7 Seals of REVELATION SERIES: Fourth Seal

 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come and see. 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 [pestilence], and by the beasts of the earth. 

Revelation 6:7, 8

The period of the fourth horse is parallel to the period of the fourth church, Thyatira. 

The fourth seal represents the period of papal dominion during the ‘dark ages’. The scarcity of God’s Word and of rain led to spiritual famine, pestilence and death. In addition, the apostate church literally killed the martyrs who did not agree with the traditions of men.

*Color pale (chloros: The color of this horse is really a greenish pale as when a young shoot comes out of a tree. It is the paleness of death).

*Death and Hades (when a person dies, the grave follows).

*Fourth part of the earth (the devastating power of the fourth horse and its rider is not universal). 

*Famine (scarcity because of a scarcity of God’s word).
*Pestilence (in New Testament Greek the word thánatos technically means ‘death’. However, in 30 of the 50 times it appears in the Greek Old Testament (LXX) the Hebrew word deber is translated “pestilence”. To say that the fourth horse kills with death would be redundant. Death by the sword and famine brings pestilence or disease in its train and ultimately leads to death and the grave.

*Wild beasts (wicked leaders and nations who were inimical to God’s people and behaved like wild beasts).

Psalm 74:18, 19: Remember this, that the enemy has reproached, O LORD, and that a foolish people has blasphemed Your name. Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beast! Do not forget the life of Your poor forever.

“The symbols of earthly governments are wild beasts, but in the kingdom of Christ, men are called upon to behold, not a ferocious beast, but the Lamb of God.” E.G.W.

--The immediate aftermath of death is the place where the dead go, the grave. The word hades is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Sheol and it should consistently be translated “the grave”.

Hosea 13:14: I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!

*The New King James Version of Revelation 6:8 tells us that power [the proper translation of exousia is ‘authority’] ‘was given’ to death and the grave to kill with the sword. 

It is hardly a coincidence that the little horn ‘was given’ power to make war against the saints and to overcome them for time, times and the dividing of time (Daniel 7:25). Likewise Revelation 13: 7 tells us that the beast ‘was given’ power to make war against the saints and to overcome them. The expression ‘was given’ connects the fourth rider with the Papal church.

*In symbolic terms, famine comes when the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Word of God is scarce. 

--During the Dark Ages, there was no rain (Revelation 11:6), and therefore bread (the Word of God) was scarce. 

--The result was famine (spiritual hunger). Famine, in turn, led to malnutrition and malnutrition led to pestilence and ultimately to spiritual death.

By the fourth part of the earth is doubtless meant the territory over which this power had jurisdiction; and the words "sword," and beasts of the earth, are figures denoting the means by which it has put to death millions of martyrs.

Drawn/taken from the book Daniel & Revelation by Uriah Smith---Study Guide by Stephen Bohr---Sermon by Walter Veith---Commentaries from Matthew Henry/Adam Clark---Revelation Made Clear