Lesson 5, January 26 - February 1
Sabbath Afternoon
Read for This Week’s Study: Revelation 6:1-17, Leviticus 26:21-26, Ezekiel 4:16, Deuteronomy 32:43, 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10.
Memory Text: “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for you were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9, 10, NKJV).
Revelation 6 continues the scene of chapters 4 and 5, which describes Christ as worthy to open the sealed scroll, because through His victorious life and death, He regained what was lost through Adam. He is now ready, by opening the seals on the scroll, to carry forward the plan of salvation to its ultimate realization.
Pentecost marked the beginning of the spread of the gospel, by which Christ expands His kingdom. Thus, the breaking of the seals refers to the preaching of the gospel and the consequences of rejecting it. The opening of the seventh and last seal brings us to the conclusion of this world’s history.
Revelation 3:21 gives us the key to the meaning of the seven seals: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (NKJV). Chapters 4 and 5 tell us of Christ’s overcoming and His worthiness, as a result of His sacrifice on Calvary, to be our heavenly High Priest and to open the scroll. The last verses of chapter 7 describe the overcomers before Christ’s throne. Thus, chapter 6 is about God’s people in the process of overcoming so that they might share Jesus’ throne.
