Revelation 15

1-4 5-8 16:1-3 4-7 8-11

1-4

John sees a new vision, a great and marvelous vision, he sees seven angels that will pour out the seven last plagues of God’s wrath, the last seven and God’s wrath will be complete. The Greek work plēgē, translated here as plague literally means a blow, or a wound and is used in several New Testament as a beating or blows or wounds. Acts 16:23 “And when they had inflicted many blows upon them, they threw them into prison, ordering the jailer to keep them safely.” Acts 16:33 “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family.” These last seven plagues will be powerful deadly blows of God’s judgement that will hit the world with killing impact. The preterist would say this is the final end of the once faithful city Jerusalem at the end of the Jewish war AD 70 and the historicist think that the seven bowls of judgment start with the French Revolution and are still ongoing and will end in the future.

John sees these angels in heaven and the glass or crystal sea from chapter 4 is now mingled with fire, the fire of God’s wrath. Those saints that have been martyred during the tribulations, those that the beast thought he had overcome and vanquished, are seen with harps rejoicing and singing in victory, theirs is the victory over the beast and not the other way around.

They are singing the song of the servant of God Moses, a song of deliverance which recalls the Exodus from Egypt and the song of the Lamb, a song of redemption, salvation and worship. Here is a quote from John Phillips comparing and contrasting the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb: “The song of Moses was sung at the Red Sea, the song of the Lamb is sung at the crystal sea; the song of Moses was a song of triumph over Egypt, the song of the Lamb is a song of triumph over Babylon; the song of Moses told how God brought His people out, the song of the lamb tells how God brings His people in; the song of Moses was the first song in Scripture, the song of the Lamb is the last. The song of Moses commemorated the execution of the foe, the expectation of the saints, and the exaltation of the Lord; the song of the Lamb deals with the same three themes”

5-8

The sight of the heavenly temple opening pulls John’s sight away from the saints singing and worshiping God. He sees the angels who will be pouring out the wrath of God onto the earth coming out of the temple, the temple where God is, the wrath is from God carried out by his faithful angels. These angels are clothed in bright clean linen with golden sashes going from their shoulders to the waist. One of the four living creatures that we saw in chapter 4, one of the cherubim, giving each of the angels a bowl filled full with the wrath of God. The Greek word for these bowls is Phialas, translated in the KJV as Vials and ESV as bows, it refers to shallow wide saucers, one commentator referring to them as chalices because of the mention of drinking the wine of the wrath of God. These vessels of judgments come from God who is eternal, who lives forever and ever.

The temple is filled with smoke, evoking the burning wrath of God, or the pillar of smoke of His presence. No one is able to enter the temple once the final wrath has begun and no one can until it is finished. No one will be able to enter to make intercession, to turn away His wrath, to divert Him from His purpose. Once started this will be the end of the beast, end of the harlot Babylon, the end of the false prophet and all who worship Satan. There is a wonderful quote from John MacArthur: “Once the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ because of what He did for sinners; in the future, wrath will be poured out on sinners because of what they did to Jesus Christ”

16:1-3

John hears a loud voice from the temple in Heaven telling the seven angels that the time has come to empty their bows containing his wrath upon the earth. This voice can only be God the Father as there is no one able to enter the temple because of the smoke of His wrath.

Interesting note on the historicist view who many like I said earlier believe that these bowls of judgment start with the French Revolution, believe that the Papacy is the beast and those who support their power, in civil and religious areas are the men who have taken the mark of the beast; in 1690 Robert Flemming a historicist writer informed the king of England, King William III that the bowls of judgment would begin to be poured out in 1793-94 in Italy and if not in Italy in France. He arrived at this year by starting from 533 AD when the decree was made by Justinian I, the Eastern Roman emperor from 527 to 565, that made the bishop of Rome supreme over all other bishops, and this marked the ending of the Roman Empire moving into Roman Catholic supremacy fully taking effect in 538. So from 533 counting forward 1,260 years, which is a year for a day of the oft mentioned 1,260 days or 42 months or 3 1/2 years. 1793 was the beginning of the French Revolution, in the 5 years following 1793 two million people were killed, including 24,000 Catholic priests and 40,000 churches were made into stables, this shattered the power of the popes in France. Again the historicist sees these judgments as starting at the French Revolution and continuing to the present day and into the future.

