THE BOOK OF REVELATION PART 16

16 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

 

You recall that there were seven plagues on Egypt. Recall again, that Jerusalem is now the New Egypt and the plagues mirror the ones in Exodus. It could be argued, then, that the plagues of Egypt were a foreshadowing of the ultimate freeing of the slaves that takes place by the Old Covenant giving way to the New.

 

2 So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and foul and evil sores came upon the men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

 

Too much effort is put into trying to figure out just how the mark of the beast is actually physically applied to the person. Like we said before, modern day theories abound such as microchips etc... What is important is allegiance and worship. The crime is that some of the people of the old covenant gave their allegiance and even worship to Rome. What the specific sores were is anyone's guess. What is important is the reality that is being portrayed of a stubborn impenitence.

 

3 The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

 

4 The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of water say,

 

“Just art thou in these thy judgments, Thou who art and wast, O Holy One. 6 For men have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink. It is their due!”

 

The seas and rivers turning to blood harkens back to Egypt except, this time, it is their own blood that pollutes the waters. As Barber points out (Page 197), this fulfils the prophecy of Isaiah that they will be as drunk with their own blood as with wine (Is 49:26). As the Roman Navy attacked through the Mediterranean, people dove in the waters from the boats in a desperate attempt to swim to the shores to safety. They were peppered with arrows and spears, turning the water red with their blood. Josephus recounts this in vivid detail.

 

 

 

This idea of a city drunk with the blood of saints and prophets will be seen again in the next 2 chapters.

 

7 And I heard the altar cry,

 

“Yea, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are thy judgments!”

 

8 The fourth angel poured his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch men with fire; 9 men were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

 

The Temple siege began with a fire that was initiated on the 9th of AV, the very same day as the attack on the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 537 BC. In 70 AD, the 9th of AV was July 28th. The temple rotation was set to begin on the 9th of AV after the 537 BC siege. This is why we know Zechariah was in the temple on September 25th, 3BC and that Jesus was born 15 months later, on December 25th, 2BC.

 

 

 

The intense heat of summer would be unbearable in consideration that the people were fighting and fleeing for their lives and there was no fresh water because of the widespread contamination of the seas and rivers by blood. Add the intense heat of the fire and it was a truly awful situation.

 

10 The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was in darkness; men gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

 

In the aftermath of the death of Nero, the Roman empire was plunged into confusion and many believed it was on it's way to crashing. Even during the siege on Jerusalem, the Roman soldiers were out of control. For example, Josephus claims that the soldiers actually defied the orders of Titus to put out the fires as to not completely destroy the temple. Madness and rage reigned and the soldiers lost all control. The darkness of sin leads naturally to madness and uncontrollable violence. Barber points out that Josephus records that the depravity of the Romans was met and even surpassed by the Jews. You can get his book and read for yourselves. I'll spare you the grotesque details.

 

 

 

12 The sixth angel poured his bowl on the great river Euphra′tes, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

 

As discussed before, Roman legions did indeed attack from the east, crossing the Euphrates River. recall that Famine and Pestilence and Death were 3 of the 4 horsemen.

 

13 And I saw, issuing from the mouth of the dragon and from the mouth of the beast and from the mouth of the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs; 14 for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Lo, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is he who is awake, keeping his garments that he may not go naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armaged′don.

 

 

 

Armageddon is a place. It means Mountain of Megiddo. The multitude of Demonic frogs depict that this siege was driven by satan himself and those who took his mark were fully in his possession and acting under his control.

 

17 The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a great voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, loud noises, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; 21 and great hailstones, heavy as a hundredweight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.

 

The hailstones that each weighed a talent (about 100 pounds) are surely an allusion to the huge rocks hurled by the Roman catapults. Notice that the phenomena are exactly the same (including the great "hail storm") that we see as the New Ark of the Covenant- Mary is shown to us in chapter 11.

 

 

 

19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

 

 

 

I don't believe this is coincidence. This is a segue. The Old Covenant gives way to the New.

 

 

 

Notice also that it is said that the "great city"- Jerusalem- would be divided into 3 parts. Jerusalem today is indeed divided into 3 parts- Muslim, Jew and Christian.

 

 

 

I don't believe that this is coincidence either.

 

 

 

See us next time for part 17