Revelation 15:1 - 8

1, 2 Morris entitles chapter 15 "Prelude to Doomsday" (p. 281). This chapter begins with another (12:1, 3) sign in heaven. The order of events is one of dramatic crescendo. This time it is stated that the sign is great and marvelous (mega kai thaumaston - mighty and awe inspiring; wonderful) with seven angels having the seven last plagues (lit. seven plagues, the last ones) filled up with the wrath of God. In point of time the plagues are poured out upon those who have received the mark of the Beast (6:2) so these plagues take place in the last half of the tribulation week (13:5, 16 - 18). The plagues take place during the period of the last two churches (religious picture), the last two seals (political picture) and the last three trumpets (divine judgments), and they could take place in a very few days. These vials (bowls) fall upon the earth (1) in the form of sores upon men (16:3), (2) the sea becomes blood (16:3), (3) the rivers and fountains of waters become blood (16:4), (4) the sun which scorches man and beast (16:8), (5) the throne of the Beast is made darkness (16:10), (6) the drying up of the Euphrates river (16:12) and (7) great natural calamities (thunders, lightnings and a great earthquake). Walvoord thinks that "having seven plagues, the last ones" imply "that the previous judgments unfolding in the breaking of the seals and the blowing of the trumpets were also plagues, that is, divine judgments of God pouring out affliction upon a wicked world...That they are described as the last plagues shows that they are the final judgments preceding the second coming itself" (p. 226). The word "plague" can also be translated "wound."

It is interesting to note that the word translated "wrath" is thymos not orge, and is often translated "anger." Arndt and Gingrich state the combination of thymos and orge connotes the strongest kind of outpouring of divine judgment. The word thymos is defined as "anger, wrath, rage." Thus the anger of God is the preliminary expression, the wrath of God is the final expression of divine righteousness (p. 366).

John also saw a glassy (hualinen from hualinos - smooth; transparent) sea mingled (memigmenen - mignumi - mixed) with fire with those who had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name. These victorious ones, who may be the ones referred to in 13:1 - 10, were standing on (upon the shore of) the sea of glass with harps (lyres) of God used to accompany the singers. 3, 4 These victorious saints were able to sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. The words to the song went like this: "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou King of nations. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou alone (only) art holy (monos hosios); for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest." The original song of Moses found in Exodus 15:1 - 21 was sung by those who triumphed over Pharaoh and his army at the crossing of the Red Sea as they left Egypt. Note a portion of the song, verses 2, 13, which read, "The Lord is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation; he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him...Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people whom thou has redeemed; thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation." Some commentators think, however, the writer is referring to the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32. Either one is a comprehensive picture of God's faithfulness to Israel and His ultimate purpose to defeat their enemies. There is some controversy over the last word in verse 3 whether it is nations, saints or in all ages; nevertheless, Christ is King over all the nations, the saints and over all ages. He alone is the problem Solver; He is the totality; He lacks nothing; the whole world finds everything in Him (Yeager, p. 280). The works are ascribed to JEHOVAH, the Self-existing One, Sovereign, Independent One; ELOHIM, the Creator, the God of gods; and SHADDAI, Almighty in power, Almighty in resources, Almighty to sustain. The ways which form a part of the song of God are His tenderness, His grace, His love and His wisdom. God's prophet Micah (4:1, 2) must have had this in mind when he wrote, "But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."

5, 6 After these things John looked again and saw the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony (marturiou - witness) in heaven opened up (like a curtain drawn back) with the seven angels clothed in pure and white linen girded with golden girdles; the angels were coming out with the seven last plagues. This must be the heavenly temple (which was the pattern for the earthly tabernacle); Moses was instructed to build the tabernacle here on earth like the one in heaven. Exodus 25:1, 2, 8, 9 read, "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering...and let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the furnishings [instruments] thereof shall ye make it." "The expression 'the tabernacle of the testimony' is a reference to the whole tent-like structure, a portion of which contained the Holy of Holies. It is described as 'the tabernacle of the testimony' because of the presence of the tables of stone containing the ten commandments which were placed in the ark of the testimony in the Holy of Holies" (Walvoord, p. 229).

