As a follow-up to the previous blog, we will now move on to a few important symbols. First, we try to understand what is represented by the scroll and the seven seals. Since Christ Himself, represented as the Lamb, opens each of these seals, this must be extremely important. It is decisive for the big picture of the book of Revelation. It is further notable that the opening of the first four seals leads to horses with riders doing their work on the earth. The significance of this will come as no surprise to readers of this site.
The symbolism of the scroll
The story of the sealed scroll
We are first going to see where the scroll is mentioned in Revelation.
It is a scroll with seven seals that are opened one by one.
In chapters 4 and 5 we find a kind of prologue. The scroll is in heaven at the throne of the Lord God Almighty (Revelation 4:8). He holds the scroll in His right hand:
“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll, written inside and out, sealed with seven seals" (Revelation 5:1)
No one is worthy enough to open or see into the scroll until the Lamb comes forth, Who is also called the Lion from the tribe of Judah and the Root of David. He came and
“... has taken the scroll from the right hand of Him Who sits on the throne" (Revelation 5:5-7).
Then in chapter 6 we find that one by one the Lamb opens the seals and all kinds of terrible things happen on the earth. At the end of the chapter, by the sixth seal being opened, everyone on earth knows that the end is coming. They say to the mountains and rocks:
“Fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him Who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of His wrath has come, and then who can stand?" (Revelation 6:16-17)
Chapter 7 is an interlude and shows who will be saved by the Lord from this terrible condition on earth. Then the opening of the last seal, the seventh, is described in Revelation 8:1-8. This seal is also opened by the Lamb Himself. What happens then has never been seen before: heaven holds its breath.
"And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there came a silence in heaven of about half an hour." (Revelation 8:1)
Just where in chapters 4 and 5 there was plenty of praise, thanksgiving and worship in heaven, here there is a silence. There is an anxious waiting to see what is in the scroll. After all, only when a sealed scroll is fully opened can it be read. Heaven waits in suspense, as it were, for the answer.
The answer is the One who is about to appear and from Whom we read:
11 And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He Who sat on it was called faithful and true. And He judges and makes war in righteousness.
12 And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many diadems. He had a Name, which was written down, and which no one knows but Himself.
13 And He was clothed with an outer garment dipped in blood, and His Name reads: The Word of God.
14 And the armies in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and spotless.
15 And out of His mouth came a sharp sword, that with it He might smite the heathen nations. And He shall shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He shall enter the winepress of the wine of the grim wrath of Almighty God.
16 There was written on His outer garment and on His thigh this Name: King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:11-16)
We must now ask further what the function of the scroll is.
The scroll: a sealed bill of sale
In this context, Jeremiah 32 is important because there too it speaks of a sealed scroll. It is about Jeremiah who, by order of the Lord, has to buy back a piece of land for his nephew. Apparently the family lost the land for some reason. Then it was customary in Israel for a close blood relative to buy it back so that the property would remain within the family (Jeremiah 32:6-15).
From this history we can note a few important things
- An official document is recorded of the purchase and agreement in duplicate; the deed of sale. The purchase price and terms are recorded under the supervision of witnesses.
- So the witnesses see that both documents have the same information on them and also witness the financial transaction. They can testify that the price was paid.
- The deeds of sale had to be kept in a jar, because in the unlikely event of a later dispute about who was the owner, you could consult the deeds of sale. In the open version you could read back how things were. And if that wasn't enough, because people thought the deed had been tampered with, for example, you still had the sealed one.
Thus, the sealed deed of sale contains at all times the ultimate proof about ownership. About who is the rightful owner and what price was paid for the acquisition. But this proof became visible only when the scroll was fully opened.
In this history, Jeremiah is the looser1, the closest blood relative, who had to buy back the land for his cousin and the family.
It is extraordinary that the rest of Jeremiah 32 describes what the story of the redemption is actually about.
