Seven Bowls of Wrath (Part 2)

Brief Background

For those who are just joining us, we are working our way through the book of Revelation. John the son of Zebedee was in exile on the isle of Patmos. Yeshua was revealed to him there, and John was commanded to write to seven communities in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey).

Last week we have discussed the first Five Bowls of Wrath, and today we will only be able to cover the sixth bowl. Sometimes it is like that.

We ended with Rev. 16:10-11 “Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in pain and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their boils. But they did not repent of their deeds.” This reminds us that Adonai’s desire is that all people should repent, however many do not want to change. Yeshua said the same thing to Nicodemus in John 3:19-20.

John 3:19–20 TLV

“Now this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world and men loved the darkness instead of the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed.

The Sixth Bowl

Let’s go ahead and read, Rev. 16:12-16 .

Revelation 16:12–16 TLV

The sixth angel poured out his bowl over the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Then I saw—coming from the dragon’s mouth and from the beast’s mouth and from the false prophet’s mouth—three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits performing miraculous signs, who go out to the kings of the whole world—to gather them for battle on the great Day of Elohei Tzva’ot. “Behold, I am coming like a thief! How fortunate is the one who stays alert and keeps his clothes on, lest he walk around naked and they see his shamefulness.” Then the spirits gathered the kings to the place called in Hebrew Har-Megiddo.

The Euphrates Dried

In Rev. 9:14, we see that the sixth trumpet released the four angels of judgement who were “bound at the great river Euphrates.” These angels raised up a massive spiritual army and were released to kill 1/3 of the world’s population. This was accomplished Rev. 9:18 “By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed—by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths.”

Now as we come to the sixth bowl, we also see a reference to the great Euphrates River. This time we see that three demonic “unclean spirits” are rallying the world together for war against the Lord and against His anointed.

This is exactly what the Psalmist is referring to in Psalm 2:1-3

Psalm 2:1–3 TLV

Why are the nations in an uproar, and the peoples mutter vanity? The kings of earth set themselves up and rulers conspire together against Adonai and against His Anointed One: “Let’s rip their chains apart, and throw their ropes off us!”

What is interesting to me, is that Adonai is the one who prepared the way for this battle. It is the Lord who dries up the river Euphrates, a river that has never ceased flowing since the time of the Flood. To the first century audience, this would have been a thing of terror as the Great River was a natural boundary of the ancient world. We spoke before about how the Roman Empire extended only as far as the Euphrates, and how they were terrified of the Parthian Armies.

But the drying up of the water is also a sign of God’s deliberate intervention in nature.

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 52B: Revelation 6–16 (Comment)

The drying up of rivers is one of the responses of nature to the coming of God (Isa 50:2; Hos 13:15; Nah 1:4) ... The drying up of the Sea of Reeds (Exod 14:21; cf. Isa 11:15; Jer 51:36) and the drying up of the Jordan River (Josh 3:17) function as miraculous means enabling the passage of victorious armies.

Judgement at the Red Sea

I want to go over just two of these passages. The first is Exodus 14:21-28

Exodus 14:21–28 TLV

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. Adonai drove the sea back with a strong east wind throughout the night and turned the sea into dry land. So the waters were divided. Then Bnei-Yisrael went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, while the waters were like walls to them on their right and on their left. But the Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen. Now it came about during the morning watch that Adonai looked at the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and caused the army of the Egyptians to panic. He took off their chariot wheels and caused them to drive heavily, so that the Egyptians said, “Get away from the presence of Israel! For Adonai fights for them against the Egyptians!” Then Adonai said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, so that the waters come back upon the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So Moses stretched his hand out over the waters, and the sea returned to its strength at the break of dawn. The Egyptians were fleeing from it, but Adonai overthrew them in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen and the entire army of Pharaoh that went after them into the sea. Not one of them remained.

When we read this passage in Exodus, we do not immediately link it with the 10 plagues, but this event is actually the climactic end of all of the judgements against Pharoah and his might and power. By this point in the story, Pharoah had hardened his heart so much because of pride and rebellion, that Adonai had answered his desire and had hardened it further. Pharoah, against every plague that had occured before including the death of his own son, decided to drag the Israelites back to Egypt by military force.

We think of the crossing of the Red Sea (or Sea of Reeds) as the salvation of the Israelites. While this is accurate, it is only half of the story. Adonai wanted to bring about a total destruction to the military might of the greatest empire at the time, and He did this by opening a path through the waters.

Similar to the passage in Revelation 16, Adonai is preparing the way by drying up water with the purpose of bringing judgement against all of the armies that are against Him.

