The Four Horsemen

There are four famous horsemen in the sixth chapter of Revelation. Actually, it’s more like three (War, Famine, and Disease) who work together to bring about the fourth: Death. Death is the great and last enemy of mankind who operates primarily through these symbolic “horsemen.”

Now, if you’re paying attention to the news, you might recognize that these three forces are coming into view with increasing intensity lately, the most recent being the horseman of war. With some poetic timing, March appears to be coming in like a lion, as the saying goes. Instead of the weather, we’re talking about the ferocious aggression of war accelerating in the Ukraine. As a result, the ever-scary buzzwords from the past seventy years are coming back to people’s lips with fresh urgency: nuclear war, World War 3, etc, etc.

This is happening on the heels of a pandemic, which is one of the other main horsemen of Revelation. And in the midst of these things is the growing reality of inflation, which is just a modern term for famine (inflationary prices always leads to a scarcity of resources, the worst of which is food).

But let’s back up a little bit. In reading Scripture, context is always vital. Before we start jumping on the doomsday rodeo, it’s very important we give a look at what happens in the chapter that comes right before these galloping giants.

In chapter 5 of the apocalyptic text, the apostle John (the writer of the book) is weeping over the fact that no one is able to overcome the mysterious “seals” covering a scroll. These seals are what unleash the realities of the four horsemen on the earth. And so John weeps greatly, because no one is able to overcome and destroy these forces. No president, no international peace organization, no fundraising initiative . . . nothing at all can do it. Everything seems hopeless in the face of these global problems. At the beginning of Revelation 5, John is not far from the average person looking at the news, bombarded with the onslaught of history’s wars, famines, and plagues.

But then something remarkable happens. John ends up getting rebuked with a blast of fiery hope. Someone else with a higher perspective interrupts his evening broadcast. One of the “elders” standing nearby speaks up and tells John to stop his incessant crying. He tells him to shift his focus upon something else . . . Someone else.

But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”

(Revelation 5:5)

John is told that there is a mighty “lion” who has overcome all these things. For a Jew during the first century, the image of a lion would be immediately associated with the promise of a Messiah. However, the main thinking of the day was that this Messiah would be a mighty warrior-president-priest dude who would bring peace to the world through the force of violently divine power. Think of the concept Pax Romana: the “Roman peace” that came to earth through their violent conquering and subduing of “wicked” heathens.

So John hears this exciting news. He wipes the snot off his face, clears the tears from his eyes, and anxiously looks up to find this Lion-like Warrior King. However, when he looks up, the old apostle receives the shock of his life. Instead of a conquering lion, he beholds a “slain Lamb.”

From this point onward, throughout the entirety of Revelation, the image of a lion never shows up again. The entire book plays out through the power of an innocent “Lamb” who is slain (meaning “sacrificed”). The big surprise is that Jesus’s glorious and sacrificial love is what overcomes the enemies of this world.

Of course, the slain Lamb also reveals the true nature of God’s Lion-heart. The slain Lamb IS the roaring Lion, and it’s a reminder that Jesus’s way of peace will overcome every evil system in this world, no matter how bad things appear.

The Super Bowl

Ok, I’d like now turn the channel from war, to the Lamb, to . . . NBC Sports. I hope you know that God can speak in very out-of-the-box ways. If you’ve followed Elisha’s Riddle at all, you know how we’ve found prophetic messages in major cultural events. This year’s Super Bowl was no exception.

At the beginning of February, the symbol of an adult lamb momentarily took the forefront of the news when the “Rams” won Super Bowl LVI. Interestingly, the team’s quarterback, Matthew Stafford, spent many years playing for the “Lions” before moving to the Rams. Unfortunately, despite his evident skill, Stafford was never able to secure a championship until he made a major move this past year. When he finally made the switch from the Lions to the Rams (again, a mature “Lamb”), the greatest victory of football finally came to him.

So, as the news cycle switches from pestilence (Covid), to famine (inflation), and now to war, there is a message from the start of this year reminding the Powers to Be that the Ram of God has and will overcome. This doesn’t mean these things won’t rear their ugly heads, but the message of Revelation 5 is that these forces do not have the final say as to what happens on earth. Their true power has been lost through Jesus’s blood, and as humanity continues to wake up to this truth, we will see this manifest on earth as it already is heaven.

China and the “Year of the Tiger”

Now, as a quick side-note here, the Rams won against the Bengals, which is another irony because February also marked the beginning of the Chinese New Year: specifically, the “Year of the Tiger.”

