Revelation 6-7: The Seven Seals
1. The First Six Seals (6:1-17)
a. The First Seal: A White Horse / A bow and a crown – Conquest
i. Each of the four horsemen was called by one of the living creatures.
b. The Second Seal: A Red Horse / A great sword – War
i. The rider has power to take peace from the earth and incite violence.
c. The Third Seal: A Black Horse / A pair of scales – Famine
i. Basic foods would cost a day’s pay; oil and wine would not change.
d. The Fourth Seal: A Pale Horse / Death and Hades – Death
i. Power over ¼ of earth to kill with sword, famine, pestilence, beasts.
e. The Fifth Seal: Souls under Altar / Killed for word & testimony – Martyrs
i. They ask, “How long, holy Lord, until our blood is avenged?”
ii. They are given white robes and told to wait a little longer.
f. The Sixth Seal: Earthquake – Terror
i. The elements and the earth are thrown into chaos and disheveled.
ii. Men ask the mountains to fall and hide them from God’s wrath.
2. An Interlude (7:1-17)
a. Judgment Delayed (1-3)
i. Four angels at the four corners of the earth holding back four winds
ii. “Do not harm the earth until the servants of God are sealed.”
b. 144,000 Sealed (4-8)
i. 12,000 x Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin
c. Multitude in White Robes (9-17)
i. A multitude from every nation worshipping God in white robes
ii. Came out of the great tribulation; washed robes in the Lamb’s blood
iii. No longer suffer, the Lamb is their shepherd, every tear wiped away
3. The Seventh Seal: Silence (8:1)
a. Silence in heaven for about half an hour
b. This silence precedes the judgment of the seven trumpets.