Oh, those four horsemen!

Revelation 6: 1-17 ,7:1-17, 8: 1-5

Last night we had some interesting conversation about the seven seals…the first four were the famous four horsemen of the apocalypse.  These four point us to the challenges of history: war, famine and death.  Yet the first seal and horseman revealed a Christ-figure who did not call out these three issues for humans but illustrates that God comes before and is present with us throughout history.  These problems and more continue even to today.  We should pause and ponder if there are solutions, if they have been tried, or way none exist at all. 

The fifth seal doesn’t really give us anymore hope as all of the “souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given” were revealed.  This would have been a reality for the Christian readers of this period for whom martyrdom was familiar.  And the sixth seal?  Well, no more hope here either.  Natural destruction takes place and NO ONE is safe from it!  But one question follows that seal: Who is able to stand?!

As a reader you may think that the seventh seal would come right up…but another literary license is taken here.  A whole chapter comes between the sixth and seventh seals!  And this section brings up other well-known Revelation tidbits.  The passage opens with the 144,000 saved souls.  Before you wonder whether you are in the 144,000 saved, remember that this book is all about wholeness.  This round number arrived at by multiplying the number of tribes of Israel (12) and looking at 1,000 as an Old Testament illusion to a division in the military, we realize that the actual number itself is not what we are to ponder.  Instead, it is the completeness of the whole image.  We must look at the 144,000 as well as the innumerable others in the second half of the passage.  This is really what it is all about.  The number is complete, perfect and includes every tribe and nation as a marked and sealed people. 

And finally, we get to the seventh seal after a chapter long break…and it’s silence in heaven.  It is here that people’s prayers are recieved and heard by God as illsutrated in the golden censer.  In the silence, there is listening which must happen before we act.  So wonder to yourself after getting through all of these seals, what is the purpose of silence?  What are the benefits of silence?  What, then, can you take away from the whole experience of reading these sections?

One of the things I realized throughout our conversation is that it can be quite hard to get our notions about Revelation out of our heads.  Thoughts about prediciting the eschaton (the end times) through mathematical calculations or reading the visions as illustrations of what will occur are strongly held stereotypes about the book.  But I point us back to the title of this text, Revelation.  Notice it’s not RevelationS…it’s Revelation.  One revelation.  One depiction that must be viewed in its entirety to be fully understood.  So keep on with it despite the challenging images and culturally normative understandings that can cloud our understandings.  You’re doing tough work but I hope that you feel rewarded with the fruits of your labor (if not, you should!).

Next week we will be talking about the Beast…yet another image and idea that we connect with Revelation!  Come for more indepth discussion about this book next Wednesday and learn what this might be all about!