Wednesday 01 August 2012

Background

Those whoaccuse Revelation of being impenetrable will find good support fortheir arguments in chapter 6. The chapter's enigmatic sayings defyeasy interpretation. What is the reader to make of the followingsaying? "A quart of wheat for a day's pay, and three quarts ofbarley for a day's pay but do not damage the oils and the wine!"(verse 6)

This is a passage filled withmetaphorical language and vivid imagery of horsemen and angels,falling stars and seals. I should probably make it clear that sealshere is a reference to emblems of authority rather than topinnipeds or fin-footed marine mammals. Just so you know.

In chapter 5 a heavenly vision of a scroll withseven seals is introduced. The only one worthy to open the seals isthe Lion of Judah, the Lamb that was slain. In today's passage thefirst six seals are opened. The reader must wait until chapter 8 todiscover what happens when the seventh seal is opened.

The opening of the first four sealsreveal the so-called four horsemen of the apocalypse: Conquest;War; Famine; Death. Popular depictions of the four horsemen oftensubstitute Pestilence for Conquest, but there is no support forthis in the text of Revelation. The opening of the fifth sealreveals martyrs (verse 9) whilst the sixth reveals earthquake,eclipse, falling stars and all manner of apocalyptic scenes ofdivine judgement.

Revelation 6 falls so far outside ofthe operating window of what we might call normal that it isdifficult to interpret. Nonetheless, as with many visions, thebroad brush strokes matter more than the fine detail. These revealwith startling clarity that this chapter looks for divineintervention in human affairs.

Whether we think Revelation describesthe writer's present or the reader's future, see it as an accurateprediction of the end of the age, or merely a literary depiction ofhope in God's future, this text holds before us the ideal of divineintervention in a world gone badly awry.

To Ponder

• Have you had any experience of what you would consider to bedivine intervention? What happened?

• I suspect that, like me, you may have a list, mental orotherwise, of situations and contexts in which you long for divineintervention. In what ways might the vision of Revelation 6 speakto you and to these situations?

• What difference does it make to the way we read the passage ifyou imagine that the scenes described are not of divine judgementat the end of the age but rather of divine breaking into the worldof human affairs?