The so-called “four horsemen” of the apocalypse are well-known even to those who’ve never read the Bible. In fact, it’s likely that many who know of them are not even aware that they are written about in the Bible. What they represent and why they are described is a matter of great mystery to so many, but in fact there is a reasonable explanation provided in Revelation, as long as we remember to keep the text in context.

Before diving into the chapter of Revelation that features the four horsemen, let’s remember a couple things.

First of all, we must keep in mind the background of Revelation: The book was written to Christians suffering persecution at the hands of the Roman Empire. The theme of the book is the victory of Christians over that evil Empire and the assurance that God (A) hears their plea and (B) will bless them and (C) punish their enemies.

Second, keep in mind that the “apocalypse” is not an event. The word means “a thing revealed.” In fact the word “apocalypse” is the same, in the Greek, as the word “revelation.” So what we’re reading about here are the four horsemen that were revealed to John in the apocalypse/revelation. John describes them to us in apocalyptic (“revealed”) language…

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.

Revelation 6:1

Chapters four and five gave us an inside look at the throne room of God, or at least an apocalyptic take on it, with big, metaphorical imagery meant to convey ideas rather give a literal depiction of what it looks like. Nevertheless, we’ve heard from Jesus (ch1-3), we’ve sung His praises (ch4-5), now it’s time to see what He has up His sleeve for the brethren that are suffering persecution at the hands of their enemies.

Jesus—the Lamb—is the only one worthy to open the seals, and so He will. As each seal is broken, a picture of judgment will be shown. This is John’s way of telling the church that they will be avenged by God. He knows their suffering and His Lamb will open the book of judgment against those who hurt His people.

The first seal was opened, and what followed was a noise like (“as it were”) thunder. It wasn’t actual thunder, because there’s no atmosphere in Heaven, but it was a rumbling, booming voice that reminded John of thunder.  Recall the spectacle at Sinai when God’s voice boomed from the mountaintop, accompanied by a terrifying rumbling sound and flashes in the sky; the people  saw what sounded and looked like thunder and lightning (Exodus 19:16, 19) when actually it was the power of God stirring on earth.

Except here it is not God who speaks, but one of the four angelic beasts. That’s consistent with the nature of these beings however; they reflect the character of God, so why not reflect His awesomeness too. One of the four beasts speaks and says “come.”

The KJV has the words “and see” added to the text, but older manuscripts only have the word “come.” This is a word of invitation, but who is the angel inviting? It’s not John; he’s already seeing. No, the angel is inviting someone else to approach…

And I saw, and 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.

Revelation 6:2

Who answers the invitation? A rider on a white horse. First all, just being on a horse conveys a strong impression. To the audience of the day, a mounted solider was like a modern tank. This is a war horse we’re seeing. Furthermore this is a white horse, symbolizing purity. Who is going to war? Heaven! God has seen the suffering of His people and John writes that He’s mounted up His war horse and ready to charge in for the defense, the knight in shining armor, riding in on His white horse.

The rider has a bow. A mounted archer was the most skilled fighter in the unit; he had the ability to steady his aim and take out his enemy while his destrier galloped ahead. This is a solider who knows how to fight, and he rides to our aid with a crown on his head, like a King unafraid to charge into battle.

This is Christ the conqueror, but that doesn’t mean the rider is Christ. It just means he represents Christ. He visualizes what Christ will do for His people. John writes that he saw this horseman going “forth conquering and to conquer,” a phrase which means he’s never lost a battle; everywhere he has ridden he has conquered, and he presses on to conquer more and more.  That’s the kind of fighter you want on your side.

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

The second seal is broken (by the Lamb) and again there was a voice who speaks the same word as before: “come.” Who is being called to the stage?

Another war horse.

This one is red, a symbol of bloodshed, of war, or just “conflict” in general. What is war? It is the absence of peace. What does this red horse carry? He brings a rider with power (authority) given to him. And with his authority this rider will “take peace from the earth.” When you take peace away you get war, and with war comes loss, casualties, death, as people “kill one another”.

Once again we get a picture of Christ, who once promised to divide families due to His demanding total submission (Matthew 10:35). Furthermore there is a great sword in this rider’s hand (in contrast to the bow of the previous rider). This one is coming for hand-to-hand, nitty-gritty, down-and-dirty fighting.

There’s a lot to unpack in this one verse, but it’s paramount that two things are maintained: Number one, the reader should not take these images literally! Number two, the reader needs to keep the big picture in focus and not get carried away trying to decipher every individual element in the visual. This is a rider on a red horse with a sword in his hand, bringing conflict wherever he goes. That’s the image; it’s not necessary to put it under a microscope and try to figure out what the sword in particular represents, etc. The sword is part of the ensemble of the image; figure out the big picture and the individual elements will fall into place.

Conflict is the theme of this rider. He brings it with him. Put the two riders together and the picture starts to come into focus: Christ rides in on His white horse, bringing conquest: He conquers our soul and saves us. What follows salvation? Conflict! The world pushes back; our friends and loved ones who are still in the world expect us to remain at their side, but we have pledged ourselves to Another. We belong to Christ now. That’s what Jesus meant by mothers and daughters being divided, sons and fathers being divided, etc (Matthew 10:35). We choose Christ and the world therefore hates us (John 15:19).

What’s happening to the church at this time? They are being attacked by people who have rejected Christ. The Roman Empire of pagans, polytheists, sadists and thugs hated the church for its piety, sacrificial nature, compassion, meekness and love.  Conquest is followed by conflict…but what follows conflict?

