Revelation 6

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Revelation 6

• When Justice Comes

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The law of correct pricing

• If you overcharge a customer, you should die

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Being unhappy with the world

• The only people who do not long for justice in
  this world are the oppressors.

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We long for a world.

• Where worship is central
• Where justice is practiced
• Where hope is realised

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How do we get from here to there?

• The story is found in the scroll
• The story is one of judgement that leads to
  salvation

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The judgement of God

• Gods destructive judgement is not for the
  purposes of annihilation but for liberation

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Psalm 987-9

• Let the sea resound, and everything in it,
• the world, and all who live in it.
• Let the rivers clap their hands,
• let the mountains sing together for joy
• let them sing before the LORD,
• for he comes to judge the earth.
• He will judge the world in righteousness
• and the peoples with equity.

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• Judgement is the necessary outworking of the
  fact that God has a vision for what creation will
  be and nothing will stop him achieving that
  vision

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Four horsemen

• First horse representing conquest
• Second horse representing war
• Third horse representing famine
• Fourth horse representing death (by plague in
  particular)

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The function of the vision

• Functions like a Roman nightmare.
• The white horse recalls the image of the
  Parthians
• Their sacred colour was white
• They employed mounted archers in their army
• Rome was afraid of them.

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The Pax Romana (Roman Peace)

• The threat of a Parthian invasion challenged one
  of the central claims of imperial propaganda
  which was the claim of the Pax Romana the Roman
  peace which in a nutshell said that Rome had
  pacified the whole world, and in response
  everybody should be thankful.

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Why would God give a nightmare?

• Sometimes we need to be shocked by images, to
  remind us that our only security is in God

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Why is God so angry with Rome?

• Verses 9-11 The martyrs blood cries out against
  this society.
• Just like Pharaoh, Roman culture stood in the way
  of Gods people worshipping him.

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Question 1

• Are these visions literal predictions?
• No and Yes
• No they do not match up one to one with specific
  events rather they express the meaning of Gods
  judgements that no place on earth and no
  position of power can protect you from the
  judgement of God
• Yes they are true in that the Roman Empire
  really did crumble and so will all of our
  Empires. Judgement is no fiction, it is real and
  it will happen.

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Question 2

• How do the seven seals relate to the seven
  trumpets and the seven bowls?

End of the World
Seals
Trumpets
Bowls
The point of recapitulating the judgements is to
show that it doesnt matter how many warning
judgements God gives people some will still
refuse to repent (see 920-21)
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Our only hope

• Finding refuge in the Lamb who has experienced
  judgement on our behalf