I hear people refer to God's inactivity sometimes when they talk about the strength of the Muslim world, the killing of Christians in Islamic countries, or in their opinions of the current administration's lack of expression of faith in God. Talk like that sticks in my throat because the situations like the ones these people are complaining of have recurred in history time and time again. I want to share the message of John's seven seals with them so badly because it addresses the same situation in John's time. If I ever do share, the person responds with something like, "The seven seals? That's about the end of the world. I'm not talking about that." So, I go into explaining how the seals might just be about God's seeming inactivity rather than the end of the world, something like what is explained below.
Before a person writes something, thoughts and ideas have to be rumbling around in his or her mind. Then the thoughts get sorted. As they flesh out in one's mind, they begin to connect to examples, definitions, statistical data, previous places that they have seen or read about, comparisons of one idea to like ideas, and whether their thoughts arise from a cause or effect from some other occurrence. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Revelation.
What was rumbling around in John's mind for him to write his information for the seven seals. How did he sort those thoughts, flesh them out, and connect to like ideas? We have only his final product, so one has to reverse engineer to see what was on his mind. The first four seals have been commented on in an earlier blog (click here). They help to show what was on John's mind. Reverse engineering the sixth seal also shows clearly what John was thinking as he wrote. The sixth seal is found in Revelation 6.12-17.
Verse 12
Καὶ εἶδον ὅτε ἤνοιξεν τὴν σφραγῖδα τὴν ἕκτην, καὶ σεισμὸς μέγας ἐγένετο καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ἐγένετο μέλας ὡς σάκκος τρίχινος καὶ ἡ σελήνη ὅλη ἐγένετο ὡς αἷμα
(As he opened the sixth seal, I could feel the rumbling of a tremendous earthquake, and I could see the sun become dark, making people feel that they should wear their course mourning garments made of hide with hair on it, and the whole moon looked like blood.)
Verse 13
καὶ οἱ ἀστέρες τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἔπεσαν εἰς τὴν γῆν, ὡς συκῆ βάλλει τοὺς ὀλύνθους αὐτῆς ὑπὸ ἀνέμου μεγάλου σειομένη
(Stars fell to the ground from the sky like a forceful wind shaking a fig tree in the winter, scattering its figs everywhere.)
Verse 14
καὶ ὁ οὐρανὸς ἀπεχωρίσθη ὡς βιβλίον ἑλισσόμενον καὶ πᾶν ὄρος καὶ νῆσος ἐκ τῶν τόπων αὐτῶν ἐκινήθησαν
(The sky appeared as if it were being rolled up as scroll. Every mountain and island was moved to a different place.)
The imagery of these verses stands out to any reader. What has happened to cause the catastrophe depicted here? John wrote before the days of science fiction arrived, so he wasn't portraying some alien invasion or end of life on earth scenario from a meteor strike. So, what caused the disasters he mentioned?
Since John grew up in a Jewish environment, he surely had to have been influenced by the teachings from the Old Testament. One of the teachings coming out of the prophets was that the nations surrounding Israel would face a judgment from God for all of their mistreatments of God's people, Israel. And, Judea and Samaria themselves eventually faced the wrath of God for all of their own wrongdoings. Rumbling around in John's head were passages like the following.
In Joel 2, the writer depicts God's anger against his people in order to get them to return to more godly ways. And, in chapter 3, Joel begins with wrath for Tyre and Sidon for their treatment of Israel, then generalizes the fury of God to all of the nations surrounding Israel.
Joel 2.10 - The ground rumbles and shakes in front of them. In the sky, the sun and moon are dark, and the stars' brilliance cannot be seen.
Joel 2.31 - The sun will become dark and the moon will become blood before the great and dreaded day of the Lord.
Joel 3.15 - The sun and moon will become dark and the stars' brilliance cannot be seen.
Isaiah chapter 13 is about God venting his anger on the nations surrounding Israel and on Babylon in particular starting in verse 14. Similarly, chapter 34 is a general condemnation of the nations around Israel and of Edom in particular starting in verse 5.