7, 8 One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden vials (phialas from phile - bowls; deep saucers) full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke (probably from the burning incense) from the glory of God, and from His power. No man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues were fulfilled (telesthosin from teleo - completed; ended). Smith quotes Carpenter who says, "These vials are given by one of the living creatures who represent creation; it is through the creation that the wrath of God can visit the rebellious; that wrath of God is simply the operation of God's righteous law against sin. His statutes are eternally righteous. He has given to all things a law which cannot be broken; that law is adverse to evil, and will in the end cast it out, for it does the bidding of God, who lives unto the ages of the ages" (p. 216). Paul states in Romans 8:19 - 21, "For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God."

Revelation 16:1 - 21

3 And the second angel poured out his bowl [vial] upon the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.

4 And the third angel poured out his bowl [vial] upon the rivers and fountains (wells; springs) of waters, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous (just), O Lord, who art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged (decreed) thus. 6 For they have shed (spilled) the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true (genuine) and righteous are thy judgments.

8 And the fourth angel poured out his bowl [vial] upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch (burn) men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues; and they repented not (changed not their minds) to give him glory.

10 And the fifth angel poured out his bowl [vial] upon the throne [seat] of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness (plunged into blackness); and they gnawed (chewed) their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed (spoke evil of; cursed) the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

12 And the sixth angel poured out his bowl [vial] upon the great river, Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared (made ready).

13 And I saw three unclean (foul; filthy) spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 For they are the spirits of demons [devils], working miracles, that go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle (war; military conflict) of that great day of God Almighty. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth (is vigilant), and keepeth (preserves) his garments, lest he walk naked (exposed), and they see his shame. 16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

17 And the seventh angel poured out his bowl [vial] into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is (has been) done. 18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away (escaped), and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

1, 2 Chapter 16 begins with Jehovah God's time clock ticking again; it is the final day of the tribulation, and the Second Coming of our Lord is at hand. The voice of God to the vial bearing angels is heard in the temple, "Go (hupete from hupo + ago - you go) your ways, and pour out (ekchete from ekcheo - spill; gush out) the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." The first angel starts an activity that will be followed in quick succession or possibly simultaneously with at least five other plagues on the wicked. Smith writes, "(the bowls) represent the judgment side of (God's) dispensations - visitations upon opposing powers and forces which are in the world at the same time with the instruments and methods of redemption, and are in an attitude of continual hostility and opposition to these" (p. 219).

The plague of the first angel was a noisome and grievous sore (elkos kakon kai poneron - lit. an-ulcerated-sore bad and evil; an open wound discharging pus) upon those who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image (eikon - idol). Yeager cites Psalm 91:3 - 10 and I Thessalonians 5:9 which protects the saved from these plagues (p. 287). The noisome and grievous sores which the dogs licked for healing are likened to the sores that plagued Lazarus - Luke 16:21. Exodus (9:9) tells of the sixth plague on Pharaoh - a boil breaking forth with ulcers (a running sore or boil) upon man and upon beast. The mark of the Beast is a sign of subjection or servitude.

3 The second plague was poured out upon the sea making the water like the blood of a dead man resulting in the death of every living creature (soul of life) in the sea. Biederwolf states that blood here is not the idea of a great pool of blood as of many slain but loathsome and corrupting blood clotted and putrefying as when a dead man lies in his own blood (p. 657). The water was turned to blood in the first plague in Egypt (Exodus 7:14 - 25). All marine life died as a result of the sea becoming blood. Under the second trumpet judgment (8:8) only one third part of the sea and a third part of the marine life was affected. Here all of the marine life dies.

4 - 7 The third plague was poured out upon the rivers and fountains (pegas from pege - wells; springs) of the waters were turned to blood. In 11:6 the witnesses were able to turn the water into blood. After this plague was poured out a voice was heard from the angel of the waters who extoled Jehovah God, "You are righteous (diakios - just), the One Who is, and Who has always been, the Holy One, because you have decreed (ekrinas from krino - judged) these things because they (the Antichrist, the Beast, and the False Prophet) have shed (exechean from ekcheo - spilled) the blood of saints andd prophets therefore you have given them blood to drink; for they are worthy (axioi from exios - deserve it)." They have deserved that blood shall be given them to drink, since they have been so willing to shed the blood of the righteous. Scott writes, "The plague does not overstep by a hairbreadth the just measure of strict righteousness" (p. 326). In (verse 5) John heard another (voice) out of the altar saying, "Even so, Lord God Almighty, true (alethinai from alethinos - genuine) and righteous are your judgments." The altar is the one beneath which the souls of the martyrs cried, and on which the prayers of the saints were offered is represented as confirming the testimony to the just dealings of God. Jehovah God is praised by the angel having the third plague as if revenging His judgments upon the wicked of the earth. Some of the attributes of God are His righteousness (justice); He is Eternal; and He is Holy. The person changes (verse 6) from the angel (singular) to they (plural) meaning the evil trinity - the Antichrist, the Beast and the False Prophet. Since the evil trinity had shed the saints blood during the first half of the tribulation they are worthy or deserve to drink blood. In verse 7 another being speaks from the altar, probably from where the martyred saints are housed; they praise Jehovah calling Him Lord, God Almighty - (kurie ho theos ho pantokrator). "The God Who in creation ordained the laws of equilibrium in the natural and social sciences, is the God Who has also ordained the laws that apply in the moral world...God's justice dictates that in the end injustice will be required...No one can transgress God's law, either in the physical or moral world, without suffering the consequences...God's justice is transitive holiness" (Yeager, p. 291).

