“The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath” (Revelation 16)

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The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath Brad Mills / General Revelation / Wrath of God / Revelation 16:1–11 Although judgment is a dirty word in our culture, it is biblical. The holiness of God demands his wrath. Liberal pastors minimize God’s wrath in order to be accepted by the culture. But this comes at a great cost to the truth and sufficiency of Scripture. Arguing against this tendency, Richard Niebuhr described the liberal gospel in this way: A God without wrath bought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministration of a Christ without a cross. When we remove the concepts of wrath and sin and judgment, we lose the ministry of a Christ who saves. Revelation is replete with the idea of God’s wrath as a righteous response to sin. Chapter 15 introduced another judgment cycle— the seven bowls of God’s wrath. Like previous cycles, this one spans the whole gospel age between Christ’s first and second coming. Chapter 16 details the contents of those bowls. Comparing the bowls and the trumpets reveals identical order: 1. Earth, 2. Sea, 3. Rivers, 4. Sun, 5. Darkness upon the wicked, 6. Euphrates, 7. World…final judgment. The bowls recapitulate the trumpets. They provide fuller description of the same judgments taking place throughout this age. Everyone enjoys God’s common grace, but the unrepentant also experience his judgment for sin. There are a number of ways this might be experienced in life, but it culminates upon Christ’s return. Read Revelation 16. 1. The Vindication of God’s Wrath (1-7) The sanctuary of the heavenly temple “was filled with smoke from the glory of God” (Re 15:8). So it is natural to assume that the loud voice belongs to God (1). He instructs the seven angels to pour out his wrath upon the earth. If you want to avoid the subject of God’s wrath, you have to avoid this book. Revelation repeatedly reminds us that God takes sin seriously. It is an offense to his very nature. Couple this with John’s numerous allusions to the OT and we conclude that the whole counsel of God’s Word speaks of his wrath. It is simply unavoidable. The first bowl results in “harmful and painful sores” upon those who were identified with the beast (2). This is parallel to the sixth plague of boils that fell upon the Egyptians (Ex. 9:8-12). It is the condemnation of those who reject the seal of God and receive the mark of the beast. This is not literally fulfilled. Those worshiping false God’s do not walk out of their mosques, temples, and shrines covered with boils and sores. But the implication is that their beliefs have painful consequences. They are tormented with doubt and they suffer all manner of difficulties in life due to their false worldview. Both the second and third bowls result in the sea and rivers becoming blood (3-4) just like the first plague in Exodus that turned the Nile river into blood (Ex. 7:14-24). And wherever there is the pouring out of blood in Revelation, it is related to suffering—either of Christ and his followers, or that of the wicked. These bowls target those associated with Babylon and the beast. This is the judgment of the corrupt system of the world. All of the living creatures in the sea and rivers died which would lead to the death of many people due to the contaminated water supply. In the previous chapter we saw “the sea of glass” represented as calm and peaceful in heaven (Re 15:2). But the sea represents the realm of evil. God is pouring out judgment upon the systems in which the world places their trust. These bowl judgments are fulfilled when economic theories produce agony instead of profit. This might entail the devastations of famine and plagues that often accompany times of great depression. As the people are about to raise their objections to the wrath of God, the angels declare God’s purpose in wrath (5-7). He pours out his wrath precisely because of his justice and holiness. It is a response to the wicked world that opposes him. In fact

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