E07: The Seals Opened (Revelation 6–8:5)

As the seals are broken, we see unfolding judgment and suffering. This episode helps make sense of these intense images and what they reveal about the world and the role of God's people in it.

Transcript

Michael Berry: So now we get to the big stuff. You know, this is where most people start to really ignore the entire book because things start to get odd. Interpretation starts to get really difficult here. You know, up through the first five chapters, most people, most scholarship are pretty much in alignment. There's not a lot of debate throughout the first five chapters. And if you've heard any sort of teaching or sermon series on Revelation, it probably just covered the first three chapters, maybe the fourth and fifth chapter. Because after that, in chapter six, we go from things that are seemingly more concrete to things that are much more symbolic. And I hope you've listened to the session on symbols ⁓ because don't I hope you haven't skipped through, just be like, I'll just follow along in along the scripture sessions because that session is essential for you to understand the rest of this book because the rest of this book is written in a way that is completely different than our modern minds think. And if you haven't listened to that, please go back, pause this, go back and listen to it. before you move forward. As we jump into this, we'll be in chapter 6, going through ⁓ chapter 8 verse 5. As we get into this, I want to point out a structure that's going to help us as we jump into this. Throughout Revelation, there are three sections of seven over the course of the book. You're going to see the seven seals here in chapter 6, starting in chapter 6. The seven trumpets start in chapter 8 verse 6, and then the seven bowls, which will be chapters 15 and 16. And each one of these follows a similar pattern. You're going to see four seals, trumpets, bowls in quick succession. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And then the fifth and sixth ones intensify. And then... In the middle of the sixth and the seventh and between the sixth and the seventh, there is an intermission that really lands the pattern and grounds the whole point of the seal or the bowl or the trumpets. And then at the end, the seventh will come in. And I believe in every one of them, the seventh that really ends the, it's the end of the world. So I have to remind you here. This is apocalyptic literature. It's a different genre than narrative. And so though this will read like a narrative, the symbolism is forefront. And we have to remember to ask the right question. You will naturally just go into the question of, ⁓ when is this stuff gonna happen? That's not the right question. The right question is, what principle is this revealing or how is this happening and So this is the first of the three sets of seven the seals You know when I went into my first counseling session It was brand new to me. I hadn't really done any counseling, but I was asked by my counselor ⁓ What do I want to accomplish? And if you haven't been to counseling, ⁓ this is my shameless plug. ⁓ It is a wonderful gift that God has given to us. We are really complex beings that ⁓ function. We function on multiple different levels. And we can get out of whack. And our spirit and our soul need attention. You know, we work out our physical bodies and we try to keep them healthy. We keep them in shape. when we're sick or when something's hurting us, we go to the doctor. Well, the same need is there for our psyches. The same need is there for our brain and our emotions. And so if you haven't gone to counseling, I really encourage you to give it a shot. So when I was in that first session, I was listing off things that I wanted to fix and what was going wrong in my life. Three sessions in, nothing was fixed. Nothing. I was just there just spouting, know, just speaking, just saying stuff. And a little tip, you do have to go multiple times to see improvement. You're likely not going to see it within the first three, maybe four five. ⁓ Maybe you will. Maybe you'll see it in two or so, but But really those first few sessions, a counselor's job is to start peeling back the layers of what we've built around our hearts. And they'll start asking questions. ⁓ Well, when did that start happening? Well, I noticed you said this phrase in this particular way. Why is that? You know, what makes you think that way? Or. Why is that a fear of yours? I heard that a lot. And eventually you get to the point where you kind of anticipate their questions. And now I'll go in and I'll start talking and start saying something and I'll say, and man, I said that and I know what question you're gonna ask. You're gonna say, I noticed you said that. Why'd you say it like that? Their job is to drive down to the core of what is creating those behaviors and those beliefs. And they do that by pulling back the layers of what is actually going on. I say that because as we step into chapter six, that's what we're going to see in Revelation. N.T. Wright, he says this, he says, Revelation is a cosmic version of the tough ⁓ counseling struggle over the deeply wounded soul. We are aware of immediate problems and pains in the world, but unless we look deeper, to the ancient patterns of