For there we read how good God has been to His people, but that they became unfaithful to Him through idolatry. As a result, God had to judge them and they were scattered and went into exile. But the Lord also promises that He will bring them back to the land they had lost through their own fault.
“Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God (...) Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul." (Jeremiah 32: 37-38, 41).
God had chosen His people and given them a land, which they lost through their own fault. Yet the Lord Himself is the One who will redeem them. He Himself will pay the price on the basis of which He will restore people and land. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Redeemer.
I think the sealed scroll in Revelation is also about such a bill of sale.
About the sealed scroll
The Lamb is the Redeemer
The opening of the sealed scroll in Revelation has as its underlying idea the opening of a sealed bill of sale.
After all, God made the earth and all that is in it and was given to man to keep (Genesis 1:28). God is the Creator and Owner of everything, and of Him it says: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things." (Romans 11:36).
But we know about the Fall and its terrible consequences. Then man turned his back on the Lord and chose someone else. Satan became the "prince of the world" so that every man by nature serves him.
Fortunately, we know the goodness of God and know what He has done. He sent His own Son to become man and make atonement and pay the purchase price on the cross of Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ was "the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). He did so by being "made sin" (2 Corinthians 5:21) as if He Himself were the cause of all evil. Therefore, He paid with the price of His "precious blood" (1 Peter 1:19).
The scroll in Revelation is the bill of sale, which is about who is the original owner and who is the looser who paid the price. In Revelation it is about the scroll being opened completely, so that it is then conclusively - and once and for all - established who is the rightful Owner.
Well, the Owner is also the One who can open the seals. He is the Only One worthy because He paid the price on the cross of Calvary. Then after the opening of the last seal, the seventh, it is known who is the rightful owner. Then after that He is also directly at the door, as we read:
"And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He Who sat on it was called faithful and true. And He judges and makes war in righteousness." (Revelation 19:11)
The final battle for power
The fact that the sealed scroll must be opened at all is significant in itself. After all, if everyone agrees with the Redemption, then there is no need at all to open a sealed copy of the scroll. But here it is that Satan is resisting because he knows Who the Redeemer is, and he knows that he will then ultimately lose the final battle.
He will not simply acquiesce, which is why it is necessary to open the sealed scroll to establish conclusively that Christ has the right of ownership and has paid. He is the one who created everything, but He is also the one who paid the ransom price and therefore has the right of ownership.
However, it is not that there is "only" a dispute over ownership, to which Satan does not acquiesce. Indeed, that is weakly expressed. Perhaps it would be better to speak of a struggle for power2. Satan tries to the last to seize power once and for all. He also knows that when the final seal is broken he will meet the true Ruler, "the King of kings and the Lord of lords" (Revelation 17:14; 19:16) and then lose out (Revelation 20:1-3).
At the breaking of the seals, Satan engages in his ultimate power struggle to take possession of the earth and everything on it.
But the lamb is in full control, for it is he who breaks the seals.
That the Lord Jesus already has all power now and everything is subject to Him (Hebrews 2:8), we also see in this that in glory as the Lamb He opens the seals. He does that Himself and that is remarkable because with the other judgments, such as the trumpets and the bowls, His servants, the angels, do that.
Our Lord is also completely in control as far as this power struggle is concerned. Everything, from beginning to end, is in His hand.
The symbolism of the four horses with riders
We must now ask what is the significance of the four horses with rider that come over the earth at the breaking of the first four seals. We find them in Revelation 6:1-8.
1And I saw how the Lamb opened the first of the seals, and I heard one of the four beasts say with a voice as of a thunderbolt, Come and see!
2 And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and He Who sat on it had a bow. And He was given a crown, and He went forth, conquering and to overcome.
3 And when the Lamb had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see!
4 And another horse, which was red, drew out, and to him who sat on it was given power to take away the peace of the earth, and to make men slaughter one another. And to him was given a great sword.
