Revelation
Chapter 16
This chapter is a continuation of things to come concerning the
thousand-year reign of Christ. It begins to unfold those events clear up to the
final judgment and battle that is known in the Word as Armageddon.
However, just as the time for the sounding of the seventh trumpet has not
yet arrived, so to the pouring out of the seventh plague must await its assigned
hour for they both represent the final judgment of all… both man and angel.
In the meantime the kingdom of God moves along its assigned path in its
preordained manner precisely on its divinely prescribed timetable.
Rev 16:1
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." NIV
This voice from the temple would be Christ. We know this because Christ directs Gods wrath, which is why
He was the only one able to break the seals in chapter five.
Rev 5:5
Then one of the elders said to me, "Do not weep! See,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to
open the scroll and its seven seals."
NIV
Then in chapter six which gave us more information on this subject it
speaks of the sea, or general population, which runs in fear of the events
unfolding before them:
Rev 6:15
Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals,
the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among
the rocks of the mountains. NIV
Remember, mountains represent governments, so the sea or population that
is not part of the family of God look to their leaders for help and protection.
However, there is no help or protection for them, for these governments cannot
help themselves, let alone anyone else.
Rev 6:16-17
16
They
called to the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the
face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb!
17 For the great day of their wrath has
come, and who can stand?" NIV
Notice that we are told, in verse 16, that all this comes “…from
the wrath of the Lamb!”
and in verse 17 we are told, “The
great day of their wrath has come.”
It
might also be pointed out here, that again, the Bible makes a distinct
separation between the living entities of God Almighty and His only begotten
Son… by the use of the words “Their wrath."
That
wrath now takes on a distinct form, about which the whole House of Israel had
been forewarned.
The
first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores
broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
NIV
The
warning concerned those that did not live up to the agreement with God was laid
out in no uncertain terms in Deuteronomy chapter 28, from which a sample is
given below.
Deuteronomy
28:27-29
27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils
of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be
cured.
28 The LORD will afflict you with madness,
blindness and confusion of mind. 29
At midday
you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in
everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one
to rescue you. NIV
Deuteronomy
28:59
The LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your
descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.
NIV
In
other words, God held Israel more responsible than the pagan nations.
This was because they knew the difference, for it was God Himself who had
given them the law to live under and had warned them what would happen if they
did not abide by that law. This
was the same divinely given law, by the way, that the nation of Israel had, on
three separate occasions, taken an oath to follow.
Notice
also in Rev 16: 2 that the plagues from the first bowl do not affect those that
are of the family of God but are reserved for “The
people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.”
Just as the angels of death passed over those with the blood of a lamb
sprinkled on their doorframes during the last plague in Egypt, before the
Pharaoh released the people that were led to freedom by Moses. Which, by the
way, gives the symbolism of the Passover far greater meaning than previously
thought. The symbolism here is that Christians are marked with the blood of the
Messiah, not on their doorframes but on their foreheads.
However,
before we fall into the trap of taking what is being said literally, let us look
at the next verse in chapter 16 of Revelation.
The
second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that
of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. NIV
Now,
why is verse 3 saying, “Blood like that of a dead man?”
Is there something different about the blood of the dead man?
There most certainly is: in a dead man… the blood:
HAS NO LIFE IN IT.
For
the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make
atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for
one's life. NIV
In
the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the
new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."
NIV
Christ’s
life was poured out for the ransom of mankind from death, which is why Christ
also said…
54 Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at
the last day.
55 For
my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
NIV
So
the sea or mankind in general dies in verse 3 because Satan is locked up and not
able to deceive the nations at that time which means that only truth is given or
spread throughout the world. The lies or false doctrines spread by Satan and his
cohorts are shown up to be what they really are, lifeless and without value.
1 And
I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and
holding in his hand a great chain.
2 He
seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound
him for a thousand years.
3 He
threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from
deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that,
he must be set free for a short time.
NIV
Notice…
“To keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were
ended.” Since the sea belongs to Satan, and during the thousand year
reign of Christ, Satan is not able to deceive the nations, his organization dies,
because not only is there none to lead it, but mainly God’s truth overshadows
and lays bare the lies that Satan’s organization was founded on.
The
third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they
became blood. NIV
6 He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?"
8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."
11 "Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"
13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." NIV
Then
I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: "You are just in these
judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged;
NIV
For
they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them
blood to drink as they deserve." NIV
Now,
not only this angel, but also the whole body of saints that were told to wait a
little longer for the vengeance and vindication of His word, agree with this
plague of blood put on the world, for John here says…
And
I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your
judgments." NIV
Why are saints, who John first saw under the altar saying, “True and just are your judgments” in verse 7 above? Remember the saints that were killed for their faith in chapter six.
9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.
10 They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" NIV
Well,
they were told to wait, and here in chapter 16, as more details are added, they
are shown how God judges the whole world. It is as these saints proclaim… a
judgment that is “True
and just” because the judgment is not simply a punishment, but an
instruction and a correction as well. Who but the Creator would have thought of
this?
It also adds information as to why these saints were calling for vengeance to begin with, for as Christians they would have long since forgiven their enemies. But now they are under the wing of God, protected from everything and able to see and talk to our Creator, and have now developed an insight into His actions and they wanted to know how His word would be vindicated. The same word they had willingly spilled their life’s blood for.
Well now, I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I can see judgment taking on a whole new meaning here. True, God is using judgment to punish, but He is mainly using it to instruct, to teach, to correct. That truly does make it just; it truly does make judgment from God Holy, because it is a punishment that is distinct, a one of a kind punishment that only He could administer. And in the end, it is a punishment… designed to heal. A punishment designed to bring all men to an understanding of His word, his purpose and His kingdom. The saints who had given up their life’s blood for that word is, in verse 7, praising the judgment that God deals out to the world.
Psalms 149: 6-9
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,
That
double-edged sword that we know protrudes from the mouth of God’s Son, which
is the Word of God.
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD. NIV
Isaiah 35:4
Say to those with fearful hearts, "Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you." NIV
“Divine Retribution!” Retribution means to repay, but added to this payment is a payback that is also divinely inspired so much so that it is designed to heal as well as punish.
Isaiah 34:8
For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion. RSV
Notice,
“For
the cause of Zion” or in different words for the cause of the kingdom
of God, and the purpose of God, which He has not forgotten in His wrath.
Also, although everyone thinks all this is going to happen overnight or in
one day, notice “…A day of vengeance, a year of
recompense… ”
That
it speaks of a year means that God is speaking of a period of time for all this
to take place.
Well now, let's look at the rest of the bowls in this light and see how they also, are divinely “True and just” and understand that God has said vengeance is mine because only He is capable of administering it correctly to serve the end that He has ordained from the beginning.
For
the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
NKJV
We know that Christ is armed with the double edge sword of truth that protrudes from His mouth. So how does Christ break these kingdoms of man into pieces that are consumed by God’s fiery refinement? He simply does it with truth! To give you an idea of how that comes about, look at a teaching from the Catholic Church that was drastically altered recently.
For Centuries, the Catholic Church has taught that God has a fiery place called hell where He will torture and torment unwanted and sinful souls forever. But in 1999, the Pope declared that hell was NOT a place of fiery torment but a separation from God, which is what the Bible has been saying all along. So in spite of themselves, the truth will be injected into the teachings of man even when they themselves do not understand it.
Now let us go back and look at the final line to verse 2:45 in Daniel as Daniel told king Nebuchadnezzar…
"The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy." NIV
Now back in chapter 16 of Revelation… since God is scorching mankind with the fire of refinement, which turns out to be light and truth designed to bring all the nations of the world under His healing power, one would think that everything would be just fine from then on, but we find, that is not the case. God will not force mankind to love and honor Him and His Son, and since this is the case, we still have the God-given free will of man to deal with. And we are told that not all men will want this water of life that God is so freely offering. For in speaking of many of the sea in general, Revelation says:
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. NIV
It is obvious by the above scripture that, just as today, there will be many who do not want to listen to the truth as God has given it to us.
The
fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was
plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony
NIV
Now that “Men gnawed their tongues in
agony” is the beginning of the sentence
that is carried on in verse 11 means that no matter how hard they try to change
or alter the truth of God’s Word at that time, they will not be successful at
their attempts to inject falsehood into truth.
Now because of that we are told, as verse 11 continues the thought, that “They
gnawed their tongues in agony” …
11 and
cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they
refused to repent of what they had done. NIV
Now if this all seems strange to you, that in a time when peace and
security through truth, granted by God across the whole world, is somehow
rejected by the nations in general, think back to the time when all this began.
