The Four Horsemen

I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” I looked, and there before me was a white horse! (Rev. 6:1, 2)

The next several verses mention a red horse, a black horse and a pale horse, along with their riders who have come to be known as The Four Horsemen. Over the years they have come to represent death and destruction. For John’s audience the four horsemen “portray the judgment of God on human arrogance and rebellion as manifest in the persecuting Roman power.”  (Eugene Boring, Revelation, in the Interpretation Series).

These graphic powerful images continue to serve as reminders of how God feels about arrogant misuse of power. In modern day, one might re-interpret the horsemen into these mediums: Facebook, Twitter, social media and cell phone cameras – all of which played a role in the toppling of autocratic dictators in recent months.