After the Apostle John observed heavenly worship, he saw Jesus, represented as a wounded but victorious lamb, receive a double-sided scroll with seven seals. Revelation then moved into four successive visions of each seal as Jesus breaks each one. And we also see a fairly linear chronology.
Seal 1: Mary gives birth to Jesus. Satan tries to destroy the infant Jesus but fails.
Seal 2: Satan then used the Roman Empire to persecute the Church.
Seal 3: Those who refused to worship “666” (“Nero Caesar” through gematria) were persecuted mercilessly.
Seals 4-5: Covering different aspects of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Today, we see what Jesus reveals as He opens the 6th seal. However, the 6th seal is divided into two different foci: one focuses on another great battle and one on judgment. We first focus on the great battle.
The 6th Trumpet and 6th Censer: The Great Battle
6th Trumpet
Revelation 9:13-21
And the sixth angel trumpeted, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, who were prepared for the hour, and day, and month, and year, in order that they might kill the third part of men.
And the number of the horsemen 200,000,000: And I heard the number of them. And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth [a reddish blue stone], and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone.
By these three plagues was the third part of men killed, by the first, and the smoke, and the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For the authority of the horses is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails are like serpents having heads, and with them they do hurt.
And the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, in order that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see not hear nor walk. And neither did they repent of their murders, not of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.
6th Censer
Revelation 16:12-16
And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, came three unclean spirits like frogs.
For they are the spirits of the devils, working miracles, who go forth to the kings of the earth of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, in order that he might not walk naked, and they might see his shame.
And he gathered them together into a place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.
We see a pattern of four and the number four mentioned in the Sixth Trumpet. Remembering that 4-part structures refer to created life and things (4 corners of the earth; north, south, east, and west), that points to something from within creation that will cause this great destruction.
– The Sixth Censer gives us a list of characters whom Revelation had clearly identified earlier (although here it is not so clear without that earlier information). List the characters:
- The dragon:
- The beast:
- The false prophet (not earlier made known)
– The Sixth Trumpet lists the size of an army as 200 million men. This is symbolic. But what would an army of 200 million men symbolize in general terms?
Out of the army’s mouth “issued fire and smoke and brimstone.” Although symbolic, it seems that fire and smoke will be involved in some way in this giant army’s tactics. Also the army’s tail being like a serpent having heads, points to the seeming invulnerability of this army.
Yet, those who were not killed still did not repent and turn to God (yet, neither did they worship idols of gold, et cetera). To this unrepentance, God also issues a warning to Christians: You don’t know when Christ will return. Be prepared and keep your garments (Galatians 3:27), that is, live in your baptism and remain in the faith.
Based on the list of characters, we see the Roman Emperor (beast) still involved. Following John’s linear chronology and themes from the previous seals, this catastrophe should involve the Jewish people and their need to repent. And somewhere in the mix, a false prophet is in the thick of it. So, we need to see if we can find such a historical event to which John’s revelation was pointing.
Excursus: The Bar Kokhba Revolt
In 132 AD, Simon bar Kokhba began a revolt against the Roman Empire to have a free Israel. He led a massive uprising when Roman legions were away from Israel and preoccupied elsewhere, when only the Roman occupying force was in Judea (the Roman Empire’s name for Israel). He led a revolt using a guerilla strategy, with his army hiding in caves and the hills for refuge from Roman attack.
Then (remember the Temple no longer existed and that a synagogue-based Rabbinic Judaism was still forming its identity), the leading Jewish Rabbi was Akiba (or Akiva). He, with the other Jewish rabbis, all claimed that bar Kokhba was the long-awaited Messiah and that all Jews–even including Jewish Christians–were to support him. The ethnically Jewish Christians around Jerusalem refused, declaring that only Jesus is the Messiah.
This led to an even-greater breach between the Jews and ethnically Jewish Christians. Rabbi Akiba denounced the Christians. That was the “last straw” between the Jews and their Christian counterparts. The Jews stopped using the Septuagint and removed the Apocrypha from their Bibles, for that was written in Greek, not Hebrew. For the Jewish rabbis had long disliked the Septuagint, which had the Apocrypha as part of its text, because Christians were too successful using it to convert Jews into being Christians. Eventually, the Jews even made another translation of the Old Testament into Greek, minus the Apocrypha.