It’s no secret that the enemy used the nation of China (a nation filled with amazing people and appointed a wondrous destiny) in order to unleash the horses of pestilence on the earth in 2020. It’s also no secret that in 2021, China engaged in an increasing level of partnership with Russia. In 2022, it’s quite probable that they’re watching how the situation in the Ukraine plays out in order to ascertain their own success in similar military campaigns. (It’s too big to discuss here, but this has to do with long-standing tensions over Taiwan, the number one exporter of the technology needed for all our computers and phones. If tensions increase there, this would drastically shake the world.)

Now, another “hint” of the heavenly message from this past Super Bowl is how the Rams beat the Bengals with 23 points. Ask the average person about the most famous chapter in the Bible and most people will say Psalm 23.  This hit me on a personal level because on the morning of the Super Bowl, I had been preaching on the story of David and Goliath and I mentioned the 23rd Psalm (going on to jokingly explain why I was rooting for the big sheep to win that night). In that story, I also mentioned how David not only fought off giants and lions, but “bears” as well (see 1 Samuel 17). Of course, the bear is one of the clearest symbols for the nation of Russia. And the message here is that this Bear of aggression will also be defeated by the Shepherd who leads his rams in peace.

But stop for a moment. Let’s pause here before we get lost in the weeds of signs, symbols, and sports. I want to make clear that we are not insinuating that Jesus is against Russia and China (or Cleveland…grace to you, Bengals fans). This is not some nationalistic-prophetic cocktail asserting  Jesus is rooting for the U.S. and the West. (Again, these things are beyond the scope of this article, but there are certainly forces in the West that are actually instigating the war with Russia and Ukraine for various reasons.) With that in mind, I would remind the reader of what the Commander of the Lord’s Armies said to Joshua after being asked if He would help him destroy the enemies of Israel.

“Are you for us or our enemies?” Joshua queried.

“Neither,” said the Commander.

I am not for you or your enemies.

Jesus, the true Commander of Heaven’s fleet is for the Kingdom alone; and that Kingdom exists in Russia, Ukraine, China, the U.S., and countless other places. In fact, this Kingdom is growing all the time, usually in very hidden ways that do not make it to your regularly scheduled hysteria. Jesus is alive and well and He is only against the forces of darkness that want to sow discord and fear in the world. Thankfully, Jesus’s plans sometimes get re-iterated in our own stories, even football stories and geopolitics. And the reason for that is that every single person, whether they are a quarterback or an autocrat, is sustained by the Spirit of Life. His Spirit is whispering truth to us all the time.

But to get back to the main point, Jesus’s truth is not something you need to discover through some deep spiritual analysis. The bigger truth has already been proclaimed at the end of Scripture, right in Revelation 5…

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

(Revelation 5:9-10)

Those “seals” that the slain Lamb broke all have to do with the four horsemen of pandemics, inflation, war, and death. Jesus broke the power of these things when He died at Calvary and subsequently rose from the dead. Now, He is raising up a “kingdom of priests” who will reign upon the earth through the same love shown on Calvary. Not peace through brute power, but peace through other-giving, Gospel-proclaiming love.

T H I S  is the biggest thing on God’s agenda, and it’s what the livestreams in heaven are focused on. Whenever we see the forces of evil coalescing together, it is only a distraction trying to hide our eyes from a victory that is already accomplished; a victory growing in the hearts of humanity, one new believer at a time…

A Final Note: Encanto!

God is fun! Just as He can speak through big sports events, He can also communicate through movies.

At the end of 2021, a new Disney movie came out called Encanto. There is a scene in the beginning and end where four horsemen come and bring death to someone in a river (a symbol of baptism). That person’s death is a sacrifice that opens up the way to new life, new gifts, and a whole new world. Through this death, the four horsemen are blown away and overcome. Though it’s likely no one on the Disney staff knew what they were creating in that scene, the message of the slain Lamb bursted through their God-imaged minds nonetheless.

You can watch this scene below. It is set over a song with Spanish lyrics. The song is about two caterpillars becoming butterflies. It’s a song of transformation. It speaks to how the earth is in a cocoon right now. In the shaking of war, famine, and disease, a chrysalis is breaking. Jesus is metamorphosing the earth. A new creation is going to dawn in the midst of this. And as Jesus told the Lady Julian of Norwich in the midst of a pandemic, famine, and war nearly 700 years ago, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

Note: This scene is from the end of the movie. It makes more sense and will have more of an impact if you watch the entire film first…