Bible Commentaries
Revelation 15

Verses 1-21

XIV

THE SEVEN PLAGUES AND THE SEVEN BOWLS OF WRATH

Revelation 15-16

We shall consider in this study the seven plagues and the seven bowls of wrath, or the divine judgment on the leopard beast, and the harlot woman, and the consequent triumph of the true church through the gospel. Revelation 17-19 will continue the same theme. Preliminary Observations

1. Revelation 15:1: by anticipation, presents the plagues as if inflicted, though the details of the infliction are given in Revelation 16.

2. Revelation 15:2-4: in like manner – i.e., by anticipation – presents the triumph of the saints when the plagues shall have been inflicted, and is given in more detail in Revelation 19:1-10, in its proper historical connection.

3. Revelation 15:5-8, also by anticipation, gives the agencies through which the plagues in Revelation 16 will be inflicted and the triumph achieved.

4. The Old Testament analogue which constitutes most of the imagery of Revelation 15-16 is Exodus 1-15. We cannot successfully interpret this lesson without an understanding of the ancient history which suggests its imagery.

5. Another historical analogue, Babylon, and the Euphrates which constituted both its defense and its weakness, suggests the imagery in Revelation 16:12. Here our historical background is Xenophon’s account of the capture of Babylon by the armies of Cyrus, through diversion of the waters of the Euphrates, and consequent drying up of its channel in the city, confirmed both by the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 50:38) and by this passage in Revelation. The Babylon downfall as foretold by the ancient prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, will suggest much of the imagery of Revelation 17-18, which will be more particularly considered in the exposition of those chapters.

6. Our interpretation will make the "seven thunders" of Revelation 10:4, uttered then but temporarily sealed up, i.e., not written, and "the seven plagues" of Revelation 15, and "the seven bowls of wrath" of Revelation 16, substantially the same, though the logical order would be this: The seven thunders called, the seven bowls of wrath responded to the call, and the seven bowls of wrath when outpoured constitute the seven plagues.

These six preliminary observations underlie the exegesis now given in detail. Revelation 15.

"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in them is finished the wrath of God."

The reader must note that when these plagues are called "the last," for in them is finished the "wrath of God," the import of the term "last" and "finished" must not be stretched beyond their connection. It is a relative "last" and "finished." It is the last of the divine judgment on the organized apostasy in its triple form of a "Holy Roman Empire," a papal head and an idolatrous and persecuting counterfeit church, but it cannot refer to the wrath exercised after the millennium in Revelation 20:7-10, nor the wrath of the final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15). Note next on this first verse the "seven plagues" repeated in Revelation 15:6; Revelation 15:8 and named in Revelation 16:8-21. Their number "seven" indicates their completeness, as will appear when the bowls of wrath which produce them are poured out in succession on the earth, the sea, the rivers and fountains, the sun, the Euphrates and the air. When the lightning strikes in all these places, it touches the whole circumference of environment. There is no escape from such diverse wrath. It is done. It is finished. The measure is filled up to overflowing.

We now look back to the historical analogue. We have in Exodus 1-15 the great war between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt for the redemption of his national Israel, or between Moses, the mouthpiece of God,, and Pharaoh, king of Egypt, or between the miracles wrought by Moses and the lying wonders of the magicians, Jannes and Jambres. Jehovah speaks, Moses acts, the ten plagues follow, just as here the seven thunders are God’s voices, the bowls of wrath respond and the plagues are the result. Whoever has studied the ten plagues of Egypt will see their completeness touching all the environment and degrading every god in Egypt, and all their ministers, whether king, magician, or priest. All these discriminated between Israel and Egypt; on one they fell, the other was exempt. The very form of some of these plagues is repeated here, as will appear in our exegesis of chapter 16. The conflict terminated with the complete overthrow of Pharaoh and his hosts in the Red Sea, and "Thus Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and Israel saw the great work which Jehovah did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared Jehovah; and they believed in Jehovah and in his servant Moses" (Exodus 14:30-31).