So, who is the false prophet whom Revelation mentions? If we understand Revelation properly, then it’s bar Kokhba. And why does Revelation tell Christians to remain firm in the faith? It’s because they would be tempted culturally to renounce the faith and join their fellow citizens in this universally approved revolt.
But where is the giant army that seemed invulnerable? Where is the fire and smoke?
To answer that, we need to see how bar Kokhba’s revolt was doing? At first, it succeeded. His army caused whatever occupying forces were in Judea to leave. Israel now became an independent nation for two years and even issued its own coinage.
During this time, Emperor Hadrian (identified as “the beast”) was forming one of the largest Roman armies ever assembled. He recalled his best general, Sextus Julius Severus, from Britain. Legions were brought as far east as the Danube River near the Black Sea (army from the East). The size of the Roman army was much larger than the army that had destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD–13 legions, instead of three! An assembled army of 13 legions was huge, which Revelation symbolically represented by the 200-million man army.
The way the Roman army eventually defeated bar Kokhba’s army, who sought refuge in the hills and caves, was by using scorched-earth tactics. They would light fires outside the caves where Jewish fighters were hiding. The fighters would either die of smoke inhalation or be forced to leave their caves. After exiting, the Romans fought them until no one was left alive.
The Armageddon (Megiddo) that Revelation mentioned was a mountainous, hilly area. There, an ancient fort was built to guard the main highway that connected Egypt with Mesopotamia. If one wanted to control the trade route, he had to control Megiddo. So, in ancient times, Megiddo was a place of many battles. That’s what Armageddon symbolizes. Like Armageddon, it represents much fighting in the hills north of Jerusalem, which was where the bar Kokhba army was finally killed, down to the last soldier.
By the end of 135 AD, the Jews who had died fighting were 580,000. Those who died by famine, disease, and smoke inhalation were never counted. Around 900 Jewish villages were completely destroyed. After that, no Jews were allowed to live within or around Jerusalem. Judea’s name was changed to Palestine, Jerusalem became Aelia, and, over time, Jews began to immigrate to other places to live. The surviving Jews began to call bar Kokhba “bar Koziba” (from son of a star to son of a liar).
But as Revelation stated, the Jews did not repent and turn toward God. Instead, a rabbinical form of Judaism continued to evolve that was even further removed from what God had originally intended in the Old Covenant. This massive defeat also squashed within Judaism the strong yearning to seek out and follow the promised Messiah.
For the Jerusalem Church, the succession of 15 ethnically Jewish bishops had ended. Mark became the first Gentile Bishop of the Jerusalem Church. The rocky relationship between the Jewish Christians and Jews was no more. The “family feeling” that tenuously had existed was now gone, never to return.
The 6th Seal and 6th Sign: The Following Judgment
6th Seal
Revelation 6:12-17
And I looked when He had opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became as sackcloth made of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken by a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a book when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the strong men, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rock of the mountains; and said to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One sitting on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
– In the end, what does this passage describe? What is the “great day?”
– What does Revelation’s words, “a great earthquake; and the sun became as sackcloth made of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth” tell about what is happening to the fallen creation?
– What about “the heaven departed as a book”?
– How does this tie-in with God creating a new heaven and a new earth when Jesus returns on the Last Day?
– Bar Kokhba’s men who hid in the hills and caves couldn’t escape the judgment of Rome. Will any person be able to evade Jesus as Judge on the Last Day?
6th Sign
Based on Joel 3:19-21, especially verse 13, which this passage references, we see here the judgment of the wicked.
Revelation 14:14
And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud One sitting like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle.
Daniel 7:13: As I continued watching in the night visions, I saw One like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.
Luke 21:27: Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
– Who is described here?
Revelation 14:15-16
And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to the One sitting on the cloud, Thrust in your sickle and reap: because the hour has come for You to reap; because the harvest of the earth has ripened.
And the One sitting on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped.
– What is being described here? What is the “One sitting on the cloud” doing?
Revelation 14:17-20
And another angel came out of the temple who is in heaven, and having his sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, one having authority over fire; and cried with a loud cry to the one having the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; because her grapes are ripe. And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horses’ bridles, for 1,600 stadia.
Joel 3:12-13: Let the nations be roused and come to theValleyofJehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come and trample the grapes, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
– Is the harvest receiving grace and mercy or harsh judgment?
– We don’t know if the number 1,600 has any specific meaning attached to it. But 1,600 stadia is about 200 miles. What does this say about the harvest?
Click here to go to Lesson 12.
