When Jesus opens the third seal of the seven-sealed scroll, the third cherubim told the apostle John: “Come and see. So, I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, ‘A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:5-6).
The color black is often used to describe want as in famine or drought. (Jeremiah 14:1-2, Lamentations 5:10). This is born out in the vision given to John. The rider of this black horse is seen holding a pair of scales in his hands meant to apportion out goods by weight. This rider is given instruction coming from the “midst” of the cherubim, which implies that his orders were from the very throne of God. (Revelation 4:6). He is literally sent out by God to promote scarcity in the earth.
The currency used here is a “denarius”, a coin that during the time of John’s writing this was roughly a day’s wage. (Matthew 20:2). A “quart” of wheat was about the minimum quantity of food for one man to survive, not sufficient for a family. A denarius would buy 3 times as much barley, but that was a coarser, less nutritious form of grain barely enough for a man and his wife to subsist on let alone a family. Of course, this does not consider money needed for other necessities of life. Interestingly, God tells the rider not to harm oil and wine, luxuries that will then be beyond the reach of the average worker. Evidently, the rich will continue to afford themselves delicacies a little while longer while the average world citizen will find himself in a struggle for mere existence. To put this in perspective, if today’s average daily wage is 100 dollars, a loaf of bread will cost 100 dollars, 25 times what it costs currently here in the US! That’s 2500% inflation!
That scarcity and famine is coming should not be a surprise to Christians. Jesus stated this clearly as a characteristic of the last days: “…there will be famines…” (Matthew 24:7). Famines, at least partially caused by world-wide currency devaluations will provide the perfect opportunity for the antichrist to impose his economic system on the world. These currency crashes will probably play a central role in the demise of the reign of Mystery Babylon at the hand of the antichrist and his allies. It’s certainly easy to see how this could materialize in our near future when one looks at the huge indebtedness of our world’s monetary systems. Much of the entire world seems on the verge of run-away currency collapse.
This rider on the black horse is a spirit being sent by God Himself to facilitate famine on the earth by manipulating the minds of the worlds political and business leaders to do His bidding. Like the other 3 horsemen, he is a part of God’s judgment of the earth. The release of this third horseman is more confirmation of the difficult times coming during Daniel’s seventieth week. God’s judgment is certain and coming soon. Are you prepared?
My next post will deal with the fourth horseman, the rider on the pale horse.
Maranatha, Jim