Revelation 6:5,6
Revelation 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.
Revelation 6:6 And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the
midst of the four living creatures, saying, "A quart[1] of
wheat for a denarius,[2] and three quarts of barley for a denarius,
and do not harm the oil and wine!"
Third Seal Following the
Red horse, we see a black horse this event follows the chronological order of
events taking place on earth. Following
a nuclear war, several events take place, one is nuclear fallout and
destruction of foods
Black horse :
What does the symbolic language of this verse tell us about the
rider on the black horse? We can identify several points:
Genenral meaning for black horse : by the
meaning from dictionary is “One who achieves unexpected thing”
Example : One who achieves unexpected support and success as a
political candidate, typically during a party's convention.
What Scripture tells about black
?
We moderns tend to consider black to be the opposite of white, so
to us, black is the color of evil. Another terms for black color means
darkness
Matthew 22:13 Then
the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the
outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of
teeth.'
Black, blackness, and blacker
are found 23 times in the Bible, describing the sky, hair, cloth, marble, skin,
night, ravens, cumin, and horses. In each occurrence, blackness appears to be a
synonym for "darkness."
1) What is the meaning John wants to mention Rev 6:5,6 the
rides a black horse.
The color black is a symbol of famine (Lamentations 4;8-9).
Following the war, food will be in short supply on the planet and many will die.
Jesus Christ listed the events will take place at the end of age
in Mathew 27:7 and Luke 21:11 one of the point He told was Famines.
Matthew 24:7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.
Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes,
and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors
and great signs from heaven.
Other References for Famine in
the bible
»
Joel 2:6: Before them the people writhe in pain; all faces are drained of
color [literally, gather blackness].
» Nahum 2:10: She is
empty, desolate, and waste! The heart melts, and the knees shake; much pain is
in every side, and all their faces are drained of color [literally, gather
blackness].
Lamentations 4:8 Now their face is blacker than
soot; they are not recognized in the streets; their skin has shriveled on their
bones; it has become as dry as wood.
God say better die by bullets instead of dying by famine
Lamentations 4:9 Happier were the victims of the
sword than the victims of hunger, who wasted away, pierced by lack of the
fruits of the field.
Lamentations 4:10 The hands of compassionate women
have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction
of the daughter of my people.
And its rider had a pair of
scales in his hand.
In
ancient times, the value or quantity of a thing was determined by weighing it
on scales. In fact, people bought and sold items by weight or measure rather
than by our currency-based system. For instance, the shekel was not originally
a unit of money but of weight according to which the price and quantity of
things were determined. As such, scales were common marketplace items, and God
demanded they be used justly (Leviticus 19:36; Proverbs 11:1; 16:11; Amos 8:4-10; Matthew 7:2).
And
I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures,
saying
Here John mentioning midst of four living creature, that means
this voice probably for our Jesus Christ voice.
1. The first
reason
is we know that all seals are opening by Jesus. He reading the scripture what
is written inside.
2. The second
reason
God gave authority to Jesus to judge the world
John 5:27 And he has given him authority to
execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
Based on the above to reasons, the voice what John was head is
belongs to Jesus.
"A quart[1]
of wheat for a denarius,
Quart = ¼ Kg.
Denarius = money, it was
indicated to be a day’s wage by the Lord in Matthew 20:1-16.
When
mentioned in terms of foodstuffs, particularly bread, scales become a symbol of
scarcity because, normally, bread would be sold by the loaf without much
concern for exact weight. However, during a famine when each ounce of flour was
valuable, flour would be rationed by weight or measure, and neither buyer nor
seller would want to be cheated. Notice God's prophetic warning in Leviticus 26:26: "When
I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one
oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat
and not be satisfied." The prophet Ezekiel also mentions rationing by
weight as a judgment from God:
Three quarts barley This was a lower quality food then
wheat. Barley, was food for animals and
the poor. Here the same denarius will
purchase 3 meals of barley versus one meal of wheat.
Oil and the wine : These were
foods of luxury and wealth. These items
are contrasted to the wheat and barley, which require a whole days labor. The wealthy will not suffer like those who
will need food to get by on a daily basis.
Conclusion
Therefore,
what the Lord seems to be telling the rider of the black horse is, “Let the
poor suffer, but do not harm the food of the wealthy,” which could, ironically,
be a curse on the wealthy because those who are poor and who suffer are much
more likely to repent and accept the Lord’s salvation than are those who
prosper (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:26; James 2:5).
James
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God
chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the
kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?
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