We have come to the last of the judgment-series: The bowls of the wrath of God. The seals represent the opening of God's secret purpose and counsels; the trumpets, signals of His judgment-acts; the bowls, the pouring out of His wrath. These are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God.

      Our lesson begins with chapter 15. Yet the first four verses are still a part of the preceding section of that great parenthesis, consisting of special explanatory visions. Here (in 15:1-4) John sees the seven angels who are to execute the seven last plagues, standing ready. Of these he speaks (as in 12:1, etc.) as "a sign in heaven." He also beholds a vision of a redeemed company: "those who had been victorious over the beast, and his image and over the number of his name." Standing by a "sea of glass mixed with fire," they sing again in higher key the old "song of Moses," which saved Israel sang on the shore of the Red Sea on the morning of their deliverance (Exodus 15). But into the old redemption song mingles also a new, and loftier strain, the "song of the Lamb."--This much more was needed to complete the picture of the situation described in chapters 12 and 13.

      Now, the fifth verse of Revelation 15 resumes the thread which was dropped at 11:19. For at the sounding of the seventh trumpet (11:15-19) there was no forward step taken; only a great announcement was made and the twenty-four elders gave thanks, and the temple of God, which was in heaven, was opened. So after the Great Parenthesis which interrupted the story, he now returns to that opened temple. "After these things" (after the celestial "signs" and the other independent visions of chapters 12:1 to 15:4)--"I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple." Out of the temple opened at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, come the seven angels who pour out the seven bowls of wrath. At the hands of one of the four Living Creatures (4:6) these seven angels receive "seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever." But these are the last: "because in them the wrath of God is finished" (15:1).

      A voice out of the Temple now gives the command, and the seven angels proceed to their task. The bowls are poured out in swift succession.

      The first pours out his bowl on the land and there follows an evil sore upon all that have the mark of the Beast and that worship his image.

      The second bowl is poured on the sea, which became as the clotted blood of a dead man, and every living thing in it dies.

      The third, upon the rivers and fountains of waters, which become blood. "The angel of the waters" praises God for His just and righteous judgment in this matter, for the plague afflicted the men who (under the Beast's direction) had poured out the blood of God's saints and prophets, and this is their retribution: "You have given them blood to drink."

      The fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it received power to scorch men with fire. Men recognized the hand of God in these plagues; but far from repenting, they blaspheme the God who sent them.

      Although these first four bowls follow the line of the first four trumpets, they can not possibly be considered identical or parallel. Because the trumpet-judgments, although they also fell upon the earth, the sea, the fountains and rivers, the sun, moon, and stars, were limited, affecting only "a third" in each case. But the bowl-judgments are not thus limited: they make a clean sweep. The fourth bowl, moreover, is in contrast to the fourth trumpet, in its effects.

      In the fifth bowl the throne of the Beast (see 13:3) suffers a stroke that affects his whole kingdom, darkening it (compare Exodus 10:21, 22); while the sixth bowl (like the sixth trumpet) has to do with the river Euphrates, drying it up. (Compare Isaiah 11:15.)

      In the seal-judgments and the trumpets we noted a parenthesis between the sixth and the seventh. This is not missing between the sixth and seventh of the bowls, although it is very brief. It comprises four verses (16:13-16) and refers to a demon-inspired preparation of the whole world for Armageddon: and contains also a warning of Christ's near and unexpected coming to "judge and make war." We reserve the discussion of "Armageddon" till we get to chapter 19.

      Now pours the seventh, the last, angel his bowl out upon the air, and a great voice out of the temple cries "Done!"^{1} [36]

      This is the consummation of the judgments: the final overthrow of all opposition, the destruction of all the great works of man that have not been "wrought in God" (Isaiah 2), "the judgment of Babylon the Great," and the "battle of Armageddon," with it the destruction of the Beast and his armies, and the False Prophet--all are comprehended in this concluding stroke of God's justice. Here strikes the little Stone upon the feet of the Image, and breaks it up into small debris. (Daniel 2.) So great an earthquake and so mighty, such a shake-up had never before been experienced in the earth: mountains and islands flee away and cannot be found. God is now openly fighting from heaven against impenitent, rebellious humanity, who, though now forced to recognize His hand, blaspheme Him who inflicts these judgments on them. But with the work of judgment finished, every rebel is subdued, every enemy vanquished, and Jehovah alone is exalted in the earth (Psalms 46:10).

      The details of Babylon's overthrow follow in chapters 17 and 18; the final demolition of the world power at the hands of Christ descending with His saints is described in Revelation 19. But all this is included in the seventh bowl, in its immediate effect and as its necessary sequel and conclusion.

[TR4R 36-37]