conquest, violence, oppression, and death itself, we will not begin to understand what needs to be done if the world is to be truly healed. And so Revelation acts as a counselor to what is really going on in our world. And it's pulling back the layers to see and to understand those truths. And so let's track. Revelation 1, we're introduced to Jesus who has a revelation for his church or a prophecy for his church. Chapters 2 and 3, we have a recognition. Jesus recognizes the difficulties of the world in which we live and He calls His church to repentance and the faithfulness through conquering. Nika'o. Chapters 4 and 5 is the first picture of the current heavenly reality and what conquering looks like with Jesus as the model. And here in chapter 6, Jesus will start revealing evil for what it truly is and what His church needs to understand in order to conquer. And so let's jump into the text here and I'll remind you what we've already discussed. This letter was written to a specific people in a specific historical context and for a specific purpose. And so proper understanding comes from first understanding how they would have received this message. And so we have to see it through their eyes. And so we jump into verse one. Now I watched when the lamb opened one of the seven seals. And I heard one of the four living creatures say with a loud voice like thunder, come. And I looked and behold, a white horse and its rider had a bow and a crown was given to him and he came out conquering and to conquer. And so these first four hit pretty quickly. And this first one is the white horse and I'm gonna hit these pretty quickly. And usually this is seen by our dispensational pre-millennialist friends as the anti-Christ, and this is his launching onto the scene. And I hope you've listened to that session as well. ⁓ Other interpretations see this as Jesus. ⁓ Later on in Revelation Jesus is going to come on the scene on a white horse. ⁓ But I think both of those miss the point. You already know what my thoughts are on the antichrist and on the dispensational philosophy of this or interpretation of this book. But the whole idea of this being Jesus doesn't really sit well with me either because then you see that Jesus ⁓ is seen as, or this white horse is the leading ⁓ horse in the rest of them. And the rest of them, the red, the black and the pale horse ⁓ or horseman is, it's evil, it's bad things. And so it could be seen as Jesus bringing about evil in this world. And that's something I think we have to stay away from. I think what we can see here is take this out of the historical context in which it was in. And we see that this rider has a bow, which is a ⁓ war instrument. and a crown, which is a royal instrument. And this horseman is bent on conquest. He's bent on power. He's bent on dominion. And if we go back into the first century, what would happen is when Rome would conquer ⁓ another people group, they would have a victorious Roman procession. And it was a big parade where they... They took all the spoils of war and all the people that they conquered and they walked them through the city. And the emperor rode, ⁓ as he was going through on this parade, he rode a white horse. Or the chariots, the chariot was pulled by white horses. And so what this horse, I believe, is symbolizing is the conquering kings, the conquering empires of the world. And if we think about that, that is the tragic pattern of humanity from the beginning. We have conquering military powers that rise up and overthrow the former one. And if you look across the landscape of history, you can see this horseman riding. Egypt, Persia, Babylon, Greece, England, Russia, the United States. For the people in Revelation, it was Rome. It's kings and queens and emperors and dictators. Whatever it is, whoever it is, it's conquering a people and exercising their power and authority over them with their war instruments and their royalty. And most of the major horrors done in this world, if not all of them, have been done by those in power over those not in power. And so what I think we have here is a rider on a white horse symbolizing empires and kings and queens and all of those conquering peoples of the world. And this, of course, brings forth the other riders. Verse 3, when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, come. And out of another horse and out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth and so that people should slay one another. And he was given a great sword. And so this red horse takes peace from the earth through war. And that is how all military and political powers generally, I may not even have to say generally, that's how they exercise their authority. It's through war. And for the Church in Revelation, living under the conquest of Rome, they would have known a term called pox romana. Stand that means the peace of Rome. It was both a promise and a threat. Because how did Rome secure peace? By the sword. Yeah, yeah, you can have peace. Yes, and that's what I'm after, but. If you get out line, you're going to get the sword. And it's kind of an oxymoron. But yeah, you're going to get peace at the end of a sword. And isn't that most oppressive regime's promise? Like, once I get what I want, it'll bring peace. mean, even if you go to Star Wars, that's what the emperor