Revelation 6:6:12-14 “I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the heaven fell upon the earth, as a fig-tree casts its figs, when it is shaken by a high wind; and the heavens were split like a roll that is rolled up, and the hills and islands were moved from their places.”
Much of the Book of Revelation has always confused or frightened those who have read it. It helps if you understand the background from which John was writing because as a Jewish believer, there were many parts of this vision that were foretold in the Old Testament or in the Apocryphal Books. William Barclay gives an extensive explanation, part of which we will consider here:
“The Jews always regarded the end as a time when the earth would be shattered and there would be cosmic upheaval and destruction. In the picture there are, as it were, five elements which can all be abundantly illustrated from the Old Testament and from the books written between the Testaments.
(i) There is the earthquake. At the coming of the Lord the earth will tremble (Amos 8:8). There will be a great shaking in the land of Israel (Ezekiel 38:19). The earth will quake and the heavens will tremble (Joel 2:10). God will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land (Haggai 2:6)…. The Jewish prophets and seers saw a time when earth would be shattered and a tide of destruction would flow over the old world before the new world was born.
(ii) There is the darkening of the sun and moon. The sun will set at midday, and earth will grow dark in the clear day light (Amos 8:9). The stars will not shine; the sun will be darkened in his going forth and the moon will not cause her light to shine (Isaiah 13:10). God will clothe the heavens with blackness and will make sackcloth their covering (Isaiah 50:3). …The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood (Joel 2:31).
(iii) There is the falling of the stars. To the Jew this idea was specially terrible, for the order of the heavens was the very guarantee of the unchanging fidelity of God. Take away the reliability of the heavens and there was nothing left but chaos. The angel tells Enoch to behold the heavens, to see how the heavenly bodies never change their orbits or transgress against their appointed order (Enoch 2:1). Enoch saw the chambers of the sun and moon, how they go out and come in, how they never leave their orbit, and add nothing to it and take nothing from it (Enoch 41:5). To the Jew the last word in chaos was a world of falling stars. But in the end time the host of heaven would be dissolved and fall down as the leaf falls from the vine and the fig from the fig-tree (Isaiah 34:4)….. The end will be a time when the most reliable things in the universe will become a disorderly and terrifying chaos.
(iv) There is the folding up of the heavens. The picture in this passage is of a roll stretched out and held open, and then suddenly split down the middle so that each half recoils and rolls up. God will shake the heavens (Isaiah 13:13). The heavens will be rolled together as a scroll (Isaiah 34:4). They will be changed like a garment and folded up (Psalms 102:25-26). At the end the eternal heavens themselves will be rent in two.
(v) There is the moving of the hills and of the islands of the sea. The mountains will tremble and the hills will be moved (Jeremiah 4:24). The mountains will quake and the hills will melt (Nahum 1:5). John saw a time when the most unshakable things would be shaken and when even rocky isles like Patmos would be lifted from their foundation.”
Barclay continues, “Strange as John’s pictures may seem to us, there is not a single detail which is not in the pictures of the end time in the Old Testament and in the books written between the Testaments. We must not think that these pictures are to be taken literally. Their point is that John is taking every terrifying thing that can be imagined and piling them all together to give a picture of the terrors of the end time. Today, with our increased scientific knowledge, we might well paint the picture in different terms; but it is not the picture that matters. What matters is the terrors which John and the Jewish seers foresaw when God would invade the earth when time was coming to an end.”
God is a good Father who does not play charades with His children. In giving John this vision, God used images with which John would already be familiar. Getting caught up in the details and demanding to know if God is REALLY going to do things exactly as described is senseless. At some point, time will come to an end. Each of us is not guaranteed our next breath. We are facing a question that will decide our destiny for eternity: Will we follow the One True Living God, or will we go our own way, heedless of the fact that our time on this earth is dwindling?
PRAYER: Father God, thank you that you are loving, that you are all – powerful, and that you have loved us so much that you have made a way for us to be with you forever in heaven. Help each person who reads this devotional to carefully weigh their lives and to give their entire devotion to you. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.
Revelation 6 Commentary – William Barclay’s Daily Study Bible
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dsb/revelation-6.html 6/6
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