Of White Horses and their Riders

Of White Horses and their Riders February 1, 2016

Twice in Revelation, John sees a rider on a white horse. The first comes in response to a call from the lion cherub and the Lamb’s opening of the first seal (Revelation 6:1-2). He is alone, has a bow and receives a crown as he goes out conquering and to conquer.

The second rides from heaven after Babylon falls. He judges and wages war, wears a robe dipped in blood, wears multiple crowns and has a sword and a rod, both of which seem to come from his mouth (19:11-16).

I want to focus on a couple of details where the two scenes diverge. The first rider is given a single crown; the second wears many crowns. The first is alone; the second is followed by a cavalry, robed in white and riding on white horses.

The second is definitely Jesus, since He has fiery eyes and a mouth-sword, just as Jesus does when John first sees Him (1:12-16). There is controversy about the first one. There’s shouldn’t be.

If we assume that Revelation is a single connected work, these two scenes must be linked, and the differences must be significant. Apparently, sometime between the Rider’s first appearance and his last, He has done something to win additional crowns, lots of them. Sometime between the first seal and the fall of Babylon, the Rider has gathered followers who can go out to fight with Him.

If the last Rider is Jesus (which He clearly is), the first one must be too. And that means that Revelation has been unveiling Jesus’ progression from one crown to many, from no followers to a great multitude. Revelation unveils the glory of Jesus, yes; more wondrously, it unveils a Jesus advancing from glory to glory; it unveils not only Jesus the Conqueror, but a Jesus who moves from conquest to conquest.

Who’s in the cavalry? Revelation must have answered that too, and the only reasonable answer is that it consists of the martyrs – martyrs who were promised robes when the Lamb opened the fifth seal (6:9-11), martyrs who have now not only been vindicated but have been added to the Lord’s hosts.

Jesus rides out alone at the beginning because He alone has witnessed to death. Later, a company of witnesses follow, and Jesus wears a robe dipped in their blood, reddened to royal scarlet in the winepress where that squeezes out the martyr blood.

We can add two points for further investigation. First., Zechariah’s night visions (Zechariah 1-6) begin and end with horse. Initially, they are at rest in the ravine, waiting for the Lord to release them; at the end, they are sent charging out of the temple, between the two bronze mountains (pillars). Revelation also has horsemen at the beginning and end. That is no coincidence.

Second, if the Rider on the white horse reemerges at the end of Revelation, do the other horsemen? Do chapters 20-22 shows us a red, black, and green horse? Or, perhaps the horses have reappeared in reverse order: In the chapters leading up to chapter 19, have we seen evidence of the work of the green, black, and red horses? Two details hint that this suggestion is worth following up. In Revelation 6, the white horse rider has a bow, and the red horse rider is given a sword; in Revelation 19, the white horse rider has a sword in His mouth, and thus combines features of the first two horsemen of the seals. The beast and false prophet are thrown into the lake of fire (pur) at the end of Revelation 19, which is possibly a verbal link with the red (purros) horse. Death and Hades follow last rider on the green horse, and Death and Hades show up at the end of Revelation 20, thrown into the lake of fire. There is no evident reference to the black horse, however.

As I say, it is an investigation for another day.


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