I woke up yesterday with a very troubled heart after “bingeing” on the news headlines Wednesday evening. I had a restless night that culminated in a very bad dream just before awakening. Not a great way to start the morning!
As is usual for me, I went out early yesterday morning for a time of prayer. As I sat in the stillness and looked out at the pasture backed by the snowy mountains, peace began to come upon me. I was joined after a bit by Callie, the calico kitty and her sister, Bandit, and by our pup, Shep, who laid at my feet. The kitties nestled on my lap and two robins began singing – one would sing over to my left, and the other would answer on my right. It was like they were raising a song of praise to the One Who has created them and all that was around me.
Peace and comfort came upon me and I realized that this peace, His peace, is more real for me in that moment than the horror stories of the evil of the world that pummel me daily. Praising YHVH God that He is the Giver of peace – true peace. His is a real peace! In this moment, I am “standing still” (sitting still 😊) in His peace.
Exodus 14:13b-14
“Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of YHVH, the LORD, which He [has accomplished!] for you today. For [the world] whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. YHVH, the LORD, will “laham” [battle to destruction, devour] for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Joshua 23:6, 8b “Therefore be very courageous to keep and do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, lest you turn aside from it.”
“….you shall hold fast to YHVH, the LORD your God as you have done to this day.”
Revelation 6:1-8 Times of tribulation and the riding out of the Four Horsemen: to conquer, to make war, to cause starvation and to bring death from different causes.
Mark 13:19-20
“For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He chose, He shortened the days.”
Revelation 6:12-17
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind. Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place.
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”
Matthew 24:29-30
Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
Numbers 10:2
Then the LORD said to Moses, 2“Make two trumpets of hammered silver to be used for calling the congregation and for having the camps set out.
1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
By the word of the Lord, we declare to you that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a loud command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will be the first to rise. After that, we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will always be with the Lord.…
1 Corinthians 15:50-54
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”
Revelation 5:9-12
And they sang a new song, saying:
“You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals;
For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”
Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them [the elders] was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”
Revelation 7:1
After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, on the sea, or on any tree.
Matthew 24:31
And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Revelation 7:9
After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palm branches in their hands;
Revelation 7:13-17
Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.”
So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple. And He who sits on the throne will dwell among them. They shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Isaiah 25:8-9
He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He will take away from all the earth; for the Lord has spoken.
And it will be said in that day:
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.
Matthew 24:3-4. Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.”
Deception leads to confusion and to wondering what is the truth, and to wondering who can be trusted. There have been many sides to the issues of the past two and a half years, and each side contends that they have the TRUTH. Unfortunately, one side’s “truth” is hotly contested by others holding different perspectives. This leaves everyone either confused, or contentious – many holding onto beliefs in what their particular ideological spokespeople say are sacred – and demonizing those who listen to and believe other ideological spokespeople.
Revelation 6 – The Four Horsemen
The First Seal
1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” 2 And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
Horses in the eras of the Bible were primarily intended for use in war. They were trained as a weapon in and of themselves, and as the carrier of a rider who was also trained, equipped and intending to kill.
A bow is a weapon also crafted for the purpose of killing; however, a bow without arrows has no real power to inflict damage of itself. This rider had a bow without arrows. While he did ride a warhorse (which could indeed hurt and kill), the rider himself would have been powerless in himself to truly harm anyone or anything. He was given a crown, (also known as a corona in English and in other languages), which indicates rulership and the power to overcome others. Although the rider did not truly have the power to inflict harm, he went out intending to conquer, and doing so successfully.
Whatever someone thinks as far as the veracity of what is said in the media, it seems that the covid pandemic (initially called the corona virus) and the manners in which it has been handled by governments worldwide, has had far-reaching implications for all sectors of society. It has changed how people relate to each other personally. It has changed many of the (taken-for-granted) freedoms such as freedom to gather, freedom to attend social and religious events, freedom of speech, freedom to travel, freedom to make personal choices about medical care, the freedom to make choices about running one’s business – surely the reader can think of others….
To conquer:
1: to gain or acquire by force of arms: SUBJUGATE – conquer territory
2: to overcome by force of arms: VANQUISH – conquered the enemy
3: to GAIN MASTERY OVER or win by overcoming obstacles or opposition
4: to overcome by mental or moral power: SURMOUNT
Source: Miriam-Webster
The corona pandemic has really conquered peoples worldwide.
While the following articles are not recent, they were accurate when they were published and still have usefulness in understanding what has happened and is happening today.
3 When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, “Come and see.” 4 Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.
Red horse “red” = pyrrhos meaning fire-like, fiery
“Peace” = Eirene – peace and by implication prosperity, quietness, rest
“kill” = sphazo = to butcher, slaughter, or to violently maim
“great sword” = megas machaira – a knife (i.e. dirk), war sword, an assassin’s dagger. (While John the Revelator would have had no context for such a thing, could a syringe and its needle have been seen as possibly a dagger? After all it is also sharp, and syringes have been known to be used as a delivery system for death.)
5 When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.”
“scales (pair of balances in some versions)” = zugos
“In ancient times, the value or quantity of a thing was determined by weighing it on scales. In fact, people bought and sold items by weight or measure rather than by our currency-based system. For instance, the shekel was not originally a unit of money but of weight according to which the price and quantity of things were determined. As such, scales were common marketplace items.”
