Revelation 6:5: 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.

The third seal covers the period from about 2000 to 1000 BC.¹ In this third millennium, multiple famines caused devastation² but not complete destruction.³ The flood of water that brought death to nearly all life during the second seal⁴ became a lack of water in the third seal that brought death to many.⁵ These multiple famines occurred in the patriarchal period of Abraham,⁶ Isaac,⁷ Jacob (Israel),⁸ and Joseph of Egypt.⁹ The famines forced mass migrations of God's covenant people from the Ur of Chaldees, where southern Iraq is located today, to the land of Canaan in modern Palestine, and then to Egypt.¹⁰

The famines of the third seal were also spiritual,¹¹ which began most notably with the captivity of Israel in Egypt for 400 years.¹² The spiritual famine of the Israelites continued when they rebelled against the higher law given at mount Sinai¹³ and throughout their forty-year exodus.¹⁴ The Lord provided manna and water for their physical needs,¹⁵ but the Israelites generally remained a hard-hearted and idolatrous people.¹⁶

Physical and spiritual famines continued during the reign of the Judges¹⁷ and during the united kingdom of Israel under Saul, David, and Solomon.¹⁸ After Solomon's death in about 975 BC, the united kingdom succumbed to the ongoing spiritual famine as civil strife divided the kingdom.¹⁹ The divided kingdom was a black mark in Israel's history to match the black horse of the apocalypse.²⁰

The loss of priesthood authority also reflects the spiritual famine that prevailed among the Israelites in the period of the third seal. During the entire Mosaic dispensation, for example, many Old Testament prophets ministered among the Israelites with Melchizedek Priesthood authority.²¹ However, Israel didn't have the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood in their midst²² until after the mortal ministry of Jesus Christ.²³ Without the fullness of the priesthood, the power of godliness is not manifest to mortals and Israel's spiritual blessings were limited accordingly.²⁴

In John's vision, the physical and spiritual famines in Israel are depicted by the symbols of the third seal. This seal opened when the third beast with the face of a man²⁵ beckoned the black horse and its rider to come and reveal to John the events of the third millennium.²⁶ The black horse symbolizes mourning or distress²⁷ and famine.²⁸ The rider had in his hand a pair of balances used to carefully apportion scarce food supplies.²⁹ The balances also symbolize God's justice and equity in sending physical famines among his spiritually famished people.³⁰

Revelation 6:6: And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

The voice in the midst of the four beasts came from the throne of God.³¹ Thus, God the Father³² commanded all creation, represented by the four beasts,³³ to produce only enough food to starve and distress his rebellious covenant people, but not wholly destroy them.³⁴

A measure of wheat was roughly equivalent to an English quart,³⁵ which was the typical allowance or amount that one man would normally consume in one day.³⁶ A penny was the Roman denarius or Greek drachme.³⁷ It was the daily wage of a laborer or soldier.³⁸ Thus, in these times of famine, a working man made just enough money to feed himself, with nothing left over for his family or any other needs.³⁹

Barley had less value than wheat and was the food of livestock and the poor. Thus, three measures of barley could be acquired for the same price as a penny.⁴⁰ The barley could feed more mouths, but was less filling, less nutritious, and less satisfying.⁴¹

The same God that commanded his creations to produce grain at starvation levels also commanded that the oil and the wine not be hurt.⁴² Oil and wine symbolize basic commodities⁴³ that God mercifully preserved⁴⁴ to ensure survival of humanity during the third seal.⁴⁵ The oil and wine mercifully given in the third seal represent Christ's atonement, which has power to save mankind from spiritual starvation.⁴⁶ Oil⁴⁷ and wine⁴⁸ are frequently associated with Christ's atoning sacrifice,⁴⁹ including anointings carried out with oil and the wine used in the ordinance of the sacrament.

The literal oil that people used to survive physically during the third seal is also a type for the symbolic oil of the spirit that people must possess to physically survive the Second Coming.⁵⁰ Those possessed of such oil at the Second Coming are spiritually worthy⁵¹ to survive physically.⁵² This is illustrated in the parable of the ten virgins, where the five wise virgins had oil in their lamps.⁵³ They were able to join the wedding party that symbolized Christ's Second Coming.⁵⁴ The righteous shall also drink the fruit of the vine with Christ at his Second Coming.⁵⁵