Revelation 6 (The Four Horsemen) “Call it Friendo”___Anton Chigurh In the rather intense and dark movie No Country for Old Men Javier Bardem portrays a ruthless hit man known as Anton Chigurh. As his character develops in the story he becomes more mysterious and ominous. It is as if he represents the senselessness and a random nature of the violence of our day. Other characters in the movie such as Sherriff Ed Tom Bell are left with no explanation as to why things have become so bad and he reminisces about the good old days when some lawmen didn’t even have to carry a gun. Late in the story Bell is visiting with an old retired lawman named Ellis who tells him: “Whatcha got aint nothin new. This countrys hard on people, you cant stop whats coming…” Violence, war, economic hardship, and death all ominously loom on the horizon threatening our sense of peace and wellbeing. This is no new experience peculiar to our own culture and times. Every civilization since the fall of man has been threatened by these same realties. Professor Craig Koester of Luther Seminary maintains that the Four Horsemen, which are the first four of the seven seals opened in Revelation 6, represent these very things. The first horsemen holds a bow and is a conqueror. It is not a stretch for the person living in the 1st century Roman Empire to associate this with foreign enemies. Koester points out that the Parthians were well known as able archers from horseback and were a foreign enemy of Rome. The second horseman wields a sword and takes “peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another.” Thus he represents the violence that citizens of civil realms inflict on one another. The third horseman carries scales representing trade and economic woes. The forth horsemen is called “Death”. Not much elaboration needed there. All of these seem to be driven by an impersonal force that is ever at our doorstep. But wait! Who was given the authority to open these seals to be poured out on the earth? It is Christ the Lamb. He has authority over all that threatens us and has conquered even death itself. The seals are a two edge sword. On the one hand they remind us that peace cannot be found in the things of this world. Jim Morrison of the Doors did get at least one thing right when he said: “No one gets out of here alive” The horsemen take our security away in one sense, but we are reminded that they are all in the hands of him who loved us and died for us. John in Revelation is essentially telling his readers the same thing Paul told the Romans years earlier: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against Gods elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?..................................... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”_______Romans 8:31-39(ESV)
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 19:45:51 +0000
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