“When mentioned in terms of foodstuffs, particularly bread, scales become a symbol of scarcity because, normally, bread would be sold by the loaf without much concern for exact weight. However, during a famine when each ounce of flour was valuable, flour would be rationed by weight or measure, and neither buyer nor seller would want to be cheated. Notice God’s prophetic warning in Leviticus 26:26: “When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied.” The prophet Ezekiel also mentions rationing by weight as a judgment from God:”
“denarius” = denarion, pence. “The first century A.D. was a time when one denarius was approximately the amount of money some workers were paid for a full day of work.”
“measure” = choenix – one dry quart. “A dry quart of wheat is approximately enough to make 1.5 to 1.875 loaves of one-pound bread or the average amount of bread a person living in the Roman Empire ate per day.”
All wheat production totaled 1.65 billion bushels in 2021, down 10 percent from the 2020 total of 1.83 billion bushels. Area harvested for grain totaled 37.2 million acres, up 1 percent from the previous year. The United States yield was estimated at 44.3 bushels per acre, down 5.4 bushels from the previous year. The levels of production and changes from 2020 by type were: winter wheat, 1.28 billion bushels, up 9 percent; other spring wheat, 331 million bushels, down 44 percent; and Durum wheat, 37.3 million bushels, down 46 percent. Oat production was estimated at a record low 39.8 million bushels, down 39 percent from 2020. Yield was estimated at 61.3 bushels per acre, down 3.8 bushels from the previous year. Harvested area, at a record low 650 thousand acres, was 36 percent below last year. Barley: Production was estimated at 118 million bushels, down 31 percent from the revised 2020 total of 171 million bushels. The average yield, at 60.4 bushels per acre, was down 16.8 bushel from the previous year. Producers seeded 2.66 million acres in 2021, down 2 percent from 2020. Harvested area, at 1.95 million acres, was down 12 percent from 2020.
This report was approved on September 30, 2021. Secretary of Agriculture Designate Seth Meyer 2021 USDA Small Grains Report.
7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6 – a sobering preview of “coming attractions” ….
The first seal – the conquering and transformation of the entire world through the corona pandemic and the way it was managed by world governments. It has abated, but it is still a factor in our lives today.
The second seal – the possibility of a war that encompasses the entire world – may be on the horizon. The current war between Russia and Ukraine is quickly escalating and is drawing other nations of the world into participating in the conflict. There have been many, many wars in history, but in the scenario of the Time of the End, the war of the “red horse” will certainly encompass Israel, as Israel is the “apple of God’s eye” (Deuteronomy 32:10). Keep your eyes on Israel. If this war comes to her, it’s likely the war of Revelation 6:3-4.
The third seal – worldwide famine and starvation – has not yet been fully realized. However, the worldwide supply of grains and foodstuffs is being impacted by drought, war, supply chain issues and shortages of things like fertilizers and herbicides. Unchecked, these factors could lead to its full expression.
The fourth seal promises an escalation of all of the troubles previously experienced in the first three seals. Chapter 6 of Revelation is a horrifying preview of the circumstances promised for the world in the times before Jesus’s return to rule as King. These times will be very difficult for all people including those who have accepted Jesus’s kind offer of salvation/membership in His kingdom. Jesus has promised to return and to take those who are in His kingdom to be where He is. (John 14:1-3) Our hope and our strength are in knowing that He is faithful to keep His promises to His children, and our certainty that He will not give us more than we can bear without a way out (even if that involves our death). 1 Corinthians 10:13; Psalm 55:2
We who have accepted Jesus as Savior have that blessed assurance – that as Jesus has given us His life as a way for us to enter the presence of the LORD, we need not fear. Romans 10:10-11, 13 “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him (Jesus) will not be put to shame.’ For whoever calls on the Name of the LORD shall be saved.” For He has told us that He is with us, even unto the end of the age. (Matthew 28:20).
The Fifth Horseman – the End of the Age
Revelation 19:11-16
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. 12 His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. 13 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. 15 Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. 16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Jesus taught His disciples to pray in Matthew 6:9-13.
In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Recently, as I have been praying “thy kingdom come”, I see in my mind’s eye God’s children all over the world lifting their hands and their prayers to their Father in heaven asking Him to please, please send His Deliverer. The Israelites of old, in captivity and oppression under the cruel bondage of Egypt, cried out to God to send them a deliverer, and He did! God appeared to Moses in the wilderness and gave him the command to go to Egypt and set God’s people free. And through the power of God, he did.
Today, God’s children all over the world are suffering cruel oppression from the evil forces in the world. They are being starved, tortured, murdered, betrayed. They are under the oppression of war and are losing everything – often including their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Just as God heard the cries of the Israelites and delivered them, He has heard the cries of His people today. He is sending His Messiah, our Deliverer Who will do battle against the evil one and his forces and Who will win the victory and set His people free.
Come King Jesus, Yeshua of Nazareth! Bind the evil one and fulfill God’s plan for You to rule and reign in righteousness and truth here on earth. Amen and amen!
