The opening of the 7 Seals is intimately connected with the previous vision in chapters 4 and 5. The connecting theme is the sovereignty of God, who rules the world from His Heavenly Throne, and the reign of the Lamb who is given all authority in Heaven and on earth to execute and finish God’s eternal purpose. The central theme here in Revelation is that Heaven rules the fate of the earth.
There is a scroll in the hand of God. This scroll probably represents the purpose of God in its final stage. It is a sealed scroll because these things were not previously made known to men. A search is made, but no one on the earth is found worthy to open the scroll and execute God’s purpose on the earth. John begins to weep prematurely because there is a person who can open the scroll: The Lion of Judah has been found worthy. Something significant has changed in Heaven which has crucial ramifications for the earth.
When John looks, he sees a little lamb, not a lion. Only the Lamb is found worthy to open this scroll or to execute God’s will and bring in the eternal Kingdom. The Lamb has won a great victory on the earth by perfectly obeying the will of God and laying down His life as an atoning sacrifice for sin. The Lamb takes control of the purpose of God and prepares to open the seven seals. The opening of the 7 Seals marks the beginning of the series of visions that constitute the bulk of the book of Revelation. There are three cycles of visions, all measured by the number 7, which usually stands for Divine completion. In each of these cycles of 7, the book of Revelation is showing us the completion of God’s eternal purpose.
All three of these cycles of visions depict the same time-period: the current reign of Christ in Heaven which will culminate in the dawn of the New Creation. But each cycle will come at this from a different perspective. The first perspective is the seven seals, which emphasizes the reign of Christ and how the Lamb is executing the will of God. The Lamb is reigning in Heaven, but events on earth seem to contradict the coming of the Kingdom and the current reign of Christ.
The World Order cannot see Christ in Heaven and does not acknowledge His Lordship. Eventually, every knee will have to bow to Him, but the Kingdom will not come immediately. There is an overlapping of two distinct Ages: the present, evil Age and the coming of the Kingdom of God. There are two prophetic, Messianic Psalms which depict God exalting His King even as the world rages in defiance (Psa. 2), and the Christ reigning among His enemies, until those enemies are subdued and made into His footstool (Psa. 110). Ironically, many people who teach the book of Revelation focus on some future reign of Christ when the book itself emphasizes the fact that Christ is reigning now. But His reign is from heaven where He cannot be seen by eyes of flesh. Eventually, every eye will see Him.
The opening of the 7 Seals are depictions of the current reign of Christ from Heaven over all events upon the earth until the end of time and the completion of God’s eternal purpose. The opening of the 7 Seals reveal that Christ’s reign will be a time of evil and tribulation, a time of wrath and salvation, and finally, a time of completion and rest.
A Time of Evil and Tribulation
The opening of the first 5 seals can be combined to depict a time of evil and tribulation on the earth. Four terrifying horsemen ride with destructive force through the world. And then John sees the souls of God’s people who have been killed because of their faith and witness in an evil Age.
Much of the difficulty associated with understanding this vision can be removed if we understand the point to be theological rather than an event. The theological themes that are introduced in the first cycle will be expanded in the later cycles.
The four horsemen are probably some of the most well-known images in the book of Revelation. The horsemen are summoned and then sent out into the world. In the ancient world, a horse was one of the most powerful weapons of war. In battle, a horseman could ride over troops on foot. The imagery here in Revelation is probably borrowed from the book of Zechariah (See 6.1-8). There the prophet saw 4 pairs of horses pulling chariots which were sent out to patrol the earth. Here is a powerful, unstoppable force that runs like a warhorse through the world. In the vision here in Revelation, these horses represent destructive and chaotic forces. Evil will be set loose upon the earth. The thing to remember is that the ride of these horsemen is something determined in Heaven.
Does this mean that God is the author of evil? To avoid the obvious intellectual problems that arise from this question, most people simply think that everything good comes from God and everything evil comes from Satan. But this does not solve the problem when we begin reading the Bible. We see in Scripture that there are all kinds of things that we would label as “evil” that come as the result of a Divine decree.
Perhaps the most poignant example of this is when God stirred up the evil Babylonians to come and destroy the very city where He had placed His name. Here is what God said to the people of Judah through the prophet Jeremiah concerning the judgment and destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people in Babylon:
And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy (Jer. 15.2-3).
