Study of Revelation

Nature of the Horsemen

Just like the second seal with the red horse that appeared in Zechariah, the other 4 horses are mentioned in Zechariah and have the same role of "surveying" the earth and reporting their findings back, "In the first chariot were red horses; and in the second chariot black horses; And in the third chariot white horses; and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses. Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord? And the angel answered and said unto me, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth." (Zechariah 6:2-5). In the next 2 verses we get more information as to where the horses are specifically going but this is still mysterious in nature, "The black horses which are therein go forth into the north country; and the white go forth after them; and the grisled go forth toward the south country. And the bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth." (Zechariah 6:6-7). This language of the horses walking "to and fro" repeats itself not just again in Zechariah but in other parts of the Bible as well. Zechariah 4:10 tells us the horses "are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the earth". Each of the colored horses have designated locations where they need to go to.  

Again, at this point the horses "true" abilities or purpose may be sealed up until later as we see in Revelation where they are given the power over portions of the earth to take peace and kill. We can see a taste of this in verse 8. The black and white horses that go to the north country are told to have "quieted" God's spirit which seems to me to be a negative thing. This idea of the horses going to and fro and having an adverse effect on their designated location is also shown in 2 Chronicles 16:9, "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars". This verse tells us that the horses function as God's eyes and enforces the idea that they relay info back to God. Also, if God sees that people are disobeying him he will cause something negative to happen, this one being war.

Something I do want to note and that you may have already noticed is that in Revelation, the opening of the first 4 seals brings 1 horse and 1 rider, however in Zechariah we see a horseman on a horse as well as multiple horses behind him (Zechariah 1:8) and chariots with horses (Zechariah 6:1-2) so although we see similarities (mainly being the color of the horses) the differences with the various number of horses is interesting. Despite this difference I still believe they have a connection. This is mainly due to the fact that besides Zechariah and Revelation, no where else in the Bible (as far as I've seen) talks about the same 4 colored horses.