"And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that came off victorious from the beast, and from his image and from the number of his name, standing by the sea of glass, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: Great and marvellous are thy works, O Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, thou king of the ages. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy; for all the nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been made manifest."

This is almost an exact parallel of the analogue at Exodus 14:19-22, and the triumph song at Exodus 15:1-18, and Miriam’s response at Exodus 15:20-21. The Old Testament analogue alone enables us to explain "the sea of glass mingled with fire" which so unnecessarily perplexed commentators. You need only to conceive of the Red Sea divided standing up in walls on either side, and as Exodus 15:8, expresses it: "The floods stood upright as an heap; the deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea," then conceive Israel marching in triumph between and the pillar of fire between them and Pharaoh, shining on those ice walls which, as mirrors, reflected its light, it indeed seemed a "sea of glass mingled with fire," and so "they were baptized in the cloud [pillar of cloud overshadowing] and in the sea" (her walls on two sides encompassing them). Hence it might be called a baptism, so overwhelmed and enwrapped were they, but it was a baptism in light. So here, after the plagues have overthrown their long-time enemies with a complete overthrow, the saints, bathed in radiance, sing their song of triumph which, on account of the analogue, is called "The song of Moses, the servant of God, and of the Lamb."

The study is profitable to compare the Moses song (Exodus 15) with the song here (Rev. 15), and its more elaborate form (Rev. 19).

On the closing paragraph of Revelation 15:5-8, it is necessary now to note only the following points:

1. "The temple of the tabernacle of testimony," or the sanctuary of the tent, means here the church as an institution, through which as an agent the plagues are to be inflicted.

2. The priestly garb of the angels carrying the plague also indicates human agency.

3. The "smoke" in temple or sanctuary indicates the Divine Presence, as in Exodus 40:34; Numbers 9:15; 1 Kings 8:10-11; Isaiah 6:4. While Moses nor the priests of Solomon could for a while enter the holy house, filled by the cloud, there seems to be an additional idea in the Isaiah case that as God entered for fully ripened judgments there could be no intercession allowed while the judgments were being inflicted, since probation was ended and the space for repentance was withdrawn. Such also appears to be the idea here, as we repeatedly note in Revelation 16 that no repentance followed these plagues. (See Revelation 16:9-11.) The plagues, therefore, were not chastisements designed to lead to repentance, but altogether punitive. inflicted 16

The Bowls of Wrath, and the Consequent Plagues

General Observations:

1. I restate the general idea of interpretation already suggested by the Old Testament analogue (Exodus 1-15). Before Pharaoh and his people could be induced to liberate God’s ancient Israel, all the supports of their power must be swept away by successive divine judgments. These judgments were like the flood in the days of Noah: "The windows of heaven were opened; the fountains of the deep were broken up; the waters increased; the waters prevailed and increased mightily; the waters prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth, and all the high mountains that are under the whole heavens were covered. Fifteen cubits did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." As the waters of the flood wiped off from the face of the earth every living being, so the ten plagues swept away all the props of Egypt, and just so here, by successive judgments, God completely sweeps away all the props of Satan’s usurped kingdom. Whatever the meaning of the symbols, "the earth, sea, rivers and fountains, sun, the throne of the beast, the great river Euphrates, the air," on which in succession the bowls of wrath were poured, they represent exhaustively the whole resources of Satan’s kingdom under its apostate forms of a Holy Roman Empire, its papal head, and its harlot counterfeit church. While we may not be dogmatic in the interpretation of these symbols, the meanings given are the expression of sincere and thoughtful judgment.

2. Any student must be struck with the correspondence, in part, between the events under the trumpets and under the bowls of wrath, particularly where the apostasy poisoned the fountains and dimmed the sun. So in just the same place here the lightning will strike.

3. "Har-Magedon" (Revelation 16:16). Literally, this compound word means "the hill of Megiddo."

Geographically, it overlooks the great plain of Esdraelon, near the middle of the Mediterranean coast of Palestine.