Now, if God is willing to do that to His own covenant people who sinned against Him, what do you think God will do when He judges the wicked world that has always been in rebellion against Him?
The four horsemen of Revelation are a picture of God’s wrath being set loose upon the wicked world for its rebellion and rejection of God’s Christ. This is just an introduction to what is coming later! “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Each of the four horsemen represents a different kind of calamity on earth. The first horse represents the desire of earthly rulers for more and more power so that they set out to conquer each other. Men will not submit to the reign of Christ and want to rule the world themselves.
The next three horsemen follow logically from the first: the red horse comes bringing war upon the earth. The black horse brings a time of famine and scarcity. And the pale horse brings death and a premature grave. History is filled with examples of the chaos these horsemen have brought to humanity as they ride throughout the earth.
Until the Kingdom of God comes in its fullness these four horsemen will continue to ride and bring terror and insecurity to the world. The only reason these four horsemen do not completely obliterate the world is the restraining power of Christ. As much evil as there is in the world, we should be amazed that things are not even worse! These horsemen are only limited judgments leading up to the greater judgment at the end of time. These horsemen are a reminder that the end is coming soon. Jesus Himself spoke about some of the calamities that would mark the final chapter of history: “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you dare not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matt. 24.6-8). Revelation shows us that a New Creation is about to be born. And the whole world is in the middle of the birth pains.
Before the joy and glory of the New Heavens and Earth, there must be a time of tribulation, just as a woman must endure great pain before the joy of seeing her child. We do not know from these things exactly when the end will be, but we know that these things must happen before the end. The Bible tells us these things so we will not be surprised, alarmed or afraid. Nothing is out of control. Jesus is reigning over the Four Horsemen!
The unleashing of the Four Horsemen shows us that God can use the wickedness of man to judge the wickedness of man. Not every judgment of God is like Sodom and Gomorrah. Sometimes God simply steps back and allows the natural consequences of man’s wickedness to play itself out (See Rom. 1.18-32). It is not possible to continually rebel against God and not feel some of the inevitable results.
This is God’s world and man cannot break His laws without suffering some of the brokenness that inevitably follows. The world is broken because of man’s rebellion against God, although sinful man has a habit of trying to blame God for what’s going wrong on earth.
Saints are not exempt from tribulations or death. So, when the Fifth Seal is opened we see the souls of the martyrs who have been persecuted and killed by the wicked world. Since we are in the world we must be prepared for suffering and opposition, maybe even a premature death. The road to the New Creation will not be a primrose path. We won’t all be killed for our faith, but all of God’s people can fellowship with these holy martyrs when they cry out “how long?” All the saints must learn to appreciate the now and the not yet of the Kingdom. We should not expect this world to be like the fullness of the Kingdom of God. We must learn to be patient and wait on the Lord. What God has in store for His people will more than compensate them for any tribulations they may have had in this present, evil World.
A Time of Wrath and Salvation
The sixth seal presents us with a contrast between two distinct groups of people. In the first part of the opening of the seal, the wicked world tries to hide from the wrath of the Lamb. Obviously, this depicts the end of the world and the return of Christ. In contrast to the wail of the wicked is the glory of the redeemed. There are two groups of redeemed people in the vision: the first group is made up of people from out of the nation of Israel. The second group of redeemed are from out of the rest of the nations of the world. And so, the sixth seal is depicting the time of the end when Christ returns and how the wicked and the redeemed will respond to that final event of world history.
One thing worth noticing here is that the book of Revelation mentions the end of the world several times and this should help us see that the book is structured in cycles which cover the same period from Christ’s ascension to His return. Each cycle contains roughly the same themes but shows us these elements in different ways, each time with an expanding perspective. The point of these vision is theological, not chronological.
The question posed by the martyrs of “how long?” is answered when the sixth seal is opened. The appearance of Christ will vindicate the sacrifice of these martyrs and initiate judgement on their murderers. The question posed by the martyrs (“how long?”) is now juxtaposed with the question asked by the wicked at Christ’s appearance: “who can stand?” The answer to that question comes immediately afterward when the crowds of the Redeemed are revealed.
When the sixth seal is opened we clearly see the beginning of the end of the world at the coming of Christ. The wicked world wants to hide from the Lamb because He will “appear” and His glory will be clearly seen by the entire World.
