We now come to the bowl judgments. First we had the seals which ushered in the tribulation period. Then there were the trumpet judgments over a period of time that escalated to the period we are about to study tonight. The 144,000 evangelists have been preaching, the two witnesses have proclaimed God’s truth, the angel has spoken the gospel and man has still refused to repent. Now the bowl judgments will begin and they will be rapid-fire judgments occurring over a very short period of time marking the final hour of the Day of the Lord. Immediately following these judgments will be the return of Christ who will destroy the world’s armies and the Antichrist in the Battle of Armageddon. This chapter takes a look at the bowl judgments as a whole and then the next two chapters look back as they focus on Babylon and the world system led by Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet. We will see that the 7 bowl judgments are poured:
on the land on the sea on the rivers and springs on the sun on the throne of the beast on the Euphrates river into the airthe significance being that there is nowhere to hide or escape the judgments of God. His righteous wrath will come down quickly, swiftly, and totally. As we study these events we will see the appalling response of mankind. God’s grace and mercy will no longer be available to the wicked ones shaking their fists and cursing His name. It is a scary time but it is a time that we need to know about and understand. And even in the midst of such devastation the character of God shines forth, the darkness cannot hide Him.
Vs 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.”
The loud voice is the voice of God. See the verse before. No one is allowed in the temple until the seven plagues (judgments) are completed. The word for loud is ‘megale’ and it means great, emphasizing the magnitude of what is at stake. The voice will be heard again after the seventh bowl is poured out. Seven is the number completion – the seven bowls are the total completion of God’s wrath. Nothing is spared. These acts are supernatural acts of God.
Vs 2 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 worshipped his image.
The bowl was more saucer shaped rather than a deep dish. It would have been a sloshing or dumping of the contents of the container rather than pouring from a bowl or pitcher. His judgment is sloshed over the whole earth. It was a bowl not meant to contain its contents. Those who belong to the beast will get ugly painful sores. They will break out on all except those sealed to God. The sores will be multiple, oozing, and horrifically painful. The terminology indicates that the sores continue on through the coming bowls of judgment so there is no cure for them. In Exodus 9:9 the Egyptians were afflicted with festering boils and the Israelites were protected. That was regional but this time it will be world-wide.
Vs 3 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.
The entire world oceans turned to blood like that of a dead person. A dead person’s blood is thick and coagulated. It is a dark blackish red. Now the earth’s surface is 70 percent ocean so you can imagine the enormity of this judgment. The sea is destroyed by the blood and all of the marine life dies adding to the horrific stench. Fishing has ceased and large parts of the world who depend on seafood will face a severe food shortage. Sea lanes will be impassable to transportation because the globby mess will stop the ships’ engines. Exporting and importing will come to a quick halt. No oil to export, no grains to transport.
Vs 4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Now the only other source of fresh water is also turned into blood. All of the rivers and springs are bloody pools and the fish and living things in them are killed. Also generators that use the water for electricity will cease to function and riverboat traffic will stop. The sore infested world population will not have any clean water to clean their wounds nor will there be any clean drinking water. Mass panic and chaos will surely follow if not already occurring. Exodus 14:17-18 Moses turned the Nile into blood and Pharaoh’s heart hardened such was then such will be in the future.
Vs 5 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; vs 6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
An angel confesses the righteousness of God in this judgment. The judgment is so overwhelming yet so right. The beast and all of his followers have demanded the blood of the saints and now they will be given it to drink. If is blood they wanted then its blood they will get. Remember what Paul says in Hebrews 10:26-31:
“If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “the Lord will judge his people.” It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
Vs 7 And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
Who is speaking from the altar? It is the voice of the martyred saints. They were told in Rev 6:9-11 to wait a little longer and now the little longer has passed and they cry “Yes” which is the only response we should give the Lord – yes.
Vs 8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. Vs 9 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.
Now the sun bears down on the inhabitants of earth with an intensity the world has never known. This is global warming gone mad. But this is not due to carbon emissions or anything man has created but rather it is from the hand of God. The polar ice caps will melt causing flooding coastal areas miles inland with the bloody dead ocean. Up to this point only the Antichrist had been publicly blaspheming God but now the people of the world will join him. The people know that God has control over the phenomenal events and yet they curse Him and refuse to repent. It is hard to imagine that they know God has the power and is in control yet they defiantly curse Him. This is rebellion unleashed.
Vs 10 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 Vs 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores but they refused to repent of what they had done.
