October 16, 2014 Revelation Chapter 16

Revelation Chapter 16

Originally posted Wednesday December 31, 2008

Revelation, Chapter 16 The Bowls of God's Fury

The executing of the final series of tribulation woes begins with a loud voice from inside the Sanctuary (Holy of Holies) signaling the angels to "go" and pour out the seven plagues of God's fury upon the earth. As we read through these seven plagues we will note that the entire earth is affected, not just one third or one fourth as the previous series were. That the whole cosmos is affected is a sign of the judgment in which the whole world is cleansed of its contamination by the dragon. John understands this final drama as the fulfilling of God's justice in a world of injustice (Ps. 97:2). The unjust are those who have persecuted and killed the saints, who have used the sword to conquer nations and set up a false religion based on the deification of evil in human form.  

First plague: All those who have the mark of the beast and worshipped its image were covered with foul and painful sores (Exod. 9:9-11).

Second plague: The sea becomes like blood and all life within it has died (Exod. 7:17-18).

Third plague: All the rivers and springs become blood. This plague evokes the song of the angel of water praising God's judgment as just. As the blood of the saints and prophets was shed those who shed it are given blood to drink (Exod. 24:25). Even the altar of the heavenly tabernacle upon which the blood of the martyrs has been offered affirms the justice of God's judgment.

Fourth plague: The first three plagues have been loosed directly against the entire earth. The fourth plague uses an element of the Cosmos. The sun is used as an agent of delivery, allowing it to "scorch "them" with fire." We probably are meant to understand "them" in the context of the first and third plagues - those with the mark of the beast and those who shed the blood of the saints and prophets and got "what they deserve." Those who experienced the fourth plague remained unrepentant and refused to understand God's act as one of justice against them.

Fifth plague: The fifth plague is aimed directly at the "throne [and kingdom] of the beast" from the sea, creating absolute darkness which created mass confusion and fear. As with those who were scorched by the sun were unrepentant, all those who belonged to the beast would not repent. Instead they cursed God "because of their pains and sores" from the first plague.

Sixth plague: This plague is upon the Euphrates River, causing it to dry up. As the drying up of the Jordan river allowed Joshua to lead the Israelites into Canaan to take the land from the idolatrous Canaanites, so John envisions the drying up of the Euphrates which will allow the dreaded Parthians (kings from the east) to prepare an invasion against the Roman Empire (see 9:14). But this is larger than Parthians versus Romans. John is giving a graphic image of all the forces of evil including the dragon, the two beasts and all who serve them to be used by God as part of the final judgment. The unclean demonic spirits (frogs) that issue forth from the mouths of the evil trinity and do their bidding, use signs (miracles) to deceive and assemble all the kings of the world in preparation for the last battle "on the great day of God's [judgment]" (Amos 5:18-20; Mal. 3:1-2). The battle is to be fought at har magedon. The Hebrew word for the location of the assembly of the "kings of the whole world" refers to the "mountain of Megiddo," a place not mentioned in the Old Testament or in any other Jewish writings. An Old Testament reference in Zech.12:11 is as close to this as can be found. It is the fortified city of "Megiddo" in a pass of the same name connecting the coastal plain of Palestine with the Plain of Esdraelon in northern Israel. In later Jewish writings this city became a symbol of the location of the arrival of the Day of the Lord (the cleansing of Israel). The problem with this location is that there is no mountain associated with it. John probably uses a name familiar to his readers because of the Zechariah reference and because it was the site of a number of significant ancient battles (Judg. 5:19-21; 2 Kings 9:27, 23:29). It would be an appropriate setting to place the final  conflict between God and Satan. One other difficulty to be considered is that there is no final battle between the Roman Empire and the "kings of the whole world" and/or the kings of the east (Parthians) in Revelation. The symbolic battle of the end will be between Christ and the assembled forces of evil (19:11ff).

John uses a familiar saying of Jesus which stresses the need for vigilance in anticipation of this Day of the Lord which will come unexpectedly as a thief in the night. (Mt. 24:43). Unlike so many supposed Biblical experts not even Jesus ventured to predict the end of the age. What he did stress was the importance - always and when that time came, of being found busy doing the godly works of kindness, justice, compassion and love. As far as he was concerned this was more important than any doctrine. For the people of faith, what you do is more important than the particulars of what you believe. 

Seventh plague: The last of the plagues is "poured...into the air" followed by a loud voice from God's throne within the Sanctuary. The voice declared, "It is done." The woes of the tribulation have ended and the final destruction of evil Babylon (Rome) has begun. The voice is attended by the usual sounds of majesty associated with God and the throne - lightening, rumblings, thunder and a mighty earthquake of exceptionally violent proportions. With the earthquake Babylon, the great city, crumbles and all the cities of the nations which served the beast and worshipped its idol also fell. With a giant wide screen, high definition spectacle "God remembered great Babylon and poured out the "wine cup" of God's fury. The Islands flee; the mountains disappear; and hundred-pound hailstones fall from heaven. The response of a world so locked in its intransigence even in the face of God's fury is to curse God for the fearful plague "poured into the air."

As we consider the seven plagues combined with the devastation and death meted out in the opening of the seven seals and blowing of the seven trumpets, we may need to be reminded once again of the symbolic/mythical nature of John's visions. John has one absolute aim: to exhort the churches of western Asia Minor to refute and resist even unto death involvement in and accommodation of the Roman Imperial cult of Emperor worship and the failed cultural values such worship requires. His visions are "as ifs" to be heeded and transformed into the power to faithfully persevere no matter the cost.