First Judgement of Babylon

The second passage is in the prophet Jeremiah. The reason I want to bring this passage up is that Jeremiah is actually speaking about the first destruction of Babylon, and in Revelation we are about to go over the destruction of Babylon the Great. Let’s read Jer. 51:34-39 which starts out with a cry from the city of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 51:34–39 TLV

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me, crushed me, set me aside like an empty dish, swallowed me up like a dragon, filled his belly with my delicacies, rinsed me away.” The one dwelling in Zion says: “Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon!” Jerusalem says: “My blood be on the Chaldeans!” Therefore thus says Adonai: “Yes, I will uphold your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry. Babylon will become heaps, a dwelling for jackals, a horror and a hissing, uninhabited. They roar together like young lions, growl like lions cubs. When they become hot, I will set out a banquet for them and will make them so drunk that they become merry— and then sleep a perpetual sleep and never awake.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

In this entire passage Jeremiah is calling for and declaring the destruction of Babylon. He declares in vs 28 that the king of the Medes will be raised up to bring judgement against Babylon. And when that judgement comes, Adonai declares that He will “dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.” This is exactly how Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered the city. He diverted the waters of the Euphrates and marched his armies right under the walls in 539 BC.

In Jer. 51:42-43 we see that Adonai declares that, “The sea has risen over Babylon— she is covered with its roaring waves. Her cities became desolation, a dry land, desert, uninhabited land, through which no son of man passes.” I wondered how this would be that that the sea would rise over Babylon while at the same time her cities would be a dry land, desert and uninhabited, until I read about the excavations of the ancient city of Babylon.

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Archaeology

Stories of Babylon have continually led travelers back to what remains of the metropolis. Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela visited the city twice (AD 1160 and 1173) to investigate the site lauded as the Tower of Babel (Klengel-Brandt, “Babylon,” 251). In 1811, C. J. Rich of the East India Trading Company conducted the first systematic land survey of the ruins (Rollinger, “Babylon,” 414).

Extensive excavation of Babylon began when Sachau and Koldewey chose to study the area in 1897. Due to the high water level, the teams were unable to uncover the strata of the Old Babylonian Period, but the palace and city structures of the Neo-Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Hellenistic periods are plainly visible. Significant excavated structures include: the Ishtar Gate, the “Hanging Gardens,” the outer city walls, and the temple.

So, here we have the city of Babylon covered in water and the surrounding city desolate, “a dwelling of jackals, a horror and a hissing, uninhabited.”

The reason that I wanted to focus on this passage in Jeremiah, is that John is about to go over the destruction of the final city of Babylon, the capital of the Beast’s empire. When we understand how precise Adonai fulfilled His word on the first destruction of Babylon, it gives us an understanding of how precise He will be in the judgement on Babylon the Great.

The 3 Frogs

Frogs have a mixed reputation. In most cultures, especially for the Jews, frogs been seen as “unclean, ugly and Vicious.” (Craig Keener), but in the Egyptian culture they were also the symbol of Heqt, the goddess of resurrection and fertility (Expositors Commentary). However in the Persian empire the frog was the “double of Ahriman, god of evil and agent of plagues.” (Expositors Bible Commentary)

Here in Revelation, we see that these frogs proceed from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. This refers to the slander and lies that these evil spirits will use to seduce the world into a final world war. John explains that Rev. 16:14 “For they are demonic spirits performing miraculous signs, who go out to the kings of the whole world—to gather them for battle on the great Day of Elohei Tzva’ot.”

A Biblical example of this is found in 2 Chron. 18:1-27. It is a long passage, so let me give you the overview. Jehoshaphat, the good king of Judah, allies with Ahab, the wicked king of Israel to fight against the city of Ramoth-Gilead which had formerly been a part of the Kingdom of Israel from Joshua to King Solomon. Jehoshaphat tells Ahab that they should pray to God as to whether or not they should fight this war. Ahab gathers 400 prophets who all say “Go up, for God will give it into the king’s hand!” Jehoshaphat then asks if there are any Prophets of Adonai. Ahab says that there is one prophet, Micaiah, but he does not like him because he always prophesies negatively against the king. They go ahead and call Micaiah, who is encouraged by the messenger to speak in favour of King Ahab’s plan. 2 Chron. 18:13-27

2 Chronicles 18:13–27 TLV

But Micaiah replied, “As Adonai lives, what my God says that is what I will say.” When he came to the king, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I hold off?” He replied, “March and be victorious! They will be given into your hand!” But the king said to him, “How many times must I make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth in the Name of Adonai?” So he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the hills like sheep without a shepherd, and Adonai said, ‘These have no master—let each man return home in shalom.” So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he never prophesies good about me, only evil?” Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of Adonai. I saw Adonai sitting on His throne with the whole host of heaven standing on His right and on His left. And Adonai said: ‘Who will entice Ahab king of Israel to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said this and another said that, until a spirit came forward and stood before Adonai and said, ‘I will entice him.’ So Adonai said to him, ‘How?’ He answered, ‘I will go and be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You will entice him and you will also succeed. Go and do so.’ So now, behold, Adonai has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of yours and Adonai has decreed disaster against you.” Then Zedekiah son of Chenaanah approached Micaiah, slapped him on the cheek and said, “How did the spirit of Adonai pass over me to speak to you?” Micaiah replied, “Behold, you will see on the day that you go to hide in an inner room.” Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and turn him over to Amon, governor of the city, and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and make him eat the bread and water of affliction—until I return in shalom.” ’ ” Then Micaiah said, “If you ever return in shalom, Adonai has not spoken through me.” He added: “Listen, all you people!”

