Spirit Horses
or Why Four Horsemen but Seven Seals?
“…the Egyptians are men, and not God; And their horses are flesh, and not spirit.” Isaiah 31:3
One of the three laws for Israelite kings was a command against multiplying horses and chariots—especially Egyptian ones. Solomon’s horse trading was, for a nation with a miraculous escape ON FOOT, in the eyes of the Lord, just like the faithless behaviour of the Hebrews in the wilderness. It’s always better to dwell in a tent with God than in a palace with the devil. Solomon’s kingdom of chariots and oppression became a new Egypt. By the end of the era, the pigs ruled the farm.
Chariots became a symbol of the unbelief that trusts in the fleeting strength of men:
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.” Psalms 20:7
“He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.” Psalms 46:9
“At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob, Both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep.” Psalms 76:6
The only chariots the Lord permitted were His own.
“The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of thousands; The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the Holy Place.” Psalms 68:17 [1]
David understood that the Lord’s chariot was a fiery cloud. Fighting ON FOOT, in the power of God, David walked on the wings of the wind (Psalm 104:3). When faithful, God’s armies cross any overflowing Jordan dryshod (Isaiah 11:15). The chariot-cloud/Ark goes before them.
“And he wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus, sealed it with the king’s signet ring, and sent letters by couriers on horseback, riding on royal horses bred from swift steeds.” Esther 8:10
Both Zechariah and Esther are books with equine imagery. Zechariah’s visions begin with the captive church as horses in “the deep.” The visions take us through the establishment of Jeremiah’s predicted “new Covenant” and end with the Lord’s chariots racing out of the Temple. As the last phase of the Covenant document, the horses are the “four rivers” of Covenant succession that carry the Word from Garden to Land to World.
The ministry of Christ ended with “rivers” flowing from His “belly.” For Jesus, the succession came when He stood on the Mount of Olives and passed the baton to His disciples. He had been given all authority, and now He was giving it to them. They became four rivers, the four horsemen of the apocalypse flowing from the Garden that would water the whole Land. This they did. [2]
But in Revelation, the four horsemen are the first four of seven seals. This is because, in the greater first century pattern, the ascension of Christ was only Firstfruits. Christ on the mountain was Moses on Sinai, and after ascending He “opened the Law” at Pentecost. The Law has seven seals (seven Lampstand lights), and the central part of Revelation shows the blessings and curses that followed in the wake of the open Law.[3]
The first century Covenant pattern also ends with Covenant succession. After the destruction of Jerusalem, Christ begins the pattern again accompanied by the ascended first century church, and the white horse is now plural. Garden, Land, World. [4]
The Lord’s couriers don’t need horses and chariots of flesh. We have beautiful feet. We walk on the wind.
“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:8
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[1] See Angels in the Trees – 2.
[2] See also Saved from the Green Horse.
[3] Note that the fifth seal was the summoning of the “armies” of dead saints, the Old Covenant warriors.
[4] For much more on this, listen to James Jordan’s lectures on Revelation, available from me here, and from www.wordmp3.com.
