Revelation 6:7-8 say, “When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come. And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and he who sits upon it, his name is Death; and Hades followed with him. And authority was given to them over the fourth part of the earth to kill with the sword and with famine and with death and by the beasts of the earth.” Pale, or pale green, signifies the color of the appearance of those stricken with the plague. Thus, the pale horse is a symbol of the killing of death, causing a pale appearance. In these verses Hades follows death in order to receive those whom death kills.
Revelation, which was written at the end of the first century, is a prophecy of things to come. These four seals are prophecies, signifying that after the ascension of Christ, there would be the preaching of the gospel, war, famine, and death. Everything that has transpired during the past twenty centuries can be included in these four things. Immediately after Christ ascended to the heavens, the preaching of the gospel began. The white horse began to run the race, and the rider of this horse was the gospel of the glory of Christ. In A.D. 70 Titus, the prince of Rome, destroyed Jerusalem with his armies. Since then, throughout the centuries, there has been one war after another. War brings in famine, and famine causes disease and death. Hence, the history of the past two thousand years has been nothing except the preaching of the gospel, war, famine, and death.
The fifth seal discloses Christian martyrdom from the first century to the time near the end of this age. It may include the martyrdom of the Old Testament saints (Matt. 23:34-36). While the gospel is being preached, as indicated by the first seal, there is always the martyrdom of the faithful saints because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Stephen, Peter, and nearly all the other apostles were martyred. The apostle John was exiled, and Paul was imprisoned and later sentenced to death. Throughout the centuries, wherever the gospel has been preached, there have been martyrs.
When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, John saw “underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev. 6:9-10). The souls of the martyred saints being under the altar indicates that, in the eyes of God, they have been offered to God as sacrifices on the altar, and their blood, their life, was shed there. Now their position is under the altar, that is, in the Paradise underneath the earth (cf. Luke 23:43; Matt. 12:40; Acts 2:27; Luke 16:22-26). After having waited for a long time, near the end of this age the martyred saints will cry out for revenge, urging the Lord to judge and avenge their blood “on those who dwell on the earth.”
The martyrs cried with a loud voice, 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 also the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed, even as they were, is completed” (Rev. 6:11). The white robe signifies that their martyrdom has been approved by God. Those “who were about to be killed, even as they were” is a prophecy that refers to those who will be martyred during the great tribulation (20:4). According to the words yet a little while, until also the number...is completed, this cry of the martyred saints should transpire near the end of this age. Today we are still in the first four seals. The fifth seal has not yet come; however, we are close to the time of the fifth seal.
The sixth seal (6:12-17) is the beginning of supernatural calamities and 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. There will be a great earthquake, 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 casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, heaven will recoil like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island will move out of its place (vv. 12-14). This great shaking will warn the dwellers on the earth to repent and turn to God. Some people have blasphemously said that they are God. The Lord will shake the earth and heaven to remind them that He is God.
According to the prophecy in Joel 2:30-31, there will not be much time between the sixth seal and the first five trumpets in Revelation 8:6—9:11. Joel 2:30-31 first records the blood of the first and second trumpets, the fire of the first, second, and third trumpets (Rev. 8:7-10), and the smoke of the fifth trumpet (9:1-3), and then the changes of the sun and the moon of the sixth seal. According to Revelation 9:4 and 7:3, the fifth trumpet is very close in time 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 great tribulation (Joel 2:30-31), and the second will occur after the great tribulation (3:11-16; Matt. 24:29-30; Luke 21:25-26). What is covered in the sixth seal is the first supernatural calamity, which is close to the beginning of the coming great tribulation. Following the sixth seal, at the opening of the seventh seal, are the first four trumpets (Rev. 8:1-2, 6-12). Then the most serious woes of the great tribulation will be carried out in the last three trumpets (8:13—9:21; 11:14-19).