A sermon by David A. Roquemore
The Camp Hill Presbyterian Church
April 25, 2010
Revelation 6 and 7
Once again the lectionary reading contained a few verses from chapter 7, but I decided to continue reading straight through. I don’t expect to keep this going through the entire book. Two week ago, we looked at chapter 1, last week, chapters 4 and 5. Today we will read chapters 6 and 7 closely.
So, Revelation chapter 6. Here we see the first in a series of visions. John typically sees things in sets of seven. He alternates between describing events on earth and events in heaven. He gives us vignettes and glimpses, couched in apocalyptic language, with mysterious symbols and numbers. In part this is simply to disgiuse the text: in a time of Roman suspicion of Christians, a book that condemned the empire would be dangerous, but one with a lot of weird animals would simply be …weird! Not a threat. As John describes these visions, we learn things about our world and about God that apply not just to some “end time” but to all times: among other things, John is teaching us about human history.
The Lamb begins to break the seals on the scroll, and as he does, riders come forth on horses. These are the famous “four horsemen of the apocalypse.” A rider on a white horse comes to conquer, followed by a red, a black, and a pale green horse! The white horse comes to conquer. The red brings bloodshed, the black, famine, and the pale green, death. What can this be? First of all, there are commentaries that will say the first rider, on the white horse, is Christ, the conquering Lord. Later in the book Christ is pictured on a white horse, and so folks take this one to be him as well. But it makes no sense, really, for all these bad things to follow him. Another reading is this: the white rider represents conquering armies, like Rome, which always come with glory and pomp, promising liberation. But what follows an army? Bloodshed. The red rider shows the reality of an army’s arrival. There is fighting, combat, bloodshed. This rider takes peace from the earth, so that people would slaughter one another.
Conquering armies come with slaughter and bloodshed, and what happens? Economic turmoil, inflation, scarcity, famine. There is little to eat, and what there is costs an enormous amount: a day’s pay for a quart of wheat. Some of you will remember the rationing during World War Two: if you don’t remember, ask someone. That was pretty mild compared to what we read here. And finally, after the black horse, a pale green horse, whose rider is Death, and who kills one-fourth of the earth with famine, disease and pestilence. Between the destruction of war and the shortage of food, there is much death. It sounds terrifying for one-fourth of the earth to die, but it has happened. In 1348 the Black Plague killed between 25 and 50 percent of the people of Europe. The 1918 flu pandemic attacked one-fifth of the world’s population, and killed 50 million people. AIDS threatens large numbers of people in Africa today. This kind of death rate is possible, and would be especially likely in wartime. So far, then, we have a description of the way things go in history, as nations fight against nations, and people suffer. It has been this way in every age.
When the fifth seal is opened, the view changes. John sees the souls of the martyrs under the altar of God, crying out, asking how long until judgment and justice would come. These have died for their faithful testimony to Christ. In John’s time there were already persecutions against Christians in some areas. The Roman government demanded a pledge of loyalty, that “Caesar is Lord.” Christians refused to say that, saying instead, “Jesus is Lord.” The conquering army wins the day, and Christians are executed for their faith. John’s readers knew this was happening in some places, just as it happens today in some places. The martyrs are given a white robe and told to wait. Wait for God’s justice for it will surely come.
Then there is a sixth seal: here it gets strange. The very cosmos begins to come apart. The stars fall out of the sky. The sun turns black and the moon, red. The mountains and islands were moved out of place. All people great and small run and hide, asking the very earth to hide them from the great and terrible day of the Lord. In scripture there are many places where the day of God’s coming is described in similar terms. And so this is not only a review of the way that history runs its course, This book says that history has an end, a purpose, a goal toward which it moves, and that God is sovereign. God is in charge of the unveiling of history, and moves it to its end. For those who wait and suffer, this is good news. For those who rule and exploit others, this is very bad news.
That is chapter 6. The rest of Revelation has many such scenes, all reinforcing that basic message: be not afraid, for even now, even in this suffering, God has not forgotten the faithful.