8, 9 The fourth angel poured his vial out upon the sun; power was given the sun to scorch (kaumatisai from kaumatizo - burn) men with fire. Even though the men were plagued with sores, saw the oceans and waters turned to blood, were made to drink blood and now scorched with heat (lit. scorched with a great scorching) from the sun, they failed to repent (ou metenoesan from meta + voeo - change one's mind) and give glory to God. The sun, an instrument of blessing, can become also the instrument of suffering; that same sun may blast and wither, instead of stimulating to growth and clothing with beauty. Malachi 4:2 reads, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings..." Surely the unsaved knew something supernatural was taking place, yet they found no place to repent. Their hardened hearts were unable to change and give glory to Jehovah God, but rather they blasphemed Him. After all we know that the ability to repent comes from God; the Holy Spirit is the One Who convicts of sin. It was too late, they had received the mark of the Beast and were under his complete sway.

10, 11 The fifth angel poured his vial out upon the throne (thronon from thronos - seat of authority) of the Beast, and great darkness (eskotomene from skoteo - blackness) fell upon him, and his worshipers grawed (emasonto from massaomai - chewed) their tongues for pain (both psychical and physical). Their minds (sanity) as well as their bodies were affected. The people were in the most intense and excruciating agony. They continued to blaspheme (eblasphemesan from blasphemeo - curse; speak evil of) God because of their pain and sores, but they did not repent of their evil deeds. A supernatural gigantic power failure took place upon the earth. The ninth plague (Exodus 10:21 - 23) sent upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians was "darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt." Scott thinks the darkness here is moral rather than physical (p. 330).

12 The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the river Euphrates which was dried up that the way of the kings of the east (sun-rising) might be prepared (etoimasthe from etoimazo - made ready). Lindsey calls these people of the east the "Yellow Terror" (p. 209). "The Euphrates River rises in the mountains of Armenia Major and flows through Assyria, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the city of Babylon, from seventeen hundred to eighteen hundred miles into the Persian Gulf. It receives its waters from the Tigris and other small tributaries like the Chebar" (Unger, p. 328). In World Wars I and II "eastern armies marching westward had problems in crossing (the Euphrates), but nothing like the problem to be faced by vast movements of Oriental troops from India, China, Japan and other Oriental countries, which will be marching to Jerusalem to attack Israel and her Messiah" (Yeager, p. 298). Smith writes, "That river, in ancient times, separated the barbarous and hostile heathen nations of the far East from the territory and people of Israel. It was the boundary line between that which represented, on the one side, the true religion and the true civilization, and that which represented, on the other, heathenism and barbarism" (p. 226).

13, 14 John now saw three unclean (akatharta from a + kathairo - foul; filthy) spirits, like frogs (creatures of filth and dirt and slime and of the night), each coming out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet. Summers calls these three frogs "Satan's recruiting agents" representing some form of evil propaganda (p. 187, 189). They were spirits of demons (daimonion - devils) working miracles (signs); they went forth unto the kings of the whole earth to gather them to the battle (polemon - war; military conflict) of the great day of God Almighty. These three unclean spirits represent three great forces - the Satanic, denoted by the dragon; the worldly, in its most dreaded aspect, as represented by those world-powers which were most rapacious and deadly; and the deluding, whether seen in the false Christianity which has deceived such myriads of human souls, or the more openly antichristian manifestation which grow out of it in various forms of fanaticism, or those in unbelief.

That great day is the Day of Armageddon. One is reminded of Zechariah 14:1, 3, 4 where God says, "Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee...Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And his feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in its midst toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south."

