As Revelation 6 begins, the Slain Lamb opens the scroll with Seven Seals. This brings us into the next section of Revelation with three cycles of sevens: Seven Seals (chapters 6-8a), Seven Trumpets (chapters 8b-11), and Seven Bowls (chapters 15-16). Each cycle depicts God’s kingdom and justice coming on earth as in heaven.

There are two ways to read these symbolic visions and chapters 6 – 20 and I want to be clear the route we are taking. (a) Some people think these three sets of seven divine judgments represent a literal, linear sequence of events that happened in the past or present; or will happen when Jesus returns. This style of interpretation has been made popular in recent years and has probably influenced how many of you think of Revelation.

I would like to invite you to keep an open mind. As we read, watch and see how John wove the cycles together. The seven bowls come out of the seventh trumpet and the seventh seal, and the seven trumpets emerge from the seventh seal. They’re like nesting dolls, each seventh containing the next seven. And each series of seven culminates in the Day of the Lord’s final judgment.

Because of this, we believe that (b) it’s more likely that John is using each set of seven to depict three perspectives of the time between Jesus’ resurrection and his return. [Thanks to our friends at The Bible Project for making a great diagram of this!] Try not to get too stuck on details but note how John uses Old Testament imagery; and notice how each of the cycles ends.

The Seven Seals begin with the opening of Seals one to four (6:1-8) and we see the four horses that represent conquest, war, famine, and death. Tribulation and suffering are a reality of our life on earth – we know war, famine, and death – and the horsemen imagery is drawn from Zechariah 1.

The suffering is great, and John sees under the altar of the souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for the witness they had borne” (6:9). These martyrs cry out “How long O Lord?!” (6:10) and, unfortunately, the Lord tells them they will need to rest a bit longer because more Christian witnesses are going to die. Since the resurrection of Jesus Christ, many Christians have been martyred for their witness and continue to be killed still today.

The sixth seal ushers in the Day of the Lord using imagery from Joel 2 and Isaiah 2. It is a terrifying and mighty event where the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and powerful and everyone… hides themselves (6:15-16).

The question ringing out across the earth on the Day of the Lord’s judgment is “Who can stand?!” (6:17). There is only despair in this cycle of Seven Seals – there is no repentance, and without the saving work of God there is no hope. No one can stand.

Are you perhaps comforted to think that we are already living with the four horsemen of the apocalypse? Our world already knows war, famine, and death. I am sure everyone who lived through World War 1 and 2 and Hiroshima and the great famines of East Africa – they thought for sure those were the end times. Maybe it’s not that God is going to send more waves of intense punishment; maybe we are living with the horsemen already?

Are you convicted by the voices of the martyrs, who gave their lives for Christ?

Yet no one can stand on the Day of the Lord as presented in this vision cycle. Wait for chapter 7, we will discover that some do overcome!