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56 The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

ultimate blessings on those He called to His service be affected by the black horse rider. There
should be great comfort in this assurance for those who are truly the people of YEHOVAH. It
clearly tells them that even in the days of spiritual dearth -- when the giving forth of the bread of
life was to be by measure and by price -- the “oil” of YEHOVAH’s spirit and the “wine” of His
joy were not to be injured, and that today His people can always have a heart gladdened by the
wine of YEHOVAH, and a face shining with the oil of YEHOVAH.

There is another passage from the Old Testament in which the four symbols -- the wheat
and the barley, the wine and the oil -- are mentioned:

The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up,
the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the
wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up
and the fig tree languisheth;...because joy is withered away from the sons of men (Joel
1:10-12).

This important prophetic passage further shows how the chief products of the Promised
Land are used as the symbols of SPIRITUAL realities. These symbols speak most dramatically of
the consoling and healing influences of YEHOVAH’s true gospel; and the words of the voice which
the apostle John heard in the midst of the four living creatures lets us know that the rider of the black
horse was not to be permitted to “hurt” the restoring and healing ministry of the true gospel.

The Pale Horse

When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying,
“Come and see.” And I looked, and behold, a PALE HORSE. And the name of him
who sat on it was DEATH, and HADES followed with him. And power was given to
them over a fourth of the earth, to KILL WITH SWORD, with HUNGER, with
DEATH, and by the BEASTS OF THE EARTH (Revelation 6:7-8).

The word here rendered “pale” is chloros, from which the gas known as “chlorine” is
named. It is of a sickly green -- a livid, corpse-like color. The word occurs in only two other places
in the Book of Revelation, in both of which it is translated “green” (see 8:7 and 9:4). The signifi-
cance of the color of the horse is not so clear as in the other three horses. However, we do not need
as much help in this case as in the others, for the name of the rider is plainly given -- DEATH. More-
over, Death is joined here with HELL, that is, Hades or the grave. The rider is “Death,” and his mis-
sion is “to kill”; and Hades -- or the grave -- is pictured as following with him to gather in, as it were,
the victims.

Since death has been busy in all parts of this world since the fall of man, it is evident that this
passage is highly figurative and symbolic. Therefore, “death” must here be the RESULT of some
destructive spiritual influence that has been specially active in the gospel era. From what we have
learned about the black horse the meaning of the PALE horse should not be difficult to ascertain.

It is a fact that Satan has the power of death (Hebrews 2:14); and we learn from the Parable
of the Tares that after the sowing of the “good seed” of the gospel (represented by the WHITE

The Berean Voice September-October 2002