Study Guide #4, for Revelation 6–11 • July
19, 2002
- What is happening as the seals are
opened? Are the events descriptive? prescriptive?
predictive? Is God causing the woes and
disasters? Simply allowing them? Do you think John’s first readers were
able to correlate any scenes from the seals with specific events or
circumstances in their world?
- How do the prices
quoted in 6:6 compare to normal? You may need a commentary or Bible
dictionary for this.
- Note the souls
“under the altar” in 6:9. Where have we seen the altar before this in
Revelation? Why are the martyred souls under the altar? (See Exod. 29:12; Lev. 4:7.)
How do you feel about the cry of those under the altar (6:10)? Is their cry a “Christian” one? Is it appropriate? Why or why not?
- Look up other uses of
the word seal (7:2) in Revelation and elsewhere, and assess what it
means here. What is meant by the “sealing” in 7:3-8? Who are sealed? Why?
Is the number and distribution of the sealing significant? What appears to
be its purpose?
- We have seen white
robes a number of times (6:11; 7:9,13-14; see also 3:4-5,18; 4:4; 19:14).
What is the significance of this reference?
- Does the tone and message of chapter 7
strike you as inclusive or exclusive? Why? What pastoral counsel,
admonition, or encouragement might the first readers have found in chapter
7? How do you respond emotionally and theologically to the series of
catastrophes in chapters 8-9? Who is responsible? Who is the actor? Why
do these terrible events happen? What does John hope will be the result?
- What is the meaning of: