And I saw, when he opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black like sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, like a fig tree drops its unripe figs having been shaken by a mighty wind, and the sky was split open like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, the great ones, the captains of thousands, the rich and the strong, and every slave and free person hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains. Rev. 6:12-15. 

            The sixth seal portrays the end of the cosmos as the ancients understood it. The seals begin with the four horsemen, who depict the kind of judgments that repeat themselves again and again in the course of history (Rev. 6:1-8). The passage above, however, includes the absolute dissolution of the heavens (verses 12-14) followed by the world’s recognition of that event and its condemnation by the wrath of the Creator (verses 15-17). This seems to express the end of history as we know it.

            The ancients used to sum up the totality of humanity in contrasting opposites, such as “rich and poor,” “slave and free,” “male and female.” In our text John lists representatives of the entire social order. Absolutely no one, from Caesar on down, will escape final judgment.

            How we relate to a passage like this depends on the culture in which we were raised. The Shona of South Africa, for example, traditionally believed that earthquakes resulted from God walking around on the earth. Other tribes attribute earthquakes to the work of special deities. To them a passage like this expresses God’s full control over everything that happens on earth.

            God’s ultimate power over earthquakes has proved comforting to Christians living near the San Andreas fault in California. “God just clapped His hands,” announced one witness of the Bay Area earthquake of 1989, an earthquake that claimed more than 60 lives and billions of dollars in property damage. Because John’s audience in Asia Minor knew and feared earthquakes (the Roman province of Asia was in the middle of an active seismic area), a passage like this would prove unnerving rather than comforting.

            The overall impact of today’s text is to terrify anyone who has too much confidence in the material things of this world. We have no security, no firm ground to stand on, nothing in the universe to depend on except God Himself. The creation, and everything in it, will one day collapse. If our confidence rests only on that which we can hear, see, and touch, our lives are tenuous indeed.[1] 

            Lord, teach me the uncertainty of money, land, education, and everything else I am tempted to trust in. I place my confidence today in You--and in You alone.

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