Revelation 16.1-16-The First Six Bowl Judgments (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)

Doctrinal Bible Church

Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom

Wednesday July 24, 2024

The Day of the Lord Series: Revelation 16:1-16-The First Six Bowl Judgments

Lesson # 33

Following the trumpet judgments are the bowl judgments, which are recorded in Revelation 16 and like the seven seal judgments and seven trumpet judgments will take place during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

Chronologically, these seven bowl judgments follow the seven trumpet judgments that are recorded in Revelation 8:1-9:21 and 11:15-19 and which will follow the seven seal judgments that we noted last month in Revelation 6:1-17 and 8:1-5.

These seven bowl judgments complete the third and final portion of God’s program to exercise His wrath, i.e., righteous indignation during the last three and a half years of Daniel’s Seventieth, which is also called by students of prophecy as the “Great Tribulation.”

The Scriptures plainly teach that the wrath poured out during the Great Tribulation period originates with God and is therefore a time of God’s wrath upon a Christ rejecting a world that is deceived by the devil (See Isaiah 34:1-2; Joel 1:15; Obadiah 15; Revelation 15:1, 7; 16:1; Revelation 19:11-21).

The first bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:2 and is directed at those unsaved inhabitants of the earth who received the mark of the beast, i.e., the Antichrist and who worship his image.

Therefore, this indicates that the bowl judgments take place during the last half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week.

This is indicated by the fact that the Antichrist will not order everyone on earth to receive this mark until after he proclaims himself God and demands the worship of the world as world-ruler, which takes place in the middle of Daniel’s Seventieth Week (See Revelation 13:11-18).

Revelation 16:1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.” 2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. (NIV84)

This bowl judgment is reminiscent of the sixth plague in Egypt (Exodus 9:8-12; note also Deuteronomy 28:27, 35).

The second bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:3 and is directed at the sea as was the case with the second trumpet judgment in Revelation 8:8.

Revelation 16:3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. (NIV84)

The third bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:4-6 and is directed at the inland waters such as rivers and fountains.

Revelation 16:4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. (NIV84)

The second and third bowl judgments parallel the first plague in Egypt (Exodus 7:14-25) and the second bowl judgment centers upon the oceans while the third focuses upon the rivers of the world turning them into blood.

When the second trumpet judgment took place, a third part of the sea became blood.

However, with the second bowl judgment the entire system of seas and oceans will be polluted.

The third trumpet makes a third part of the inland waters bitter as wormwood.

However, the third bowl judgment will turn all bitter inland waters in the world into blood.

Therefore, since water is essential in order to sustain human life, these two judgments demonstrate that there is no life in following the Devil and Antichrist.

The second and third bowl judgments results in a global catastrophe.

Under the second trumpet one-third was affected, but now, in keeping with the nature of this judgment, the rest of the sea and marine life is struck.

It will wreck fishing and it is bound to affect ocean navigation, transportation and shipping.

The fresh water supply on the earth will be destroyed.

In Revelation 16:5-7, an elect angel proclaims the vindication of these judgments upon a Christ rejecting world.

Revelation 16:5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; 6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” 7 And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.” (NIV84)

The fourth bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:8-9 and is directed at the sun.

The blowing of the fourth trumpet judgment dealt with a third part of the stellar universe resulting in the darkening of a third part of the day and of the night.

However, in contrast to this, the fourth bowl judgment is directed only at the sun and increases the sun’s intensity and does not decrease it as was the case with the fourth trumpet judgment.

Revelation 16:8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him. (NIV84)

The fifth bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:10-11 and like the fifth trumpet judgment, it results in darkness, which is reminiscent of the ninth plague of Egypt (Exodus 10:21-23).

Revelation 16:10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done. (NIV84)

This fifth bowl judgment is executed against the Antichrist’s center of power, which anticipates the destruction of his kingdom.

The sixth bowl judgment is recorded in Revelation 16:12-16.

Revelation 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 13 Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty. 15 “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.” 16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. (NIV84)

The Euphrates River is located in southern Mesopotamia and rises in the mountains of Armenia Major and flows through Assyria, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the city of Babylon, from 1,700 to 1,800 miles into the Persian Gulf.

It is by far the longest and most important river of western Asia and was the natural boundary separating the nations of the east from Palestine.

The Euphrates is mentioned in Revelation 9:14 when the sixth trumpet was sounded resulting in the release of the fourth non-elect angels and a massive demonic army.

This river formed the Eastern boundary of ancient Rome and its conquests and it also forms the Eastern boundary of the land as promised to Abraham (cf. Gen. 15:18; Deut. 1:7; 11:24; Josh. 1:4).

The purpose of this sixth bowl judgment is to prepare the way for the invasion of Israel by the kings from the east to do battle with the armies of the Antichrist so that God might bring them into judgment at Armageddon.

In Revelation 16:12, the genitive expression tōn basileōn tōn apo anatolēs hēliou (τῶν βασιλέων τῶν ἀπὸ ⸀ἀνατολῆς ἡλίου) literally means “the kings from the rising sun.”

It is a poetical expression signifying the kings from where the sun rises, as China, Japan, India, Persia, and Afghanistan.

The prepositional phrase eis ton polemon (εἰς τὸν πόλεμον), “for the battle” signifies a war, an entire campaign and not merely one isolated conflict or battle and indicates that this conflict described in Revelation 16:14 is a major war like World War II.

Thus, assuming it is the next world war, John is describing World War III, which will extend over the entire last half of Daniel’s Seventieth Week and will involve several phases or invasions of Israel and conflicts and this will finally culminate in the gathering of all nations at the very end of the Tribulation at Har-Magedon.

Ezekiel 38; Daniel 11:40-45; Zechariah 14:1-3 and Joel 3:1-17 all describe these military events that will culminate in the Second Advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The noun Harmagedōn (Ἁρμαγεδών), “Armageddon” is a Greek transliteration of two Hebrew words, har and Megiddo, “the hill of Megiddo.”

The word Megiddo means “place of troops or “place of slaughter” and is also called the Plain of Esdraelon and the Valley of Jezreel and is an area about fourteen miles wide and twenty miles long and forms what Napoleon called “the most natural battlefield of the whole earth.”

The battle of Armageddon appears to be the result of the armies of the nations of the earth gathering on their own initiative, which is true.

However, this is according to God’s plan from eternity past.

Satan, Antichrist and the false prophet, the Satanic trinity, through demonic powers, will influence the nations and cause their rulers to assemble their armies for battle.

This assembling of the world’s armies for World War III is designed by God to bring an end to Satan’s rule of planet earth and to establish His Son’s millennial reign.

Zechariah 12 and 14 describes this war from Israel’s perspective.

Revelation 19 records the outcome of this war.