5 And when the Lamb had opened the third seal, I heard the third animal say, Come and see! And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and he that sat on it had a scale in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice say in the midst of the four beasts, A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny. And do not harm the oil and the wine.
7 And when the Lamb had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see!
8 And I saw, and behold: a gray horse, and he that sat on it, his name was death, and the kingdom of death followed him. And power was given to them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword, with hunger, with death, and by the wild beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:1-8)
If the question is what a horse and rider represent, we can think of the song of Moses. When Pharaoh of Egypt sends out his army force to bring God's redeemed people back into slavery. That army force is also referred to by Moses as horse and rider, when he and the people sing about it, "I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea." (Exodus 15:1).
That matches what we have here in Revelation and then the four horses with riders are four army forces of Satan. These he deploys in his final and ultimate battle. We have already seen above that it is a battle for power. Elsewhere on this site we have dwelled many times on how satan works. He deceives people in such a way that they come under the influence of his demons so that he can use them for his purposes.
If it is about world power here in Revelation then, Satan will not act differently. He will send his vassals, an army of demons, to take control of the world. He is indeed the prince of this world (John 12:31;14:30;16:11), but that does not mean that every person is already dancing to his tune. So he wants to settle that before Christ appears.
In a horse and rider, therefore, we see an image of a demonic army unleashed to carry out Satan's plans and take control of the world and its inhabitants.
horse and rider :
a demon army sent out to carry out
satan's destructive work
On four occasions, a demon power is rolled out from heaven over the world, each with a different mission. Moreover, we can already note here that there is no mention anywhere of such a power returning, being defeated or otherwise ending its work.
How demons influence and use people
Demons influence people who are open to it and are able to make them their tools. Satan is able to give them special qualities and, in the process, the inner conviction that they themselves are god; we discovered this earlier on this site.
A person in search of "the higher" unknowingly opens himself up to demonic influence. He is deceived into doing so, so that he is unaware that his soul is coming under the influence of demons. Over time, their God-given conscience functions little or not at all. They see their actions as necessary and as something they do for God3. They see and feel themselves as god, feel they have power as such as well4, while meanwhile they are slaves of Satan, doing his work.
One aspect that we have not previously discussed on this site is how powerful a demon is. We generally have little idea about it. There is a history in the Old Testament ( 1 Kings 22:6 and 2 Chronicles 18:5) showing that an evil spirit can make 400 people - false prophets of King Ahab in this case - think and say the same thing.
Go out and do so
By the way, this story of those 400 prophets of Ahab is an extraordinary history from which we can learn even more, including for understanding the horses and horsemen in Revelation 6.
Indeed, what the prophet Micah says as an explanation of the speaking of the 400 prophets shows us what had happened in the unseen world (2 Chronicles 18:18-22).
There is a kind of meeting - a council meeting - with the Lord in heaven. You read of something similar, by the way, in Job 1 and Psalm 82. It seems to show how the Lord has Satan and his vassals constantly under His authority, so that they cannot go beyond what He determines. They are always bent on deception, death and destruction, but our God determines what they may do.
“I saw the Lord sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, 'Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?' So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, 'I will persuade him.' The Lord said to him, 'In what way?' So he said, 'I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.' And the Lord said, 'You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.'" (1 Kings 22:19-22)
Something similar undoubtedly takes place when the seals of the scroll are broken. Satan and his demons then receive permission from the Lord to do what they have decided. The Lord allows them: 'go out and do so.'
Three dimensions of the struggle for power
By the way, you can say three things about what happens on earth:
- It is a judgment of God. When He withdraws His hand or turns His face away, evil is given space. Satan and his vassals are given room to carry out their destructive work. This is a judgment for people, which is at the same time a call to repentance.
- It is the work of demons. In addition, what evil is happening on earth is the work of demons in people. People who open themselves up to demonic influence and thus realize Satan's plan.