Historically, on account of its strategic position, it has been the decisive battleground of the ages for the fate of that country. Here Joshua conquered. Here, in the times of the Judges, Barak, and Deborah won their decisive victory over Sisera (Judges 4-5), and Gideon his signal triumph over the Midianites (Judges 7). Here Saul lost his life and kingdom (1 Samuel 31:8), and here good Josiah lost his life in battle with the Egyptians, which called forth an ordinance for lamentation by Jeremiah and the people (2 Chronicles 35:24-25). And this great mourning for Josiah suggested to Zechariah the greater penitential mourning of the Jewish people which will lead to their salvation in a later day (Zech. 12:10-13:1). This same valley was the battlefield of the Ptolemies of Egypt and Seleucids of Antioch for the supremacy of the Holy Land, and for Saracen and Crusader after their day, and the scene of many struggles since.

Prophetically, in the Old Testament is it equivalent to Joel’s great battle in the valley of Jehoshaphat: "Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision" (Joel 3:1-17), and Zechariah’s great war for the recovery of Spiritual Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2-15), and Daniel’s great battlefield (Dan. 11:45-12:1), and Isaiah’s blood-stained hero (Isaiah 63:1-6)?

Prophetically in this book are the parallel passages, the greatvintage (Revelation 14:17-20), the war of Har-Magedon (Revelation 16:14-16), and the great victory preceding and introducing the millennium (Revelation 19:10-21)? With the literal, geographical and historical backgrounds we have no concern except to find the symbolic imagery. The prophetic meaning from the symbols we must gather from the four Old Testament passages and the three New Testament passages, cited. For the answers to these last two questions see Revelation 15 and Revelation 17 respectively. Exegesis of Revelation 16, beginning with Revelation 16:1:

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go ye and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. And the first went and poured out his bowl into the earth; and it became a noisome and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast and that worshipped his image."

Note first that this judgment finds its symbol in the sixth plague on Egypt, the plague of the boils and ulcers. And also note that, as here, the wrath was poured on the "earth," and the victims are those who worshiped the beast and wore his mark. So from Revelation 13:11-17, we have learned that the earth beast with the voice of a dragon caused men to worship the image of the leopard beast and to receive his mark. In the Egyptian plague, the body was afflicted, but what means it here? Here it must mean some ulceration of mind and soul, a spiritual inflammation causing exquisite torment. One may not define too confidently just what state of mind fulfils this prophecy. But we will not be far afield if we refer it to that mental disquietude and spiritual unrest which come to all idolaters when their delusions are scattered by exposure of the false objects of worship, and the torments of remorse when seeing that they have been blinded and enslaved in turning away from the service and worship of the true God. Intense despair of spirit follows such disenchantment when the mind at last beholds the entire system of counterfeit religion to be earthly, sensual devilish. The best illustration I know is the ruined Zelica’s shriek of despair when Mokanna lifted his veil and let her see what a foul, hideous demon he was.

"And the second poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea."

Out of the "sea" came the leopard beast (Revelation 13:2). "The many waters" upon which the harlot sat are defined as "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:1-15). Wrath poured on the sea then must mean God’s judgment on a politico-religious government, a union of church and state whose ecclesiastical head dominates the many subject nations. That kind of a government is Satan’s masterpiece. It is essential to the prevalence of the papal power. It is the water of life in the papal garden; turn it into blood and the garden becomes a desert. If this line of thought be correct, the interpretation may be applied to the action of all nations that finally repel the supremacy of the Romanist hierarchy over either their national or ecclesiastical affairs. For example, one emperor of Germany went, on Papal demand, to Canossa and put his neck under the foot of the Pope, but Bismarck, referring to William III, said, "This emperor will not go to Canossa." Or, it would apply to the weakening of the nations strictly Romanist, as Spain is and France was, compared with the increase in power and influence of non-Romanist nations.

In other words, as expressed in Revelation 17:13; Revelation 17:16, the ten kingdoms which at first had "one mind," to give their power and authority unto the beast, "to make war on the Lamb," these later "shall hate the harlot and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire."

