Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 16:1)
A common theme among Millennial church goers is an absence of any semblance of concern for the apparent closeness of “the end of world.” Us Baby Boomers who spent some time in third grade practicing diving under our desks in case of nuclear attack ( I’m not kidding) and brought blankets and cans of beans for storage at school in case we were separated from our parents (again I’m not kidding), were quite cognizant of the existential, even imminent threat from the “dark side” parked some 90 miles away from the USA. I’m referring to the “Cuban Missile Crisis” (you’ll have to Google it). Maybe this hysterical upbringing made us more inclined to later pick up the book, “The Late Great Planet Earth,” and make doubly sure we were on the first flight out of here.
Serious reading through the Book of Revelation puts me back into that mindset. In no way do I want to be one of the “lucky” ones during this almost indescribable time of tribulation and retribution. But incredibly there will be those present who are signed up and sealed for kingdom passage, Jews (at least 144,000) and Gentiles alike, as amazing as this seems given the unparalleled reign of terror underway.
As if what John has already reported isn’t enough to get us to dive under our desks, we now hear about the contents in, and the consequences of, the seven bowls of judgment about to be dispensed. In “The Godfather” movies the acts of revenge are typically depicted in “staccato” fashion, with assassination after assassination. In this chapter one bowl after another is revealed without giving us time to catch our breath.
So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. (Revelation 16:2)
The first bowl causes all those with the mark of the beast to receive a “loathsome and malignant sore.” This incurable skin cancer will be ulcerous, oozing, and reprehensible. The pain and discharge from it will confound any attempt to conceal it. From this bowl forward, those with Satan’s mark will be obviously and conspicuously set apart for eternal suffering and damnation! This prospect is unsettling and disconcerting even to those of us who have been sealed by the Spirit of God to live eternally with Jesus. We must all take the “word of God” seriously and read the end of this story! Meaning the book of Revelation is required reading, and it’s anything but a fanciful allegory.
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died. (Revelation 16:3)
Similar to the plagues that struck the Egyptians (Exodus 7:17), the contents of the second bowl, “dead man’s blood” (as MacArthur describes it, “thick, dark, and coagulated”) is poured out “into the sea” by the second angel, and “every living thing in the sea died.” Some of us who live close to the Gulf of Mexico know what the “Red Tide” is like. The stench will be a million times stronger, with rotten fish on shores as far as the eye can see. This odious smell will be inescapable, another reminder of God’s judgment “in progress.”
Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. (Revelation 16:4)
Those of us who have a private water well are not at the mercy of the public water supply, as long as we have a functioning pump. Those who witness what has happened to the seas will quickly retreat to “rivers and springs of waters,” the target of the contents of the third bowl. Even these will produce contaminated “blood,” meaning in reality, most unsaved people will die of thirst within three days in the best of circumstances.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; 6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” 7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.” (Revelation 16:5–7)
At this point, true panic has got to have set in, but to add insult to injury, the righteous on earth and those in heaven hold a discussion on the irony of having only blood “on tap,” and that those who spilled the blood of the righteous—and Jesus—now have only it to drink! The retort is that “they deserve it,” meaning that the hand dealt—this particular “bowl” judgment—is only right and fitting.
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. 9 Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory. (Revelation 16:8–9)
By the Lord’s hands, all filtration of the sun’s rays is removed, causing “fierce heat.” Not only were they dealing with the cancerous sore with no water to cleanse it with, or to drink for that matter, they were totally exposed to intense heat, accelerating their demise. Yet in all of this, they did not appeal to God for mercy in the form of giving him glory. What’s obviously true is, if they had repented, they would have been saved! The “rich man” who was “in agony in these flames,” (see Luke 16:19-31) made his choice on earth, and sealed his fate. These people had one last opportunity to escape, and they squandered it by blaspheming God.
10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds. (Revelation 16:10–11)
Whereas there was fire and intense heat, the doomed will now experience it in utter darkness. It was like the damned were descending in real time into the pit of hell, but they did not cry out to be saved, but blasphemed on their way down. It’s amazing that they did not repent! It’s even more amazing that the offer of salvation still stood!
The bowl judgments apparently come in quick succession given the brevity of life under these horrid conditions. As to the grave consequences of these judgments, borrowing again from MacArthur, the intense heat will melt the ice of this earth and submerge great expanses of it. Everything points to the establishment of the resultant “kingdom on earth” on a much smaller patch of land. We’ve already discussed the billions who will succumb to all the previous judgments, and the sixth and seventh bowls await.
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