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.” Revelation
16:1
The final
trifecta of judgment, the Seven Bowls of God’s wrath, appear in
Revelation 16. They are:
·
Bowl #1 – Sores on people who
have mark of the beast.
·
Bowl #2 – Sea turn to blood.
·
Bowl #3 – Rivers and springs turn
to blood.
·
Bowl #4 – Sun scorches.
·
Bowl #5 – Darkness.
·
Bowl #6 – Euphrates dries up.
Demonic spirits sent out. Armageddon.
·
Bowl #7 – Severe earthquake
(islands and mountains gone). Huge 100 pound hailstorms.
Could all of these really
happen? If all the oceans/rivers
literally turned to blood people on earth would die in 3 days. The impending heat at bowl #4 would guarantee
that. Why would the Euphrates drying up
make a difference after all of this and who would be left for the earthquake to
really matter? Plus, the earth was already
pounded with 7 Seals and 7 Trumpets.
Many of the bowl descriptions
allude to Old Testament plagues and punishments, especially Moses with the
sores, water turning to blood, darkness, frogs and hail. John wants the reader to recall the power of
what God was able to do to judge the people for their disobedience. Remember, Jerusalem was a crime scene—they
murdered Jesus Christ!
The concept of a "bowl of
wrath" is found in other places where God was angry at Jerusalem.
Awake, awake!
Rise
up, O Jerusalem,
you who
have drunk from the hand of the LORD
the cup
of his wrath,
you who
have drained to its dregs
the
goblet that makes men stagger.
Of all the sons she bore
there
was none to guide her;
of all
the sons she reared
there was none to take her by the hand.
These double calamities have come upon you—
who can
comfort you?—
ruin
and destruction, famine and sword—
who can
console you?
Your sons have fainted;
they
lie at the head of every street,
like
antelope caught in a net.
They
are filled with the wrath of the LORD
and the
rebuke of your God.
Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
made
drunk, but not with wine.
This is what your Sovereign LORD says,
your God,
who defends his people:
"See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup
that made you stagger;
from
that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will
never drink again.
I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
who
said to you,
'Fall
prostrate that we may walk over you.'
And you
made your back like the ground,
like a street to be walked
over." Isaiah 51:17-23
This is what the LORD, the God of
Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my
wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. When they drink it, they will stagger and go
mad because of the sword I will send among them.”
So I took the cup from the LORD’s
hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it: Jerusalem and the
towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of
horror and scorn and cursing, as they are today...“Then tell them, ‘This is
what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit,
and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.’ But if
they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, ‘This is what
the LORD Almighty says: You must drink it!
See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name,
and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling
down a sword upon all who live on the earth, declares the LORD Almighty.’ Jeremiah 25:15-18, 27-29
John reminded his readers of the
bowls of God's wrath poured on the city of Jerusalem before. These bowls point to a new pouring of wrath
out on Jerusalem.
Figuratively these 7 bowls
express the extent of God’s wrath that will be fulfilled both near and
far. Near, on Jerusalem in 70 AD and
far, when God finally destroys the earth.
It will always be for the same sins—having other gods before the one
true God.