Darkness is now one of the judgments. It happened in Egypt to Pharaoh (Exodus 10:21-23) and now it happens to the Beast and his kingdom. Some have said his kingdom is where his throne is in Babylon but his kingdom by this time is the whole world so we tend to think that the whole world will be in darkness. What causes this darkness is not known. Some say an astrological event but whatever it is it is a fearsome event and it is from the hand of God. The inhabitants are in intense pain and writhe with agony all the while cursing God. This is the last mention of their refusing to repent.
“The first five plagues were God’s final call to repentance. Sinners ignored that call, and are now confirmed in their unbelief. The final two bowls, containing the severest of all the judgments, will be poured out on hardened, implacable impenitents.” John MacArthur page 145 of Revelation commentary.
Vs 12 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.
Now the sixth bowl of judgment might at first glance seem like a favor in view of the previous bowls. The bloody Euphrates is dried up and it has been beyond flood stage with the melting of the snows on Mount Ararat and surrounding mountains. The kings from the East – that would mean the Orient are able to diverge on Israel. But what it is, is a death trap. God has made a way to draw them into the final slaughter at Armageddon.
Vs 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.
These evil spirits looked like frogs to John. They were not actual frogs but that is the word he used to describe them. A plague of frogs was used against Pharaoh and now the evil spirits that John sees seem to hop out of Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet.
Vs 14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
These evil spirits are demonic and cause miraculous signs and deceive the leaders of the world. The gather the world leaders to Armageddon to battle the Lord. Deception is always a footprint of the devil and that’s what these spirits do. World leaders with all their communications and technology will fall into the trap. Wisdom is found in God and the world has rejected Him and in doing that have rejected wisdom so they are left to their own foolish choices.
Vs 15 “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.”
Here we have a quick spoken word from the Lord Himself. He reassures the reader that He is coming and He is coming unannounced while men are sleeping. He urges the believer to stay awake and ready. Paul reminded us in 1 Thess 5:2, “the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.”
We are clothed with Christ. Romans 13:14 “Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ.” To not be clothed in Him is to be naked and your sin shamefully exposed. God clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of Lambs in the Garden – blood was shed for those clothes and He has clothed us with the Lamb of God whose blood was shed.
Vs 16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Armageddon is the Valley of Megiddo. It is about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. The battle that will occur there when Christ returns and will be extremely short but the carnage unimaginable. Blood will be splattered several feet high and flow down streams for 200 miles.
Vs 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!”
As the seventh angel poured out the final bowl, God speaks from the temple again and says “it is done!” The wrath will be poured out. None stored up for later. This is reminiscent of Jesus on the cross crying out in a loud voice – “it is finished!” (John 19:30). The blood poured out – none stored up for later
Vs 18 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.
This is an earthquake that the Richter scale has never recorded. This will be the most catastrophic disaster the world has ever experienced. It will be off the charts. It will be so severe that the continents will shift.
Vs 19 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.
Jerusalem is split into three parts and great cities of the world collapse. Can you imagine an earthquake that affects the whole world?
Vs 20 Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.
Some have suggested that the world will be aligned back to its pre-flood days before the continents were split. So hard to comprehend yet so possible with God.
“The gentle rolling topography of the world as originally created will be restored. No more will there be great inaccessible, uninhabitable mountain ranges or deserts or ice caps. The physical environment of the millennium will be in large measure a restoration of the antediluvian pre-flood environment.” Henry Morris, The Revelation Record, (321).
Vs 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.
And as a finishing touch, hail will fall weighing 100 pounds. The largest recorded hailstone to date is about 2 pounds. So imagine 50 times that. This is reminiscent of Exodus 9:18. You know what golf ball size hail can do so try to comprehend 100 pound balls fall from the sky. And man does not repent. Is there any wonder the judgment of God. He knows the hearts and minds of men and He is absolutely right in His judgment.
We have looked at horrific events that most surely will occur. Not one thing will be left out or downplayed. We try to sort it out in our minds and yet it is just about more than we can take. But as horrible as the events themselves will be, the worst of all is that man will curse God and refuse to repent. There is nothing more He can do for them. They will receive the eternal punishment that they themselves have chosen. God offered them a way out, a way of escape and they refused. No one will go to hell without choice. Moses said way back in Genesis to ‘choose life’ and that life as John’s gospel tells us is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, the life. No other way, no other truth, no other life. Choose Life!
