When the coronavirus crisis was beginning to escalate a number of weeks ago, someone in our congregation asked me how I thought the pale horse of Revelation 6:8 relates to what we’re experiencing. Maybe you’re familiar with that passage:
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider’s name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
The question is understandable. Devastating plagues and diseases are not foreign to the Bible, and Revelation 6:8 uses the word “pestilence” to describe one of the ways God’s judgment would descend on the people of the earth.
If we’re experiencing pestilence, are we experiencing the pale horse?
Judgment
Well, the theme of God’s judgment through pestilence is actually one that comes up throughout the Scriptures. I’ve been reading Ezekiel, lately, and at least 11 times Ezekiel warns of God’s judgment coming in the form of pestilence.
Jesus too reminded us in Luke 21:11 that pestilences would be one of the signs of the coming of the end. In the parallel passage of Matthew 24, Jesus said these “are but the beginning of the birth pains.” The image is one of a woman in labour. She starts having contractions and they get more frequent and more intense as the time approaches.
Accordingly, when we see this “intense” pestilence it’s appropriate for us to be reminded of the coming eternal judgment of God on the whole human race. We don’t necessarily point to specific sins or specific nations, but we’re reminded that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Salvation
In light of the reminder of God’s judgment that’s unfolding all around us, I think it’s helpful to be reminded of God’s great salvation. I’ve been reminded of that salvation this week from Ezekiel 20:40-44.
Now the prophet Ezekiel was sent to the people of Israel whom God described repeatedly as “a rebellious house,” and Ezekiel’s message was one of judgement in his generation. He warned of the judgment of God by sword, famine, and pestilence because of the wickedness of the people, but throughout his prophecies we also find snapshots of hope.
In the face of the judgment unfolding around the people of God, the LORD declares through Ezekiel that he is planning to gather his people from the nations where they’ve been scattered and accept them in his presence. This passage in Ezekiel 20 is one of those snapshots of hope:
40 “For on my holy mountain, the mountain height of Israel, declares the Lord God, there all the house of Israel, all of them, shall serve me in the land. There I will accept them, and there I will require your contributions and the choicest of your gifts, with all your sacred offerings. 41 As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations. 42 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I bring you into the land of Israel, the country that I swore to give to your fathers. 43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed. 44 And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I deal with you for my name’s sake, not according to your evil ways, nor according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel, declares the LORD God.”
Let’s focus on the last two verses in this passage. In verse 43 God says these people he’ll accept will remember all the deeds with which they have defiled themselves, and that they will loathe themselves for all the evils that they have committed.
And in verse 44 they are told that they will know that their God is the LORD, when he deals with them for his name’s sake, not according to their evil ways, nor according to their corrupt deeds.
It’s staggering to think about what this is saying. Ezekiel is looking forward to a day when God will accept a people who are conscious of their sins and their shortcomings, and who even loathe themselves because of those things. And God says that they will know that he is the LORD. That’s a loaded statement.
Know that he is the LORD
What does it mean to know that he is the LORD? Who is this LORD? What’s in that name? Remember what God said when he promised to proclaim his name (the LORD) before Moses. Exodus 34:5-7 tells us, “The LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD.”
And what did he proclaim about his name?
“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”
That’s the “LORD” Ezekiel says these consciously sinful people will know. They’ll know that he is the God who is gracious and merciful forgiving iniquity but somehow also not clearing the guilty. And how? How does this text say that they will know that he is the LORD?
The text says they’ll know he is the LORD when he deals with them, for his name’s sake, not according to their sins. To say it another way, they’ll know that he is the LORD when he grants them mercy and grace in the face of their evil ways and corrupt deeds of which they are so personally conscious.
Now Ezekiel was looking forward. Peter tells us that it was “revealed to the prophets that they were serving not themselves but us” in these things (1 Peter 1:12). Ezekiel wasn’t given all the details about how his words would be fulfilled, but we look back through the testimony of the New Testament and we understand what he was talking about even more than he did.
What Ezekiel prophesied has been fulfilled in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Spirit who convicts the world of sin. We who have received Jesus and his Spirit, like the Roman Christians in Paul’s letter (Romans 6:21), remember our former sinful ways and are ashamed of our previous way of life. And yet God has not dealt with us according to our sins. He has been merciful and gracious and has forgiven our iniquity and transgression and sin, even without clearing the guilty, because our guilt was paid for by the shed blood of Christ.
Conclusion
And so, as we look at the pestilence around us and see in it a sign and warning of God’s eternal judgment, we rejoice because regardless of what happens in this world we know his eternal judgment doesn’t fall on us.
We’re personally conscious of our sins and the judgment we deserve, but we know he is the LORD because he hasn’t dealt with us according to our evil ways and corrupt deeds. Rather, in Christ he has granted us mercy and grace and abounds in steadfast love and faithfulness towards us.