wants. He wants, then I will bring peace. Right. If you think back to Hitler, you know, I read the book ⁓ couple years ago, it was the book called The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. And in this book, it's all about Hitler, his rise to power, and then, of course, it marched through World War II. And World War II really started as Hitler began to look across ⁓ Europe and say, Germany needs to be restored to its rightful lands, the Sudetenland is what it was called. And so he looked to these lands and these other countries that were on it and he was like, this is ours. ⁓ And so he marched on Austria. And he marched on Austria and Austrians were actually pretty excited about that. They welcomed him and his armies in and the world looked on and they were like, okay, well, he took Austria. ⁓ Now he'll be happy. Well, he takes Austria and now he looks at part of Czechoslovakia. Well, that was originally part of Germany anyway. And he marches on Czechoslovakia and the world looks on and they go, ⁓ I I guess I can see where he's coming from. So now that he's got it, he'll settle down. Then he turns on the rest of Czechoslovakia and the world looks on as like, ⁓ we're not, we're not going to fight about the rest of Czechoslovakia. I come on, right? And then his blitzkrieg marches on Poland and the world goes, all right, he's not going to stop. See, oppressive regimes promise peace, but only at the end of a sword or a rifle. And this horseman brings about war, brings about violence. And usually it's cloaked in the name of peace. Verse 5 launches us into the third seal, is the black horse, and this ⁓ really shows this whole idea of economic disparity. Because 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. And I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius. But do not harm the whole oil and the wine. See scales ⁓ were an economic device. was the it was what was used for weighing the price of things. Of course, back then there wasn't one standard size of money. And so different coins or lumps of gold would come in and you would you would weigh them to see what their worth actually was. ⁓ And so the fact that this writer is holding two scales, ⁓ we're seeing this idea of economics at play. And what we see is that the staples of bread and barley skyrocket. Those were the basics of ⁓ the human diet, really. ⁓ And the normal prices for bread and barley ⁓ were $20. to 25 quarts per denarius. So here, there's eight to 12 quarts per denarius. And this would barely be enough for one person to afford to eat on their own, much less provide for their family or pay bills. And so this would be oppressive to a family oppressive to the people who are at the bottom, right? The people who are often the ones who are oppressed by the ⁓ conquering side. And so these staples are, they skyrocket in price, but the staples of riches, the oil and the wine, they remain the same. And so here the rich get richer at the expense of the who get ground down and oppressed. But then we move on to the fourth seal where this is a pale horse that comes onto the scene and this is the true spoils of conquest. 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 famine. and pestilence and wild beasts of the earth. The list that is mentioned is how this rider will kill. It'll kill by sword, by famine, by pestilence, by wild beasts. And actually this is the same list that we see in Ezekiel 14. And like we talked about in the last session, if we were to go back in Ezekiel 14, remember it's not just a point back to it, It's so that we can get back to that context and remember what that context is so that we can pull it into this text and really get a better understanding of what the point that the writer is trying to get across. And so if we go back to Ezekiel 14, what we see there is God, he's bringing about judgment against Jerusalem and he's bringing it back about by, you guessed it, sword, famine, pestilence, wild beasts. And so what Revelation does is it takes that judgment theme, God judging the people who have rebelled against him, and it reframes it. It's not Jerusalem being judged. It's more global. It's a fourth of the earth. It's the same God. It's the same judgment, different target. And here I think it's important to define judgment. Oftentimes we see judgment as God causing something to happen. He's in the heavens throwing lightning bolts and just ready to strike people. But more often, ⁓ and honestly if we just think about it, judgment is more along the lines of allowing the natural consequences of sin to run its course. If you noticed, each one of the horsemen was given authority. The white horseman in verse 2 was given a crown, the red was given a sword, the black was given a pair of scales, the eight was given authority. Further, the horsemen are sent forth as Jesus breaks the seals of the scroll of God's redemptive plan for the earth. And so the powers of evil have been given authority, have been allowed authority by the Godhead. This is His judgment in action against a rebellious people, allowing the natural consequences of sin to run its course. So how does that sit for you? It may not sit very good. And if your brain is kind of itching right now, you're reading this correctly, and you should know it's about to get worse. But here's where the hope rests. If Jesus has allowed authority to evil, what does that mean about who's really in control? And there's the glimmer of hope. So we have to have that in our minds. We have to have that hope. Who is really in control? Well, it gets worse with the fifth seal. So like I said, the first four hit in quick succession and the fifth and the sixth intensify. And so we'll jump in in verse nine. 