Immediately after Jesus opens the second seal on the seven-sealed scroll a second cherubim shows John a vision of a fiery red horse. “When He opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, ‘Come and see’. And another horse, fiery red, went out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword.” (Revelation 6:3-4). As I’ve already stated, these horsemen are four spirits that God is going to use in the final seven years of this age to create turmoil and devastation on the earth in order to test mankind. This second rider is given a “great sword” to take peace from the earth. He does this by pitting people against one another to the point where they are warring and murdering; warring on the national level, and murderous on a personal level. He is given a “great” sword to accomplish his task. As used here in Greek, the word great is megas, or an extremely powerful weapon. Evidently, he will be very successful at turning mankind against each other. Jesus Himself spoke of this time when He said, “because lawlessness will abound, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). “Now brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death and you will be hated for My names sake. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” (Mark 13:12-13).
The color red is defined as the color of flame or fire and the Greek word used, purrhos, is only used one other time in the New Testament describing the “red” dragon of Revelation 12. It’s associated with bloodshed, terror, and death. This second horseman will be influencing the minds of world leaders as well as the general population across the globe to promote discord of all types rather than peaceful pursuits surely assisting the red dragon (Satan). Just as Jesus taught, the thief (Satan) comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
You may be thinking, aren’t we seeing these things taking place in our world right now with wars of all kinds, social and political divisions, mass murders, etc. taking place with great frequency? Yes, but to be blunt, we ain’t seen nothing yet! When this horseman is released, “men’s hearts will be failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” (Luke 21:26)
Saints, we must be prepared for coming times of great turmoil. In all these things we are overcomers. Cloth yourselves with Christ and His armor, and you’ll have no problem “enduring to the end”.
My next post will concern the third horseman, the one riding a black horse.
Maranatha, Jim
Genesis 6:11-13 clearly states that violence corrupted the earth and was the ‘last straw’ leading to the Noahic flood. Jesus’ prophecy of Mt. 24:37-39 seems almost contradictory to “men fainting from fear”. However, today folks have got so used to violence, even though they may decry it, life goes on as before. But as you said, we really haven’t seen the violence on the scale that is yet to come. See Jeremiah 12:5.