Here we have a perfect example of what will happen to the nations of the world under the Anti-Messiah and the False Prophet. Why is it that all of the other prophets could not hear the truth? Because none of them were listening to Adonai. How is it that all nations could be convinced to go down a path that leads to War, because they are not listening to Adonai.

Har-Megiddo

Jumping to verse 16, we see that the location that the evil spirits bring the Beast’s Empire to is Har-Megiddo also known as Armageddon. John specifically tells us that he is writing the Greek transliteration of a Hebrew location. Therefore the most simple understanding of this word, is either Har-Megiddo, meaning “mountains of Megiddo”, or

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 52B: Revelation 6–16 Excursus 16A Rome and Parthia

The most common explanation of the name is that har (הר hâr) is the Hebrew word for “mountain(s), hill(s),” while magedon refers to the biblical town of “Megiddo,” with the entire construction meaning “mountain(s) of Megiddo.” Megiddo was an ancient city located on a plain in the southwest portion of the Valley of Jezreel or Esdraelon, the site of several significant ancient battles, including the Battle of Megiddo, part of the campaign of Thutmose III against a coalition of Canaanite petty kings in 1468 B.C., the campaign of Merneptah in 1220 B.C., the battle led by Deborah and Barak against a Canaanite coalition (Judg 4:6–16; 5:19), the victory of Gideon over the Midianites (Judg 7), the defeat of Saul by the Philistines (1 Sam 29:1; 31:1–7), the campaign of Shishak in 924 B.C., and the clash between Josiah and Pharaoh Neco in 609 B.C. in which Josiah was killed (2 Kgs 23:29–30; 2 Chr 35:22–24).

Word Biblical Commentary, Volume 52B: Revelation 6–16 (Excursus 16A Rome and Parthia)

Another proposal is that that [Armageddon] is derived from ער מגדון ˓ir mĕgiddôn, [or] “city of Megiddo.

Many commentators want to see this location as Symbolic, but that leads to all sorts of figurative explanations that seem very far-fetched.

Yeshua’s Warning

I want to go back to Verse 15 and close with Yeshua’s warning. Yeshua chooses to provide John with a clear warning about His coming. Yeshua has already warned us in Rev. 3:2-3 of his coming as a thief, when we don’t expect Him.

Revelation 3:2–3 TLV

Wake up, and strengthen what remains that was about to die. For I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God. So remember what you have received and heard—keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.

And then again in Rev. 3:17-18

Revelation 3:17–18 TLV

For you say, ‘I am rich, I have made myself wealthy, and I need nothing.’ But you do not know that you are miserable and pitiable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white clothes so that you may dress yourself and so the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.

We are called to be awake and to be paying attention. This does not mean being consumed with the news or specifically knowing everything that is going on in the world. However, what it does mean is that we are aware of what is going on in God’s Kingdom, and we are aware of how the world events fit into His plan. Yeshua warns us that if we are not paying attention then our shameful nakedness will be exposed. This is referring to being clothed with the covering that Yeshua provides, and being able to discern the times and seasons.

Some people are so concerned with the world that they can not see what is going on in the Kingdom of God. This can be devastatingly depressing because the world is becoming more and more worldly.

Some people get consumed with what is going on in the Spiritual realm, that they can not see how it applies to the world around them. This means that they end up spending so much time in personal devotions that they never get out and disciple others, and reach others in the world with the Good News.

Neither option is good. We are called into the Kingdom of God by Yeshua, and our relationship with the Father is restored, but we are also called to take the Good News where ever we go in this world and to make disciples everywhere we go.

Application for Today

I want to end with a writing from Rav. Sha’ul, where he speaks of the Day of Adonai. He writes: 1 Thes. 5:2-4

1 Thessalonians 5:2–4 TLV

For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. When they are saying, “Shalom and safety,” sudden destruction comes upon them like a woman having birth pains in the womb—there is no way they will escape. But you, brothers and sisters, are not in the dark, so that the Day might overtake you like a thief.

But Paul does not stop there. He tells us: 1 Thes. 5:5-11

1 Thessalonians 5:5–11 TLV

For you all are sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night or of darkness— so then, let us not sleep as the others do, but let us remain on the alert and sober-minded. For those who sleep, sleep at night; and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. But since we are of the day, let us be sober-minded—putting on the breastplate of faithfulness and love, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. For God did not destine us for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He died for us so that, whether we may be awake or asleep, we may live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up—just as you in fact are doing.

Therefore we are called to:

Remain alert

Be sober-minded

Put on faithfulness as a breastplate

Put on love

Put on the hope of salvation as a helmet

So, if you are going to take anything home, please dwell on this passage, and ask Adonai to make these things a reality for you. I pray that Abba, Father God will give your mind peace, that you would be clothed in faithfulness and love and that your mind will be filled with the hope of our salvation in Yeshua. Especially all the more as we see the Day of Adonai approach.