Welcome to The MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my 161st episode. In this episode I want to continue with our study of the book of Revelation. We are in chapter 16. This chapter presents an astonishing display of God’s wrath against the wicked. One of the most startling aspects of this chapter is how the wicked refuse to repent under the weight of these judgments, but rather they double down on their hatred of God. That’s a crucially important point to bear in mind anytime you watch God’s wrath be poured out – the subjects of His wrath could receive forgiveness in an instant should they turn away from evil and embrace God. I’m sure you’ve met someone who lives a life of extraordinary misery which could easily be remedied should this person simply turn away from their self-inflicted damage. For many reasons this person refuses to do so and instead allows bitterness and resentment to take hold of his or her heart. I suspect the same is true of those who receive the wrath of God in this chapter. They could escape to glorious salvation at a moment’s notice, but for whatever reason their preference is to remain locked inside their own self-made hell. Perhaps their reason has to do with power. They would rather be their own gods in hell than submit to Jesus Christ in heaven.
In this chapter the wrath of God proceeds to be poured out from the seven bowls which are also called the seven vials. There is no part of the wicked empire which goes untouched by this wrath. We need to make an important distinction here. The target of God’s wrath is the human system of evil constructed in the midst of idolatry. The target is not God’s creation itself. If you choose to interpret this chapter literally, God uses His creation to punish the wicked in this chapter but it’s important to remember He’s not punishing the creation itself. It’s true the creation groans and yearns for the day its Creator will establish His perfect rule and re-balance the cosmos. The creation suffers because of humanity’s sin and so it longs for the day that God’s redemption will restore paradise once more. In this chapter the creation is more like a tool being used for God’s purposes here than it is the victim of God’s collateral damage. It’s brutally unfair how evil people abuse God’s creation but there is serenity in the knowledge that God is completely and consistently sovereign over everything. The creation desires nothing more than for its Creator to execute His purpose for it. I believe that all life – apart from the wicked among humanity and among the angels – yearns in their deepest being to be back home with their Creator. So when you witness widespread death and destruction among the creation – understand that not even one bird falls to the ground without the Father knowing about it. He is there with all of them and you can be certain that He loves and cares for His creation even more than you do.
In this chapter the wickedness of humanity had reached full fruition and it was time for God’s inescapable wrath to surround them. It was poured out on the earth. It was poured out on the sea. It was poured out on the rivers and the waters. It was poured out on the sun. It was poured out with specific purpose on the Euphrates river. And it was even poured out on the air itself. For the past few chapters we’ve been discussing how God’s judgment against the wicked is a blessing for the faithful. The same holds true here and we see the angels praising God for His righteousness. The chapter closes with a specific reminder of Babylon, which is to suggest the primary sin which provoked God’s wrath was human arrogance and idolatry. Idolatrous pride is the original sin which is the center of gravity for all godlessness. It is the most prominent barrier which must be broken in order for an individual to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Let’s begin with verses 1-7:
Rev 16:1 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.”
Rev 16:2 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.
Rev 16:3 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.
Rev 16:4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood.
Rev 16:5 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;
Rev 16:6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.”
Rev 16:7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
We’ve been building up to this moment and the previous chapter was a preparation for the execution of God’s judgment. These verses mark the commencement of that work. Although they were prepared, the angels didn’t make a single move until they received the command from God. Once the command was given their obedience was immediate. No questions were asked, no objections were made, and there were no hesitations. They understood that God’s judgment is perfect. This immediate obedience is one of the characteristics which distinguishes angels from human beings. Even the best among humanity are often doubtful and scared when it comes to executing God’s will for their lives. But the angels pulled the trigger on this series of judgments exactly when God told them to. Imagine the faith it takes to do something like that. It’s easy to obey God when God’s command is obviously good in your own eyes. But what about when God’s command appears radical or terrifying? In these moments we must depend on the goodness of God rather than our own understanding of His purposes. We pray for God’s will to be done even when His will means astonishing judgment not because we understand His grand design but because we have faith that God Himself is good. If God commands it then it must end in ultimate goodness even if we can’t see how that will happen.
Some of the plagues the angels released on humanity were similar to those released on Egypt. Their skin was diseased with boils and sores and their water was turned to blood. It’s likely these references are meant to show us how humanity’s sins in this era are not unlike humanity’s sins in ancient Egypt. The seven bowls or vials are probably meant to parallel the seven trumpets. The seven trumpets ushered in the rise of the Antichrist and the seven bowls of wrath usher in his destruction. We’ve watched God work in this way before. Peter denied Christ three times and as part of Peter’s redemption Christ asked Peter three times if Peter loved Him. The enemies of the Church rose to prominence in multiple stages and so God would bring them down in a similar manner. This destruction will be so thorough and so complete that the enemies of God will never rise again. Their collapse is so universal that even the creation around them is given over to ruin. In my opinion this is a commentary on the pervasive toxicity of sin itself. If a population gives itself over to sin they end up destroying themselves and everything around them. The creation groans and suffers through the sins of humanity.
The first bowl of wrath is poured out on the earth. This means it impacted every godless person including those from common socioeconomic status to even high ranking members of the clergy. Your status didn’t matter if you were unfaithful to God. The first bowl of wrath brought sores and boils to all who had taken on the mark of the beast. They had separated themselves from the faithful by the mark of their idolatry and now God had marked them with visible disease to indicate their separation for judgment. Sin begins inside our own hearts and often it’s invisible to our neighbors. But it’s not invisible to God and as sin progresses it takes you over like a disease – which might be why God allowed these people’s idolatry to first manifest itself as boils and sores. Perhaps He was bringing their attention to the fact that something had gone seriously wrong with their spirits and this spiritual malady would not be restrained from degrading even their physical bodies.
The second bowl of wrath is poured out on the sea. You can interpret this literally if you wish to – and a literal interpretation would certainly be consistent with our theme of human sin causing a negative impact on the creation – but another interesting way of thinking about it is to suggest the sea is a symbolic representation of a false religion. Under the leadership of the Antichrist and his false prophet, the idolaters had immersed themselves in a false reality which so completely engulfed them their worldview would have been to them as the sea is to marine life. Everything they perceived from day-to-day was interpreted through the pathological filter of a false religion. Their motive for establishing and enforcing a moral structure was not to glorify God – rather it was motivated by their own lust for power. So the rules of the day and the fatal blasphemies were determined by whatever conditions they needed to implement in order to maintain their wicked economies of prestige and power.
The godless shut their eyes to objective truth and willingly inhabited a pseudo-reality, the characteristics of which were set down by the priesthood of the idolatrous cult. This pseudo-reality is the thing which is so encompassing that it might as well be like the sea itself. If the Antichrist or his corrupt minister said something was real, you either shut off your senses and agreed with the fiction or else you were persecuted for following the truth of Jesus Christ. Does all of this sound familiar? It should. It’s the same pattern which constitutes every historical dictatorship and it’s the very same pattern which is blossoming in the western world at this moment. It’s the same pattern which always ends badly and it ended badly in this passage as well. The sea was turned to blood and every living soul under the sea died. Another way of thinking about it is that the blinders were taken off and the pseudo-realistic narrative was exposed as the fatal concoction of lies that it always was. In this way God exposed how their religion was not only false but it was actively toxic to their spiritual condition. The anti-christian cult was poisoning its followers with the very ideas it claimed would lead to the salvation of themselves and their societies. Again, does this sound familiar? Because it should.
The third bowl of wrath was poured out upon the rivers and the streams – and these too became blood. Where the sea is the false religion, the rivers and the streams might symbolize the clergy of this false religion. They are constantly feeding it with lies as a river or tributary feeds a body of water. The priesthood of the idolatrous cult would naturally seek to destroy authentic Christian ministers because of their fundamental conflict in worldviews. The angel of the waters praises God’s judgment against these false prophets because His judgment avenges the martyred saints. You’ve likely heard of the various cults and cult leaders who have become infamous in American history. People like Jim Jones and David Koresh among others. It never ends well for these kinds of leaders and it often ends badly for their followers as well. They are destroyed by their ideological constructs the moment the truth re-asserts itself over their fictitious narrative. That kind of thing is no different than what we’re seeing in this passage where the clergy is exposed and they are consumed by their own pathological toxicity. None who openly defy God can escape such a fate. Let’s read verses 8-11:
Rev 16:8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.
