Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #3 of Revelation, chapter 6, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 6:6:
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.
In our last study, we saw that the rider on the black horse typifies God’s program for the Great Tribulation. This is why he had a pair of balances in his hand and wheat and barley were being measured out. We saw in Ezekiel, chapter 4, that when God gives bread “by measure,” it relates to the time when the “staff of bread” is cut off, a spiritual famine. And that is the nature of the Great Tribulation, as God brought about a famine of “hearing the word of the Lord” in all of the world’s churches and congregations.
Yet, there was a conditional statement by God and God did not just loose His hand of wrath and have no regard for anyone. He had regard for the oil and the wine: “and hurt not the oil and the wine.”
Now we looked last time at Joel, chapter 2, and I want to go back there and just go over it, once again, to see how wine and oil are spoken of. Let us start back in Joel 1:10:
The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth.
This verse is describing the fruits of the harvest and verse 11 plainly declares that “the harvest of the field is perished.” This is what happened when God brought about judgment on the churches; any further fruit would perish; no one else would become saved within any church in all the world during the Great Tribulation or now in these days after the Tribulation. God finished His testimony that His Word had brought within the churches throughout the church age and He departed from the midst of the congregations. And without the Spirit of God in their midst, it does not matter what is preached or who preaches it or how (seemingly) faithful the pastor might be in declaring the Word of God. It takes the Holy Spirit to create a new heart and to cause the hearers to be able to hear: “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” And, yet, God sent a famine of hearing into the churches and this famine spiritually caused the oil and the wine to perish and that would point to those that were previously in a location where they could have become saved, but now, no more.
And, yet, that is not the end of the matter because in Joel, chapter 2, the Lord speaks of bringing in a harvest. It says in Joel 2:23:
Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in JEHOVAH your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain as the first.
This is describing God’s program of evangelizing the world with the “early rain” and then with the “latter rain,” the seasons of His salvation program.
Then it says in Joel 2:24:
And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
Remember in the parable of the “wheat and the tares,” who did the wheat represent? Wheat represented the true believers and the tares identified with true believers and professed to be true believers, but were not. They were never truly saved. So we can see how God likens wheat, here, to elect individuals (those He has saved) and they come as a result of the “rain” and “the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.”
Back in our verse in Revelation 6:6, God says, “See thou hurt not the oil and the wine.” He is saying, “Look, I am bringing judgment on the rebellious churches, on the churches that loudly profess to glorify me and they praise the name of Jesus, but they are far from me in their hearts; and to those that are Christian in name only and they are not serving me and, therefore, it is time to bring judgment upon them, but there are some of my people within the churches and congregations and “See thou hurt not the oil and the wine.”
Hurt not the oil and the wine. Now what does this word hurt refer to? It says in Revelation 2:11:
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Ultimately, that is what is in view. If an individual is saved and born again and has received the gift of eternal life, they cannot be hurt of the second death. Only unsaved people can experience the second death and are annihilated and eternally destroyed. And, finally, that is what is going to happen to all those that are not saved within the congregations. God is saying to “hurt not the oil and the wine.” Do them no harm.
Now we also want to go to Revelation 9 because a similar statement is made. It does not mention oil and wine, but it uses the same language of “hurt not.” We read in Revelation 9:3:
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Now, here again, the context is Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, when judgment began on the world. And the commandment is given to these scorpions (who really are a picture of God’s elect, the true believers) that they are to “not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree.” The green thing and the grass, and so forth, that are not be hurt are referring to those that God has saved, His chosen people, all those He has predestinated to receive salvation and have become saved – He already saved them before He brought about the Day of Judgment. They, therefore, as a result, are not to be hurt; they are not to experience the second death that comes upon all those that “have not the seal of God in their foreheads.”
This is similar to the statement we were reading in Revelation 6:8 and here in Revelation 6:6 and in this verse, God is concerned about the elect living during the Great Tribulation period and in Revelation 9:4, He is concerned about the elect living on the earth in the Day of Judgment on all the world. In both cases (and always at any point) “hurt not my people,” those whose names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and whose sins have been forgiven. They are not to experience the wrath of God; they are not being punished; their sins have already been taken care of. The Law and its demands regarding them have already been satisfied, so, therefore, “hurt not the oil and the wine.”
