Wednesday Bible Study: The third seal

 

Rev 6:5  When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. 

Rev 6:6  And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst 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 wine!" 

The third horseman heralds a famine on the land.  And after the war we talked about last time, this isn't a big surprise.  But there are a lot of facts and levels to this, so follow me on my journey of discovery.

Last time we talked about the Lord "raining fire on those who live in safety in the coastlands".  And I speculated whether this was a miraculous event or a nuclear war.  As it turns, it doesn't really matter.  I did some looking into 'nuclear winter'- what happens after such a war.  There have been two waves, decades apart, of scientific modelling on the subject; and without giving you a lot of footnotes, the gist was pretty much the same.  They decided to base their model on a "limited" nuclear war- using India and Pakistan for their subjects, figuring about 50 nukes set off.

What surprised me was that the models didn't talk so much about destruction by radiation, but from the firestorms unleashed by the explosions.  This is why I said it doesn't matter whether the disaster is man-made or miraculous- a firestorm is a firestorm.  They estimated 3 effects from the amount of ash and material pushed into the upper atmosphere.  One was the drop in average temperatures, somewhere between 3-7 degrees F.  Second was a hole ripped in the ozone later- remember the "aerosol threat"?  This would be much worse; Third would be a shortening of the growing season by at least 40 days.  Now, I just looked at some stats from the UK's NIH; taking 40 growing days from the year worldwide would cut our margin of being able to feed the whole world to zero.  Okay, so with some overcoats, greenhouses, and a whole lot of sunscreen, this SEEMS doable.  But...

Going back to the passage, we have to deal with that voice.  It was from the midst of the four Living Creatures- hence from close to God... but it doesn't seem to be God's voice, as John doesn't add the superlatives that he does for heavenly voices (for example, "a voice that sounded like thunder").  I think God is letting us hear something- from the WORLD.  Here I need to give you some of my learning process.

The commentators, whom I've told you earlier were stuck in, "It already happened" and were less than helpful, were very divided on the CAUSE of the famine.  Not that famines weren't common; in fact, there was one shortly after the writing of Revelation.  But WHAT the voice said-  "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!" - caused a variety of challenges for them.  One thing they did point out was, back in those days, disasters cause Rome to raise taxes on goods; owners of olive groves and vinyards would sometimes attempt to get out of those taxes by destroying some of their orchards- "Do not harm the oil and wine" thus makes some sense.  But I think it missed the point.

Remember last time, we drew the connection between the Living Creature who announced the catastrophe and the catastrophe itself.  This time, it is the One with the face 'like a man'.  What did that symbolize?  I tried to make this much harder than it was.  Another question revolved around a statement I found somewhere along the line:  We are always taught that "oil and wine" are luxury items, and thus this means the well-to-do.  Many of the commentators pointed out this was NOT the case, that they were essential items in THOSE days.  But, this wasn't going to be those days, it was a FUTURE day.  So I started digging into oil and wine, and found this.  It's a little later in the Revelation story, when physical Babylon is destroyed...

Rev 18:9  And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 

Rev 18:10  They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, "Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come." 

Rev 18:11  And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 

Rev 18:12  cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, 

Rev 18:13  cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. 

Oil and wine- luxury items.  And Physical Babylon STILL had them at the end.  Now, I'll tie it all together.

So we have a famine- the poor will have to work a full day to get enough wheat to keep one person alive, or the 'cheap stuff' to keep 3 alive.  And no, you get no oil, you get no wine!  The Anti-Christ, the Ultimate Idol, is going to USE the war and the SURVIVABLE famine to concentrate control within his elite.  Thus you see why the Living Creature had the face like a man- it is a completely man-made, man-caused famine.  It is the lever he'll use to control the world...

Rev 13:16  Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, 

Rev 13:17  so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. 

Rev 13:18  This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666. 

Am I now going to go down the bunny trail of the number?  Not on your life!  Chuck Swindoll suggests that this number will only become apparent at that time, so that those who refuse the mark will have a way around the ban.  That will suffice for me.  But we have one more Living Creature left, and one more rider.  And as that Living Creature has the face of the eagle, I can't help thinking on the words of Jesus:  

Mat 24:28  For wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered.