This study guide was originally prepared for WAMC Men’s Class, 7/2/17

Introduction:

Today’s lesson is mostly about the opening of the second half of the seven seals.  I missed the discussion last week about the significance of the seals and specifically the horseman, so I apologize if you covered this already.  However, I wanted to touch briefly on overall picture here, if nothing else for my own sake.

What is the point of the seals/riders/judgments? Who is controlling/initiating the riders, and what right does He have to pour out these punishments on the earth dwellers?  (I believe the answers to these questions are significant and inform how we think about the middle half of the book!)

There is a lot of discussion about how the seals, trumpets and bowls work together. Some describe it as a telescoping events: The 7 bowls occur during the last of the 7 trumpets, which occur during the last of the 7 seals. In this sense, all three judgment septets complete at the same time. I won’t belabor the point, however, Osborne prefers to see these events less as chronological and more as cycles in a song, where each cycle (septet) adds more detail to the previous.

There is a great deal of debate regarding the progression between the three septets. Thomas (1993: 52– 56) argues that the best approach is telescoping or dovetailing, in which the seventh seal encompasses the trumpets and the seventh trumpet encompasses the bowls. Thus the seventh of each does end at the eschaton. This is viable but does not explain the exact repetition in the order of the first four trumpets and bowls as well as the sixth seal, which also points to the eschaton. It is better to see them as cycles, thus recapitulation. D. Davis (1973: 152– 57) points out that the seventh in each series ends with a storm theophany; the sixth seal is at the threshold of the parousia; and the seventh trumpet shows the impact of the parousia. Steinmann (1992: 70– 76) argues that the sixth of each series form a “tripartite unity,” favoring a recapitulation approach. Also, since each one intensifies the other (the seals affect a quarter of the earth, the trumpets a third of the earth, and the bowls the whole earth), it is best to see the cycles proceeding via a progressive intensification. The seals, trumpets, and bowls are a prime example of Caird’s well-written statement (1966: 106), The unity of John’s book . . . is neither chronological nor arithmetical, but artistic, like that of a musical theme with variations, each variation adding something new to the significance of the whole composition. This is the only view which does adequate justice to the double fact that each new series of visions both recapitulates and develops the themes already stated in what has gone before. (Kindle Locations 6214-6225)

To me, this is the most reasonable explanation. However, I have not read/discussed the subject enough to know if this is a hot topic and can easily imagine this could be a hot topic in our class (is there theology or pet theories hanging on interpreting today’s timeline a certain way??). 

Additionally, it is worth noting that each of the Judgment Septets (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls), are organized into a 4-3 pattern. The first four are focused on earthly judgments, and the last are more focused on the earth-dwellers taking it out on the saints and God’s punishment (I’m not sure if I’m paraphrasing the second part correctly).  Osborne believes the first four punishments to be more an unleashing of man’s lust on himself–not so much pouring down judgment on the earth-dwellers as allowing their depravity to come full circle. (Kindle location 6315).

Text

 7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 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.

This is a funny place to cut the lesson, as these four horseman are really a progression and all go together.

Reviewing the various interpretations assigned to the Four Horsemen tends to rob the contemporary reader of the dramatic nature of the vision itself. It is good to place oneself back in one of the seven churches and listen to the visions as they are being read. Instead of discussing the probable significance of each of the four colored horses those first listeners would have recoiled in terror as war, bloodshed, famine, and death galloped furiously across the stage of their imagination. Mounce, as quoted by Osborne (Kindle Locations 6500-6501).

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

What is the timing here for this 5th seal? Some (e.g. Heil, 1993), argues the slaughter of the saints occurred as a result of the slaughter from the four horseman. [see Bunny Trails footnote]

Also interesting as this is the only place in Revelation that there is a prayer of supplication. Osborne argues this is a turning point in the book as the topic turns from the evil of the world to God’s justice and enacting His plan to make everything right. (Kindle Location 6501)

…slain for the word of God and witness they had borne: could this be part of the definition of overcomers from the seven letters to the churches?  Also, bunny trail, but what does Revelation define the Word of God as? (hint: Rev 19:13)

Oh Sovereign Lord, holy and true… This refers to God as the ultimate righteous judge.

This seal blows my mind. We have such a focus on non-resistance here in our Anabaptist culture (although I am concerned it isn’t really that deep a conviction for us).  Yet here, the saints are shouting loudly for God to avenge their blood!!!!  Is this a violation of the Matthew 5 principle of loving our enemies?  I think there are two answers.