Rev 16:9 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.
Rev 16:10 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,
Rev 16:11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
You could take this passage literally in which it means something would happen to the sun to cause it to burn those it shines down on. But I think another interesting way to interpret it is to suggest the sun is a symbol for the religious leadership of the idolaters. No one in their right mind would join a cult that has nothing to offer but pain right from the beginning. Cult leaders seduce their potential followers by providing a warm influence in their lives. They know how to make you feel important, valued, and loved. It’s not until you fall far enough down the rabbit hole that the mask comes off and the sun which once warmed you turns into a scorching fire which burns you. When the truth about the Antichrist is revealed many people will understand their mistake in viewing him as a benevolent leader. Similar to every other cult, the clergy of the Antichrist will likely use its power and authority to suppress dissent among the people. It’s very difficult – and might be impossible – to maintain an authoritarian regime without some form of censorship. But even after the tyranny clamps down the people who fell for the lies will remain steadfast in their refusal to repent of their own sins. They’ll understand that something has gone terribly wrong but they won’t look inward. They will blame God. They will curse at God with blasphemies and this reaction will cause their hearts to become even more hardened.
The fifth bowl of wrath is poured out onto the seat of the beast or the head of the anti-christian empire. It’s possible the seat of power is a city and this city would have been the hub of anti-christian policy, education, and social status. You can think of this like the empire’s capital city. The fifth bowl of wrath brings darkness to this city which I think symbolizes the realization that it’s efforts at idolatrous enlightenment had really been fueling a destruction of understanding. The darkness shows how the anti-christian regime is far from wisdom, brilliance, or honor. Humanity repeatedly falls into the trap of believing they can construct a great civilization without God. This attitude of thinking we are beyond God cuts us off from spiritual nourishment and this lack of nourishment is followed by mental anguish and spiritual vexation. First we blame society for fostering widespread mental illness. When that doesn’t work we declare that mental illness isn’t disordered at all – and if you suggest that it is you must be a bigot. These societal trends represent our futile, thrashing efforts to live a blessed life without submission to God. They have never worked and they never will work. All that ends up happening is we invite a whole host of problems into our communities which merely serve to undermine stability and prosperity. But we fail to see what’s right in front of us because doing so requires us to look inward and admit we aren’t the very reference point for perfection. We fail to see because we refuse to repent – just like the people described in this passage. Let’s read verses 12-16:
Rev 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.
Rev 16:13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
Rev 16:14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
Rev 16:15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”)
Rev 16:16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.
The sixth bowl of wrath was poured out on the Euphrates river. If this passage is interpreted literally, it would suggest an opening for the movement of an eastern power. I’ve heard some Christians argue for this eastern power being China – but I’m not going to plant interpretive flags in areas I’m not certain of. I think a safe understanding of this passage is to think of it in terms of economic distress. Rivers like the Euphrates were indispensable for ancient trade cities and merchant societies. Trade routes produced all manner of wealth, provisions, and luxuries for ancient people. If the Euphrates river were dried up it would certainly cause ancient markets to crash in a big way. So we might think of the drying of the Euphrates as some major event which would reshape the global economic picture. I know you’re probably thinking about the coronavirus and the rise of China. I don’t blame you for thinking that. I would just urge caution when declaring the fulfillment of prophecy in your own time.
At any rate it seems clear that Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet will take advantage of this moment in an effort to regather their power. The instruments of Hell will combine with the secular influence of the Antichrist and the ecclesiastical deception of the false prophet to produce a global power sufficient to engage in a great battle. People will be gathered into forces for wickedness by way of deception and fake miracles. These lies will be so potent that I’m not sure anyone who doesn’t know Christ will be able to resist them. Imagine the most clever propaganda you’ve ever heard produced by the father of lies himself. Once the forces are gathered there will be a battle in a place called Armageddon. It’s possible this place is the valley of Megiddo where Barak overcame Sisera in the book of Judges and also where Judah’s King Josiah was slain. If our understanding of this prophecy is correct, then the final battle between the Church and the powers of Hell will be played out at Megiddo. The Church, under the divine leadership of King Jesus, will be victorious. As far as Revelation is concerned we won’t see this battle unfold until the 19th chapter.
