Revelation 16:1-6 - The Blood Judgments

"And I heard the angel of the waters saying: "You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due." These final judgments on the earth dwellers, especially those who have taken the mark of the Beast, happen in the last three and half years of the Tribulation. I believe that most of them will actually take place in the last days of this time just before the Lord Jesus Christ comes back to the earth with the armies of the saints from heaven. These bowl judgments are called, “the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.” Yesterday we discussed the first bowl judgment which was the painful, foul and loathsome sore that came upon those who had taken the mark of the beast. There is no cure, and this pain is experienced through the rest of the Tribulation. Later when the fifth angel pours out the fifth bowl judgment of darkness, “the people are still gnawing their tongues because of the pain and they continue to blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores and still will not repent”(Rev 16:10-11). Now, when the second and third angel pour out their bowls, the waters of the earth turned to blood (vv. 3-6). I think that it is interesting that the second and third bowls parallel the first plague in Egypt (Ex. 7:14-25). This is where Moses struck the water of the Nile River with the “Rod of God”, and the Nile and all the waters of Egypt turned to blood. The second bowl judgment will center on the sea that will be turned into “blood as of a dead man”. The third bowl judgement will turn the inland waters (rivers and fountains) into blood. Remember when the second trumpet judgment occurred, a third part of the sea became blood; but with this judgment, the entire system of seas and oceans will be polluted. Also remember when the third trumpet sounded it made a third part of the inland waters bitter as wormwood; but this third bowl judgment will turn all of those bitter waters into blood. It is then that the “angel of the waters” gives us a very interesting message for the justification for this terrible judgment. The Antichrist and his followers have been shedding the blood of God's people. These are the saints that are getting saved by the preaching of the two witnesses and the 144,000 Jewish evangelist who are sharing the Gospel with all the nations of the earth. I believe that millions of these saints are being publicly executed by the guillotine with their heads being cut off.  So, when this judgment of all the waters turning to blood takes place, it is if God is saying, “You want blood? Then I will give you blood to drink!” In appears in the Bible that in God's government, the punishment always fits the crime. Pharaoh tried to drown the Jewish boy babies, but it was his own army that eventually drowned in the Red Sea (Ex. 1:22; 14:26-29). Remember in the book of Esther how Haman planned to hang Mordecai on the gallows and to exterminate the Jews; but he himself was hanged on the gallows, and his family was exterminated (Esther 7:10; 9:10). Also in the book of 1 Samuel 15:1-3, King Saul was given the command to destroy all the Amalekites, but he refused to completely obey God and slay them all. It is interesting to note, that later when he died in battle, he was slain by an Amalekite (2 Sam. 1:1-16). In other words, “Be sure your sins will find you out” (Numbers 32:23). Your skeletons in the closet will one day come out to haunt you. Jesus taught us to treat others the way we want to be treated because that is exactly what is going to happen (Matthew 7:12). Today, may the Lord help us to keep this “Golden Rule”! God bless!