Seven Seals - Overview
Upon his arrival before the Throne, the Lamb began to open the seven seals of the sealed scroll.
The forces unleashed by the “seven seals”
are linked often to the horrific calamities many expect before the return of
Jesus, and especially so with the first four seal openings popularly described
as the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse.” Supposedly, with His patience exhausted,
God plagues rebellious humanity in a last-ditch effort to bring men to
repentance.
Before we can hope to understand the seal openings, certain
questions must be addressed. When are (or were) the seals opened? Who opens
them and why? Are the images “literal,” and do they portray past, present, or
future realities?
- (Revelation 6:1-2) - “When the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder: Go! And I saw a white horse, and he that was sitting thereon holding a bow, and there was given to him a crown, and he went forth conquering, and that he might conquer.”
THE LAMB
It is the “slain Lamb” who is declared “worthy” to
open the scroll, and in the vision, he proceeds to do so immediately upon his
arrival at the throne. And he is “worthy” because he gave his life to
redeem men from every nation for the kingdom of God.
Thus, beginning with the first seal opening, it is the “Lamb” who acts by breaking open each seal. In the narrative, there is no hint of any delay or passage of time between the enthronement of the “Lamb” and the commencement of the seal openings.
The
first four seals form a distinct group characterized by horses and riders. These
seal openings release “riders” on colored horses that execute their
assigned tasks on command, but only after the Lamb opens each seal.
THE FOUR RIDERS
Collectively,
the four “riders” afflict the “fourth of the earth, with sword,
and with famine, and with death, and with the wild beasts of the earth.”
As Jesus “opens” each of the first four seals, a voice summons
each “rider” to “be going.” Each time, the Greek
verb rendered “opened” is in the aorist tense, representing a past
action, but the tense of the verb rendered “go” is a progressive present,
that is, an action in progress. The language suggests historical processes put
into motion by the past act of breaking open the seals by the “Lamb.”
The
unleashing of the fourth “rider” is followed by a summary statement
applicable to all four - “Authority was given to them over the
fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with death, and by
the wild beasts of the earth.”
Thus, they are authorized to act by the “Lamb,” but their
actions impact only the fourth part of the earth - within the limits set by Jesus.
Thus, he remains in firm control over the whole process.
FIFTH AND SIXTH SEALS
The “fifth
seal” reveals martyred souls underneath the “altar,” where
they are to remain until the full number of their fellow martyrs has been
gathered. No time-lapse is indicated by the text between the first four and the
fifth seals. Their sequence is literary, not chronological.
The “sixth
seal” causes a great earthquake and celestial upheaval as the “Day
of the Lord” dawns, the time of the “wrath of the Lamb and He Who sits
on the Throne.”
Thus, the “sixth seal” signifies the arrival of the final judgment and the reconfiguration of the created order, presumably, in preparation for the New Creation - (Joel 2:28-32, Revelation 6:12-17).
Before the “seventh seal” is opened, the series of seven seals
is interrupted for the “sealing of the servants of God,” which occurs
before the “four winds of the earth” are released on the earth. The “sealing”
enables His servants to endure whatever the “four winds” represent, and thus,
“to stand” before the “Lamb and the Throne.”
SEVENTH SEAL
In context, the “four winds of the earth” correspond to the
first “four seals” and the afflictions unleashed by their respective “riders.”
The placement of the sealing of the servants between the sixth and seventh
seals should caution us against assuming that the “seven seals” are
presented in neat chronological order - (Revelation 7:1-17).
The “interruption” between the sixth and seventh seals is a
literary pattern used several times in Revelation. Likewise, the series
of “seven trumpets” is “interrupted” between the sixth and seventh trumpets
by several visions. Like the first “four seals,” the first four trumpets
are distinguished from the final three, which were labeled the “three woes.”
And like the “seven seals,” the “seven trumpets” culminate in the
“Day of the Lord” and a judgment scene at the end of the age - (Revelation 11:15-19).
The opening of the “seventh
seal” produces “silence” in heaven while the prayers of
the saints ascend as “incense” upon the altar before the “throne.”
The “seventh seal” also serves to transition the narrative to the next
literary section, the series of “seven trumpets” - (Revelation
8:1-6).
The
series of “seven seals” concludes with “claps of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning, and an
earthquake,” the same phenomenon
seen and heard previously before the “throne,” but now with the “earthquake”
added - (Revelation 4:1-6, 8:1-5).
Thus, whatever the opening of the “seven seals” represents,
the sevenfold series covers the entire period between the enthronement of the “Lamb”
and the “Day of the Lord.” It is the freshly slain Lamb who ascends to
the throne and immediately begins to break open the seven seals.
