Father Mike Schmitz

There was war upon the earth.

And the third was a black horse and rider had balance in his hands.

And this is an interesting thing because it could be worth noting.

I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures.

This is verse six saying a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine.

I read in a commentary that talked about like, what is that?

And they highlighted the fact that the time for the oil harvest or, you know, the olive harvest was a different time of year than it was for wheat and barley.

And so what this proclamation essentially could be saying is that this was a temporary affliction, right?

This is not complete destruction for an entire year, but only for a season.

And I think I was like, wow, that's really important.

That makes sense.

So wheat is down or wheat is up and barley is up, but the oil hasn't been damaged because that wasn't around for that time.

That makes any sense.

And fourth seal, there's the pale horse.

In fact, I think of translation, I came across a sickly green color, not pale, but sickly green.

And its rider's name was Death and Hades followed him.

They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and wild beasts in the earth.

The next number of, well, next two really, seals that are opened bring, again, destruction and they bring pestilence upon the earth.

Now, chapter seven is the seventh seal.

And in this is very fascinating because we have 144,000.