What is Habakkuk describing? He’s describing God’s judgment against the nation of Israel. Now where have we heard this kind of language before, about the mountains being cleaved and the sun being dark? It’s the same kind of apocalyptic language of de-creation that we find in Matthew 24. It’s also what we find in Revelation 6:12 …the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; What is being described in biblical language is God’s judgment, His judgment upon the nation of Israel.

John is not describing some kind of global cataclysm that’s still in the future. He’s using language that people of his time would have immediately understood because they had an in depth knowledge of the Old Testament. They would have immediately recognized this ‘One coming forth to conquer,’ this ‘One with the bow,’ this ‘One that causes all these cataclysmic things to occur,’ this One who is accompanied by death and pestilence. They would have immediately come to the conclusion that this is God coming in judgment.

However, those today who think Revelation is future interpret this person on the white horse in different ways. One of the really popular dispensational writers even goes so far as to declare that only the Antichrist could possibly accomplish all of these feats. This author is Hal Lindsey, who has been read by millions of people. Now don’t get me wrong, Hal Lindsey has accomplished some marvelous things, and I’ve known people who have come to Christ as a result of his books. But that’s in spite of the fact that he has completely misinterpreted what the Scripture here is teaching. If he would only go back and dig into the Old Testament, he’d see that it’s Christ who has the bow. Christ who has the crown. Christ who goes out conquering and to conquer. As a matter of fact, when the seal is broken, where does the command come from for this rider on the white horse to come forth? From one of the four living creatures, the ones who are immediately around God. They are the ones who are orchestrating these events. Thus it is God himself who is sending forth these riders, not some Antichrist as so many people teach. So it’s Christ who comes forth on the white horse. 

Psalm 45:3-5 (Remember that Psalm 45 is what we call a “Messianic Psalm” It’s one that everyone recognizes is talking about Jesus Christ.) (3) This is talking about Christ riding forth to conquer. I think that’s exactly what we see in the sixth chapter of Revelation.

(3) And when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying “Come.” (Again there’s a living creature around the throne of God, who calls forth the second rider) (4) And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

The function of Jesus Christ in regard to this verse is to bring a sword to divide. He came to bring truth and righteousness. He didn’t come to say “Welcome” to everybody. Yes, He does say that, but only to those whom He will save. He said, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:34-37). I think that’s what we’re seeing here. Jesus has come not to bring peace, but a sword. The sword of the Word divides between the saved and the unsaved. The sword divides even families because of belief or unbelief. The rider on the red horse is granted authority to take peace from the earth. It is only by God’s grace that there is any peace at all. Look around you and see what’s happening in our world today. You could be driving down the freeway and look at somebody wrong, and you’re dead. It’s only by the grace of God that things are not much, much worse than they are.

(5) And when he broke the third seal, I heard the third living creating saying “Come.” And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. Look back at Ezekiel chapter 4. God says to Ezekiel (1) Now you son of man, get yourself a brick, place it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. (2) Then lay siege against it, build a siege wall, raise up a ramp, pitch camps, and place battering rams against it all around. (3) Then get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and set your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel. This sounds like the events that happened in 70 AD, when the Roman army came in and laid siege to the city of Israel for over two years. Ezekiel 4:16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and drink water by measure and in horror, (17) because bread and water will be scarce; and they will be appalled with one another and waste away in their iniquity.

Again, this is a quote that appears to be describing the destruction of Jerusalem. We know this from the works of Josephus. Josephus was a Jewish historian who was with the Roman army. He described the things that were going on and was allowed access into the city, even while it was under siege. He talks about the people scraping up the straw from the bricks and eating the straw, and fighting over rat dung and other things. They were literally eating the leather off their shields and shoes because they were under siege and the famine was so great.

(5) …And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. (6) And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”

A denarius was a day’s wages, so that’s pretty expensive grain. Interestingly enough, we know from extra-biblical evidence that when the army came in, the Roman General said do not harm the olive trees and the vineyards. Wipe out everything else, but don’t harm the oil and the wine. You see, we have an incredibly sovereign God who controls even the hearts of the ungodly that He sends against His people.

(7) And when he broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creatures saying “Come.” (8) And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse;

The King James Version says a pale horse. The word is actually an interesting Greek word that all of us are familiar with in one form. The Greek word is Chloros. Doesn’t that remind you of something? How about ‘Chlorophyll’? Green — the word that means green. Chlorophyll is one of the words we get directly from the Greek word. So this is a sickly green horse. and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. You may have seen pictures of this horse and rider, with Hades perched on Death’s back with a hideous grin on his face.

 (8) … And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. Wow! Does this mean 1/4^th of the people are going to be killed? Has this already happened? Yes! Go back to Ezekiel 14:21 For thus says the Lord God, “How much more when I send My four severe judgments against Jerusalem: sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague to cut off man and beast from it! Again what we see being talked about here is judgment against Israel. These are God’s four judgments against Israel; to kill with sword, famine, pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

What about the question of the fourth of the earth? Unfortunately, the word “earth” there is, I believe, a mistranslation because people were thinking in futuristic terms. The Greek is actually the word “land.” If we were to go back to Josephus’ writings and look at the number of Jews that were killed in the destruction of Jerusalem, I would venture to guess that it’s a fourth of the people of the land, if not more!  

Notice that as each of the first four seals is broken, John hears the voice of a living creature saying “Come.” But now there’s a shift in emphasis: (9) And when he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; John hears something at the breaking each of the first four seals, on the fifth seal he sees.

Remember! At this point, none of the scroll has been revealed yet. Even when the fifth seal is open, the scroll is still sealed. We still have two more seals to go before anything in that scroll can be seen. Therefore, people who interpret the action at the breaking of the seals as what the scroll is saying about the distant future, simply haven’t read the Scriptures here carefully. These are events that John heard and saw as each seal was broken, but nothing in the scroll has yet been revealed.

I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; The souls underneath the altar who have been slain, I think are the early Christian martyrs. Hal Lindsey says they are the souls of the people in the future who don’t get raptured. But I think they are martyrs contemporary to John’s audience, people they personally know who have been slain because of the word of God and because of their testimony. Remember from our previous studies, the Christians are about to enter into a period of time where they’re going to be terribly persecuted. John is writing a letter of comfort to them saying, “Even through you’re going to be horribly persecuted, even though you’re going to be thrown to the wild beasts, and torn apart, and put on poles to be used as torches to light up Nero’s garden parties, even though you will go through all of these things, God is in control and Jesus Christ is victorious and is coming in judgment.” So what we’re seeing here, I think, are the martyrs of those early days, the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God. They had stood up and said “Thus says the Lord. We testify to the word of Jesus,” and they were killed .