Isaiah 13.10 - The stars and constellations of the universe don't give off any light. The sun is dark as it crosses the sky, and the moon doesn't give off any light.
Isaiah 13.13 - I will shake the entire sky and the earth will quake because of the fury of Yahweh and his mighty people on the day of his burning anger
Isaiah 34.4 - All the celestial bodies will disintegrate and be rolled up like a scroll. They will wither and drop like a leaf or a fig from a tree.
Joel and Isaiah speak of a day of reckoning for Israel's neighbors and enemies, and Joel speaks of a furious reaction from God toward his people Israel. The idea was formalized into the phrase the day of the Lord. This day of furious wrath to be poured out on the nations was not an end of the world depiction. It was a time when God dealt with Israel's enemies. It came against different nations at different times. Other prophets wrote about this day of the Lord, but the imagery for this day that John used in Revelation was from these two prophets' portrayal of this day of reckoning.
The use of Joel's and Isaiah's ideas were front and center in John's thinking as he considered what the culmination should be for the events in the previous 5 seals. The report to God from his angels in the first 4 seals revealed the conditions of the Earth's inhabitants. It wasn't a pretty picture. People were fighting, killing, starving, submitting to brutal conquerors, and dying in barbarous ways. The scene in seal 5 showed martyrs for faith in Christ. What should the natural conclusion of that be? In John's world, it was time for a day of the Lord. God would act in a decisive manner to show the enemies of his people the Christians that he was in control and would vindicate himself and the people who worship him. One can hear John thinking, "Yes, I will use the scenes from the well known day of the Lord imagery that no Jew or Jewish Christian would miss, as comfort for the terror so rampant during his own days of Roman rule.
One more image was necessary before he closed out the message for the sixth seal (verses 15,16).
Verse 15
Καὶ οἱ βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς καὶ οἱ μεγιστᾶνες καὶ οἱ χιλίαρχοι καὶ οἱ πλούσιοι καὶ οἱ ἰσχυροὶ καὶ πᾶς δοῦλος καὶ ἐλεύθερος ἔκρυψαν ἑαυτοὺς εἰς τὰ σπήλαια καὶ εἰς τὰς πέτρας τῶν ὀρέων
(The Earth's rulers, governing officials, military commanders, rich and powerful, slaves and freemen hid in the caves and rocks of the mountains,)
Verse 16
καὶ λέγουσιν τοῖς ὄρεσιν καὶ ταῖς πέτραις· πέσετε ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς καὶ κρύψατε ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ προσώπου τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τοῦ ἀρνίου,
(Saying to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of the one sitting on the throne and from anger of the Lamb.)
John writes especially about the Romans, but also the Greeks, Egyptians, and other influential nations in all their power, conceit, and dependence on their wealth. The five seals building up to this sixth seal spelled out all their arrogance and bias against God's people the Christians. John could hear the voices of the martyrs facing death by these countries asking God, "How long?" So he outlined the response found in the prophets of the Old Testament as shown above. He said there would be a day of reckoning and continued with the Old Testament idea of what would happen to the arrogant and evil people who had mistreated Christians. He quoted Isaiah.
Isaiah 2.19 - They will go into caves in the sides of rock cliffs and caves in the ground as they face the terror of Yahweh in glorious power when he decides to act suddenly to shake the earth.
Isaiah 2.21 - And they will go into crevices in the rocks and behind rocky crags as they face the terror of Yahweh in glorious power when he decides to act suddenly to shake the earth.
I am sure John could have meant Isaiah's remarks for the gentiles in the world at large. But, it doesn't escape notice that the two passages from from Isaiah 2 are prophecies particularly against the Jews. Luke's account of Paul's encounters with the Jews in Asia Minor in Acts was not a nice log of Paul's treatment at their hands. If Paul's treatment was representative of what the Christians at large experienced, then quoting Isaiah 2 was not a mistake on John's part and was meant for Jews, too, because of their treatment of Christians. The Jews would be included on the day when God came to shake the earth on behalf of his people the Christians.
