I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Revelation 4-8.

    John now moves fully into his vision by describing the throne room of heaven (I want to say here that I do not believe these visions are intended for us to picture what heaven will really look like. I believe that they are word pictures designed to convey a particular message.). In particular, I think it is very telling that the song which the four living beings and the twenty-four elders sing to the Lamb is so similar to the song which they sang to He who sits upon the throne. To me, this is yet another confirmation of the concept of the Trinity. The Lamb and He who sits on the throne are distinct beings…and yet they are the same being.

    When the Lamb started breaking the seals on the scroll, for each of the first four seals a Horseman appeared. I am not sure of the meaning of these Horsemen, but I believe that part of the meaning is that things will get progressively worse. First, there is a Horseman who rides out and builds an empire. However, this does not result in peace on earth. No, it results in the second Horseman, who brings war and violence throughout the earth. Which naturally leads to the third Horseman, who brings shortages and famine. Which brings us the fourth Horseman, Death, after the first three Horsemen people everywhere will be dying from war and violence, famine, and disease. In all of this, there will be injustice and persecution of those who attempt to do God’s will. When the fifth seal is broken, those who suffered and died for doing God’s will call out to God, asking Him to make things right. Then the sixth seal is broken and those who thought that all of these horrors had passed them by, those who thought these things were to their benefit, realize that there is price that they too will need to pay. They seek to hide from God’s judgment, but there is no place to hide. Despite all of this, God will preserve on the earth some of those who serve Him.

    In a way, the events of these first six seals happen again and again throughout history. Each time getting closer and closer to the opening of the Seventh Seal and the blowing of the seven trumpets. When those trumpets blow, the end of this world will finally be here. I remember growing up in the 1970s and thinking that the description of the results of the first four trumpets sounded like the results of a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. In some ways, it still makes me think of an all out nuclear war. However, my belief is that when God will not allow mankind to destroy this world. He will destroy it before that happens.