Revelation Chapter 6:9-17/Commentary

Revelation Chapter 6:9-17 Revelation 6:9-17 “And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 11And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, should be completed also.

12And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand? " “For the first-century readers of this book, the tribulations depicted in it were becoming all too real: Each church would soon know the anguish of having some of its most forthright and able leaders imprisoned and executed because of the Word of God. For many Christians, all across the empire, the coming months and years would involve great distress, as families would be separated and loved ones killed. When tragedy strikes, we are tempted to ask: Does God care? This question is especially intense when the pain is caused by vicious enemies of the faith bent on destroying God’s people, and the injustice of suffering becomes apparent” (Chilton p. 193).

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The Fifth Seal 6:9 “I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain”: First note that man survives the death of the body (Matthew 10:28). These Christians had been slain but they still existed. In addition, they were conscious and aware and knew who had slain them and they also knew that their blood had not been avenged. Death is not the end. “There are two important days in a man’s life, someone said. The first, the day he was born and the second, the day he learns why he was born” (McGuiggan p. 106). Some commentators see these souls as being the souls of the righteous who died in the Old Testament, but the book of Revelation primarily is dealing with Christians and what Christians will be facing. Please note that the dead here are conscious, a point which both Seventh Day Adventists and Jehovah Witnesses deny.

6:9 “The altar”: “The Hebrew term for ‘altar’ in the Old Covenant was from a word that meant ‘place for blood-sacrifice’” (Hailey p. 194). This is a fitting image for in the Old Testament the blood of the slain victim would stream down the sides of the altar and form a pool around its base. These Christians had been slain, they had given their lives as a sacrifice for the cause of Christ (2 Timothy 4:6). Paul used similar language of his readiness to give his life for Christ (Philippians 2:17).

6:9 “Those who had been slain”: These Christians had not simply died, but rather they had been slain because of their faith. Notice the past tense.

Premillennialists argue that these are Christians who had been slain during some future great tribulation, yet according to John these are Christians who had already been slain by the time the book of Revelation was written. In fact, in Revelation 2:13 we are given the name of an early Christian martyr.

6:9 “Because of the word of God, and because of the testimony, which they had maintained” In the face of persecution and death, these Christians had faithfully adhered to the Scriptures and refused to compromise or recant (Revelation 12:11 “and they did not love their life even when faced with death”). They were prepared to give everything up, including their own lives for the sake of Christ (Luke 14:26ff).

6:10 “And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood” The expression “how long” indicates that this struggle and persecution of Christians had been going on for some time when this letter was written. The cry in this verse is a standard phrase throughout Scripture for invoking divine justice for the oppressed (Psalm 6:3; 13:1-2; 35:17; 74:10; 79:5; 80:4; 89:46; 90:13; 94:3-4; Hab. 1:2; 2:6; Isaiah 6:11; Jeremiah 47:6). The cry here is for “a vindication of their death and the cause for which they had died” (Hailey p. 195).

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Points to Note Like the blood of Abel that cried out for vindication (Genesis 4:10), so does the blood of the faithful in this passage. This cry is not a contradiction of the attitude that we see in Jesus, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus was not requesting unconditional forgiveness, but rather that God would give them an opportunity to be forgiven, which God did (Acts 2:38). In the face of an unrepentant attitude, God’s justice will fall (2 Peter 3:9-10; 2 Thess. 1:8-9). Chilton notes, “That this blunt cry for vengeance strikes us as strange just shows how far our pietistic age has degenerated from the Biblical worldview. If our churches were more acquainted with the Psalms, instead of the sugary, syrupy, sweetness-and-light choruses that characterize modern evangelical hymns, we would understand this much easier. But we have fallen under a pagan delusion that it is somehow ‘unchristian’ to pray for God’s wrath to be poured out upon the enemies and persecutors of the church” (pp.

194-195). See 1 Timothy 4:14.

6:10 “On those who dwell on the earth?” That is, those who were responsible for the death of these Christians. In the Old Testament God had promised that He would avenge His servants (Deuteronomy 32:43).

6:11 “And there was given to each of them a white robe”: White is not only a symbol of purity but also of heavenly victory. These saints had overcome, they had won the battle (Revelation 3:4). “Symbolizing God’s acknowledgement of their purity before Him” (Chilton p. 195).

6:11 “And they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also” More persecution is to follow. Christians had died and more Christians would die as the seven churches had been told (Revelation 2:10). Hailey believes that this “little while” does not apply to all the time between this book and the Second Coming, but rather, during the time of intense persecution that was coming. The same expression “a little while” is used in John 12:35 and 7:33. Compare with Revelation 12:12 and 20:1-3. Note the word “rest” (Revelation 14:13). Even though many of their brethren would suffer a similar fate, these souls were told to “rest”.

“Truth is a circle from which mankind, even in its greatest rebellion to God, is unable to escape. Within that circle man can resist, oppose, and deny the truth, but he can never escape from the circle. He cannot destroy the truth. He cannot break its power. Always he will at the end of his struggle collide with and be broken by the iron ring that surrounds his life. He may die victorious in evil; his death simply introduces him to a higher court of judgment. In the end, as Jesus

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said, we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. God makes even the wrath of men to praise Him. He catches the wise in their wisdom” 1 The Sixth Seal 6:12 “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake” At this point many commentators are certain that this is the final judgment, yet the language that is selected in the following verses is language that God has used before in both Testaments concerning when He judged various nations or cities.

