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3. The Third Seal: A Rider on a Black Horse (Revelation 6:5-6)
REVELATION 6:5-6
5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come and see!” And behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand. 6 I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenix of barley for a denarius! Don’t damage the oil and the wine!”
The Lamb of God has got the whole world in his hand. He commands the blessings and calls for judgments. As in spite of the disastrous world wars the nations including Israel did not repent but only individual people, the Lord had to shake the existence of mankind further so that they may understand that they are dependent on the love of the Lamb. We live on his grace! He did not only reconcile us to God, but he commands also wind and rain, summer and winter, war and peace. Without him we cannot exist.
Famine and Wealth: The third rider galloped on a gleaming black horse in the arena of the world. He has scales with him as a sign of food scarcity, rise in prices, and famine. While rich people could keep on buying wine and oil, the earning of day-labourers was hardly sufficient to buy the daily food for themselves or for their beasts of burden. Everything was getting expensive. Money became short. Perhaps it has not rained for a long time, or the Nile River had no high-water and brought therefore no deposits of silt. Flows of refugees might have come into the country because of bloody wars, or locusts may have eaten up the crops; so staple foods became short and mankind was in great need.
Endless Streams of Refugees: In the last century due to wars, overthrows and revolutions a silent emigration of nations has been initiated. From India to Pakistan and vice versa sixteen million people fled; from former eastern parts of Germany to West Germany 12 million; in Africa and in the Middle East refugee camps sprang up like mushrooms. Only a few who are better off were able to develop a new existence. Out of Cambodia and Vietnam everybody fled who could manage it. The horror at an attempted genocide or the re-education of tribes by officers made individual or whole clans flee over the mountains or across the sea. To Israel two million Jews fled so as to escape from the gas chambers of Hitler. A similar number of Arabs fled to Arabic neighbouring countries. In the last century more than 100 million refugees meandered from country to country. In the Gulags of Stalin starved to death hundreds of thousands.
From Balkan or Turkey, from Iran or Azerbaijan, from Rwanda or Sudan, from Liberia or Sierra Leone, there are hundreds of thousands uprooted people not owning any land, without a job, without relatives and without the possibility of communication in their mother tongue. Aid programs of the United Nations are limited. Many people stare into the future without any hope and full of fear. Everybody waits for the rider on the white horse whether he brings them food and peace.
Poor Nations – Rich Nations: Nowadays there are rich and poor nations as well. In 36 countries the per capita gross national product per year is less than US $ 365! Among these countries which live below the poverty level are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Kenya, Nigeria and Sudan.
On an even lower level there are Ethiopia, Malawi, Burundi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Chad, Tanzania und Mauritanian. The per capita gross national product per year in these poorest countries is less than US $180 which means that a person in such countries lives on less than half a US$ a day! We can hardly imagine the misery, hunger, resignation, and also the hatred of this third of world population. Hunger drains day and night.
At the same time there are 52 rich countries on this earth with a highly developed technology and an average income per capita being ten times more than that of the inhabitants of the poor house of this earth. There electricity, tap water and infrastructure such as bituminized roads go without saying. Additionally, school education and health care is for every child.
Nine out of these 52 rich countries belong to the affluent countries with a per capita gross national product per year of between US $ 16,000 and US $ 20,000 Dollar. They are Israel, Kuwait, Brunei, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, England, Italy, Canada, and Finland. The inhabitants there earn thirty to fifty times more than those in the poor countries which have an income per capita of less than US$ 365.
The group of super rich states starts with a per capita gross national product per year of US$ 25,000. Some of them come up to even US$ 40,000. Among them are Island, Sweden, France, Singapore, Belgium, Austria, Germany, U.S.A., Denmark, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, and Luxembourg. Their income is a hundred times and for some up to two-hundred times more than of those people in poor and poorest countries. They live in affluence - and are still not satisfied.
The problem of economic refugees who push into rich countries will be increasing to such an extent as hunger will increase in developing countries. The pull of this modern migration is becoming heavier and heavier. We should prepare for this development and not wonder about these immigrant flows.
Why are Some Rich and Others Poor? There are hundreds of reasons of the income imbalance between those who are in need and those who have enough, between poor and rich people. Many people in the third world are lacking in industriousness, responsibility and diligence. The climate in the northern hemisphere is cold and forces people to activity. The people in the countries north and south of the equator, however, suffer from significant heat which makes people lethargic and parasites grow. Additionally, the influence of the gospel is distinctive, as it frees people so that they become active and serve and think, while Islam leads people to fatalism and educates them to rigid memorizing.
The rider on a black horse has the scales not only because of the high costs of living, but also as a signal that he balances exactly whether the rich nations change their thinking and learn to make sacrifices and offer the poor nations help for self-help. Yet the trade unions in the industrial nations jack up wages more and more instead of proposing deductions for developing countries. This leads to an increasing automation of factories, as high wages and non-wage labour costs cannot be paid any longer. The increasing unemployment especially in industrial nations combined with their depressions is eventually the result of an anti-Christian doctrine which holds up the dream of a workers' paradise that is not promised to us in the Bible.
Without obedience to the gospel there will be no rethinking, no abdication and no change of culture. James makes us take note of the following: "To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin" (James 4:17).
The rider on the white horse and the rider on the black horse are galloping across the countries of this earth and push the masses of people to each other.
It is a scandal that according to UNICEF in developing countries 250 million children are engaged in child labour, some 126 million of them are believed to be engaged in hazardous situations or conditions such as working in mines etc., and two million underage persons are forced to prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation. Sex tourism is booming. At the same time billions of US$ are invested in military expenditure. The price of one tank would be sufficient for school education of 1000 children in poor countries, and the price of one strike aircraft would be sufficient for the construction of more than 100 hospitals and school buildings in Third World countries.
Yet the majority of rich and the masses of poor people do not want to get inspired by the spirit of the Lamb. Therefore they fall prey to the riders on the white, fiery red or black horse. More than ever the world needs the gospel, obedience of faith and the realisation of the love of the Lamb in all areas of live. If this does not happen, then hunger, hatred and desperation will increase, rage and roar like a wild sea, and flood the affluent society like a tsunami*.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Your merciful Son taught us to pray, "Give us each day our daily bread". Little are those who ask for food and clothing and many are those who covet money and authority paying no attention to the poor. Give us merciful hearts to prudently help the needy and link the individuals to the Merciful Provider.
QUESTION:
- What does the rider of the black horse cause?