7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
With great war and great famine, there is death. The description of pale here is greenish. It is the description and color of sickness and death. The rider is named, the others were not named, but this one is and his name is Death. He is followed closely by the god of the underworld who will take all those who fall.
“They were given” is a reference to those preceding and to this rider. One-fourth of the people on the earth will die in war, famine or plague. Today, there are an estimated 7.5 billion people on the earth, one-fourth is 1.875 billion people. This is nothing less than devastating and inconceivable to the imagination.
This would be the time in history when the church is dead. It should have been spreading the Eternal Truth but instead it spreads death. This spiritual death is a moral and intellectual paralysis that works against the Word of God even while declaring to be under His name.
The parallel interpretation would be that this is the sum total of people who have died in wars, famines, or from disease since God was revealed. One-fourth of the earth’s intended population did not live because of man’s rejection of the truth. It started in the first family. In the beginning there was Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel. One-fourth of them died because of the rejection of God’s Word.
9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. 10 They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” 11 Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.
I have a difficult time with this one and it is that the martyred people are crying out for vengeance. I don’t want to be martyred, not do I want for anyone ever to be martyred. But in my reading of those who have been, most do not seem in any way to die with vengeance on their mind. They usually declare how what an honor it is they have not bent but have stood firm in their faith. I also have a hard time believing that the very moment I leave this world, I’ll remotely consider any person in this world apart from the ones I love intensely as I stand in the presence of God.
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground. – Genesis 4:8-10
Perhaps it is more like this as described in Genesis. The blood of the martyred cries out to God and begs for His righteousness to be imparted to the earth. The closest example I can offer is if someone wrongs your child. You want to make it right. Sometimes you can’t do it right away and in that time the action to make it right calls to you and it tasks you. I believe the unrighteousness that has happened and that exists in Creation calls out to the Lord from those who stand steadfast against it and gave all that they had for Him.
We have been given a description of heaven and the throne of God in the previous chapters and I do not remember an altar. It must be then that these descriptions of an altar and souls under the altar are very symbolic. It is important to know that the altar is not some kind of jail.
While we’re not sure what the symbols represent, we know that the martyred saints do not go unnoticed. They are so important that the recognition of their deaths is one of the seals on the scroll. If the scroll is God’s righteous plan for the world and if it is the answer to the cries and woes of the people, it is the impartation of God’s will to make a corrupt world perfect. And this involves recognizing the cries of the martyred.
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