The martyrs cry out to the Lord: “How long, Sovereign Master, holy and true, before you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”

This is a question, not a demand. The martyrs want to know when the Lord is going to carry out His justice against His enemies. When the Lamb opens the 5th seal, it is another guarantee that the wrath of God is going to come upon unrepentant sinners.

When the Lamb opens the 6th seal, we learn about the first set of extreme earthly and cosmic disasters that are expressions of God’s wrath against the wicked of the world. And they know that the cataclysmic events are from the wrath of God and from the Lamb. Their terror is stated: “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?” Revelation 6:16-17

The 5th and 6th seal show us a contrast between followers of Jesus and unrepentant rebels. I’ll talk about the “Tale of Two Testimonies” that we see in these two groups.