Revelation 6: The Wrath of the Lamb and the Patience of God

Introduction

"One day, this will be our daily reality. One day, we will stand before the Lamb of God." The week before, Vertical Church in Nantes had focused on Revelation 5: all creation holds its breath, and only Jesus Christ, the one who gave his life, is worthy to open the scroll sealed with seven seals. In chapter 6, he begins to open it.

The preacher admits right away that this is probably the hardest part of Revelation to interpret, because it touches a subject that makes us uncomfortable. "We love to talk about the fact that Jesus loves us. But sometimes we struggle a little with the fact that Jesus is also just and that he is going to return to judge this world."

No five-point outline on the signs of the end of the world. His goal is simpler: to show that this text is understandable, that the notes and cross-references at the bottom of the page in your Bible give you almost all the keys, and that this message, as chapter 1 announced, is good news meant to comfort.

Message Outline

1. An Understandable Book: The Structure of the Seals

The seven seals are not all alike. The first four follow the same pattern: one of the living creatures calls out, a rider appears, something happens. Seals 5 and 6 are different.
The seventh seal does not come right away. Chapter 7 is a pause, a parenthesis, a moment to catch your breath, and the seventh seal is only opened at the beginning of chapter 8.
This pattern comes back three times between chapters 6 and 16: the seals, then the trumpets, then the bowls. Same structure, same ending, each time with a scene at the heavenly altar, earthquakes, thunder, and a reaction at the end.
The preacher sees not a series of events to be noted in order, but three angles on one and the same event, like a zoom that starts very close and gradually pulls back. In Revelation, the number 7 expresses totality: after 7, nothing remains.
Have some of these events already taken place? Do they describe the human condition in general, or only the future? Theologians debate it. The preacher stays humble: "When we don't know, we don't know." The text speaks of what happens before Jesus returns, without claiming to say exactly where we are now.

2. The Four Horsemen: God Withdraws His Protection

The four horsemen are a kind of "anti-living creatures." In chapter 5, four living creatures praised God. Here, beings seem to sow chaos. But each time, they are told: "Come." These are not simply problems on the earth: it is a judgment decreed by Jesus Christ.
The key is in the Old Testament, and the preacher laughs about it: if he makes the connection with Zechariah, it is not because he knows his Bible by heart, but because others have already done the work in the notes. In Zechariah, horsemen announce God's judgment on the nations that harmed his people.
The white horse carries a bow and a crown, and it goes out "conquering, and to conquer." The first readers thought of the Parthians, in present-day Iran, formidable mounted archers who had defeated the Roman army. It is humanity going to war and conquering.
For the preacher, these four judgments say the same thing: God withdraws his protection. "You don't want me in your life, in your society? I let humanity follow its natural course. You want to conquer, conquer. You want to do harm, do harm. That is life without me."
The red horse is given power to take peace from the earth, "that people should kill one another." The black horse carries a pair of scales: economic oppression and famine, with prices sixteen to eighteen times higher than normal. The fourth represents disease.
The judgment affects a quarter of the earth. With the trumpets, it will be a third. With the bowls, the whole earth. That is the zoom pulling back. The trumpets and the bowls echo the plagues of Egypt in the book of Exodus.
"God is going to pour out his wrath. We may not be comfortable with that, but we cannot make the text say anything else." It is also a reminder that God is sovereign: no evil on earth escapes him. Not every war is necessarily this judgment, the preacher clarifies, but it is God who sets it off and he who will stop it.

3. The Cry of the Martyrs: "How Long?"

At the fifth seal, under the altar, are the souls of those who were slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had given. These are Christians who died as martyrs. "In Christianity, when you die as a martyr, you kill no one. It is we who are killed."
These brothers and sisters said: "If you ask me to choose between denying Jesus Christ and death, I choose death." Their cry sounds like a reproach: only a quarter of the earth, that is not yet the real judgment. Lord, why don't you go all the way?
God gives them a gift: a white robe, the tunic of the victor. It is a promise: the judgment of evil is not yet complete, but you already know where you are going. They are told to rest a little longer.
Why wait? Because the number of their fellow servants and their brothers is not yet complete. Jesus lives with a constant tension: "If I stop evil right now, I wipe out human beings." We are the number one supplier of evil in this world. He gives us time to repent.
In chapters 2 and 3, Jesus was cleaning house in the churches. In chapter 6, it is the equivalent for the world.
"And what about me, if I am here when this happens?" Israel lived in Egypt during the plagues and felt their effects, but God preserved them throughout. The martyrs were not killed by the horsemen: they were killed for their faith.

