A. The First Six Seals (6:1-17)

By opening the sealed scroll, the Lamb unleashes judgment upon the church’s antagonists. Judgment continues in the parallel visions of seven trumpets (8:6-11:19) and seven bowls (16:1-21).

A literary pattern exists in the first six seals. The phrase, “As the Lamb/he opened the seal,” appears in 6:1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12. In the first four seals one of the four living creatures commands, Come, calling forth colored horses representing conquest, war, famine, and death. These first four judgments, probably based on Zec 1:8; 6:1-8, depict the traumas of an empire built on conquest.

The fifth seal breaks the sequence and departs from the pattern of the first four. A martyrs' lament asking, How long, Sovereign Lord? (6:10) foreshadows 7:9-17 and reminds us of the persecution experienced by the faithful church at the hands of the pagan conqueror (2:13 and 6:2).

The sixth seal brings judgment on seven classes of people who refuse to repent (6:15).