9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 10 They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” 11 Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.
12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
The fifth seal introduces a picture of martyred souls under the altar of God. Are these the souls of those slain under the second seal? Whether this is meant or not, it is clear that what is referred to is the persecution unto death of the faithful, a grim reality that has happened again and again down the ages of Christian history, not merely in John's day, in the determined at
tempt of the Roman empire to destroy and eradicate the Church of God, but also in modern times, in the cruel and sinister oppression of ruthless totalitarian rule. Terrible as this thought is, we must not miss the force of John's words in 4 and 6 that 'power was given' to the op pressors to wreak such havoc upon the Church and the world. All this happens by God's sov ereign permission, and all is still in His control. It could never be easy to hold on to this fact in time of fearful pressure, but surely the bare knowledge that it is so must act as an anchor when all around us might otherwise give way. The one great reality which offsets every other consideration is that vindication must come, and this is promised in 11. The martyred saints are here pictured as crying out for God's swift action in retribution (surely a righteous and right cry from glorified and perfected souls!) and God is not unwilling to answer them, but bids them rest 'for a little season', this for two reasons; first of all that the appointed number of martyrs be made up (remember how Paul says in Philippians 1:29 that it is given to us not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake), but also, secondly, that opportunity might even thus late be given to men to repent and turn to Him. It is this that is brought out so movingly in 2 Peter 3:9 – 'God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish.' How wonderful that even when all heaven is crying out for righteous retribution, God should still with yearning heart delay His judgments to welcome some late, reluctant penitence among men!