Verse 11 says, “And to each of them was given a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who are about to be killed even as they were should be completed also.” The white robe here signifies that their martyrdom has been approved by God. Those “who are about to be killed” refers to those who will be martyred during the great tribulation (20:4).
According to the word, “yet a little while until the number...should be completed,” this cry of the martyred saints should transpire near the end of this age. We are still in the first four seals. The fifth seal has not yet come. However, I believe that we are close to the time of the fifth seal.
The sixth seal (6:12-17), which marks the beginning of supernatural calamities, is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal. After the opening of the sixth seal, the Lord comes in to shake the earth and the hosts of the heavens. The earth will quake greatly, the sun will become black as sackcloth made of hair, the moon will become as blood, the stars of heaven will fall to the earth as a fig tree casting its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, the heaven will recoil as a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island will move out of its place (6:12-14). This great shaking will be a warning to the dwellers on the earth. It will warn them to repent and return to God. God may seem to be saying to them, “You earth dwellers are only for yourselves. You don’t care for Me. Now is My time to shake the earth as a warning to you.” While some people have blasphemously said that they are God, the Lord will shake the earth and the heaven as a reminder to them that He is God. What a terrible shaking this will be! The earth, the sun, the moon, and the stars will all be affected.
In verses 15 through 17 we see the reaction of the earth’s dwellers. They will hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and they will beg the mountains and rocks to hide them from the face of God and from the wrath of the Lamb. Verse 15 reveals the feeling of their conscience, for they fear the coming of the judgment of God, considering that the great day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb has come. However, the sixth seal is not the proclamation of God concerning the coming of His judgment. Rather, it is a warning to the dwellers of the earth. The kings and all the great, rich, and noble men of the earth will be shocked by this earthquake and will think that the day of the wrath of God and of the Lamb has come. Actually, this will not yet be that day, it will be just a foretaste and a warning to them to repent. In this warning God seems to be saying, “Return to Me. Do not say that you are God. You are the poor dwellers on the earth created by Me. I created the sun, the moon, and the stars for your living. But you forget Me and oppose and blaspheme Me. Now is the time for you to be warned in order that you might repent.”
The significance of this calamity is that it is a warning to the earth’s dwellers. It is not yet the actual wrath of the Lord. It is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal and it reveals that God is soon to come in to avenge them and to vindicate Himself. God is coming to avenge the blood of His dear saints.
The sixth seal, being an introduction to the great tribulation, is a warning before the day of the Lord. According to Joel 2:30-31, there will not be much difference in time between the sixth seal and the first five trumpets (8:6-11). Joel 2:30-31 firstly has the blood of the first and second trumpets, the fire of the first, second, and third trumpets (8:7-10), and the smoke of the fifth trumpet (9:1-3), and then the sun and the moon of the sixth seal. Chapter 9:4 compared with 7:3 indicates that the fifth trumpet is very close to the sixth seal.
There will be two calamities in the shakings and changes of the earth and of the hosts in heaven. The first will occur before the day of the Lord, before the great tribulation (Joel 3:11-16; 2:30-31; Luke 21:11). And the second will occur after the day of the Lord, after the great tribulation (Matt. 24:29-30; Luke 21:25-26). What is covered in the sixth seal is the first calamity. It may be considered not only as a warning but also as an introduction to the coming great tribulation. Following the sixth seal, at the opening of the seventh seal, are the first four trumpets as indicators that the great tribulation is coming (8:1-2, 6-13). Then the great tribulation will be carried out in the last three trumpets (9:1-21; 11:14-19).