Seven Bowls of Wrath (Part 3)
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Brief Background
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).
Over the last two weeks we have discussed the first Six Bowls of Wrath, and today we will cover the seventh bowl and introduce the judgement of the Beast and Babylon.
Let’s go ahead and read, Rev. 16:17-17:2 .
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. A loud voice came out of the Temple from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning and rumblings and clashes of thunder and a great earthquake—such as never happened since mankind has been on the earth, so mighty was the quake. Then the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to force her to drink the cup of the wine of His furious wrath. Every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. Enormous hail—about a hundred pounds each—falls from heaven on the people. And the people cursed God because of the plague of hail—so extreme was that plague. Then one of the seven angels holding the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come, I will show you the sentencing of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. The earth’s kings committed sexual immorality with her, and those who dwell on the earth got drunk with the wine of her immorality.”
Similarities of the Sevens
Similarities of the Sevens
It would appear that Adonai likes to end with a bang! In all of the sets of seven, the Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets and the Seven Bowls we see that God ends with a climatic light show, thunder and earthquakes. As a reminded, here are the Seventh Seal and Trumpet.
Then the angel took the incense burner and filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there were clashes of thunder and rumblings and flashes of lightning and earthquakes.
Then the Temple of God in heaven was opened, and the Ark of His Covenant appeared in His Temple. And there were flashes of lightning and rumblings and clashes of thunder and an earthquake and heavy hail.
So to start with we see that thunder, lightning and earthquakes are all present, however they grow in magnitude each time. The Trumpets include hail, and then the Bowls take the earthquakes and the hail to an extreme.
The Cup of God’s Wrath is Done!
The Cup of God’s Wrath is Done!
When I first read this passage, it reminded me of Yeshua on the Cross. John wrote in his eyewitness account, John 19:30
When Yeshua tasted the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
John was the only one of the male disciples to have seen this, as the rest had already fled away. Yeshua was completing the work that He had been sent to do. Earlier that day (or the night before), Yeshua had been praying to the Father, Luke 22:42
saying, “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
This cup that Yeshua refers to was the cup of Adonai’s fury against sin. Yeshua drank it to its dregs so that we would not have to. However if we refuse to trust in Yeshua and in what He has done for us, then we will be forced to drink the cup ourselves.
Jeremiah’s Perspective
Jeremiah’s Perspective
This just judgement of Adonai is spoken of by Jeremiah in 25:15-38. This whole passage applies to the Judgement we see in Revelation, so lets start with Jer. 25:15-17
For thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, to me: “Take this cup of the wine of fury from My hand, and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it. They will drink, and reel to and fro, and be like madmen, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then I took the cup from Adonai’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom Adonai had sent me:
Here we see Adonai commanding Jeremiah to take His judgements and to give them out to the nations to whom Adonai sends him. Now we should pay careful attention which nations those are. This is expounded on in the next few verses: Jer. 25:18-26
Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes—to make them an appalling horror and hissing, a curse as it is this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants, his princes and all his people; and all the mingled people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and Ammon’s children; all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who shave the corners; all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed people dwelling in the wilderness; all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media; all the kings of the north, either far or close to another; and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach will drink after them.”
So while this prophesy certainly applies to “all the kingdom of the world which are on the face of the earth,” how much more does it apply to the nations that are listed? When the Scripture says that judgement begins with the House of God, we are declaring that Adonai is even-handed in how he measures out that judgement. We are saying that He is fair and just and right. We see that Adonai starts by declaring the judgement that is coming against Judah and Jerusalem. However just as Adonai has brought correction to Israel and Judah, so also he will bring correction to the nations. Jer. 25:29
See, I am beginning to bring evil on the city where My name is called, and should you go completely unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth.” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
There is an old preacher saying that goes like this: “If Adonai does not bring judgement on America, then He will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah.” I think that we could reword that saying and apply it to us today by stating, “If Adonai does not bring judgement on Australia, then He will have to apologise to Judah and Jerusalem for the Babylonian Captivity.”
