A Cry Under the Altar

6:9-10Souls beneath the altar

When the fifth seal breaks, no horse appears. John looks "underneath the altar" and sees "the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony of the Lamb" (WEB). Their offence is the same as John's own in 1:9: they held on to God's word and Jesus's testimony.

Why beneath an altar? The picture comes from Israel's sacrifices, where the blood of the animal was poured out at the base of the altar (Leviticus 4:7), because "the life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11). Many scholars think John shows these martyrs as offerings poured out to God, language Paul used of his own life (Philippians 2:17). Whatever the world thinks, their deaths were not waste. They are in the safest place in the universe, under God's own altar.

Then they cry, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" This is among the oldest prayers in the Bible. Abel's blood "cries to me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10), and the Psalms keep asking, "How long, Yahweh?" (Psalm 13:1). Notice whom they ask. They do not take revenge in their own hands. They bring the case to the One who is "holy and true," which is exactly what Paul urges: "Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19).

6:11A robe and a little while

God's answer has three parts, and each one is tender. First, "A long white robe was given to each of them." Each one. Not one martyr is lost in a crowd. White in Revelation is the colour of victory and purity, and tomorrow we will see how these robes became white.

Second, they are told to "rest yet for a while." The Greek verb is the same one Jesus uses when he says he will give rest to the weary (Matthew 11:28). Their suffering is over. They are not asleep and forgotten, but held. Many Christians see in this scene the comfort that believers who die are with God and at peace while they wait for the final resurrection.

Third, they must wait until their fellow servants, who are also going to be killed, "should complete their course." That is the hard part. The answer to 'How long?' is neither 'never' nor 'right now.' It is 'not yet,' and the delay is not random, because God knows the number. Nobody's death catches him off guard. The same patience that makes the martyrs wait is the patience that keeps the door of mercy open (2 Peter 3:9).

There is no hint of rebuke. Asking God how long is treated as a faithful prayer, and the reply is a robe, not a lecture.

6:12-14The sky comes undone

At the sixth seal the whole stage shakes. There is "a great earthquake." The sun becomes "black as sackcloth made of hair," the rough dark cloth of mourning, and the moon goes red. The stars fall "like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind." The sky is "removed like a scroll when it is rolled up," and mountains and islands are moved from their places.

John's first readers would have heard the Old Testament in every line. Joel said, "The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood" (Joel 2:31), and Isaiah said, "The sky will be rolled up like a scroll" (Isaiah 34:4). Isaiah 13:10 uses a darkened sun and moon for the fall of ancient Babylon, which means this kind of language could describe a judgment inside history as well as the last one.

That is why Christians read the scene in different ways. Some take it as a literal picture of events just before Christ returns. Some take it as the prophets' familiar poetry for God's judgment, repeated through history and reaching its height at the end. Others think the sixth seal already pictures the final day, and that the trumpets and bowls then retell the same period from new angles. These are real differences, and we can hold them gently.

What every view shares is this: the sun, the mountains, and the solid ground are not the final authority. The One who made them can shake them.

6:15-17Hiding from the Lamb

Now watch who runs. John lists seven groups: "the kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person." Seven is complete here, so the list covers the whole social ladder, from the emperor's court to the rowing bench. No rank offers cover.

They hide "in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains," just as Isaiah described: men go "into the caves of the rocks" "from before the terror of Yahweh" (Isaiah 2:19). Hosea has people tell the mountains, "Cover us!" and the hills, "Fall on us!" (Hosea 10:8), and Jesus himself quoted that cry on his way to the cross (Luke 23:30).

Notice what they do not do. They do not pray to God. They speak to rocks. They want to be hidden "from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb."

That last phrase is startling. A lamb is the gentlest of creatures, yet here he is more dreadful than an earthquake. Many see in this the truth that the One who suffered is also the One who judges, and that rejecting a love that bled is the most serious thing a person can do. The cry ends with a question that echoes Malachi 3:2 and Nahum 1:6: "who is able to stand?" Chapter 6 stops on that question, unanswered. Tomorrow we will hear the answer.