4. The Sixth Seal: No One Can Hide

The sixth seal answers the martyrs' frustration. An earthquake, a black sun, a moon like blood, stars falling, the sky receding like a scroll being rolled up: creation itself becomes God's ally and no longer lets humanity hide.
Kings, great men, generals, rich men, powerful men, slaves and free men run to hide in the caves. They say to the mountains: "Fall on us, and hide us." The irony of the text: in verse 14, God has already moved the mountains.
The preacher reads a symbolic meaning here: man, with all his malice, his progress and his technology, can do nothing to escape this moment. "A day is coming when there will be no more atheism on this earth, because everyone will be face to face with him."
There remains the chilling question of verse 17: "For the great day of his wrath has come; and who is able to stand?" The preacher admits he does not like saying this, but he believes it is fundamentally important. The question is: where do you stand?

5. Why God Judges Before the Final Judgment: Three Reasons

God could stop everything at once. Why these partial judgments? First reason: because God is good. If you truly love your spouse or your children and someone harms them, something rises up in you. A God who loves cannot agree with evil.
Evil is real and it is driven by idolatry. The plagues of Egypt targeted the Egyptians who oppressed God's people, but also their false gods, the false philosophies and the false images we create, "even, perhaps, of Jesus Christ." One day, evil will no longer exist.
Second reason, found in the cry of the martyrs: God wants to answer our need for justice. An injustice left unrepaired leaves a taste of something unfinished. "I don't know what you have been through, the harm that has been done to you, but the just and holy God will give you justice."
It is the greatest encouragement to live out Christian ethics. Jesus asks us to turn the other cheek, to go two miles with the Roman soldier who demands one, to give to Caesar what is Caesar's. The Christian answers evil with good. That creates a lack of justice, and it is Jesus who will come to fill it, better than we could.
Third reason: repentance. In chapter 9, after the judgments, the rest of the people "did not repent of the works of their hands." The text implies an expectation: if you see that God punishes evil, you should give it up. Only one brief moment is an exception, in chapter 11, verse 13: there, some turn to God. God still saves people through these events.
The preacher speaks to parents: if you never give your child consequences, his life is wasted. The purpose of discipline is that he gives up what is destroying him. God plays his last cards: "I tried the carrot, but I want to save you so much that I am ready to use the stick, because what is at stake is your eternity."
God seems frightening, almost sadistic, he admits, especially to someone walking into a church for the first time. But Ezekiel 18 reveals his heart: "Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? ... and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?"
The preacher confesses he trembled while reading this text: how many times does he want to take justice into his own hands instead of letting God act?

6. God's Patience and the Christian's Assurance

If someone asks you, "If your God exists, why is there so much evil on the earth?", here is the answer: because God is still patient with you. Because he still wants you to come home. "If God stops evil now, he stops you too."
The choice made in this life has real consequences. Believing in Christ is not an opinion or a lifestyle: it is what determines your eternity.
Does the Christian have anything to fear? No. Look at the martyrs: God takes care of them and gives them assurance. Romans 8:1 promises it: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus."
"Christians are not better than other people. They are simply people who recognize that they need help, and the help of a Jesus who is ready to give it to them."
The message ends with communion: remembering with all five senses that every human being deserved this judgment, but that Christ chose to take it in our place. "It is hard, yes, but it is beautiful."

Key Takeaways

Revelation 6 is understandable: the seals, the trumpets and the bowls repeat the same cycle three times, like three angles on one and the same event.
The four horsemen show a God who withdraws his protection from a humanity that does not want him, while remaining sovereign over evil.
God judges evil because he is good, because he wants to bring justice and because he still wants to lead people to repentance.
If evil has not yet been stopped, it is because God is patient and his family is not yet complete.
For those who are in Jesus Christ, there is no condemnation: the white robe is a promise of victory.

Personal Application

What makes you most uncomfortable about the idea of a Jesus who returns to judge, and what does this text change about the way you see it?
What injustice you have suffered is still waiting to be set right in your life? Are you ready to hand it over to the just God rather than take justice into your own hands?
In what concrete situation can you answer evil with good this week?
For which loved ones, still far from God, is God's patience good news, and how can you pray for them?
Are you living your faith with the assurance of Romans 8:1, or with the fear of judgment?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

What do the four horsemen of Revelation 6 represent?

For the preacher, the image comes from the book of Zechariah, where horsemen announce God's judgment on the nations. The four horsemen represent war, violence, economic oppression and famine, and then disease. It is God who withdraws his protection from a humanity that does not want him and lets it follow its instincts, while remaining sovereign over that evil.

Why doesn't God stop evil right away?

The martyrs of the fifth seal ask this very question: "How long?" The answer is that the number of their brothers is not yet complete. If God stopped evil now, he would also stop human beings, who are its number one supplier. He is still patient so that everyone has time to repent and return to him.

Should a Christian fear the wrath of the Lamb?

No. God takes care of the martyrs, gives them a white robe, a sign of victory, and assurance about their future. Romans 8:1 promises it: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Christians are not better than other people: they recognize that they need the help of Jesus, who bore the judgment in their place.