- It is the responsibility of people. With that, it is at the same time the full responsibility of the people who play a role in this. They are fully responsible for their own actions.
Without elaborating now, it is good to realize that we find this principle throughout the Bible. Just think of how God allows the enemies of Israel to overcome and harm them, or even lead them into exile. On the human level you see all kinds of things happening, but above that is God's government, allowing Satan to do his destructive work[3].
We often see only the human level - all the stuff.
While we hardly know about the battle going on in the heavenlies. Let alone trust in God who has everything in His hand.
This is how evil works: Satan and his demons doing their destructive work, not realizing that they are a tool in God's hand. Then the people who perform evil, convinced they are doing good, but meanwhile not realizing they are being used by demons. Satan who thinks he is god and then man who also thinks he is god.
The nature of judgment
When we say that horse and rider is a judgment of God, it is not incorrect, but it is too little to understand the nature of the judgment. We must include the work of demons, the soldiers of Satan. For it is they who use people to give hands and feet to the demonic evil on earth.
Put another way, when we talk about horse and rider, it is not just a judgment of God. Because at the same time it is a work of Satan and his demons "empowering" - to use that word - people to achieve his goals. This is essential to understand properly, because when we miss this idea it has the following consequences, among others:
- any attempt to concretize what the horses and riders might represent then becomes a fantasy or a slap in the face. I need not enumerate here all that the riders could represent; books full of them have been written about them.
- it is then impossible to interpret the things you see happening in the human world on the level of a "judgment of God" or "demonic work. For then who will say whether we might be in such a period of a horse and rider right now? Yes of course these are strange times and there are extraordinary things going on, but yes, that has always been the case right?
Satan's armies are tasked with permanently establishing his empire on earth
So we note that there is a struggle for power going on. But then we may safely say that Satan's goal is to establish his own empire permanently. Therefore, we may safely assume that the horsemen on earth will do those things that are necessary in the building of that world empire.
The Bible does not leave us in the dark about the main feature of that future kingdom. That is that Satan is all about absolute power. He will not allow one more human being who is not subject to him. If there is then anyone left who believes in God and His Word, such a person literally has no life left: death is the consequence. Satan is 'a human killer from the beginning' (John 8:44).
Besides, we also read it further on in the book of Revelation, that "all who would not worship the image of the beast would be put to death." (Revelation 13:15).
This was also the case in the days of Noah. Then Satan drove all to death except Noah who had found grace in the eyes of the Lord and was saved (Genesis 6:8). Noah and his family, eight people in all, were saved.
Incidentally, it should be noted that Satan deployed his vassals there as well, just as we have seen with the horsemen.
Even at the time of Nebuchadnezzar, it was the same thing: "Whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into the middle of the fiery furnace at the same time." (Daniel 3:6).
Back to the main scenario of the future
Of course, we need to discuss many of the details further, but what we have seen now is nevertheless basic to what I call the main scenario. We are also this article with it started and below is another diagram of it. What we see here is a struggle for world power, which ends in a number of stages and ends with the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ.
| Seal / Phase | Brief content | Text portion Revelation |
|---|---|---|
| Prologue | The scene in heaven, where it becomes clear that the Lamb is the only one who can open the scroll | 4:1-5:14 |
| Seal 1 | Rider on the white horse Victory without direct casualties | 6:1-2 |
| Seal 2 | Rider on the red horse The peace of the earth taken away | 6:3-4 |
| Seal 3 | Rider on the black horse Wealth and poverty | 6:5-6 |
| Seal 4 | Rider on the pale horse Death and destruction reigns everywhere | 6:7-8 |
| Seal 5 | The prayer of the martyrs | 6:9-11 |
| Seal 6 | Earth and sky in great turmoil People hide from the wrath of the Lamb | 6:12-17 |
| Interlude: Those who are saved: - the 144,000 from Israel, from the 12 tribes - the multitude that no one can count from among the Gentiles | 7:1-17 | |
| Seal 7 | Silence in heaven for half an hour. Prayers of the saints ascend to God. Fire from the altar on the earth | 8:1-5 |
| Christ appears | The appearance of Christ in judgment. The beast and the false prophet cast into the lake of fire. Satan bound for the period of 1,000 years | 19:11-20:3 |
Put into a picture, then, the main line of Revelation looks like this.
