by Tad Lindley
You know how there are seven seals in Revelation? And just to clear up any confusion about the word “seal”, the seven seals are not nayiq, maklak, issuriq, aataak, qasrulek, apakcuk, and nemercuk. At the time that the New Testament was being written, they did not have postal envelopes like we do today. In fact, in many places people were still using thin animal skins to write on. When someone wrote a message to be sent to someone, privacy and authenticity were preserved by rolling up the scroll and sealing it with hot wax. Wealthy people would stamp their symbol into the cooling wax in the same way that we would sign a written letter.
A green horse in the mail?
So in Revelation 6, when the Bible talks about opening up seals, the prophet was not seeing bearded seals or harbor seals being butchered, he was seeing the prophetic writing of God being opened and read, much like we open an envelope and read the contents. The first four seals are often referred to as the “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. The first seal when opened reveals a rider on a white horse (6:1-2). The second seal is a rider on a red horse (6:3-4). The third seal when opened reveals a rider on a black horse (6:5-6). Finally the fourth seal reveals a rider on a green horse (many English versions incorrectly translate the Greek word chloros as “pale”, but chloros means green, as in the word chlorophyll).
The rider on the black horse
Let’s dial in on the rider on the black horse. 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. 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 6:5-6 KJV) You might be thinking to yourself, “Wow, only a penny for a quart of wheat flour!” The English word “penny” comes from the Greek word denarion which is better translated as, “a day’s pay.” The CEV captures the meaning very well: I heard what sounded like a voice from somewhere among the four living creatures. It said, “A liter of wheat [about enough to make a loaf of homemade bread] will cost you a whole day’s wages! Three liters of barley will cost you a day’s wages too. But don’t ruin the olive oil or the wine.”
A time of scarcity will come
Most people in our region make between $100 and $500 a day. Now imagine that you go to the store after work and a loaf of bread costs you at least $100. You might say, “Bro. Lindley, that’s impossible.” Not only is it possible, it is going to happen. The Bible declares it.
It won’t affect me, because I hunt for food
Most of us in rural Alaska have been confident in this. I’ve always believed this, until this fall when Swanson’s ammo shelves were empty, and even Anchorage was sold out of shotgun shells. Currently gasoline costs roughly the same as a loaf of bread. Think about that. That’s five gallons of gas per week if you have a job and you don’t spend your money on anything else. Can you run your fishcamp on 5 gallons of gas per week? Can you log on five gallons of gas a week? Can you keep a snow machine running if parts suddenly cost twenty times more?
Has the third seal just been opened?
In June of 2020, more US dollars were printed than in the entire first 200 years of the United States. In the first year of coronavirus, more than 40% of US dollars that have ever existed were printed out of thin air. When you see the prices of houses, lumber, and groceries dramatically rising, this is a direct effect of out of control money printing. The more dollars there are in circulation, the less each dollar is worth. Then on top of this the world is experiencing massive supply chain issues. This means that scarcity is coming in many areas. When you see the extreme devaluation of money coupled with scarcity of goods, costs will skyrocket. If it becomes global, then the third seal will pass from the realm of prophecy into the realm of human history, and there will be no denying that the events in the book of the Revelation are unfolding all around us.
Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
