The seven bowls of God’s wrath
16
📚And I heard a loud voice out of the sanctuary 📖 saying to the seven angels, “Go, and pour out the bowls 📖 of God’s wrath on the earth”. Painful sores
2 📚And the first went and poured out his bowl on the ground, and harmful and painful sores 📖 came on those who had the mark of the beast, and on those who worshiped his image.
Blood
3 📚And the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every creature living in the sea 📖 died.
Blood in the water
4 📚And the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of waters, and they became blood.
16:4 Compare Rev 8:10-11 – under the 3rd trumpet only a third part of the sources of fresh water was affected.⚜
The justice of God’s judgments
5 📚And I heard the angel of the waters say,
“You are righteous, O Lord,
who are and were and will be,
because you have judged like this.
6 📚For they have shed the blood of saints
and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink,
for they deserve it 📖”.
16:6 Here is the law of perfect retribution at work. Compare Lev 26:23-24; Num 31:1-3; Deut 32:35, 41, 42.⚜
7 📚And I heard another from the altar 📖 say,
“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
your judgments are true and righteous”.
16:5-7 See references at Rev 15:3. God’s justice in pouring out His wrath on evil men is three times declared. See also 2 Thess 1:5-7 and the note at Ps 47:2. This is emphasized, perhaps, because people find it hard to believe. When disasters come on the earth now, some complain against God as though He were guilty of unjust dealings with innocent mankind. This is because they have an entirely perverted view of things. When the most terrible plagues possible come on the world at the end of this age, everyone in heaven will agree that God is perfectly just in sending them.⚜
Terrible heat
8 📚And the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun 📖, and power was given to it to scorch people with fire. 9 📚And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God 📖, who had power over these plagues, but they did not repent 📖 and give him glory.
Darkness
10 📚And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast 📖. And his kingdom became full of darkness 📖, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain 📖, 11 📚and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.
Three demons and what they do
12 📚And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates 📖, and its water was dried up so that the way for the kings of the east might be prepared. 13 📚And I saw three foul spirits like frogs come 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 the spirits of demons, performing signs, that go out to the kings of the earth, of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty 📖.
16:13-14 Reason and sound military strategy will not be the basic causes of this movement of vast armies at the end of this age. Compare Ezek 38:4; 39:2. Rulers will be deceived and stirred up by demons. Observe the source of these demons – Satan, the coming antichrist and the false prophet (the second “beast” of chapter 13). Note on demons at Matt 4:24.⚜
15 📚“Look, I come as a thief. 📖 Blessed is he who watches 📖 and keeps his clothes so that he does not walk naked 📖 and they see his shame”.
16 📚And they 📖 gathered them together to a place called Armageddon 📖 in the Hebrew language.
A great earthquake and hail
17 📚And the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the sanctuary 📖 in heaven, from the throne 📖, saying, “It is done”. 18 📚And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning flashes, and a great earthquake. An earthquake 📖 so mighty and so great had not occurred since men were on the earth.
19 📚And the great city 📖 was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell 📖, and great Babylon was remembered before God, to give to her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath 📖. 20 📚And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 📚And a great hail out of heaven fell on men, each stone weighing about fifty kilograms. And men blasphemed God 📖 because of the plague of the hail 📖, because its plague was exceedingly great.