In the Scriptures earthquakes are often symbolic of great national upheaval (Isaiah29:5-6; Haggai 2:6, 21-22; Joel 2:1-11; 3:16; Matthew 24:29).

6:12 “The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair”: Joel and Jesus used such language to predict a judgment upon Jerusalem (Joel 2:31; Matthew 24:29). Isaiah used the same language when God judged the city of Babylon (Isaiah 13:10).

6:12 “And the whole moon became like blood”: Notice the word “like”. The same language is used when God judged and brought down a world empire in the Old Testament (Isaiah 13:10).

6:13 “And the stars of the sky fell to the earth”: “The stars are symbolic of the notable leaders of the nations (Daniel 8:10; Matthew 24:29). They would fall as untimely figs. The untimely figs are the figs which fall in the spring of the year to clear the way for a good fall harvest” (Ogden p. 204). For rulers being compared to stars see also Numbers 24:17 and Isaiah 14:12.

At this point some premillennialists such as Hal Lindsey argue that the stars are actually meteorites and that these represent Russian nuclear missiles.

McGuiggan notes, “Try moving every mountain on earth out of its place without killing millions and then add that every island being so moved. Then remove the sky, and see how many ‘mighty men’ are left to run looking for a cave. And all this remember, was to happen prior to 1988” (p. 107). The language here is figurative, as such language had been clearly figurative in the Old Testament.

Such language had always stood for God’s removal, not of the earth and the universe, but rather His judgment upon a nation. Such language is very appropriate because He is attacking the “world” (economy, culture, security, etc) that a nation has created.

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Boer, Harry R. The Book of Revelation. p. 53.

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6:14 “And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places” As noted earlier, this is not the end of the world, for at the end, there will be no time to hide in any caves and there will be no earth left (2 Peter 3:10-11). Let is also be stressed again, that if this verse is literal, there for all practical purposes, there is no place left to hide and there are no people alive left to do the hiding.

“As a scroll is read it is rolled up; so when a nation comes to an end, its heaven is rolled up, no longer visible. The mountains, symbols of permanence and strength and the very foundations of the earth, were removed. The isles were symbols to the ancient people of the most remote lands and far-flung portions of the earth, or of a nation’s possessions. These all indicate and illustrate the fall and passing of a great national power when judged by Jehovah” (Hailey p. 198).

See Ezekiel 26:15,18; 27:35.

Like other Premillennial writers, Hal Lindsey asserts that the above passages are dealing with the Second Coming and must be taken literally, and yet then he proceeds to figurize these passages, claiming John’s ignorance prevented him from accurately describing nuclear warfare.

6:15 “Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains” “All classes, men of every degree and social standing, are brought into view.

Drawn together by a common calamity, they seek refuge and hide in the caves and rocks of the mountains” (Hailey p. 198). “In similar language, Isaiah described the fear of men when God would pour forth His wrath upon Judah and Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:10-22)” (Ogden p. 206). Such is a description of war, and was language used for God’s physical judgments upon a nation (Hosea 10:8; Luke 23:28-30).

6:16 “And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb’” Even in God’s physical judgments there is here no respecter of persons. It seems that even in such a national judgment people realize in their minds that there awaits for them something worse than death. How many atheists and unbelievers seek refuge in death and hope that death will completely put them out of their misery and existence. How many people hope that death will hide them from God’s wrath in eternity?

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6:17 “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

The answer to the final question is “no one”. Compare with Nahum 1:6. Please note that this is wrath from the Lamb (6:16) that is coming upon those who have persecuted God’s people (6:9). This is not the world out of control, rather it is the world under God’s control and under His judgment. “Let it be remembered that the day of judgment against the enemies of God and tormentors of earth is also a day of deliverance for the people of God” (Hailey p. 199).

“Many are the modern references to the ‘four horsemen’ of this passage, but few understand that they rightfully declare the sovereignty of God. He permits the horsemen to ride. He controls them. He limits them. And He stops them when they have served their purpose. Modern media do not tell the world this truth.

They announce the tragedies of war, famine, and disease. They report the injustices of mankind, but the media do not report that the Lamb of God is King of all the earth. The world looks for wisdom in its statesmen, healing in the discovery of its scientists, and victory in the strategy of its generals. But the believer knows differently. He has knowledge of the true powers that rule the world. Though the book of Revelation is a message of fear for the wicked, it also brings comfort and great consolation to the righteous” (Harkrider p. 87).

This is further evidence that this is not the final day, for in that day there will be no time to hide (1 Corinthians 15:52; 2 Peter 3:10). As noted above, this description of men seeking refuge in the caves and rocks and calling for the mountains to fall on them, occurs three times in previous history; in each case it refers to a national calamity. In Hosea 10:8 this verse applied to the time when “The people of Israel would pray for swift death so as to avoid the pains and terrors of Assyrian conquest and captivity” (Smith p. 261). Instead of seeking God’s mercy, they simply want to die. Jesus said that the inhabitants of Jerusalem would say a similar thing when God brought judgment upon that city in A.D. 70 (Luke 23:30). “They will prefer a sudden, cataclysmic death by mountains falling upon them and by hills covering them to the daily, continued terrors and horrors of the siege” (Lenski p. 1129). The suffering will be so intense that the people will desire to be put out of their misery.

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