John Bunyan, in Pilgrim’s Progress, represents his pilgrims as passing by the mouth of a cave from which two old, decrepit giants, "Pagan and Pope," glared at them in impotent rage, saying, "You will never stop this going on a pilgrimage until more of you be burned," but their powers to burn bad passed away. The nations now refused to be the executors of ecclesiastical anathemas.

As in the analogue the turning of the Nile – the very life of Egypt – into blood broke for the time being the power of Pharaoh, so when this unholy alliance of church and state becomes as a dead man’s blood, blood that would no longer flow, governmental persecution for conscience’ sake received a shock from which it has never fully recovered. The ecclesiastical disposition to burn "heretics" still remains, but the states are no longer subservient. So far as the principle is involved, this applies to all persecuting states, whether Pagan, Papal, Greek, Protestant, or Mohammedan. The divine judgment is on the whole business, no matter under what name. The class will note the power of the expression, "the blood of a dead man"; the outward form remains, but the inward arterial current has congealed."

And the third poured out his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of the waters, and it became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying: Righteous art thou who art and who wert, thou Holy One, because thou didst thus judge; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and blood thou hast given them to drink: they are worthy. And I heard the altar saying: Yea, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."

Here we must recall, from Revelation 8:10-11, that the second effect of the apostasy, under the symbol of a star called wormwood, representing an apostate clergy, yet burning as a lamp, representing an apostate church, was the poisoning of a third part of the rivers and fountains, which was there interpreted to mean the sources of thought and life. The judgment now follows the poison. The imagery again comes, but in a different direction, from the first plague on Egypt. That miracle worked in two directions: (1) The Nile, worshiped as a god, became corrupt and death-breeding through conversion to blood; (2) All drinking water in the canals, reservoirs and house vessels became unusable.

The thought of this bowl of wrath, following the second direction of the miracle, is that as by corruption of religious thought, the minds of men have been turned to persecutions, then by so much as they have shed blood shall they be made to drink blood. The punishment comes in kind.

"And the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who hath the power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory."

Recalling the fourth trumpet (Revelation 8:12) we there found the third effect of the apostasy was to dim the sources of light, particularly the third part of the sun. We there interpreted the sun to be the symbol of Christ, and the dimming of the light to be a substitution for Christ in his expiation (by the mass) and in his mediation (by the virgin Mary), and in his vicar (by the Pope). Now again the judgment follows the form of the apostasy. God in Christ is salvation. God out of Christ is a consuming fire. If his light be rejected, his heat scorches. Moses very vividly presents the thought in his farewell address to Israel. If you turn away from Jehovah, everything intended for a blessing will become a curse: "Jehovah will smite thee with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew: and they shall pursue thee until thou perish. And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron. Jehovah shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust; from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. . . And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even, and at even thou shalt say it, Would it were morning; for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." (Deuteronomy 28:22-24; Deuteronomy 28:66-67.) Indeed, all of that great chapter of Deuteronomy from v. 15 to the end makes good collateral reading for this sixteenth chapter.

"And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they repented not of their works."

As Christ reigns from Mount Zion symbolic of the true church, so Satan reigns from Babylon, symbolic of the counterfeit church. We see in the next chapter the harlot woman riding the beast, and her mystic name is Babylon. The judgment here falls on the hierarchy resting on a union of church and state. Its ancient power is stripped away; confidence in its holiness is lost; the world marvels that it was once so glorified and its blasphemous pretensions recognized.

"And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might be made ready for the kings that come from the sunrise."

Here we must recall the historical background which suggests imagery. There was a real Babylon, ancient foe to national Israel. It was situated on both sides of the Euphrates, which constituted its reliance for defense. Your attention has been called in the preliminary observations to the method employed by the armies of Cyrus in diverting the waters through canals reaching around the city on both sides, so that through its empty channel they might enter the city and capture it. Both Jeremiah and Revelation confirm the disputed account of Xenophon. But our concern just now is to interpret the mystic Euphrates.