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. 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? Now, I don't want us to glaze over what just happened there. The fifth seal opens and we see souls of brothers and sisters who have been killed for their testimony of Jesus. Those are your brothers. Those are your sisters in Christ. And we may not know their names, but the church in Revelation knew names. And today the church in Libya knows names. The church in North Korea knows names. The church in India knows names. We live in a pretty protected society, but all over the globe, our brothers and sisters are persecuted. are suffering death and loss at those who are oppressive over them. And ⁓ if you'd like to understand this a little bit more, the website, OpenDoorsUS.org, OpenDoorsUS.org, if you go to that website, you can find, and I'm going to that right now as I'm on my screen here, you can see, It's called the World Watch List, and you can see the top 10 countries in the world ⁓ that persecute Christians. And just the first three here, North Korea, Somalia, and Yemen. And so what I don't want to gloss over here is that while we may not know names, while this may not ⁓ pierce us, in as deep of a way because of the lack of knowledge of names. If you were suffering as the Christians in first century Rome were suffering, or if you were suffering just like the Christians in Pakistan or Iran or Nigeria, those are also on this list. you'd be asking the same question. I think we even ask the same question in some circumstances of our lives. How long will you wait to judge and avenge our blood? And on this screen there, engines, over on the right side, it says engines of persecution. There's religious nationalism that persecutes Christians, or Klan oppression. There's ethno-religious hostility. There's organized corruption and crime against Christians. There's secular intolerance. There's ⁓ denominational protectionism. There's Islamic oppression and all throughout the world. This is happening. And that's the question. How long will it be allowed? Well, the answer, verse 11. Then they were each given a white robe and told the 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 killed. Here, they're told to wait. And the answer to the question, how long is to wait? Because God seems to be waiting himself and he's waiting as more of his people are going to be killed. And we naturally ask the question, well, why is that? Well, I think the answer comes actually in the first part of the Bible back in Genesis 15 verse 16. ⁓ It shows us that Abraham and his family are trying to go into the promised land, but they have to wait for four generations before possessing the promised land because and this is the quote, the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. The iniquity of the Amorite, the people living in the land is not yet complete. And so what it seems is that God will not judge people until they are fully deserving of it, until the evil has reached its climax. See, see God's love, we want him to act and to avenge, to get justice, but God's love for people invokes his patience first. This is the very heart of God. In Romans 5, 8, says, demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 2, 4 says, or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? Psalm 103, 8, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. Second Peter. 3, 9 says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises. Some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. And so let's not get confused here. This isn't just God's perspective. This is the call to all Christians to be, to be patient and to be loving towards the unrepentant as we follow the heartbeat of our Lord. And so our prayer can be, 1 Peter 2, 21 through 23, it says, for this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you may follow in his footsteps. The Christian life is an ethic. and the invitation is to pick up your cross and follow him daily. And if that means that it requires us to suffer a little while longer so that he can continue the work of salvation for just one more person, then we put on the robe and we wait along with those who have gone before us. And so these five seals capture the the tragic story of humanity from the beginning. And we may not necessarily see the four horsemen riding in plain sight because of our geopolitical situation here in America, but make no mistake, they are still riding. The advances of conquest in our past still have ripple effects on our lives. I think of racial inequality. I remember the first time I went to Atlanta, ⁓ I... grew up, of course, in Oklahoma, Ponca City, Oklahoma, and I had some black friends, but they were definitely in the minority of ⁓ the ethnic of our town and of our school. But the first time I went to Atlanta after college, I look around and I see the majority is black. And I, I, of a sudden