Let us continue on in Revelation 6:7-8:
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
This fourth horse and rider – this figure – has caught the fancy of individuals all throughout the ages. You maybe have heard a reference to the “pale horse” and the rider whose name was Death. It really is a striking picture that God is given us and we picture some individual with a skeleton for a face and seated upon some pale colored horse. And what exactly is a pale colored horse? It has been represented as some sort of “ghostly image” and that is not what God is describing here at all, and we should get that image out of our minds.
I think we are going to be surprised when we understand the actual color of this horse and the color will help us understand who the horse relates to and who it is describing or typifying. So let us look at this word pale. The Greek word is found four times in the New Testament and only once is it translated as pale. In the other three cases, it is translated as green. The first place we are going to look is in Mark 6:38:
He saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? go and see. And when they knew, they say, Five, and two fishes. And he commanded them to make all sit down by companies upon the green grass.
Now there is the Greek word translated as green here, but is translated as pale in Revelation, chapter six. And continuing in Mark 6:40-42:
And they sat down in ranks, by hundreds, and by fifties. And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. And they did all eat, and were filled.
Again, the word green is what we are looking at and these were seated on the “green grass” and the thing to keep in mind is that Christ is feeding His disciples. Of course, historically, many of these disciples probably were not saved, but they represent true believers that are being fed the “bread of life,” as Jesus is likened to the very bread or loaves He has broken and multiplied and miraculously made sufficient for all this multitude of people.
Let us go to the second place that we find the word green and that is in Revelation 8:7-9:
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
And it continues with judgment on the “third part” because it is describing God’s judgment beginning at the house of God at the end of the church age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation. So verse 7 spoke of judgment as “the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up,” and this points to those that identify with, and are closely related to, God’s elect; and the reason is due to the fact that God had his elect housed within the congregations for 1,955 years and that was where the “two witnesses” operated and God blessed their witness and God saved all the firstfruits during that period of time. And here it is the time when judgment begins at the house of God; it is the time when “the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.”
So we can see, once again, that the green grass identifies with God’s people, with true believers, as they were historically found in the church and with those that came to be so closely identified with them that God still uses the figure. It is much like the figure of the “third part.” The “third part” is a figure that God uses to describe the elect in Zechariah 13, as they go through the fire; and, yet, it is the “third part” that is burned up or destroyed in Revelation 8.
Well, the third place we want to read is in Revelation, chapter 9. Again, we just read this, but let us read Revelation 9:4:
And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
Once again, as we mentioned earlier, the green thing is referring to the elect. They would be the ones with the seal of God, as the Holy Spirit has sealed them with salvation. The word green in all three other places (and these are the only other places where the word is found) relates to the elect, to the child of God, to the true believers.
When we read in Revelation 6:8, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse,” it is without question a “green horse” that the Apostle John is being given a vision to see. It is a green horse and a green horse completely identifies with the true believer. And now we have a problem. It does not make any sense that the green horse identifies with the true believer because…and let us read it again:
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Now how can that be in any way connected to the true believers? How can believers sit upon a horse and be identified completely with Death and Hell? It just does not make sense, but….oh, we do remember that God does relate true believers to death in 2nd Corinthians 2:14-16:
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?
Here, God is indicating that His people, as they carry the Word of God, have always been a “savour of death unto death” to “them that perish,” to the unsaved, because the Word of God the true believers bring and the message that they carry brings news of condemnation and wrath and judgment for the sinner. It is a message that relates to death, as “the wages of sin is death.” If anyone is unsaved, they are under that wrath and, therefore, subject to the second death. So God’s people have always been a “savour of death unto death.”
But the difference in the verse that we are reading in Revelation 6:8 is that there is no mention of “life.” True believers have historically been a “the savour of life unto life,” and not only “death unto death.” Yet, in Revelation 6 the rider’s name on the green horse is Death. Life is not mentioned. Life is not in view at all and this is because the fourth horseman is going forth in the Day of Judgment and is representing God’s people as they proclaim the door is shut and there is no more salvation. And when we say there is no more salvation, we are saying there is no more “life.”