The Book of Revelation is not literal, or particially literal, it is the most spiritual book in the whole Bible. The following touches on the the spiritual aspect of the Four horsemen.
"And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse." (Revelation 6:1-2).
The vision of the scroll, and the qualifying of the Lamb to take that scroll and loose the seals thereof, has been awesome. It is a "scroll of redemption," that is its message, its purpose; and in its outworking we see a further "revelation of Jesus Christ." He is truly revealed as "The Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world." (John 1:29).
Now it is time to begin opening the seals, the invitation to further revelation is given, "Come and see." See-- the Greek word is "blepo" meaning: to see, perceive, understand. May the Lord give us understanding, for this is an outworking of the process of redemption-- that must be clearly understood-- every seal that is loosed from the scroll is vitally linked to the redemption process.
While the Redeemer, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, was also portrayed as a Lamb, now again the figure changes, and with the opening of the seals we have the figures of the horse and Rider. This, again, is rooted deep in Old Testament symbolism. The Psalmist cries out, "Gird Your sword upon Your thigh, O Most Mighty, with Your glory and Your majesty. And in Your majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness." (Psalm 45:3-4).
RIDE PROSPEROUSLY! Indeed, though "It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief: when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." (Isaiah 53:10). So says the prophet in his prophetic account of our Redeemer, as He "redeems us to God by His blood."
The PLEASURE of the Lord, literally, HIS PURPOSE, concerns our redemption. "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Now it is TIME for the OUTWORKING OF REDEMPTION, and whatever step is to be wrought out next-- He truly prospers in that working, for it is "according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will." (Ephesians 1:11).
Any gospel that does not acknowledge that our Lord, our Redeemer, has already "spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it," (Colossians 2:15), would be "another gospel," and is a lie. He is riding prosperously NOW! Change the metaphor, the message is the same, "He must reign, till He has put all enemies under His feet." (1 Corinthians 15:25).
HE IS REIGNING NOW! HE IS RIDING NOW!
"In Christ shall all be made alive." That is the purpose, and it shall be accomplished. However, it is "every man in his own order."
(1 Corinthians 15:22-23). So, while we do not see Him reigning/riding in every man at this time,
nevertheless there are those who are daily feeling the impact of His in working, being called out of the world, and unto Himself. He is prospering in His redemptive process, changing His firstfruits from glory to glory.
"For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first BEGINS AT US, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God." (1 Peter 4:17).
Judgment-- Greek, "krima, or krisis," meaning: the correctional in workings of the Lord used to bring about a change.
"Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen; My Beloved, in whom My soul is well pleased: I will put My Spirit upon Him, and He shall SHOW JUDGMENT to the nations. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear His voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, till He send forth JUDGMENT UNTO VICTORY. And in His name shall the nations trust." (Matthew 12:18-21).
Unto victory-- nikos, from same root as prevail, overcome. He is the Prevailing One, Victorious, riding prosperously. First the victory was wrought IN HIMSELF, "In all points tempted (tested) like as we are, YET WITHOUT SIN." (Hebrews 4:15). Now He is able to walk us through all our processing, bringing us into the same OVERCOMING victory. "Because I live, you shall live also."
Again the Old Testament establishes the fact that events have often been represented by different colored horses. This is seen in Zechariah 1:8-11, and 6:2-7, where four colored horses are said to be "The four spirits (or, winds) of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." Sent by God to accomplish their specific purpose. So it is not strange that we see the symbol used again in the opening of the seals.
The horse has long been a symbol of strength and fearlessness. "He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: he goes on to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear, and is not afraid; neither turns he back from the sword." (Job 39:21-22).
Again we read, "The horse is prepared against the day of battle." (Proverbs 21:31). GOD IS PREPARED TO DO BATTLE IN YOU! Whatever warfare is necessary, still He purposes to redeem you, to cleanse, purify, transform, until IN YOU He has "made all things new." He who wrestled with Jacob "Until the breaking of the day," (Genesis 32:24), will wrestle with you for however long it is necessary, until HE WINS. Yet it is in His winning that you ultimately win. Sin brings you loss, self will brings you loss, but being overcome by Christ brings you eternal gain.
If, for a moment, we take a quick peep into events much later in the Book, John writes that "I saw the heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. - And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean." (Revelation 19:11, 14).
It is essential that first He RIDES IN YOU, before you ride WITH Him. The time will come when the overcomer shares His throne-- and the time comes when a vast company follows Him upon white horses, but that is when He has finished His in workings of grace, and they have become partakers of His divine nature, conformed to His image, to be ONE IN HIM. Christ must RIDE TO VICTORY IN US before we ever ride in His triumphal train.
"I have compared you, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh's chariots." (Song of Solomon 1:9). History records that every one of Pharaoh's horses was a thoroughbred. There were no mixed stock, they were pure. No intermingling of other natures, characteristics, weaknesses-- pure bred stock. And such is the qualification of those who will follow Him on white horses. Pure as He is pure, holy as He is holy, with no mixture of self or the world in them-- born again, spirit, soul, and body.