In this passage Christ gives us a warning about this battle in that we should always stand prepared for it. It will happen suddenly and unexpectedly – Christ will come like a thief in the night. Christians are admonished to remain clothed, armed, and ready for it so that we are not taken by surprise. We can think of this ever-present readiness in terms of the final battle at Megiddo, but I think we should walk in readiness for as many trials as possible. Our entire lives will be fraught with temptations to sin or to fall into deception so we must be ready to identify the traps. We will be persecuted by the enemies of God and therefore should be ready to defend the cause of the Church at a moment’s notice. Life is full of trials and challenges and whether or not we are prepared for them will play a huge role in how we ultimately walk through them. Your demonstration of valiant faith might be what it takes to turn someone away from their path to destruction. You just don’t know – and so you should do everything you can to remain razor sharp. Let’s read verses 17-21:
Rev 16:17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.”
Rev 16:18 And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty.
Rev 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.
Rev 16:20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
Rev 16:21 And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, *came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague *was extremely severe.
The seventh bowl of wrath was poured out on the air. Scripture calls Satan the prince of the power of the air and so I think an adequate understanding of this passage is to suggest this bowl of wrath was targeted directly at Satan himself. In this crescendo of judgment I imagine many people will finally realize there are none who have power beyond the power God allows them to have. This seventh act in God’s divine judgment binds the power of Satan and neutralizes his plans. This moment in Scripture is one of the clearest explications of God’s superiority to Satan. Satan had done everything he could to give rise to an anti-christian empire. Undoubtedly he deceived billions of people with genius-level propaganda the likes of which we’d never witnessed before. All throughout history Satan has succeeded in hardening the hearts of humanity against God. An empire thousands of years in the making constructed by the father of lies himself could not stand even a moment in the light of holy truth. In just one whisper the seventh bowl was poured out and Satan’s future regime was utterly destroyed.
The heavenly host erupted in celebration and the church on earth rejoiced in the knowledge that God’s judgment was complete. The Church, who faithfully fought this age-old war for millennia, had been proven triumphant by the power of Jesus Christ. Peals of thunder and lightning broke out and an earthquake the likes of which had never happened before began to shake the world to its core. And then the target was moved to Babylon. Babylon’s great sins of pride and idolatry were not forgotten by God. We see Babylon split into three parts called the cities of the nations. I think this is in reference to their idolatrous worldview which must have been some kind of combination of three world-religions. After all, a clever lie usually contains some element of truth although such truth is twisted and warped. Babylon is given the cup of the wine of God’s fierce wrath. This is God’s judgment striking the heart of the anti-christian world system – a blow which delivered shocks to the furthest corners of the earth. The entire system was thrown into the air and disintegrated by the force of God’s wrath, falling back to earth in the same way massive hailstones would.
When we witness the awesome force of God’s wrath it’s tempting to pity Babylon and the wicked who abide there. But observe their response to God’s judgment. They don’t even consider repentance or turning to seek God’s forgiveness. When Jeremiah says the human heart is desperately wicked and who knows how bad it really is, I think this passage gives us a hint as to the depths of its depravity. These people hate God so much that they prefer an eternity in Hell over against standing in His presence and receiving His grace. And this passage proves the point that without the grace of God there is no recovery from our descent into evil. An integral part of God’s judgment is the opportunity to repent and seek forgiveness. When we experience God’s judgment for our sins we either get better or we get worse. I’ve often wondered why Satan tries to wage war on God at all. If he knows anything at all about God he must know his own defeat is a foregone conclusion. But I think it’s the deception that does this to us. The lies infect us so deeply that we convince ourselves of our own superiority and we convince ourselves that our war on God is not only justified – but will end in a favorable outcome for us. The fall of Babylon serves to show us the opposite is true. To harden your heart in enmity against God means to seal your own destruction.
That’s not a very optimistic evaluation of the human condition. But God, in His infinite wisdom, must know something about you that makes your salvation so valuable He gave His own life to deliver it. Jesus gave everything to heal the human heart and to transform you into who you were always meant to be. All you have to do is let Him do it. The wicked in Babylon were blind to what was right in front of them and so were the religious elite who crucified God. But you don’t have to be. Take a leap of faith and make today the first day that you seek Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You will find Him.
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