Pale

DEVOTION

THE REVELATION

PALE

Rev 6:7-8

7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

NIV

Having visited many a viewing or wake and stood before the casket it is obvious the rider on the pale horse is death. The grave accepts those who are pale due to death. This pale is the exact opposite of being flush with life, the blood coursing through our veins. So as the Lamb opened the forth seal and the fourth living beast called John to come and see what was now available to view, he saw this rider called death upon the pale horse. Hades is in fact the grave who accepts all the rider causes to experience this death. But we should also remember that Hades is thrown into the lake of burning sulfur which we will see much later in this revelation that was given to John and thus to us. So this fourth of the earth which the rider death was given power over will be among those who will experience the second death as well. This would certainly imply those are the people who have refused to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This may mean this is not a geographic fourth of the world, but rather a fourth of the world population. Could it be simply by chance or a coincidence that the Muslin population is now at twenty-three percent of the world’s population and is growing and will soon be one fourth of the world’s population? Of course we cannot judge that nor should we, but it is certainly interesting as they certainly refuse to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But this could also be on a more personal level for each person in the world, which includes the many in America who do not believe. When the pale rider comes to those people they will be at once pale in death and not enter into the presence of the Lord, but rather into the grave of Hades, the place of departed souls. This should serve us well to be thankful the Holy Spirit was able to convict us of our sin and that we repented and accepted Jesus into our lives. For we know without a shadow of doubt that when we are finished with this body, and we lay it down, we leave to enter into the presence of God. We are told to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. There is one other truth here that has not yet been dealt with. This fourth of the population will die because of either war, famine or a plague such as the Egyptians experienced. But the other thing about wild beasts, should bring us another reason to pause. Some would say that mankind is destroying the environment of the wild animals pushing them to survive on reserves set aside for them. Some would say we are making certain species become extinct, that mankind is at fault. Yet here we see that many of mankind will fall prey to the wild breasts who are used by the rider on the pale horse with Hades following after to take those departed souls. We also need to know that all this power was given to him by God. He has everything under control and we who love him have nothing to fear from him whatsoever. We will never be pale.