-
Revelation 6:5-6
This third seal and third rider appears on a black horse that symbolizes terrible famine,
probably as a result of the previous world-wide warfare. Famine results from war directly when
crops are destroyed by the warfare, and indirectly when the process of farming and distribution
of food is disrupted by blockades, and when there is a diversion of manpower and resources for
the war effort.
The result is an extensive and ruinous famine. The price of food will be prohibitive. The
economic impact of this famine will undoubtedly prepare the people of the world to be willing to
have a benevolent dictator.
Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11 all mention famines and plagues (pestilence) as
factors that would characterize the End Times.
Famine is usually the result of changes in weather patterns or of war. Both of these are
characteristic of our times. For most of our generation there have been great numbers of deaths,
especially of the young because of famine. At times this problem reaches staggering proportions:
40,000 babies starve to death every day.
Ray Stedman suggests another type of shortage: the shortage of all necessities that comes
as a result of runaway inflation.
Most scholars take this to be a reference to widespread famine on the earth. They say that
the scales symbolize food being weighed out carefully. It is in such short supply that it must be
rationed. Even then no one can get very much because it takes a day’s wages to earn a single quart
of wheat or, because it is cheaper, three quarts of barley. This would only be enough food for one
person for a day. You would work all day long and all you would be able to earn at best would be
enough for your own physical needs. There would be nothing for your family or for anyone else.
But the luxuries, the oil and the wine, are left untouched.
But perhaps this is not referring to famine because in the next seal, as we will see, famine
is specifically mentioned as part of that judgment. What else causes terrible shortages and creates
high prices so that people cannot buy adequate amounts of food? It is inflation: economics out of
control. That is what runaway inflation does. It makes money worthless. That in turn becomes an
excuse for the rigid controls over buying and selling which we find in chapter 13 when, under the
reign of the Beast, the whole world is subjected to enormously restrictive controls so that “no one
can buy or sell without the mark of the beast.”90
The Fourth Seal – Plagues and Death
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say,
“Come!” 8
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades
was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by
sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth. – Revelation 6:7-8
The color of the fourth horse is translated many ways. Some Bible versions translate it as
“pale,” others as “ashen,” or “pale green.” The Greek word is chloros, “greenish.” It is the root of
the well known “chlorophyll”, the tiny green chemical converters in the leaves of most plants.
Chlorine gas was deadly in warfare during the First World War.
Chloros also suggests deadly chlorine gas, which is pale green in color and quickly fatal
to all who breathe it. The intended picture here is a sickly pale green that symbolizes death as a
result of the former terrors of war and famine and the added threats of plague and wild beasts.
All of this is the result of a world becoming progressively damaged, corrupted and neglected.
Once again we consider Stedman’s commentary on this section:
This rider is named “Death”; and floating along behind, was a figure that is identified as “Hades,”
or Hell. Death takes the body and Hades takes the soul. As someone has put it, “Death rides the
horse, but Hades follows with the hearse.” There are four forms of death that are related to this
attack. First, the sword, which here is not war but murder; individual assault upon one another. It
is people taking the law into their own hands and murdering other people without regard to justice
or law.91
Many people are fearful about the senseless violent crime of our days. Gang warfare,
riots, carjacking, follow-home robberies, ATM muggings, and drive-by shootings have become
commonplace. Just imagine the wanton looting and killing that could be ahead in a world already
decimated by the events of the first three seals!
There have always been plagues, but they do seem to be increasing in our times. Cancer
is an ever-growing threat. AIDS is a new disease of the most sobering proportions. So far there is
no cure for this plague. Alzheimer’s is a new, incurable ailment of the elderly. We are constantly
hearing of serious outbreaks of such diseases as the Ebola Virus that can destroy whole towns.
There have been recent outbreaks of a rare flesh-eating Strep disease that disfigures or even kills
its victims in a matter of hours. Resistant strains of “conquered diseases,” such as tuberculosis
are now reappearing. Some people are even wondering if some of these problems are the result
of genetic engineering. Recent information about the rampant production of chemical and
biological weapons of mass destruction also helps us picture the disastrous effects of these
plagues.
One other possibility for the meaning of the green horse has been suggested by some
Bible teachers in the light of the growing threat by Islamic radical terrorists. They wonder if the
green could come from the well-known fact that Islamic countries all use green in their flags and
seem to prefer that color. Time will tell if there is any connection here.
A Seven Year Treaty with Israel
The seven year period following the parousia (the rapture) and preceding the epiphaneia
(the Second Coming in power and glory), is normally divided into two halves. The first three and
a half years are characterized by some degree of apparent world peace as the false Messiah
(Revelation 13:11-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10, Matthew 24:15) in Israel negotiates a favorable
Middle Eastern peace treaty. That peace treaty, described by Isaiah as Israel’s “covenant with
death,” will fail, and terrible war will break out in Israel. The second half of the Tribulation
Period is usually called “The Great Tribulation” (Matthew 24:21) or “the Day of the Lord.”
Jeremiah calls it “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30-31, Daniel 12:1).
Trust in a Counterfeit Messiah
The Book of Daniel, chapter 9, tells of a future seven year period when “the ruler who
will come” will confirm a covenant, presumably with Israel.
After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people
of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood:
War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. 27 He will confirm a covenant
with many for one ‘seven.‘ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and
offering. And on a wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until
the end that is decreed is poured out on him. – Daniel 9:26-27
This “ruler who will come” is the Man of Sin. As mentioned above, he will probably use
the wars of the Second Seal as the occasion for instituting this treaty.
Jesus may have been alluding to this future event when He said, “I have come in my
Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will
accept him” (John 5:43).
The 144,000 Called
Revelation Chapter Seven describes the calling out of 144,000 select Jewish evangelists
from the nation Israel at the beginning of the Tribulation period, probably soon after the rapture
of the Church. As you can see from Revelation 7:3-8, the 144,000 are specifically God’s chosen
people, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Sealed – for what?
Immediately after the verses about the calling of the 144,000, this information is added. It
depicts the result of the sealing of these people: the evangelization of multitudes of people.
After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every
nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They
were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10And they cried out in
a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.” – Revelation 7:9-10
The 144,000 will vigorously evangelize Israel, completing the task begun by the disciples
of Jesus, within Israel but also extending their field to all the nations. The result of their bold and
fearless evangelism program will be hundreds of thousands of converts to Jesus Christ.
The following chapters describe various aspects of the second half of the seven year
Tribulation. This second half is known as The Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21). The sevenyear
treaty will be broken by the Beast when he has an image of himself set up in the newly
rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 24:15; Revelation 13:11-18). Since the
Temple does not exist in Israel yet, we will now consider the possibility that it could be built
quickly, perhaps during the first 3 ½ years of the seven-year covenant
