This post is “7 Seals – Day 21”, I strongly suggest you begin with the introduction to this study, please click here to read it.

Feel free to comment below with your own thoughts about each verse and how you will be acting on each thought. Also, if you haven’t yet signed up to receive the notifications of new studies, you can do that today (the form is at the bottom of the page).

7 Seals – Day 21

Revelation 6:12-13

I watched as the lamb opened the sixth seal. A powerful earthquake struck. The sun turned as black as sackcloth made of hair. The full moon turned as red as blood. The stars fell from the sky to the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when it is shaken by a strong wind.

The Thought

The sixth seal. A powerful earthquake. The sun turned black. The full moon turned red as blood. The stars fell from the sky. Do you feel inadequate to face what is coming? Tell yourself that, just like Esther (Esther 4:14), you were born for such a time as this.

We stay with this verse for another day, because there is so much hidden in these words.

An earthquake, we can mostly understand. Many of us have felt tremors, and sadly, communities across the world have experienced strong earthquakes which have left many dead, or homeless and poverty stricken. But this earthquake is something else! Can you imagine an earthquake that blackened the sun? That would mean no light at all!

Sackcloth was a strong material, and was usually black. Often associated with mourning, its description here makes the suggestion that even the heavenly bodies are mourning for the earth at this time. There is an intensity in the blackness.

Many would say that this is the description of an eclipse, maybe it is, so far as our experiences of “signs in the sky” go, but the passage we are reading suggests much more dramatic events than just an eclipse (Read also Joel 2:30-31).

The sky falling to earth is something I cannot imagine. Maybe it is a meteor shower, that John didn’t have words to describe, but Jesus Himself warned the disciples in Mark 13:24-25 that these things would happen. Do you suppose John remembered that when he was experiencing these visions?

Action

Read Mark 13 and note some of the signs of the “end of the age”. What is your reaction to that chapter? Does it make you want to run and hide, or go out and lead others to Christ?

Do you feel inadequate to face what is coming? Pray for more of Jesus in your life.

Remember Esther who was born for “such a time as this” and tell yourself that that verse is for you too (Esther 4:14).