Chapter 6 begins a series of pronouncements called the “seal judgments.” Scrolls in John’s day were closed with a small amount of melted wax. To break the seal, then, is to open the scroll. These judgments and the ones that follow (seven trumpets and seven bowls—through chapter 16) unfold in a chronological pattern, and each successive set of seven judgments is more severe than the preceding ones.

Why are all these judgments recorded? The persecuted first-century Christians found comfort in these descriptions of One more powerful than the tyrants who overwhelmed them. These images of God’s forces crashing down on those who stubbornly resist him (see Revelation 9:20–21) assured the believers that a time was coming when widespread human rebellion against God would be corrected.

The God of the Bible is all-powerful. His apparent silence in the face of human evil is not evidence that he can’t or won’t act. He chooses not to act because he is waiting for more spiritual explorers to “open the door” 

and find him. In other words, he’s waiting for you. And be assured that a time is coming when he will act!

Taken from NIV The Journey Bible