"Behold a white horse: and He that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto Him: and He went forth conquering, and to conquer."
The color "white" bespeaks of light, illumination, purity, holiness. The color reveals what He is doing TO you, or producing IN you. As important as the color is, do not let it distract you from remembering Who it is that is riding this horse, and the purpose of His riding, for He is riding it with a view toward REDEMPTION. The scroll is a scroll of redemption, and that which is now unsealed is furthering that work in you.
The conquest is His! And the reason He is RIDING WITHIN YOU is to bring you to that place where from every atom of your being you cry out, "not my will, but Yours, be done." The fulness of your redemption will require that every thing within you becomes one IN and WITH the will of God. This is not some substitute working-- ALL that He does is FOR us, but not instead of us. He died for us-- not to absolve us from dying, but to ensure the fact that ultimately we would all face the cross, the death process, and come through victoriously, even as He triumphed. "We thus judge, that if One died FOR all, then were all dead." (2 Corinthians 5:14). "That He by the grace of God should taste death FOR every man." (Hebrews 2:9). He blazed the trail through the entire process, and conquered, and now He rides in us to make us experiential partakers of that process which results in our being "partakers of His holiness." (Hebrews 12:14).
His death guarantees that all men shall die out to sin and self. And His resurrection guarantees that all men shall LIVE by His life. "Being made conformable unto His death," is followed by our participation in "the resurrection of the dead." And in this death and resurrection process HE RIDES PROSPEROUSLY, for "in Christ shall all be made alive." It is a process which guarantees that we shall BE AS PURE AS HE IS PURE!
You have a day all planned, and then everything starts to unravel, nothing goes as planned, everybody else's will and way are superimposed upon yours, until by the end of the day you are either fully frustrated, or quite subdued. What was happening? The white horse was riding-- "conquering and to conquer."
Ah, you thought it would be a great spiritual experience, Christ rides in upon a beautiful white horse with glory all around, and you bow and say, "I am all Yours, Lord," in a show of humility and allegiance. But it doesn't work that way! It is in the nitty-gritty of every day living that-- "Behold, your King comes unto you, meek, and sitting upon an ass..." (Matthew 21:5). Where He finds all these critters, I don't know, but HE RIDES ON THEM, right into the middle of your life-- in the most mundane circumstances. He says, "If you SEE ME, I am riding through all this circumstance to bring your will into oneness with My will." And however camouflaged it might appear, yet it is THE WHITE HORSE riding prosperously, to bring you into the fulness of His life, light, purity, and victory.
He has a bow-- "Your bow was made quite naked... EVEN YOUR WORD." (Habakkuk 3:9). It is the WORD OF GOD, quickened by the Spirit, that pierces into our hearts to work a transformation. "Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the King's enemies; whereby the people fall under You." (Psalm 45:5). He will subdue and conquer-- "He shall not fall nor be discouraged, till He has set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law." (Isaiah 42:4).
"Conquered by the Christ who died to set me free,
Conquered by the Christ who rose to live in me,
Sovereign, and supreme, He rules eternally,
Rule my spirit, Lord, and master me." (author unknown).
All of this is working to bring forth "a revelation of Jesus Christ" to us, in us, and through us. "It pleased God... to reveal His Son in me..." (Galatians 1:15-16). And the reason we have this all-conquering White Horse riding in us, is to bring us into the fulness of the purity wherein He can be revealed. Praise God!
"And when He had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to Him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto Him a great sword." (Revelation 6:3-4).
Now the process intensifies. Not only has He invaded our life with His light and divine illumination, and begun a conquering work of bringing us one into His will, but the process is BY FIRE. Here we have the symbol of a fiery force burning with energy. The word "red" is the Greek word "purrhos" meaning: fire like, or, flame colored. It comes from the root word "pur" meaning: fire. "Our God is a consuming fire," (Hebrews 12:29), and He consumes all our dross. "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor; and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." (Matthew 3:12).
"Behold the Lord will come WITH FIRE, and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For BY FIRE and by His sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many." (Isaiah 66:15-16).
When Adam was expelled from the garden of Eden, God "placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and A FLAMING SWORD which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24). This was not meant as a blockage, to keep man from the tree of life, but rather as a safe-guard, and to keep the way open-- so that whoever passed through the FLAMING SWORD would be qualified to eat of that tree of life. Now we come to the last book of the Bible, and learn that there are OVERCOMERS who are given the right to eat of the tree of life. And we learn that the "red horse" rides prosperously in us, to PURge, PURify, lead us through our PURgatory, until in Him we are PURe.
Furthermore, because it is a flaming sword it holds within it a HEALING OPERATION as well as a pruning work. The sword will cut off all the unwanted debris of the flesh, and then cauterize at the same time, sealing the wound to help hasten the healing. Those who have been dealt with by the flaming sword know of this glorious dual working, for while it is ever so painful on the flesh, yet there is a sense of healing, deliverance, victory that emerges through it all.
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