The pre-mil position is that these are the end times of judgment right before Jesus Christ returns to set up his millennial kingdom and they will happen very quickly in succession and will be cumulative, the effects of the first bowls still ongoing through all of them.

The first bowl sent harmful and painful sores, ESV, noisome and grievous sores, KJV, or loathsome and malignant sores onto all that have taken the mark of the beast and worship him. The Greek words kakos and poneros stress that the sores are festering, painful, and incurable. Helkos, the Greek word translated sores, is the Greek equivalent of the Latin word that we get the English word ulcer. These sores are very much like the 6th plague from God on the Egyptians in Exodus, and the same as covered Lazarus the beggar in Luke 16.

The second bows is poured out before the sores of the first have healed, and this bowl is poured into the sea turning the water into blood. Specifically like the blood of a dead man, thick, coagulated and congealed and every living creature in the sea will die. This is reminiscent of the second trumpet in chapter 8, very similar but distinct in that the second trumpet affected a third of the waters as with this more intense final judgments all of the oceans and seas will die. Some commentators have mentioned this could happen due to a massive “Red Tide” which is a bloom of billions or trillions of dinoflagellates which are a type of algae that if the conditions are right massively increase in number and turn the water red while killing off the marine life and eating any fish contaminated by these organisms produce severe illness and death caused by a potent nerve poison contained in the algae. But the bible does not say how God will cause the seas to become blood, by natural means or by supernatural divine means, actually transforming the waters into real blood, just that it will happen.

4-7

Mirroring the third trumpet which fouled one-third of the fresh water, the third bowl is poured out on the fresh water supplies but this time it is all of the remaining supply. Now there is no water left on the planet that is not, if not literally blood, then spoiled and not able to be used or filtered / processed into good drinking water.

The angel of the waters interjects a defence of God’s wrath seemingly to those who may be saying “how can a loving and compassionate God, full of mercy and grace send such horrible punishments” The angel reminds us that God is righteous, eternal, and just. Saying that the unrepentant deserve this, they spilled the blood of all the saints and prophets, seen earlier in chapter 6, and the two witnesses from chapter 11. They have spilled their blood and God has given them blood to drink. This reminder of God’s righteousness and justice is echoed by the altar, which may be the voices of the saints under the altar praying for vengeance back in chapter 6 that God told to rest for a short time, now that time has come.

8-11

Bowls 2 and 3 mirrored but intensified trumpets 2 and 3 but with 4 the judgment uses similar means but the opposite effect. With the fourth trumpet the sun, moon and stars were dimmed for 1/3 of the day and night but with the fourth bowl the suns power is intensified, and not only 1/3 of the time, all the time as to burn the people who worship the beast. There is also a divide as to if this should be taken literally, some say that the sun is not the physical sun but means, the supreme authority, the resurrected Roman Empire under the Antichrist, becomes now the source of the most awful torment to those who are under its domain. But in verse 9 it says that those where were scorched by the sun cursed the name of God who has the power over the plagues, not the beast or any earthly authority, so I believe that this will be a literal intensification of the sun’s power. How this is accomplishes is not said, but some speculate that it could be from solar flares, as a result of the loss of some of the Earths protective atmosphere, or divine power.

As I mentioned before the people worshiping the beast know where these punishments are coming from, from God, but even knowing that they are from God they do not repent and give God his deserved glory. Until this point it has only been mentioned that the beast was blaspheming God, chapter 13 verses 1, 5 and 6, but now those who worship him adopt this unholy trait to join in the blaspheming.

The fifth angel pours out his bowl onto the throne of the beast, some say that this is not the literal chair that the beast sits on but his kingdom, but some do. But the regardless of the meaning of on his throne the result is the same, the entire kingdom is darkened, and at this point the entire world is the kingdom of the Antichrist. Coming on the heals of the fourth bowl some may think that this is not literal and the darkening is judicial blindness and madness and defiance rule, and if thought of literally that this may be more of a kindness to the scorching heat of the sun from the previous bowl. But this is not a respite or kindness it is still a judgment, this bowl along with the sixth while may seem kind is making able the movement of the eastern forces to the plains of Megiddo or Armageddon for the futile battle against Jesus Christ and his angels.

The people gnawing their tongues in pain and anguish is showing that these plagues are cumulative and they are still suffering from the first four when the fifth is poured out. They are still cursing God and not repenting of their sins. There is one more reference to the worshippers of the beast blaspheming God in verse 21 but this is the last to mention their unwillingness to repent.