REVELATION: Bowls of Destruction

As mentioned before, we will see that chapter 16 draws a bleak picture of the world the people of Revelation endure.

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

I have heard discussion about the cultural possibilities of these “festering sores,” but I have never found a description I feel completely sold on from a historical perspective (not that they aren’t out there). I can say this would be a great opening description for somebody who knew their Text. Such a reference would take us back to the Exodus and its plagues (as we’ve seen before in Revelation), and a Jewish reader might think of Deuteronomy 28 where God warns His people of boils and sores for disobedience.

The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.

We see here yet another reference blatantly calling the reader back to the deliverance of the Exodus.

The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:

“You are just in these judgments, O Holy One,
    you who are and who were;
for they have shed the blood of your holy people and your prophets,
    and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”

And I heard the altar respond:

“Yes, Lord God Almighty,
    true and just are your judgments.”

And we have continued images of judgment and references to the Tanakh. Most study Bibles will even notice this reference calls us back to Isaiah 49 (and possibly others).

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.

As I pointed out previously, these images are deeply rooted in Hebrew Scriptures to the deliverance of God’s people; they do not evoke horror or terror to the reader. For many of us, we read Revelation and see the horrendous judgment of God, but for the first readers of this letter, they saw the promised deliverance of the faithful.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.

True to form, John continues to use consistent imagery from the plagues of the Exodus and the promises of Isaiah (and in this particular case, Isaiah 8). And as we’ve seen before, each of these references could teach even larger sermons by looking in the context of the reference. For example, when you see the reference to Isaiah 8, you would pay attention and notice that it comes at the close of a section about Assyria’s oppression and God’s deliverance. Simply reading the passage of reference adds layers to the Revelation teaching you never knew were there.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Then I saw three impure spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.

“Look, I come like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake and remains clothed, so as not to go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

More references to the Exodus can be seen here. And then John references the great “Armageddon.” But what many readers don’t know is that this reference does not speak forward to a futuristic battle, but rather backwards to battles long past. Armageddon is a reference to har megeddon, or “mountain of Meggido,” in the Hebrew. The city of Meggido was one of the fortress cities toward the northern part of the Via Maris — the great highway through the land of Israel. Battle after battle was fought in the Jezreel Valley, just outside of the mountain of Meggido. It becomes the perfect backdrop for John’s grand apocalyptic vision.

The Jezreel Valley, where battle after battle was fought in history

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!” Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since mankind has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, fell on people. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.

And here (as well as with the quote above about coming “like a thief”) we see references that we made earlier when we studied the letter to Sardis.

But we’ve now spent a handful of chapters talking about the many ways John has set up the great battle, the great competition, and the great games of light and darkness. Having just referenced the “mountain of Megiddo,” the stage is set well for us to begin to move toward the culmination of this battle. This image is where we will turn our attention to next.