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Revelation Chapter 6 vs 12 -17
The Sixth Seal: Terror
12And when I saw the Lamb open the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of goat hair, and the whole moon turned blood red, 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like unripe figs dropping from a tree shaken by a great wind. 14The sky receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place.
15Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide usb from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. 17For the great day of Theirc wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
John continues with his revelation as each seal is opened. The time of the sixth seal has come and the lamb opens the seal.
The first thing John notices is that there is a great earthquake!
How many of us have experienced a great earthquake. In Barbados of late we've been having more earthquakes, but certainly none of them have been very devastating. We know that earthquakes can be terrifying, the very ground that you are standing on shakes. The buildings, houses, structures that seemed so strong and powerful can crumble into nothingness in the face of an earthquake. Yet this is not the real source of the terror as John goes on to tell how the sun becomes dark 'like sackcloth of goat's hair' and the moon 'red like blood', some writers describe this like an almost undoing of creation - the reversal of 'let there be light'. Joel also wrote in Joel 2vs 30-31 of such. Yet this was not the end of the horror.
We've experienced eclipses of the sun and even blood moons, but the indication here is that the blotting out of the light of these heavenly bodies is complete. The bible doesn't tell us how this happens, it simply says it happens. Some have hazard a guess based on the words which follow.
John says the stars of the sky fell to the earth like figs from a tree shaken by the wind. Picture that. Imagine being under a tree full of fruits huge mangoes, the wind starts to blow really hard and all the mangoes start falling all around you. You would want to run from under that tree so none of the mangoes would hit you in your head!
John is describing a violent pummeling of the earth, the mountains and the islands (like Barbados and the Caribbean) couldn't stand up in the face of the attack of these hurdling missiles towards them. They are moved out of their place!!!
Matthew Chapter 24 vs 29 is a retelling of the same incident in Jesus' words.
29Immediately after the tribulation of those days:
‘The sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light;
the stars will fall from the sky,
and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.b’
So what is really happening? Thomas Horn - in his book on 'The WormWood Prophecy', predicts the arrival of a meteor which will hit the earth! Mr. Horn predicts this will happen in 2029. We should always be cautious concerning end of time predictions. The bible does tell us that no man knows the day or the hour. However, Jesus does make it clear that we can tell the season or the times. The seals that we spoke about earlier correlate to the times that we are in. In addition, Mr. Horn has a track record of a pretty amazing prophecy concerning the resignation of the Pope. Aside from that, the idea that the Bible speaks about the 'stars falling from the sky', does sound a lot like a meteor shower.
Certainly we can all imagine how terrifying it would be to see large bolders falling from the sky. It is not hard to imagine that even people who saw themselves as important, as mighty, as untouchable, as invincible would tremble with fear. The bible says the great mean and the rulers, people who lead armies - they will all be afraid. They will hide in rocks, caves, mountains, where-ever they can find a cover. They will want the mountains to fall on them and destroy them because they will come to the realisation that God's is God, and there is no other. They will come to the realisation that they are nothing compared to God. They will come to the realisation that God is the judge and there is none worthy to stand before Him.
It is interesting that it will take the shaken of the heavens and earth for some people to accept that there is a God and no man, no matter how great he thinks he is, will be able to stand before God in his own strength.
This is a great time to encourage everyone, make your election with the Lord sure, accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. Don't wait to be running and hiding - remember, it is not only the rich that will run to the rocks and mountains to hide, the slaves and the poor who don't know Christ will also try to hide. Don't be among them.
Join us next time as we turn to Revelation 7 and the sealing of the 144,000. Who are they? Maybe we can figure that out together.