Christ is in heaven and cannot be seen by the world. But at the end of time, He will appear and every eye will see Him. All of history is moving toward that great revelation of Christ. We usually speak of Christ “coming” again, as if He must travel a long way to get back to earth after going all the way to Heaven. But the New Testament says Christ will simply appear. Think of being in a large house with two stories. When someone goes upstairs you cannot see them but they are not far away. When Christ went back into heaven He just went upstairs for a while where we can’t see Him. But He is not far away. He is just in the next room like the High Priest was hidden behind the veil in the Holy of Holies.
The book of Hebrews speaks of three appearances of Christ: He first appeared in a human body on the earth, He is now appearing in the presence of God in heaven for us as our Priest, and He will appear a second time in glory at the end of time (See Heb. 9.24-28).
Christ’s final appearance will be the glory and joy of His people but will mean ruin and eternal mourning for the wicked who made themselves Christ’s enemies. Here is what the Apostle Paul said about Christ’s return and the wrath that will follow:
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed” (2 Thess. 1.5-10).
As difficult as this is for our tolerant and relativistic culture to hear, there are people who will experience the final wrath of Almighty God and will be eternally shut out of the New Creation and cut off forever from the presence of the Lord.
Not only did the wicked world reject Christ and the salvation that He offered to them, but they also afflicted the people of God. The world that killed the martyrs must now face the One about whom the martyrs gave their testimony and their lives. Christ will appear to vindicate His holy martyrs and their faithful sacrifice. When the Lamb is revealed from heaven, the saying will come true that the first will be last and the last first. All the great men of the world will see everything they trusted in melting away underneath their feet and they will have nowhere to hide from the Lamb.
This is the Lamb who could have been their Redeemer, but whom they have refused to accept. People of the world spend all their lives hiding from God. Eventually, all the things they used to hide behind will be removed from them, leaving them completely exposed. As the Apostle Peter wrote: “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet. 3.10).
Remember that the question of the wicked at the appearance of Christ was “who can stand?” That question is answered in the next two scenes of the vision as we see two groups of people who CAN stand before the Lamb. There are two groups of people who have no reason to fear the wrath of the Lamb at His appearance. The people of God will pass through tribulation in the world, but they are NOT appointed to the wrath that is coming at the end of time. The people of God are appointed for salvation. The Apostle Peter wrote in his first epistle:
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet. 1.6-9).
We are not fully saved until that final day when we stand before the Lamb. The Lamb Himself has made provision for us to stand before Him on that Day with all confidence and assurance.
Between His ascension into Heaven and His appearing again from Heaven, the Lamb is gathering a People for Himself out of this evil world who will stand before Him and the Throne of God on that final day.
The first group of people is obviously from out of the nation of Israel. The Gospel is for the Jew first, and a remnant of believing Jews will be saved when the Lord appears. This part of the vision is made even more glorious by the fact that at the present the Jewish people have mostly been hardened to the Gospel of Christ and have rejected Jesus as their Messiah. But the Apostle Paul wrote:
“I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’ Regarding the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But regarding election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11.25-29).
In Revelation, John saw the salvation of all believing Israel who will one day recognize that Jesus is their Messiah.
God has also determined to take from out of the Gentile nations a People for His Name. And John also sees the great crowd of the Redeemed from out of all the other nations of the world. These are those who came through this period of tribulation that characterizes Christ’s enthronement in Heaven. The only reason this great company can stand on that final Day of wrath is “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And because “they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
No one will be able to stand on that final day in their own righteousness, but only in the righteousness that is imputed through faith in Christ. It is those who reject that provision of righteousness who will weep and wail when Christ appears. The wicked have nothing to cover their unrighteousness before God and they want the very rocks and mountains to hide their nakedness.
On the other hand, the reward of the Redeemed will be the eternal presence of the Lamb, who is the One who shepherded them through the tribulation of the World and will continue to be their shepherd even in the New Creation. All tribulations they had to pass through in this World will be wiped away from their memories and they will never again suffer want. The Lord is our Shepherd who will lead us through the Valley of the Shadow of Death and into the New Creation where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. All the desires of the Redeemed will be satisfied and they will be with the One they have followed, loved, and served while in this world. Their faith will become sight. The presence of the Lamb will be what makes the New Creation Heaven for the Redeemed.
A Time of Completion and Rest
Only one more seal remains. When it is opened, there is nothing but silence. After the terrifying ride of the four horsemen, the cries of the martyr for justice, the mourn of the wicked at the end of the world, and the joyful shouts of the Redeemed, there is a brief period of silence. While some interpreters have thought this silence was just a pause before the next cycle of visions, there is a good reason to think there is more signified by this silence than just a literary transition. Remember that the number 7 signifies completion. The seventh seal clearly depicts the completion of God’s eternal purpose.
Everything has been finished and the entire cosmos is briefly silent, like the calm after a great storm. The great, cosmic battle is over and there is finally a time of peace. Human history has been a loud and raucous affair, like a troubled sea or a battlefield. But then there is silence and a great calm. At this point, there is no doubt about the outcome and there are no voices raised in anger or in debate with God.
Every tongue has been silenced and every argument has been refuted. Every source of opposition to God and to the reign of His Christ has been defeated and deposed, never to rise again.
The silence means that the heavenly reign of Christ has been a complete success. The will of God is being done on earth as in Heaven. The eternal purpose of God has been completed and the Kingdom has come. Christ is the one who made all this happen during His heavenly reign. When the New Testament speaks about the future there is always a note of certainty. Christ is reigning and that means the future is not in doubt. We are waiting for the Kingdom to come, not to see if the Kingdom of God will stand.
Christians have always walked through this world with joy in their hearts and hope in their eyes, being able to face whatever life brings. We know that history is moving in a certain direction and that nothing can stop what God has started. The silence that follows the opening of the seventh seal was anticipated ever since Jesus bowed His head on the Cross and uttered the words “It is finished!”
But Christ’s Kingdom is not without opposition. The silence in heaven is the aftermath of the ultimate fulfillment of the Second Psalm:
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.”
The silence of the seventh seal signifies the end of all the wicked World’s opposition to God and His Christ. All opposition will be put down and then there will be a blessed silence.
At the present, we are still surrounded by enemies. The people of God often feel like a city under siege. In this world, we must fight. But it will not always be so. Eventually, we will be able to take off our armor because there will be no enemies left to fight. When Jesus came into the world He established a kind of spiritual beachhead in enemy territory. But after Jesus left the world, and went back into heaven, there were still many battles left to fight. The Kingdom continues to steadily advance, and the final defeat of our Enemy is near. The opening of the seventh seal means that there are no more enemies left in the land. The sound of warfare will not trouble the New Creation.
The people of God are peacemakers. “But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked.” The fact that peace eludes the people of this world is because they are raging in rebellion against God and therefore can never have true peace. There is silence at the opening of the seventh seal because the wicked who are at war with God will be absent and unable to raise their voices against God. The Old Testament prophets predicted that there would be a time of universal peace:
“He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore” (Isa. 2.4).
This peace will not be possible in this world, no matter what political or social strategies are devised by men. Only the coming of the Kingdom of God will bring the peace that has always eluded the men of this world.
When the seventh seal is opened, the Sabbath rest will officially begin. When God created the world and was finished, He rested on the seventh day. So, when the seventh seal is opened, and the New Creation is unveiled, there will be a Sabbath that is the fulfillment of the meaning of the saying: “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God.” In one sense, the people have God have already entered this Sabbath by faith. But the true Sabbath will begin when the New Creation has been introduced. The people of God never quite find a true Sabbath rest in this world. But then our time of exile will be over and we will be at home to rest forever.
Remember how the disciples were with Jesus in the boat on the sea of Galilee when a storm came up and threatened to sink them, while Jesus remained asleep. The disciples were afraid, but Jesus simply spoke: “Peace! Be still!” And the sea was calm. While we are in this world we are in much the same state as the disciples. We see the storm and the raging sea and it feels like Jesus is doing little about this situation. But when Jesus is with us we know that nothing is ever out of control. Nothing can sink the ship when Jesus is with us. And one day the Lord will again speak His powerful word over the storm-tossed sea of this weary world and there will again be a great calm. That is how history will end. The future is not in doubt. This little span of time between the ascension of Christ and His final appearance, and the even smaller span of time that we call our earthly lives, is the time given us so that we may prepare for what is coming. Eventually the seventh seal will be opened, and time will be no more.
“The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;
The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes:
Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.”