Back to the Garden of Eden when two people that were created physically
perfect also rejected that word from their creator.
They did so because it was in their hearts to do what someone else
(Satan) said was so.
So
these scriptures are telling us that it is what is in the heart of a person that
God reads and knows. This is why
the river Euphrates is mentioned in the next verse.
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.
NIV
Here in this narrative, we are faced with something that is absolutely and
clearly in the distant future. Again,
we are told of this in symbolic language so that even though this has not
happened yet, we can visualize the events they are depicting.
Revelation 16:13
Then
I saw three evil 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. NIV
Frogs have, through the ages, represented something that was ugly, i.e. the
beautiful princess had to kiss the ugly frog to turn him back into a handsome
prince. So here, in verse 13, the
frog symbolizes three ugly governments because they represent opposition to
God’s kingdom. They come into
existence at the future time when Satan, at the end of the thousand years, is
released from his prison for a short period. It is here that we see the wisdom
of God releasing Satan and his demons for this short time to do their very
worst, for it is this that predicates the judgment of the seventeenth verse of
this chapter. The next verse in Rev
16 tells us who controls these frogs.
14 They
are spirits of demons performing miraculous 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. NIV
"Spirits
of demons” leaves
absolutely no doubt as to their identity. Now
these demons have known all along this time was coming and they have dreaded and
feared it.
28 When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way.
29
"What
do you want with us, Son of God?" they shouted. "Have you come here to
torture us before the appointed time?" NIV
"Behold,
I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with
him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."
NIV
Now according to these scriptures, the return of Christ does not occur
until the end of the thousand years that He reigns, which means that Christ reigns
during that thousand years, as he does at this time in history, Spiritually.
Later in Revelation we learn that not only Christ, but His Father as well,
take up residence with mankind.
Nonetheless,
we are being told here of the war between what Satan and his forces can muster
and the Creator of the universe along with His Son. This is a spiritual war that Christians can only observe for
the forces joined are much too powerful for man.
Just the same, Christ is telling us that we have to be ready for this and
dressed in the Armor of God to survive it.
Remember in verse 14 of this chapter, we were told that the demon spirits
are out in force performing miracles to deceive. “They
are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs.”
Without the Armor of God, one could easily fall victim to these powers.
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 “Therefore
put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be
able to stand your ground, …” NIV
Revelation 16:16
Then
they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called
Armageddon. NIV
Now, the place known as Armageddon is also a symbolic place, for it really
represents the whole surface of the earth.
And this is attested to in the next verse that describes the pouring out
of judgment, as most people understand the term or word judgment as men use that
word.
17 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!" NIV
What is done? Everything is
done that has been plaguing man since Adam and Eve.
Everything… including death itself!
13 The
sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that
were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.
For those that claim salvation has nothing to do with your works are quite correct. Salvation stands all by itself! Salvation was accomplished by Christ for all mankind, every single individual who ever did or ever will exist. Notice however, “Each person was judged according to what he had done."
15
If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into
the lake of fire. NIV
In other words, destroyed! This
includes, of course, Satan and the demons that followed him. As all this is
taking place, we are told:
Then
there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe
earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth,
so tremendous was the quake.
NIV
Again, earthquakes represent the shaking up of world governments. Peals of
thunder represent the voice of God, and lightning the actions of God concerning
what He is doing. The verse is
telling us that God restores or rearranges things to the order that He has
declared He wants. All this as a
result of His judgment and the next verse tells us the results of that judgment.
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. NIV
The great city here represents those kingdoms created by Satan and his
demons. But we are told they collapse. In fact God remembers Babylon the Great
and she does not escape his wrath. The
result of this is that:
Revelation 16:20
Every
island fled away and the mountains could not be found. NIV
No
tiny out of the way nation (Island) or any major government (Mountain) survives
this wrath of God; they are all destroyed and consumed by the Word.
Remember,
the water that turned to blood (Rev 16:6) and destroys all the governments of
the world except for the one that is ordained, which is the kingdom of God
spoken of way back in Daniel 2:44
Revelation 16:21
From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible. NIV
The hailstones represent the weight of huge doses of truth that cannot be ignored. Truth can be a terrible thing to deal with when you have built your whole life on a lie.
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