Revelation 6:5-6"When He opened the third seal,I heard the third living creature say."Come and see."So I looked,and behold,a black horse,and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying,"A quart of wheat for a denarius,and three quarts of barley for a denarius,and do not harm the oil and the wine".The colour black is use to identify or symbolizes famine in such portion of scripture such as Jeremiah 4:28 and Lam 4:8-9.The black horse of the apocalypse thus represent a great famine were to occur.Therefore we can easily understand that following closely behind the red horse of war is the black horse of Famine.After the world war 1,a great famine has grip the entire world.
With such great famine during the Tribulation,inflation will head its course tremendously.The balance of scales in the hand of the black horse rider indicates the scarcity of food.A denarius or a penny is the equivalent of a person's salary for one day (Mat 20:2,9) and a quart of wheat is about a pint,a minimum daily sustenance diet of a person.
The same thing about the three measure /quart of barley which are also a minimum daily sustenance for one person.Thus,this scripture indicates that inflation rate was so high that a person will have to work for a whole day just to earn enought money to live daily for himself and leave nothing for the family or the elderly.
The rider of the black horse however is instructed not to damage the oil and the wain.Oil and wain are traditionally foods for the rich.As in the case of all wars and resulting famine,this inflation and famine will be affecting mostly the common people.Up next who will follow this black horse?Behold the pale horse is coming!I will describe this pale horse's representation in my next blog
