Where is technology leading? The Globe and Mail,Toronto, Canada, January 22, 1987, reported the following from a speech by Ivan L. Head, president of the International Development Research Centre:
“It is reliably estimated that one out of every four scientists and technologists in the world engaged in research and development is working on weapons. . . . At 1986 rates, the
expenditure is more than $1.5-million a minute.
. . . Are we all more secure as a result of this kind of technological emphasis? The nuclear arsenals possessed by the superpowers contain the explosive force of all the munitions expended by all the combatants in all of the Second World War—times 6,000. Six thousand Second World Wars. Since 1945, there have been less than seven weeks when the world has been free of military activity. There have been more than 150 wars of an international or a civil nature, which are estimated to have claimed 19.3 million lives, most of them as the result of the efficient new technologies that have emerged in this era of the United Nations.”
By the year 2005, military activity had claimed well over 20 million lives.
gallop of the fiery-colored mount. Let us be confident that Christ the King will ride, both to complete his conquest over the world controlled by Satan and to establish a new earthly society based on love—love of God and neighbor—a force for peace far, far su-perior to the shaky nuclear deterrents of our maddened times.—Psalm 37:9-11; Mark 12:
29-31; Revelation 21:1-5.
A Black Horse Plunges Forth
20Jesus now opens the third seal! John, what do you observe? “And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say:
‘Come!’ ” (Revelation 6:5a) Happily, this third cherub “has a face like a man’s,” depict-ing the quality of love. Principled love will abound in God’s new world, even as that fine quality permeates all of Jehovah’s orga-nization today. (Revelation 4:7; 1 John 4:16) We can be sure that the Rider of the white horse, who “must rule as king until God has put all enemies under his feet,” will loving-ly remove the calamitous situation that is next brought to John’s scrutiny.—1 Corin-thians 15:25.
21What does John see, then, as the third summons to “Come!” is answered? “And I saw, and, look! a black horse; and the one seated upon it had a pair of scales in his hand.” (Reve-lation 6:5b) Stark famine! That is the dire message of this prophetic scene. It points forward to situations early in the Lord’s day when food must be rationed out by scales. Since 1914 famine has been a contin-uing worldwide problem. Modern warfare brings famine in its wake, for resources normally used in feeding the hungry are often diverted to supplying war weapons.
Farm workers are conscripted, and battle-scarred fields and scorched-earth policies
20. What assurance do we have that the Rider of the white horse will cope with any calamitous situation?
21. (a) What is pictured by the black horse and its rider? (b) What proves that the black horse is still on the rampage?
curtail food production. How true this was during the first world war, when millions suffered from hunger and died! Moreover, the rider of the black horse of hunger did not relent with the end of the war. During the 1930’s, five million perished in just one famine in the Ukraine. The second world war brought in its wake more food short-ages and famines. As the black horse con-tinued its gallop, The World Food Council reported in mid-1987 that 512 million hu-mans were starving and that 40,000 chil-dren die of hunger-related causes every day.
22John has more to tell us: “And I heard a voice as if in the midst of the four living creatures say: ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the olive oil and the wine.’ ”(Revelation 6:6) All four
22. (a) What does a voice say, expressing what need? (b) What is implied by the cost of a quart of wheat and of three quarts of barley?
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cherubs are united in expressing a need to watch food supplies carefully—just as the people had to “eat bread by weight and in anxious care” prior to Jerusalem’s destruc-tion in 607 B.C.E. (Ezekiel 4:16) In John’s time, a quart of wheat was reckoned to be the daily ration for a soldier. How much would such a ration cost? One denarius—a whole day’s wage! (Matthew 20:2)1 What if a man had a family? Well, he could buy three quarts of unpolished barley instead.
Even that would feed only a small family.
And barley was not viewed as a quality food such as wheat.
23What is implied by the statement, “Do not harm the olive oil and the wine”? Some have viewed it as meaning that while many would be short of food and even starv-ing, the luxuries of the rich would not be harmed. But in the Middle East, oil and wine are not really luxuries. In Bible times, bread, oil, and wine were viewed as staples. (Com-pare Genesis 14:18; Psalm 104:14, 15.) Water was not always good, so wine was widely used for drinking and sometimes for medic-inal purposes. (1 Timothy 5:23) With regard to oil, in Elijah’s day the widow of Zare-phath, poor as she was, still had some oil left with which to cook her remaining flour.
(1 Kings 17:12) Therefore, the command “do not harm the olive oil and the wine” appears to be advice not to use up these basic com-modities too quickly but to be sparing in their use. Otherwise, they will be ‘harmed,’
that is, they will run out before the famine ends.
24How happy we can be that the Rider of the white horse will soon rein in that gal-loping black horse! For it is written concern-ing His lovconcern-ing provision for the new world:
1 See New World Translation Reference Bible, footnote.
23. What is implied by the statement, “Do not harm the olive oil and the wine”?
24. Why will the black horse not continue its gallop for much longer?
“In his days the righteous one will sprout, and the abundance of peace until the moon is no more. . . . There will come to be plen-ty of grain on the earth; on the top of the mountains there will be an overflow.”
