Introduction: Chapter 15 of Revelation which we looked at a couple of weeks ago began ‘Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.’ I suspect that as we read on many will say something like ‘But, God isn’t like that!’ But the three bowls poured out sound very much like the first three judgements which historically we know God brought upon the Egyptians when He released Israel from slavery. But these bowls aren’t for Egypt alone as we read today, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” And after the first bowls are poured out heaven is opened and we hear what is being said “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!” Heaven doesn’t criticize what God is doing. Their cry is that God is Just! And He is!
1 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.”
2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. – This time not on Egypt only, on the whole earth, but not on everyone. Only on those those marked by ‘Evil Personified’ as belonging to him.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!” – The word ‘blood’, depending on the context is used to emphasize different things! Context is always important in the scriptures! In Leviticus 17: 14 we read ‘the life of every creature is its blood’ and this explains its use in sacrifice for sin is punished by life lost and hence blood was sprinkled all over many things in Jewish worship. Extending this thought in many hymns with the full approval of the Bible the word ‘blood‘ is used to mean the way that God brings reconciliation and forgiveness to the truly repentant Believer. 1 John 1: 7 reads “the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” referring to the whole ‘Easter Event’. There are several hymns like ‘There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains’. Here however ‘given them blood to drink‘ means ‘judgement’!
7 And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
Ephesians 3:17-19 – so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, that because of Your Blood, Your Life, we can avoid the bowls of Your Godly Wrath!