First, Osborne notes this is not a cry for personal vengeance but a supplication for public justice to the evil in the world.

Secondly, I believe our ability to love our enemies hinges on knowing that God will someday bring justice to evildoers.   In his sermon, entitled, Accepting the Judge, Timothy Keller argues that people who don’t believe in the justice of God either are ignorant or have never been seriously wronged. (BTW, this is an excellent sermon very worth listening to! I really enjoy listening to his sermons in podcast form!!)  Keller asks, how can you tell someone to just forgive and love the ones who killed and raped your family members (e.g. Serbian genocide) without pointing to God bringing justice someday.

Keller quotes Mirislav Volf’s book, Exclusion and Embrace:

My thesis is that the practice of non-violence requires a belief in divine vengeance…My thesis will be unpopular with man in the West…But imagine speaking to people (as I have) whose cities and villages have been first plundered, then burned, and leveled to the ground, whose daughters and sisters have been raped, whose fathers and brothers have had their throats slit…Your point to them–we should not retaliate? Why not? I say–the only means of prohibiting violence by us is to insist that violence is only legitimate when it comes from God…Violence thrives today, secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take the sword…It takes the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence is a result of a God who refuses to judge. In a scorched land–soaked in the blood of the innocent, the idea will invariably die, like other pleasant captivities of the liberal mind…if God were NOT angry at injustice and deception and did NOT make a final end of violence, that God would not be worthy of our worship.

Heidelberg Catechism:

52. Q.

What comfort is it to you

that Christ will come to judge

the living and the dead?

A.

In all my sorrow and persecution

I lift up my head

and eagerly await

as judge from heaven

the very same person

who before has submitted himself

to the judgment of God

for my sake,

and has removed all the curse from me. 1

He will cast all his and my enemies

into everlasting condemnation,

but he will take me and all his chosen ones

to himself

into heavenly joy and glory. 2

• 1. Lk 21:28; Rom 8:22-25; Phil 3:20,21; Tit 2:13, 14.
• 2. Mt 25:31-46; 1 Thess 4:16, 17; 2 Thess 1:6-10.

From <http://www.heidelberg-catechism.com/en/lords-days/19.html>

Consider these passages:

• 1 Peter 2:23 23 When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
• Romans 12:19 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” In response, this text goes on to prescribe good in response to evil. I believe the context of God’s wrath is not an accident for commanding to return good on those who do us evil.
• 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— 6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Although the saints were told to wait a little longer for justice, the sixth seal seems to mark the beginning of God’s answer.  God seems to answer their prayers, as can be seen in Rev 18:20 and Rev 19:2.

What is the significance of the storm theophany? Osborne argues this symbolizes the second return of Christ and the arrival of the Eschaton.  This is in keeping with passages like Isa 34:4.

However, there is a much simpler answer: the cyclical organization of the seals, trumpets, and bowls, with the second and third cycle repeating and elaborating the meaning of this first cycle. Thus we are at the end of human history (see the arguments in Beale 1999: 398), and these cosmic signs herald the return of Christ. This shaking of the heavens is repeated at the seventh trumpet (11: 13, 19) and the seventh bowl (16: 18– 21), and in each case the emphasis is on God coming in judgment (in answer to the prayers of the martyrs for justice).  Osborne, Kindle Locations 6662-6666

15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

How did the earth-dwellers know they were now to face the wrath of the Lamb? Why did they call on the mountains to fall on them if they had already been “removed from their place”? And why, if it was so obvious, did they only seek to hide from the wrath, rather than repent? (mostly rhetorical questions I suppose)

…Hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne… c.f. 1 Peter 3:12 the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.  Also fascinating that the earth-dwellers recognized both the Lamb and that there was one on the throne.  Side note: Osborne says the most starting aspect of this passage is the second judge (Kindle Location 6770).  The sacrificial Lamb is now the Judge of the world.

The passage ends with the rhetorical question: who can stand [before God’s wrath]?!  This is a fascinating acknowledgment by God’s enemies to his vow that every knee will bow to him someday.  Here is part of that fulfillment!

Bunny trails

Does today’s lesson imply the time of the rapture?  Did some of the saints experience the four horseman, but certainly not sixth seal and the wrath of the Lamb?