—Psalm 72:7, 16; see also Isaiah 25:6-8.
The Pale Horse and Its Rider
25The story is not yet completely told. Je-sus opens the fourth seal, and John tells us the result: “And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say:
‘Come!’ ” (Revelation 6:7) This is the voice of the cherub that resembles a flying eagle.
Farsighted wisdom is indicated, and truly John, the John class, and all other earthly servants of God have needed to observe and act with insight in view of what is here de-picted. So doing, we may find a measure of protection from the scourges that plague the worldly-wise of today’s proud, immoral generation.—1 Corinthians 1:20, 21.
26What new horrors are unleashed, then, as the fourth horseman responds to the call?
John tells us:“And I saw, and, look! a pale horse;
and the one seated upon it had the name Death.
And Hades was closely following him.” (Revela-tion 6:8a) The rider of the last horse has a name: Death. He is the only one of the four horsemen of Apocalypse to reveal his identity so directly. Fittingly, Death rides a horse that is pale, since the word pale (Greek, khlo·ros) is used in Greek literature to describe faces that are blanched, as if by disease. Also fittingly, Death is closely fol-lowed in some unexplained manner by Ha-des (gravedom), since HaHa-des receives to it-self the greater number of those who fall victim to the ravages of the fourth horse-man. Happily, for these there will be a res-urrection, when ‘death and Hades give up
25. When Jesus opens the fourth seal, whose voice does John hear, and what does this indicate?
26. (a) Who is the fourth horseman, and why is the color of his horse fitting? (b) Who is following the fourth horseman, and what happens to his victims?
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those dead in them.’ (Revelation 20:13) But how does Death claim those victims?
27The vision enumerates some of the ways: “And authority was given them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with a long sword and with food shortage and with deadly plague and by the wild beasts of the earth.” (Revela-tion 6:8b) Not necessarily a literal fourth of earth’s population but a large portion of the earth, whether densely or sparsely inhabit-ed, would be affected by this ride. This horseman reaps the victims of the big sword of the second horseman and the famines and food shortages of the third. He reaps his own harvest, too, from deadly plague and also a harvest from earthquakes, as de-scribed at Luke 21:10, 11.
28Of current importance here is “deadly plague.” Following in the wake of the rav-ages of World War I, the Spanish flu reaped over 20 million human lives in just a few months of 1918-19. The only territory on earth to escape this scourge was the small is-land of St. Helena. In places where the pop-ulation was decimated, funeral pyres were lit to burn the piles of bodies. And today there is the frightful incidence of heart disease and cancer, much of which is caused by to-bacco pollution. In what was described as
“the ugly decade” of the 1980’s, a way of life that is lawless by Bible standards added the scourge of AIDS to the “deadly plague.”
In the year 2000, the U.S. surgeon gener-al was reported as cgener-alling AIDS “probably the worst health epidemic the world has ever known.” He said that 52 million peo-ple around the world had contracted HIV/
AIDS, and of them 20 million had died. How thankful Jehovah’s people are that the wise 27. (a) How does the rider Death claim his victims?
(b) What is meant by “the fourth part of the earth”
over which Death has authority?
28. (a) How has there been a fulfillment of proph-ecy concerning “deadly plague”? (b) How have Je-hovah’s people been protected from many diseases today?
counsel of his Word keeps them away from fornication and misuse of blood, through which so many diseases are transmitted to-day!—Acts 15:28, 29; compare 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
29John’s vision mentions wild beasts as a fourth cause of untimely death. Indeed, the four things featured by the opening of the fourth seal—warfare, famine, disease, and wild beasts—were in ancient times viewed as predominant causes of untimely death.
So they would foreshadow all causes of untimely death today. It is just as Jeho-vah warned Israel: “So, too, it will be when 29, 30. (a) What application would the “four inju-rious acts” of Ezekiel 14:21 have today? (b) What may we understand by “the wild beasts” of Revela-tion 6:8? (c) What appears to be the main point of the prophetic scene?
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there will be my four injurious acts of judg-ment—sword and famine and injurious wild beast and pestilence—that I shall actually send upon Jerusalem in order to cut off from it earthling man and domestic animal.”
—Ezekiel 14:21.
30Death by wild beasts has seldom made headlines in modern times, though in trop-ical countries wild animals have steadily claimed victims. In the future, they may claim even more if lands become desolat-ed because of warfare or people become too emaciated by famine to fight off hun-gry animals. Additionally, there are many humans today who, like unreasoning ani-mals, display beastly dispositions quite con-trary to those described at Isaiah 11:6-9.
These people are largely responsible for the global expansion of sex-related crimes, mur-der, terrorism, and bombings in the modern world. (Compare Ezekiel 21:31; Romans 1:
28-31; 2 Peter 2:12.) The fourth horseman reaps their victims too. Indeed, the main point of this prophetic scene appears to be that the rider of the pale horse harvests un-timely death of mankind in many ways.
31The information revealed by the open-ing of the first four seals reassures us be-cause it teaches us not to despair at the war-fare, hunger, disease, and other causes of untimely death that are so rampant today;
31. Despite the ravages caused by the riders of the red, black, and pale horses, why may we be encour-aged?
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