Getting Revelation -Pt 10- The Fifth Seal Broken

Rev 6:9-11 - The Fifth Seal Loosed

Underneath the altar in heaven the souls of them that were killed for the word of God and their testimony are seen. With a loud voice they cry out to the Lord "How long will you wait before judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell in the land?" White robes are given to each of them and they are told to rest yet for a little while longer till their kinsman and fellow servants are killed as they were.

This brief peek at the souls of the martyred and their position before the Lord, Holy and True, is indeed both comforting and revealing. Many things could be said about these verses, but for sake of brevity, here are a few which are particularly pertinent to understanding the overall aim of the book of Revelation:

1. They are under the altar (of incense in the holy place), and are told to rest a little while longer. The souls of the dead in Christ are resting, awaiting a future event in time (but not long into the future - probably just a few more earthly years - and they are told to rest just a little while longer).

2. God was waiting for a full number of the Christians to be martyred before avenging them all and bringing the judgment which the prophets (beginning from Moses and including both john the baptist and Jesus Christ) foretold upon their oppressors, primarily the unbelieving Jews. And that judgment was almost upon them.

3. Them that "dwell on the earth" (as it is in most translations) is probably more accurately them that "dwell in the land" (see the Greek word for earth or land which is 'ge' - Young's literal translation calls it the 'land'). This phrase ('them that dwell in the land') is used at least 10 times in the book of Revelation. It seems a consistent literary mechanism used by John in his vision to poetically refer to the land of Judea - and specifically the city of Jerusalem - the primary object of God's wrath in this book. Furthermore, the dead are waiting for their fellow bondservants and brethren (the Greek word for 'brethren' here most often refers to blood relatives) to be killed as they were (more than likely a reference to the same barbaric methods utilized to kill them).

4. This poignant picture would have been incredibly comforting and edifying to those Christians around Asia minor who were the audience of this book and were experiencing the most intense persecution of the infant church to date. Nero Caesar was the first (and only, according to most historians) emperor of Rome to turn against the Christians. He made the hunting and killing of Christians legal across the Roman world during his reign, which gave the Jewish leaders great boldness to persecute and martyr many Christians. Nero also gorged himself on the diet of those who followed "The Way" (from 62-66AD, immediately preceding God's judgment on the first century Jewish nation from 66-70AD) - they were killed by gladiators and wild animals in the coliseums, hung on crosses by the thousands, and used as human torches to light Nero's gardens at night. The message of hope which John's Revelation carried to those still living (many of whose brethren had already been murdered) was comforting to say the least - it assured them that God was still in control, that their prayers for deliverance had been heard, and that although more of them would die, in just a few short years their redemption would finally arrive.

The fact is, we can be confident that the martyred souls pictured here were specifically referring to the righteous killed in and around the land of Judea up until the first century AD, and that their oppressor whom God was about to judge was indeed the ancient wicked nation of the twelve tribes of Israel. This is confirmed by the words of Christ (which John's apocalyptic description here seems to be echoing):
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!... you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation... See! Your house is left to you desolate;" (Matthew 23:29-38 - I recommend a thorough reading of the whole chapter)

It is not difficult to see that this scene which the opening of the fifth seal in Revelation unveils for us - of the souls of the slain in heaven and God promising them vengeance in a "little while" - goes hand in hand perfectly with Jesus' foretold judgment upon that last and most wicked generation of ancient Jews. I would say further that it is no coincedence that the terrible destruction of Jerusalem and the thorough levelling of her glorious temple came within (almost exactly) forty years - "one generation" - after Christ's crucifixion at their hands. Revelation is a beautiful yet terrible apocalyptic picture of that final end for the ancient Jewish polity and their Mosaic religious system.