it was, it was crystal clear to me, the history of our country of the South, right in front of my eyes. The horseman was riding at one point and the horseman still rides. We see social and economic disparity throughout our world on the street corners as we drive down the roads. Wars are being fought in multiple corners of the globe right now. Violence is everywhere, not merely in the streets or in a school shooting, but even in our own hearts. Sickness and pain plague each and every one of us physically and spiritually and emotionally, and the end result for all leads to death. And so we still know these horsemen are riding. And in so many stories, when God's people are acting as God's people, they get put in the crosshairs. In our response, Jesus leads the way in this, and in Matthew 5, 44, He says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. The Christian life is an ethic to live as our Lord lived, to conquer as He conquered. And so we press on and we jump into the sixth seal. When he opened the sixth seal, I look and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth. The moon, the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that's being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 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 and the mountains. And so here we see that the world is decreating. And if the sun became black, if the moon became like blood, the stars fall from the sky, The sky rolls up like a scroll and every mountain and island is just simply removed. That's the world, decreating. And all the kings of the earth and the great ones, the generals, all these people are fearful. And they hide themselves in caves and among rocks in the mountains and they call to the mountains and the 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 for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? Well, if we ask ourselves, well, when is the day of wrath? Well, we know the day of wrath is, it means the future where God is judging the world. And so here in the sixth seal, we're at judgment day. and the world is rolling up like a scroll and the judgment of God is being enacted and the question is asked, who can stand? Whenever you come into Revelation and you see questions, you're going to focus in on those questions because they help you understand the symbolism and the narrative going along with those questions. And what you will see in the first two sections of sevens, is this interlude, this intermission between the sixth and seventh seal, or the sixth and seventh trumpet. Actually, it's not just the first two, it's in the bowl as well. And in this case, the interlude is meant to answer that question of verse 17. That is key. Chapter seven is an answer to that question. Who can stand God's judgment? Chapter seven, verse one. After this, I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth. Remember, what is four to give us? What's the principle or the idea we need to have in our head when we see four? It's this whole idea of creation, that which is created. Now, that which is created. And so these angels are standing at the four corners of the earth holding back the four winds of the earth so that no wind might blow on the earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God. And he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the earth and sea, saying, do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our Lord and our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe. of the sons of Israel. And so we've seen this before. We've seen this idea of heard. Like remember back in chapter five, we hear lion, we see lamb. And so what should we expect? We should expect John to hear this number and then he's going to turn and he's going to see and he's going to see a deeper and clearer picture that further illuminates what he's heard. And so what we're going to see is 12,000 from all the different tribes, 12,000 from Judah, Reuben Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. We're going to see them sealed. And this is a different sense of seal. This is an identification mark on their foreheads. And this is very reminiscent of a military sense, similar to Numbers 1. And the dispensational pre-millennius crowd would say, well, these are the ethnic Jews who come to Christ during the seven-year tribulation, and they witness to the people of the world. But that ignores the pattern of what we've already seen, the pattern of hearing and then seeing. Therefore, I think he's hearing the symbol and he's going to see a deeper and clearer picture of what he heard. Verse nine. After this, I looked and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, from all people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. He looks and what does he see? He sees the people of God from every nation and people group and tribe and language. This is the church. And it's symbolized by these, 12,000 from each tribe. 