Crisis Understanding of a Passage in Revelation

Revelation 6:5-6,

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed to be 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 wine!”

The black horse and rider in this passage of Revelation is regularly interpreted as symbolizing famine. A denarius is a day's wage; wheat and barley are dietary staples. Therefore, a person is having to work a whole day in order to get barely enough food to last for that day. However, the oil and wine are untouched by the famine; though these were not exactly delicacies, they were less necessary for life.

So the situation presented in Revelation 6:5-6 seems to be that the judgment causes necessary foods to become scarce, while less crucial foods are still in abundance. I always thought this situation was strange, and it was hard for me to envision. However, my experience at the grocery store yesterday was enlightening.

At the supermarket, many of the shelves were empty or nearly so. There had no bread nor eggs. On the way out of the store, a man with a large family, hampered by new restrictions on how many canned goods someone could buy, paid me $8 for three cans of green beans. (I tried to refuse the money, but he insisted.) However, several shelves of niceties, deemed relatively unimportant, remained full.

NOTE: I am NOT suggesting that the current situation is a direct fulfillment of any specific passage of Revelation. I'm just saying that this sheds light on the kind of situation described by John.