As we begin this episode, I want you to see how many “sixes” you can find in this text. I’ll give you the first one: This is the sixth seal, so that’s one 6. The text begins:

I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. (6:12-14)

In these verses we have calamitous natural phenomena that indicate that God is executing His judgment upon someone. We know this because these same images are used repeatedly in Scripture to indicate God’s judgment. If you would care to check this out yourself, please feel free; it is a really easy word search, and there are simply too many examples for me to try and cite them here. What makes this particular judgment of such note is the scope of it; God is judging much more than a tribe or even a nation, and we will see how we know that shortly. By the way, did you find another “six” in these verses? you should have 2 “sixes” at this point.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?” (6:15-17)

These verses give us a picture of terrified humanity; note that John mentions several classes of people (you might want to count them) who are, let’s just say, in a bad way. They’ve even gone into hiding, why do you suppose they have done that? I have been in two great earthquakes in my time, and they are without question the most terrifying experiences of my life. I cannot help but observe here, that a cave is among the very last places I would run to in an earthquake, for the only safe place is out in the open, away from falling objects… So why were they hiding in caves?

The answer is that John is showing us a picture of humanity trying to hide from God’s final judgment. I asked before who was God judging, and I gave you a clue; look for sixes. Have you found them?

This is the sixth seal. There are six calamities (6:12-14) and there are six classes of people trying to hide themselves from judgment (6:15-17).

666! This is the  number or Man (Rev. 13:18).

Of course, it helps that the text itself tells us who is being judged…

We aren’t quite finished with the sixth seal yet… and then there is the seventh still to come; see you next time!