2021/11/29

15. The Fifth and Sixth Seals

"When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne" (Rev. 6:9). The "witness they had borne" in this verse has its ground in the following description after the last supper of Jesus: "Peter said to him, 'Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you.' And so said all the disciple" (Mat. 26:35). The Apostles accomplished the witnesses they could never have borne themselves by the descent of the Holy Spirit. The author saw them "under the altar" because they were ready to serve as soon as the following words of Jesus are fulfilled: "that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 22:30). The fifth seal signifies the Acts of the Apostles that describes the ministry, imprisonment and martyrdom of the Apostles. The description of when the Lamb broke the sixth seal implies Paul's conversion and the great shock it caused the people (Rev. 6:12-17). The expression, "the day of wrath," in the phrase: "for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?" (Rev. 6:17), can be found, in the New Testament, only in this phrase and in the following verse of the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans: "But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed" (Rom. 2:5). And when we read Paul's teaching in this verse, we can see that it is the ground for the above content of Revelation. The sixth seal signifies Paul's letters. The following chapter, Rev. 7, refers to the results of the great work of Paul's letters. The description in this chapter: "a great multitude which no man could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands" (Rev. 7:9), corresponds to the command of the Lord to Ananias in Acts: "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel" (Acts 9:15).

Maria K.M.