Chapter seven. First there is described a group of those who are sealed with the mark of God. There are 144,000 who are included. Now, there are groups out there who claim that only 144,000 people are going to heaven. I am afraid, if that is true, that we are born too late, and the number is already full! But I am also certain that this is not a literal number: it is 12 from each of the 12 tribes, times 1000. In other words, remembering that numbers here are symbolic: twelve tribes, the whole people of Israel. Twelve from each, again emphasizing the sense of completeness: everyone is there who should be there. No one is left out. And multiplied by 1000: again, making the emphatic point: all are there.
I am certain of this because of the second group in this vision. John writes, After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. Far from being limited to 144,000, the number of those present is too great to count. They too are robed in white, and come from every tribe, every place, every land, even here. They come and gather and do what we have seen before in this book: they sing praise to God and to the Lamb.
Now, there is a certain way of reading Revelation that many people have learned in popular books, especially the Left Behind novels, but also other books. This is a very detailed description of how things will be at the last times, and what every item in Revelation means. Many times, this is what people want to know about when we read Revelation. And they ask why Presbyterians don’t teach this stuff, implying that we don’t teach “the Bible.” The truth is, that entire way of reading Revelation and a few other Bible texts, was created pretty much from scratch by one minister in Great Britain in the 19th century. He had a lot of odd beliefs aside from his dispensationalist teachings, but it is those teachings that have become widely repeated as regards Revelation. Many of the details of his scheme had been denounced as incorrect by the church through the centuries. My primary objection to this whole approach is that it tends to be based on fear, and God is not a God of fear. God is to be properly feared, oh yes! But the Risen Lord Jesus does not call us to believe and follow out of fear, but out of love. The text of Revelation is richer and deeper than these prophecy schemes would tell.
Enough of that. Chapter seven continues with another vision of the multitudes praising the Lord, praising God on the throne and the Lamb, singing the same choruses we saw in chapter one and chapter five.
One of the elders asks John who are these multitudes robed in white, and John says, “you tell me!” The answer is, they have come out of the great ordeal. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The great ordeal refers to suffering and tribulation. That whole scene with the horsemen coming forth and wreaking havoc on the earth is an ordeal that produces suffering. There are many ways we can suffer in life. That we know. And there are many ways to suffer for Christ Jesus.
In a way, the great ordeal can refer broadly to life – we suffer and struggle with sin. Notice: those who came through the great ordeal are those who washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. We have been forgiven of sin and saved from death by the death of Jesus on the cross, by his blood, we say. And so we have come through the trial and will one day receive white robe.
What is their response to this, other than singing the eternal hymn? The chapter ends with a beautiful poem, a vision of how things will be.
15For this reason they are before the throne of God,
and worship him day and night within his temple,
and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
16They will hunger no more, and thirst no more;
the sun will not strike them,
nor any scorching heat;
17for the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of the water of life,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’
The ones in white robes, the redeemed of all the ages, who forever sing to the glory of God, they worship God day and night. There is no end to their praise.
They are sheltered and protected by the one on the throne. Rather than being “liberated” by conquering armies, the One Who Conquers shelters them. Rather than suffering from scarcity of food, where a little wheat costs a day’s wage, they hunger and thirst no more, receiving their daily bread from the Lamb. The cosmic calamaties of the coming of God will not threaten them, not the moon nor the sun, for they will be led to springs of the water of life as a shepherd leads the flock to water.
The Lamb will be the shepherd. Jesus says he is the Good Shepherd, and indeed, he is, for in his flock there will be no danger, no threat, no need. God himself will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And all will be well.
And so let us not be afraid. Let us do right without fear of the powers of this world, for they will finally be defeated. Terrors may come, armies, famines, plagues, economic and political upheavals; all of these may seem overwhelming. It may be a great ordeal but in the end, God’s peace will reign.
And with the choir we shall sing,
Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might
be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.
