The Rider on the Pale Horse

 

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8).

 

The fourth horseman is too familiar to us. This picture represents suffering and death. While the Pandemic of 2020 and the introduction of COVID-19 has subsided somewhat, we cannot forget that the global death toll rose to over 2 million. No one can deny the images we experienced during that time. As we come to the fourth horseman we see the coming of another pandemic. It will bring death on a scale we have never see or experienced in history.

 

Death is always a terrible intruder, regardless of its coming to claim people in large numbers or in the sudden death of a person we love.The Holy Spirit has given us powerful pictures to embrace for a time such as this. We have the good news of Christ’s coming and of his rising on Easter Sunday morning, announcing death’s defeat. We also have comforting pictures of Jesus grieving with those who mourn. Jesus wept with Mary and Martha over their brother Lazarus’s death (cf. John 11:33-35). Jesus weeps with us too when this rider on the pale horse comes.

 

Jesus also knows this horseman as his “last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Corinthians 15:26). And God’s great story closes with John announcing, “Then I saw ‘a new heaven and a new earth,’” in which God will “wipe every tear from [our] eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:1-4). Hallelujah!