And when He had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo, a black horse and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. Revelation 6:5
Whenever we go to the grocery store, we seem to find that more and more of the items we usually purchase are going up in price. We scour the advertisements to see which store has the best specials on the items we need. And we complain about the way in which the rising food prices are eroding our purchasing power. Actually, we are far better off than people in many other parts of the world. The percentage of our income that goes for food is much less than the percentage of income that goes for good in lands where food is scare and income is low. People in those places must go without many other things just to be able to get enough food to keep themselves alive. But most of them are still doing better than those affected by the rider on the black horse in our text.
The black horse rider brings famine, the third great judgment of the great tribulation. The price for grain as mentioned in the following verse indicates that it will take a worker’s entire day’s wage just to buy enough food for one person. Such high prices occur only during times of massive crop failure or times of intense hoarding by despots. This judgment will result in widespread starvation and the deaths of millions. The worldwide shortage of food, and the worldwide lack of resources to buy what little food is available, will dwarf such tragedies as the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, the killing fields of Cambodia in the 1970s, and the current starvation policies of the North Korean Kim family. Cries for even a slice of bread will go unanswered in those days as the black horse rider unleashes his terrible judgment. But for those of us who are saved, we will rest in the full supply of the One Who declared Himself to be the Bread of Life.
Do Christians ever go hungry? Sadly, they do. Do Christians sometimes have to go without the necessities of life? Yes, that does happen, although we don’t know much about that in our highly favoured part of the world. But for the child of God, such hardships are only temporary and are always accompanied by the presence of God to sustain and comfort. And such believers have the sure hope that anything lacking on earth will be more than made up for in the Glory. The problem with those who will suffer famine in the great tribulation is that the famine is not only a temporary one of an unsatisfied appetite, but also an eternal one of an unsatisfied soul. Those who starve under the black horse rider will continue their torture forever. But those who have received of the Bread of Life will be satisfied. And we can enjoy that satisfaction now.
Hope is one of the most precious portions of our great salvation. Regardless of what we encounter here, even the pangs of hunger, we live in the glorious hope of being filled with goodness, and of never seeing the famine of the black horse rider. -Jim MacIntosh