15, 16 Smith says that verse 15 is parenthetical. "Behold, I come as a thief, Blessed is he that watcheth (gregoron from gregoreo - is vigilant), and keepeth (teron from tereo - preserves) his garments, lest he walk naked (aschemosunen - exposed), and they see his shame." Both Paul and Peter write of this same coming of the Lord. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. I Thessalonians 5:2, 4 read, "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night...But, ye brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." II Peter 3:10 reads, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, and the works that are in it, shall be burned up." To those who are anticipating the Second Coming of our Lord, it should not come as a thief in the night; however, to those who are not looking for Him, He will come (unexpectedly) as a thief. There are many passages in the New Testament that admonish the child of God to watch. Yeager writes, "Those who teach that the rapture is simultaneous with the revelation and that it comes on the last day of the tribulation week, have no difficulty in showing that all of the children of God will have had three and one half years (in the case of Bible taught Christians, seven years) in which to prepare for the coming of the Lord" (p. 302). Armageddon is referred to in Judges 5:19; II Kings 9:27; 23:29; and Zechariah 12:1. The word Harmageddon means the Mount (Hill) of Mageddon. Megiddo was a strategic point in the protection of Israel and Judah, since it guarded the northern entrance to Israel. Unger writes, "Megiddo occupied a very marked position on the southern rim of the plain of Esdraelon, the great battlefield of Palestine...To John the Revelator the ancient plain of Megiddo, the battle ground of the centuries, furnished a fit type of the great battle in which the Lord, at His advent of glory, will deliver the Jewish remnant besieged by the Gentile world powers under the Beast and the False Prophet" (p. 89). The Valley of Megiddo lies southwestward from the Plain of Jezreel toward Joppa and the modern cities of Tel-Aviv and Haifa. The prophet Joel writes of the armies of the Antichrist assembled at the huge Armegeddon Esdraelon-Jezreel-Jordan valley-plain, "I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and will judge them there for my people and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land." He further states in detail (9 - 14) how the judgment will take place concluding in verse 14, "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision."

17, 18 The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there was a great voice out of the temple of heaven and the throne which said, "It has been done" (gegonen from ginomai - happened). There were other voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake more devastating than man had ever seen before. Earthquakes are an everyday occurrence throughout the world; the Bible speaks of earthquakes both in the Old Testament and the New Testament - Exodus 19:16 - 19; I Kings 19:11, 12; Isaiah 29:6; Matthew 24:7; 27:54 and others. John writes of earthquakes in Revelation 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; the one in 16:18, 19 is the greatest of all. Since we are told that Satan is the god of this earth and the prince of the power over the air (Ephesians 2:2) this plague seems to be directed to him.

19 - 21 The great city was divided into three parts; furthermore, all cities of the nations fell. Commentators are divided as to what city is meant here - Rome, Babylon, Jerusalem. Great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of the wrath of God. Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Besides there was great hail that fell out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. After all of this men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail which was exceedingly great. It is assumed the great city was Jerusalem. There are fault lines in and around Jerusalem. Zechariah 14:4, 5 speak of Jerusalem being divided by an earthquake, "And (Messiah's) feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in its midst toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel; yea, ye shall flee, as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah; and the Lord, my God, shall come, and all the saints with thee." Apparently Babylon will receive as bad or worse treatment as will Jerusalem. Islands will flee away (ephugen from epheugo - escape) possibly shaken down (become submerged) and cast under the sea; mountains will not be found (eurethesan from eurisko) possibly be shaken down. Weymouth translates this phrase, "there was not a mountain anywhere to be seen." Goodspeed writes, "the mountains disappeared." The earthquake seems to be on a world-wide scale and of great intensity.

Hail stones (talantaia from talantiaios - the weight of a talent) fell (katabainei from katabaino - descended) from heaven. Talents were the weight of money - in the Palestine or Syrians weight - 3000 shekels or in the Greek weight -- 6000 drachmas. The Revised Standard Version says, "heavy as a hundred-weight." Moulton and Milligan describe the hail stones as ranging from 108 to 130 pounds. Such destruction is almost unimaginable; the property damage to buildings, cars, and people would be incalculable. There was an incident in Joshua 10 where God vindicated Gideon and his men when the Lord cast down great (hail) stones from heaven upon the enemy and "...they were more who died with hailstones than they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword" (Joshua 10:11).

"Day of anger! Day of wonder!
When the earth shall rend asunder,
Smote with hail, and fire, and thunder!