Eight brief sentences whisper the mystery of the four horsemen of the apocalypse and how they affect our world today and in days to come.
READ TIME: 5-6 Minutes
The Summoning of the Four Horsemen Dispels Myths
Each time I read about the four horsemen in the Bible, I leave the chapter wanting to know more. John describes each horseman in only two sentences, leaving us with a mystery as to their identity and purpose. The first sentence of each paragraph describes the calling of the horseman and the second sentence describes the horse and information about the horseman’s activities.
Most people probably breeze through the first sentence, which seems repetitive, but, we can learn a lot from this first sentence.
This sentence tells us at least three important things:
- Jesus is the one who initiates the judgment,
- The living creatures are the ones who summon the horseman, and
- A specific living creature calls a specific horseman
Jesus Initiates the Judgment
Because Jesus opens the seals, permitting the riders to be summoned, it is clear that God initiates the events that are to transpire. This is important because it shows that God, and not Satan, is in control of the timing of these end-times events.
This is also significant because it shows that Jesus cannot be one of the riders, which is a common belief. It is not logical for Jesus to permit a living creature to in turn command Him to come forth. Heaven has a chain of command, and God has given Jesus all authority For Jesus to be a rider, it would break this chain of command. I will explore this further in the post on the first horseman.
The Living Creatures Summon the Four Horsemen
It is clear in most Bible translations that the living creatures call forth the horsemen with a simple command, “come.” However, there is some confusion on this topic because the popular King James Version translates this word to “come and see,” as if the living creatures are addressing John and not the horsemen.
The Greek word in question is shur, meaning to come, or go. In the 635 times this word appears in the Bible, is it never translated to “come and see.” Logically, it doesn’t make sense that the living creatures need to command John four times to come and see an amazing sight. Either John has a major attention-deficit problem, or the living creatures are addressing the horsemen.
This is an important distinction. It is easy to assume that these horsemen are fallen spirits, but these sequences of events indicate otherwise. All of these spirits, even death, are operating in obedience to God and are being commanded by the living creatures. They are not under Satan’s command nor under the command of any other fallen angel.
While God will release imprisoned fallen spirits during the Great Tribulation (Rev. 9:1-3, 9:13-15, 17:7-8), in this instance, the four living creatures summon the horsemen from heaven.
What I hadn’t realized previously, was that the role of each horseman is connected to the specific living creature who calls him.
The Significance of Each Living Creature
When Jesus breaks the first, second, third, and fourth seals, John describes the living creatures as the first, second, third, and fourth. Why does this matter? Because it shows that a specific living creature calls each horseman.
In chapter 4, when John describes the throne room, he calls out each living creature as the first, the second, and so on. Here in chapter 6, he specifically refers to each living creature in the same manner. So it occurred to me that there may be a correlation between each of the four living creatures and the four respective horsemen they call forth.
When I dug deeper, I found such a connection. This relationship helps us understand the nature and purpose of each horseman. Rather than try to fit this topic into this post, I will go into detail in a post about each horseman.
Who Are the Four Horseman?
Revelation is not the first place in the Bible that describes four horses with riders. Zechariah 6 describes a vision in which Zechariah sees four chariots led by groups of four different colored horses. The horses of Zechariah’s vision are very similar to those of Revelation 6; red, black, white, and piebald (molted, dappled).
When Zechariah asks the angel in the vision what these are, the angel replies, “These are the four winds of heaven going out after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth.”
First, take note that these horse-drawn chariots presented themselves before the Lord. In this statement, we can imagine a scene much like Revelation 6, in which the living creatures command these spirits to embark on a mission from the throne room in heaven.
Next, let’s consider the title, the four winds. The word winds is from the same Hebrew word as spirits and breath, so different Bible versions translate this word differently. Several translations, including the Septuagint, translate this phrase as the four winds of heaven, which are described several times in Biblical prophecy. These four winds of heaven are typically carriers of God’s judgment.
There are several things we can learn about the function of the horsemen from prophets like Zechariah.
What is the Four Horsemen’s Function?
The prophets describe the activities of the four winds as stirring and scattering. In Daniel 7, they stir the waters from which the fours beasts (empires) arise. In Jeremiah 49, the four winds are sent to Elam to scatter “them” and end the nation.
These horsemen are change agents or catalysts who are unleashed upon the earth to bring about regional or global change. Their mission is to stir up the fabric of society and tear down high institutions to prepare the earth for a new season. Though they cause disruption, they are intended to ultimately bring peace (Zech. 1:11: 6:8)
In Zechariah 1, we witness a dialogue between eight beings played out in just seven lines. In this vision, an angelic messenger relays information to Zechariah who speaks to the Angel of the Lord, who speaks to four riders and the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.
The Angel of the Lord states, “These are the ones whom the Lord has sent to walk about on the earth.”
According to the translation notes of the NET version, the Hebrew word for walking, halakh, denotes exercising of dominion. In walking, they patrol the earth.
The riders then agreed with the angel of the Lord, replying “We have been walking about on the earth, and now everything is at rest and quiet.”
It appears that these riders are like peacekeepers at times, patrolling the earth for evil. But when given a mission, they mount up and ride to tear down the apostate leaders and nations to bring peace.
In Zechariah 6, we see the horsemen do just that. God (probably through the living creatures) sent two horse-drawn chariots north. These spirits returned, having successfully brought peace to the north.
What did they do to bring peace?
The Significance of the Colors of the Horses
I’ll explain that in the upcoming posts about the horseman who took this mission.
But before finishing this post, I want to briefly discuss the horses’ colors. The colors of the horses sent are very significant to the role they play. And how they accomplished their missions in the past is highly relevant to the role these horses will play in our time
[Note: If you read Zechariah 1, you will only see three colors of horses mentioned, and one with a color not seen elsewhere. There is a similar discrepancy in Zechariah 6. From what I can tell, this is a discrepancy in the Masoretic text upon which all English translations are based. The Septuagint, which is based on a Hebrew text that preceded the Masoretic text by as much as 1,000 years, does not contain this discrepancy and is more consistent with the colors of the horses.]
The Four Horseman Ride
To understand the four horsemen is to understand our times. The horsemen are riding today and if we understand how they operated in the past then we will recognize their work.
Some things today don’t seem to make a lot of sense, but in light of the horsemen, they are exactly what we would expect.
I discuss this in the upcoming posts about each horseman.