The battle for world power burns out with four phases in which specific demonic activity is rolled out in each phase. The last of those four phases comes over the earth with all kinds of deadly violence.
This leads - with the breaking of the fifth seal - even to the death of people who believe the Word of God and bear witness to it; martyrs, in other words.
It seems that - with the 6th seal - their prayer for vengeance is answered by the Lord as the earth and heavens come into great turmoil. People from poor to rich become distraught and hide, for they know that the wrath of the Lamb is coming upon them.
Then there is an interlude in chapter 7 - not shown in the picture above - in which we are made clear that God does save people out of these judgments. So all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26) and out of the nations a great multitude that no one can count. So great is God's mercy and goodness: His heart goes out to people and He searches even in the judgments for those who want to be saved.
When the seventh seal is broken, it is clear Who the owner is. Then at the end Christ appears in judgment and righteousness. Then He begins His 1000-year kingdom.
How do we move forward?
As far as I can see, the above is important for understanding what follows. It makes a few things clear to us.
- A sealed scroll cannot be read until the last seal is broken. Only then can you determine conclusively who is the owner of this world. The fact that such a "bill of sale" is involved here in Revelation means that ownership is disputed by Satan. Knowing Satan, he will do everything in his power to prevent the true Owner-whom he fights from the beginning-from taking possession of His property. This explains his very last attempt to become lord over everything himself.
- a judgment of God is not simply a direct intervention from Him. It can be, but much more often it is that God withdraws His hand and allows Satan to do his evil work. But in doing so, God sets limits to how far Satan can go.
We see this especially with the four horsemen, the demons, servants of Satan who bring evil upon this world. They are judgments of God, ultimately carried out by men.
With this, we enter at least two follow-up articles:
- Looking back to look forward. The Bible describes many things that are prophetic. Promises from God, as well as things that would happen in the course of history. In doing so, the Bible gives us the opportunity to verify that what is written is correct. We can "verify" as it is called, things that have already happened.
If you think about it for a moment, the Bible is full of it. God's promise to Adam and Eve, the image of Nebuchadnezzar, the birth of the Lord Jesus and all the details surrounding it. Moreover, the life of the Lord which is full of details described in the Old Testament.
In the following article, we will briefly discuss a few of these things, as a prelude to the last article. - The fourth article. A booklet published in 2011 describes whether we can find the four horsemen of Revelation back in the world of modern times5. The author says yes to this, and he does so after much historical research. It will not be easy to summarize his 120-page analysis, but I will make an attempt.
Meanwhile, I hope you will consider whether the scroll and the four horsemen indeed have the meaning shown above.
I almost forgot this
There remain other chapters and judgments from Revelation that do not yet have a place in the diagram. This will undoubtedly include the rapture of the Church. It is work that DV still has to do.
Footnotes . . .
- There is more to be said about unloading from the Bible, but I will limit myself here to what seems to me to be important for the symbolism of the sealed scroll. ↩︎
- The struggle for power here on earth began in the Garden of Eden and continues to the end. Satan does not give up. But the theme of power is an interesting angle from which to look at the Bible. Power, not only in the world, but also in the Christian yard. Maybe that will come up again, who knows. ↩︎
- We have seen this kind of characteristic before. Among others, with the Jews and Judas who killed the Lord Jesus. For that, see this article . ↩︎
- My suspicion is that one of the characteristics of sinful nature is that we want power. We naturally want to rule over others. The phrase "knowledge is power" is a short summary of that. ↩︎
- Wikipedia does have a description of modern times. ↩︎
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