12,000, once again, is a big number, right? Because there's 12 tribes of Israel. And so these 12,000, 12,000 times 12, I believe my math is right, is 144,000. And so what he is seeing here is the people of God. seeing the church. And so we go on in verse 11 and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worship God saying, Amen. And here's their seven of these blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Remember. We are answering the question, who can stand? We've got to keep that in our mind. Who can stand? He's saying symbolically, the church, the people of God from every tribe and language and nation and tongue. Verse 13, then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these clothed in white robes and from wherever they come? And I said to him, sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. Tribulation. John sees himself as the tribulation. The tribulation is ongoing, started throughout the centuries in AD 1. And so we have this great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God and they serve Him day and night in His temple. And so those who are able to stand, those who have washed their robes in the blood of God, they are in his throne room here. And his throne room is also his temple. And then in the Old Testament, the temple on earth was the literal place where God dwelled on earth. He was with his people. And so this group from every people, tribe, nation, and language is now the temple of God, representing God with his people. so judgment has been enacted. Justice has come and the people of God are with their Creator. And look, now, he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence. They shall hunger no more, thirst no more, the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat for the lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd. And he will guide them to springs of living water and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is the hope, is that there is finally peace at the end of all of this. And there is the hope that the churches in Revelation need, that you and I need. It's the hope that all followers of Jesus must cling to, that all will be made right in the future. And at this point, the final seal is opened in chapter eight, verse one. I think those who broke up the Bible into chapters and verse, they did a great job. I think they missed this though. ⁓ I think chapter eight, verses one through five go with the first set of seven. And of course, the seventh trumpet is the number of completion. And so, This seal is going to serve two purposes. It's going to bring the culmination of the seven seals but it's going to introduce the seven trumpets and so when the lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about half an hour and And this is the hinge point in the book silence is like it's like this. It's like this big sigh ⁓ Of accomplishment I remember this last summer ⁓ Watching Rory McElroy win the Masters and it is it was his last ⁓ major that he needed to win to complete the career Grand Slam and at the end he just collapses and it's just this moment of like all of this work all of this this this time put in it finally has been accomplished and the announcer just let it happen. didn't fill the void with words. It was just silence as we watched this moment of accomplishment. That's the idea that we have in our mind, that this silence here is this big sigh of accomplishment. And then I saw the seven angels who stand before God and the seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. Then there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake." Notice that the prayers of the saints is is the fire that is thrown from heaven to earth. And I think it's important to remember that intercession matters. God invites and listens to our prayers, and they influence how He works in this world. And so this whole section wraps up with thunder and lightning and an earthquake, which signal, once again, the ending of one section and the beginning. of another. And so this section ends at the end. God with his people, where all is made right, tears are wiped away, pain is no more, and the Lamb leads his people to springs of water. And the question is answered. Who can stand? It's those who have washed their robes. the blood of the Lamb. And so to summarize this section, the first four seals are four horsemen who have been riding from the beginning of our world and continue to ride today. The white horse is this horse symbolizing conquest. The red horse is war. The black horse is economic oppression. The pale horse is death. And the fifth seal shows that those martyred for the sake of Christ are told to be patient. because more persecution is going to take place. And it reminds us of the ethic of the Christian life. Then the sixth seal ushers in God's judgment on the earth and the people of the earth. And it begs the question, well, who can stand? And chapter seven is the answer to that question. ⁓ And it's the 100,000 who are sealed. And these are not ethnic Jews. It's a symbol of the people of God, the church. And the people of God are those from every nation and tribe and people and language. So who can stand it? It's those who have washed their robes in the blood of the lamb. And then the seventh seal is open and it indicates completion and it ushers in silence and accomplishment. And it culminates the seven seals. It introduces the seven trumpets and it ends this section as the prayers of the saints are thrown over the earth. And so evil has been and will continue to ride for centuries. Every single person will be judged. But the question remains, how do the people of God conquer? They conquer by the blood of