Revelation: The Pale Horse

 Revelation: Justification by Faith

The Pale Horse

Revelation 6:7–8 (ESV):

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!”
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

Here we see the fourth creature, who comes with death and the realm of the dead. Here Satan gains full dominion, and people become spiritually dead.
The sword, famine, wild beasts, and disease are all characteristics of a city under siege.

When a city was besieged, access to bring in bread was cut off, and thus hunger came. If they tried to escape, they would face wild beasts or the sword. If the gates opened, they would meet the sword.
Hunger and the presence of dead bodies would also bring disease.

In the Old Testament, we see plenty of prophecies about this against Jerusalem because of their sins:

Ezekiel 5:5–6, 11–12, 16–17 (ESV):

“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.
And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes.”
...
“Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity.
A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.”
...
“When I send against you the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply of bread,
I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Now this happens together with the horse from God, and the horse becomes more of a tool of judgment on a spiritual level than something that brings spiritual life.
Again, Satan appears to win with this, but at the same time, it is also a judgment from God.

So there is a kind of spiritual siege. Then comes spiritual hunger, spiritual death, spiritual beasts—and this soon becomes visible.
God calls them to surrender to His kingdom, but as long as they refuse to listen, things get worse.
But some are led, because of what they see, to join God’s kingdom.

Death, destruction, and the grave reign here.
But to those who surrender to the kingdom of God, not only is eternal life given, but also a spiritual resurrection.

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