Reading for April 23rd

THE UNSEALING OF THE SCROLL In 6.-8.1: With the removal of each seal, we glimpse an aspect of the cosmic drama of human destructiveness, divine justice, and eventual peace. The whole series enacts a unified action. Read Revealtion 6.1-8 In 6.1-8: The four seals of human destructiveness. The four living creatures represent all of creation, see 4.6. The colors of the horses have their common meaning: white stands for victory or conquest; red is the color of blood shed in war; black is the color of dead vegetation; and pale green is the yellowish-bray color of rotting flesh. In addition, each rider is given an instrument appropirate to his task. The bow occurs here in Revelation, it is never an image of Jesus, and thus the first rider is best seen as a military conqueror (in spite of the fact that Jesus will later appear on a white horse; 19.11). The appearance of such a conqueror leads inevitably to war. the second rider, and war leads inevitably to famine, the third rider. In verse 6: The charge, do not damage the olive oil and the wine, in unceratin but may stem from the fact that these are long term crops not needing yearly planting and thus not as susceptible to the war-induced famine. In verse 8: Hades was Zesus'brother and the ruler of the underworld and thus by metaphor holder of the dead; see 20.13. There is an escalating destruction in the Apocalypse, beginning here with a fourth; the next series will destroy one-third (8.7); the last will destroy all (16.1-12). Comments or Questions..