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To and Fro
CHAPTER FIVE
To and Fro
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.
John first bore witness to the word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ. Then, he entered a doorway to heaven, to bear witness of all things that he saw. He bore witness to a throne; to one sitting on the throne, and to the senate and activity surrounding the throne.
And it has all led up to, this solemn moment before us. In the right hand of God is a book, written within, and on the back cover. The writer and sealer of this book, is God. How long ago he finished it, and sealed its contents seven times, we aren’t told. We only know that the time has come…in John’s vision…to open this book, and loose its seven seals.
In the first four seals, we are introduced to the four storied horsemen of Revelation. These are familiar fellows; from the visions of the son of Iddo, the prophet. They are the four:
Whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.
We first come upon them down in the bottoms, among the myrtle trees. They have completed their mission, and are here reporting back to the angel of the Lord, that:
We have walked to and fro in the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.
On their next mission…five chapters later…they are dispatched north and south. And here, they are described as:
The four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth.
And once again, they:
Walked to and fro through the earth.
What has befuddled searchers for centuries is, of course, the timing of these seals. Perhaps we will find our bearing at the first, and the sixth seal. The first seal is opened at the time of John’s vision…the seal-sequence being set in motion within the first 100 years of my Lord appearing. The sixth seal shows events nearly 2,000 years later…the souls of those who have come out of great tribulation.
Across these 2,000 years, the four horsemen are sent…perhaps through that same doorway…and begin their walk to and fro in the earth. Keep in mind that the four riders are spirits. Theirs is a behind-the-scenes, leavening work; starting in John’s day, and seasoned to maturity today.
Since that apostle, these loosed riders are the unseen hand behind every war, world war, civil war, ethnic cleansing, famine, and every evil hate of the heart. The sprinkling of their spiritual stardust, is upon the souls of men. For we are the agents of their influence…finishing in the flesh, what the riders have begun in the spiritual world.
Their success, is our death toll…in the millions upon millions. People killing people. Untold millions starving to death. Millions more destroyed by disease and plague…calamity and sword. Walking to and fro throughout the church age, their work is now complete. They have set the stage, for the content of that sacred book.
What is noteworthy, is that the first four seals all look forward. They are a sending forth, from the throne to the earth, and from John’s time to ours.
But at the fifth seal, our perspective turns suddenly post-facto. When the seal is opened; we come to souls already slain, and beneath heaven’s altar. From Abel to John Baptist…from Stephen and Antipas until today…here is the complete history book of martyr’s. These are the first wave, from the earliest persecutions of the church…before we became too civil to slaughter Christians.
The fifth seal seems to be a closing of the chapter, on that first company of martyr’s. And while they are many; they pale next to the tsunami of souls before the throne, at the sixth seal.
These things bring us current. The sixth seal is just ahead of us, and the fifth seal is behind us. This is where we stand, 15 years before the start, of God’s 7th thousand years.
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