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

Revelation 6:5

The third seal opens, and a voice speaks in response. Once again it’s the inviting word “come” and once again another horseman appears. This horse is black. Black’s not a color used symbolically to mean anything good. Black is bad. Black is a color of mourning, loss, grief. Christ came and conquered, conflict followed when the world pushed back, and now Christians are suffering.

The first two horseman held weapons (a bow, a sword). This one holds a pair of balances in his hand. Balances are the old fashioned scales, similar to the ones held by the statue of the blindfolded Lady Justice. What purpose these balances serve is revealed in the next verse. The point here is that God recognizes the pain the world brings to those who follow Him. As with the others, this horseman represents Christ. Specifically he represents Christ’s awareness of the hurting of His people. He sees it, He knows it, and He will act.

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.

Revelation 6:6

Now we see what the scales (balances) were being used for: The beast calls out to the black-horsed rider to divvy up some rations. The scales were measuring wheat and barley in small amounts because so little was available. They were careful not to spill the oil and wine because supply was way down while demand was way up.

This is a picture of the scarcity of worldly provisions the first century church was suffering through. Food was not abundant. By being enemies of the state, the Christian people were having basic necessities deprived of them. Remember that Emperor Worship was the law of the land across the Roman world and if you didn’t worship Caesar you were not given a certificate to buy and sell, which made it hard to have the things we take for granted in our lives.

Satan hits you where it hurts, and for many people that’s their wallet and their stomachs. Take away their wants and take away their needs and many people will crumble like a house build on sand. Where is your treasure? That’s where your heart is (Luke 12:34). John is telling his people not to give up; the horseman of God is coming with food in his balances. Does he have a lot of food? No, but the riches he brings don’t compare to the riches of Heaven! In the meantime, things are going to be hard (ch2:10)…

And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.

Revelation 6:7

The Lamb opens the fourth seal and the invitation of “come” is sounded. If you think a fourth horseman of the revelation is coming, you’re right. But hopefully after examining the three previous, it’s clear that these horsemen are not the harbingers of doom that they are depicted as in popular culture.

The so-called “four horsemen of the apocalypse” (a word which just means “to reveal a coded message”) is not a reference to four riders bringing pain to God’s enemies; they are reminders to God’s people of the pain their enemies are bringing to them. It’s a way of explaining why they are suffering.

Christ is the metaphorical rider on each of the horses. Christ is the one responsible for all of this. He brought conquest, which caused the conflict, which led to the grief. That’s not blaming Jesus because you only cast blame over things that went wrong. In this case the grief and conflict that arose because of the conquest are exactly what was supposed to happen. Of course the world hates us! We’ve been transformed from it and the world hates what is not of its own!  Following Christ is hard, as these horseman have shown, but it’s also worth it!

Trying to understand these symbols in a literal way is impossible. They have to be appreciated as images meant to convey ideas. Taking it literally makes no sense: Conquest does not lead to conflict, that’s the opposite of how things go in a literal way. Yet the white horse of conquest rode first, and he was followed by the red horse of conflict. Now we have the black horse of grief. What follows grief?

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.

Revelation 6:8

Death and Hell (the grave) follow grief. Again notice how these things are out of order if you were trying to understand them in a literal/natural way. Naturally you would have things laid out in this order: conflict, death, grief, conquest. Or maybe it would be like this: conflict, conquest, death, grief. But you’d never have conquest before conflict, and you’d never have grief before death. That doesn’t make sense, yet that’s the order here, because this isn’t meant to be taken literally. It’s symbolic and spiritual.

When the fourth seal was broken, John looked and saw a fourth horse: pale was its color. Not white; pale. What’s the difference? We think of pale as the sickly blend of white, pink and blue. In fact the Greek word is “kloros” from which the word “Clorox” was derived. And yet “kloros” doesn’t mean “colorless” or “bleached.” The word means “green” but that doesn’t mean it was a vivid neon color, necessarily. It might have been pale, as we think of the word, just with a green tint.

Unlike the other horseman, this one is given a name, and that name is “Death.” Does that mean this rider doesn’t represent Jesus? No it does not mean that; this is a picture of Jesus. John says that the rider was given the power to kill with sword and hunger and with death and with beasts of the earth, and later in the book Jesus will unleash that very power on His enemies. In other words, this rider represents Jesus’ vengeance against those who have brought conflict and grief to His people in the wake of His conquest.

John says that “hell” follows this rider wherever he goes. The word translated as “hell” is “hades” which means “the grave” or “the place, before judgment, where souls depart to when the body dies (Luke 16:19-31).” So look at the symmetry of the four horsemen. The first brought conquest in his wake, the last brings death. Conquest in this context is salvation for God’s people. Death is…well, death, but it’s for God’s enemies, not God’s people.

There are four kinds of death mentioned in this verse. All of these should be seen as tools of execution, with Christ as the executioner. He’s the one in control. He holds the power to kill with sword (war), with hunger (famine; the suffering of a nation after war), with death (old age), and with the beasts of the earth (grouped in with that would be natural catastrophes of varying sorts).

Notice also that these are the tactics used by Romans against God’s people. The Romans would chop off a man’s head, they would throw them in pits and let them starve, they would exile them (as John was for a time) to waste away in isolation, and they would throw them to the lions to be devoured. Jesus will turn the tables against Rome and bring their weapons metaphorically against them.

~~~

So there you have it.

When you break it down and put the text in its context, it’s easy to see that the four horsemen are not some big mystery or a heavenly invasion force. They are figures representative of Christ’s judgment and justice and an apocalyptic assurance that in the end, we will win the war with Satan.