And there is a tasty morsel in all of this talk of catastrophe. Jesus' title for himself was Son of Man. An influential work of the time, but not in the Old Testament, was the Book of Enoch. It can be found in the pseudopigrapha of the Old Testament, and it speaks about the Son of Man about 200 years before Jesus arrived on Earth. In one particular passage, 1 Enoch 46.4-5, the Son of Man specifically is said to be the one to remove and depose kings and powerful people from their seats, thrones, and kingdoms. 1 Enoch 62.3-4 also speaks of what the Son of Man's presence would be like for the rich and powerful. The author said kings, governors, high officials, and wealthy landowners would feel sudden pain like a woman is hit with when pains of childbirth seize her. On their day of judgment, day of terror, these people would be terrified and rejected when they see the Son of Man in all of his glory. This is one of the reasons why the Jews of Jesus' time thought Jesus would usher in an earthly realm since he took the name Son of Man. Since that expectation was not met, some felt that Jesus was not the Chosen One, which in Enoch was identified as the Son of Man.
So, when John was writing about the kings, rulers, military officials, rich and powerful in verses 15 and 16, he was applying the passages from 1 Enoch to the time when the rulers of the world around the Christians - the Roman military, Jewish landowners, governors of provinces, and influential others - would kill and antagonize Christians, thereby rejecting the Son of Man. The Jews had already rejected him and killed him and continued to harass Christians everywhere, so they were no different from the surrounding nations. All had to face this day of the Lord, day of terror. And what gives credence to all of this "referencing" of this outpouring of God's and the Son of Man's fury is that Jesus referred to it himself when on the way to the cross (Luke 23.30).
Given the Old Testament's use of the day of the Lord as a part of an ongoing cycle of purging and restoration for his people, there is every reason to think that the same thing would be true in the era of the Son of Man. Two thousand years have come and gone since Jesus was killed. It is easy to see in history that God has continuously purged and restored his people around the world. John's words in the sixth seal didn't have to portray a one-time judgment of those opposing his people. They could have followed the Old Testament model of different days of the Lord for different generations. But, if the New Testament model is different, then it would appear that John was writing comforting words to those in his generation - God would purge and restore them. He didn't want them to depart from their faith under such heavy duress. He wanted them to endure beyond the hard times and be assured that God would act on their behalf - against the Roman governors, Roman officials, Roman military, and wealthy, influential people from all countries. God would prove through Jesus that his people had not been duped. They would be vindicated. John ends the sixth seal on that exact note.
Joel 2.11 - Yahweh issues a command to his tremendously large army camped in front of him, an innumerable host, who executes his command. It is the the dreaded day of Yahweh. Who can endure?
Revelation 6.17
ὅτι ἦλθεν ἡ ἡμέρα ἡ μεγάλη τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτῶν, καὶ τίς δύναται σταθῆναι
(For the day of his great anger has come. Who can endure?)
In the thick of anti-Christian sentiments that have happened toward me from time to time by groups that would steal my faith, it is easy to say that God has not shown up to defend me or himself. It is easy to trade faith in the Son of Man and his representation of God for money, prestige, position, comfort, privilege, or expertise. It is easy to say that God didn't show up for me to prove me right in my faith, so no, no faith for me. It's so easy. It is necessary for me to remind myself once in a while that God does shake the earth for me, that the Son of Man does show himself in his splendor for me, that no matter who or how high-up someone is when mocking my faith, the Son of Man deposes them for me. Then it makes my path of faith so much more bearable. I know I have millions of people, some of whom I read about in seal 5, that have gone before me and stand with me. And, passing faith to my children is not a burden or task, but a passing of a torch of light piercing a darkness that can never, never extinguish its light!
[Translations from the Old Testament above are mine using Biblia Hebraica. The purpose of the blog is to highlight Jesus, so verses in the New Testament are given in Greek using the Nestle Aland text (28th edition) {used in every article of this blog}.
For additional information on the seven seals, see the book Discerning the Seven Sealed Scenes by David Singleton published by iUniverse.]
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