Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday when we left off, John was in a vision of God's throne room, and Jesus had just taken the seven sealed scroll from the Father's right hand, because Jesus was the

only one worthy to open it. Today he begins opening the seals, one by one. As he opens a seal,

it releases more of the scroll so more of the story can be read. It would be kind of like if a piece

of paper were folded up seven times, and each time you unfold it, you see more of what's written.

With the first four

seals, we see four horses and four horsemen. These are commonly referred to as the four horsemen

of the apocalypse. By the way, the word apocalypse in Greek is the English word revelation. So these could

also be called the four horsemen of the revelation. They are all enemies of God, and even though one is on a

white horse, don't let that fool you. He's a counterfeit of Jesus, who also rides a white horse later

in this book. They bring death, disease, and destruction. But notice that these enemies of God

still only operate under his jurisdiction. They come out when his seraphim give the command.

They bring destruction, but any authority

they have is tightly held by God and has only temporarily given to them for accomplishing his

purposes of judgment on the earth. They are never in control, and God's reign is never in question.

The three final seals pertain to God's people. Seal number five gives us a glimpse of the martyrs. Seal number six

is the great day of the Lord we've been reading about throughout Scripture. Then after this, we see

the 144,000, which is probably a symbolic number that represents a much larger multitude.

Some believe this represents specifically the promised remnant of the Jews, and others believe it

represents all believers from all time. We'll link to two articles about this in the show-knit. represents specifically the promised remnant of the Jews, and others believe it represents

all believers from all time. We'll link to two articles about this in the show notes.

Then there's silence in heaven followed by the prayers of God's people. Then seven angels

...