As we see in Revelation, there is a loud voice “out of the Temple from the throne” that is making a declaration of the completion of His judgement. This is the same as the next few verses in Jeremiah 25:30-31
Therefore you are to prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: “Adonai is roaring from on high, giving voice from His holy dwelling. He roars mightily over His sheepfold. He shouts like those who tread grapes, against all who dwell on the earth. A noise has come to the end of the earth, for Adonai has a dispute with the nations. He is passing judgment on all flesh. As for the wicked, He has given them over to the sword.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
Jeremiah continues to declare that on the Day of Adonai, that a “great storm [will be] stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth,” and that the “slain on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. They will not be lamented, gathered, or buried.” Adonai continues to bring specific judgement on the leaders of those nations who come against Him
Specifics of the 7th Bowl
Specifics of the 7th Bowl
There are two unique attributes of the 7th bowl judgement, firstly the largest earthquake “since mankind has been on the earth,” and secondly enormous hail 1 roman talent each (about 100 lbs or 45 kg). This earthquake causes the cities of nations to collapse and causes islands to sink. We are talking about a huge tectonic shift that decimates the world. For this reason I am not afraid of Global Warming causing the islands to sink and flooding the cities of the world, I fear that God is going to do this Himself. There is not much explanation as to how He will accomplish this, but let’s just say that He plans on accomplishing His own Global Reset.
As for the hail, we need to remember that this is not the first time that hail has been specifically used to bring judgement. We need to remember a story from the book of Joshua 10:8-11. This is the time when Joshua asked Adonai to make the sun and moon to stand still in his battle against the five Amorite kings.
Adonai said to Joshua, “Do not fear them, for I have given them into your hand. Not one of them will stand before you.” So Joshua came upon them suddenly by marching all night from Gilgal. Adonai threw them into confusion before Israel, defeated them with a crushing defeat at Gibeon, chased them by the road that goes up to Beth-horon, and struck them as far as Azekah and Makkedah. While they were fleeing before Israel down the descent of Beth-horon, Adonai cast down great stones from heaven on them all the way to Azekah so they died—more of them died from the hailstones than those Bnei-Yisrael killed with the sword.
Here we have Adonai pausing the rotation of the earth, and individually targeting all of Israel’s enemies with massive stones. More of the Amorites died from the hailstones than those that Israel killed. Later on in the passage the author states that there was no day like this one before or after it, where Adonai listened to the voice of a man, and Adonai fought for Israel. Adonai will have no difficulty accomplishing His word.
Sentencing of Babylon and the Beast
Sentencing of Babylon and the Beast
I wanted to end with the first 2 verses of Rev. 17, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we see that John directly connects this chapter to the 7th bowl, by telling us that one of the 7 angels who held those bowls has now come and provided him some explanation. The second reason is this, the chapters and verses are not in the original language, and some people want to try to say that the “great city” that is split into 3 parts is Jerusalem and not Babylon. It is true that Jerusalem is judged and is called “a great city” one time in Rev. 11:8 when the two prophets are killed. However the surrounding context of the 7th Bowl is certainly the judgement of the world, and from this point on in the story Babylon, the capital city of the Beasts empire, is called “the great city” seven different times.
The next 2 chapters give us a detailed description of the judgement that has just been measured out in the 7 Bowls. This also reminds us that although God has said “It is Done!” there are still some flow-on effects of that judgement.
Going back to our original example; when Yeshua said “It is finished!” was that the end of the story? Absolutely not! It represented the completion of Adonai’s plan for dealing with sin, and the final atonement sacrifice, but for us, and for Yeshua Himself, it was just the beginning. Three days later Yeshua rose from the dead.
The same is true here in Revelation. While this statement of Adonai is the declaration of the completion of His wrath against the sinful wicked world and its ungodly leaders, in the big picture, the best is yet to come!
Application for Today
Application for Today
Last week we covered the warning of Yeshua in Rev. 16:15 ““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.”” This is very similar to what Rav. Sha’ul said in Rom. 13:11-14
Besides this, you know the time—that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first came to trust. The night is almost gone and the day is near, so let us put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the day—not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and envy. Instead, put on the Lord Messiah Yeshua, and stop making provision for the flesh—for its cravings.
From these two passages we are warned and encouraged to do several things:
Stay spiritually awake and alert
Put off the works of darkness
Put on the armour of light
Walk soberly without carousing and drunkenness
Walk holy without sexual promiscuity and sensuality
Walk in peace without strive and envy
Put on the Lord Yeshua our Messiah, He is our perfect provision