The author believes it to signify all that mighty conflux of sentiment, superstition and false doctrine erected to support the Romanist pretensions. Through many centuries by schools, monasteries, nunneries, diplomacies, and other means, this sentiment had been created and had supported the mystic city. It was the counter-teaching, culminating in the Reformation, which dried up this Euphrates.

"And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits, as it were frogs; for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God the Almighty."

If we have been correct in our interpretation in the drying up of the Euphrates by the Reformation teaching, then those symbolic frogs represent in some way the expedients adopted by the Romanist hierarchy to counteract the Reformation and enable it once more to make a world fight for the supremacy. From history we will know what these expedients have been.

There was first of all the pretended ecumenical Council of Trent for a definite statement of the Romanist faith. Ecumenical and Catholic mean literally about the same thing, that is, universal as opposed to local. This council was not ecumenical in fact or in spirit. The vast Greek ecclesiasticism, nor Protestant denominations, nor any of the age-long dissidents from the Romanist idea of the church, were represented. Over those actually present and participating, the Italian representatives of the Pope completely dominated. This Tridentine confession of faith, while divisive in some respects, was yet consolidating in another direction. It drew a distinct line of cleaveage and set up a definite standard around which its followers might rally, and did, with its attendant catechism, erect a strong barrier against further Protestant conquest. This was followed up later by papal encyclicals, resulting in a complete system of Mariolatry, and in 1870 by the Vatican Council declaring the absolute supremacy and infallibility of the Pope.

Now, we might fairly identify as the three frogs: (1) The declaration of the Council of Trent; (2) the declarations of the Vatican Council; (3) the papal encyclicals and syllabuses, particularly those completing the system of Mariolatry. To those doctrinal declarations we may add as enforcers of the decrees two mighty factors:

1. The Inquisition, which long preceded the Reformation as a heresy court, tending to prevent the very spirit of the Reformation, became afterward in some countries, particularly Belgium and Holland, the bloodiest tribunal known in the annals of history. The tools of the Inquisition have become rusty now.

2. But by far the most persistent and aggressive factor of Romanism, defined above, was the organization, under Papal sanction, of the Jesuits, founded by Ignatius Loyola. This compact, secret, iron organization, obeying only the Pope and its general, followed the outbreak of the Reformation, and has not only proved to be the strongest buttress of Romanism, but its most potential propagandist. Its greatest fields of operation have been: (1) missions; (2) diplomacy; (3) tutoring the children of the great. I repeat that modern Romanism, defined in three particulars above, and led by the Jesuits, has aligned its forces for a worldwide conflict, here symbolically called the "war of Har-Magedon," the consideration of which must be left to a subsequent chapter.

QUESTIONS ON THE PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS

1. How does Revelation 15:1, present the plagues, and Revelation 15:2-4, present the triumph of the saints; and Revelation 15:5-8, present the agencies employed?

2. What Old Testament analogue suggests most of the imagery in Revelation 15 and Revelation 16?

3. What Old Testament analogue of Revelation 16:12, and what historian gives the account of using the Euphrates for conquests of Babylon? And what Old Testament prophecy had forecast the history?

4. What is the relation between the "seven thunders" (Revelation 10:4); the "seven plagues" of Revelation 15, and the "seven bowls of wrath" of Revelation 15:7 and Revelation 16?

EXEGESIS

5. At Revelation 15:1, in what sense are these plagues "the last," and in them "the wrath of God finished"?

6. Give briefly the Old Testament history which furnishes the symbols of these plagues.

7. Explain from Old Testament history the imagery of the "sea of glass mingled with fire," at Revelation 15:2.

8. As this triumph of the saints, at Revelation 15:2-4, is here given by anticipation, where does it appear in detail?

9. Explain the collection of the Song of Moses with the Song of the Lamb at Revelation 15:3, What the resemblance between the Song of Moses, Exodus 15, the song here and the later song in chapter 19?

10. At Revelation 15:5, explain the words "temple" and "testimony," and then tell what they symbolize and what the relation to the seven plagues.

11. How does it appear that angels carrying the plagues and bowls of wrath indicate human agency?

12. Explain the "smoke" that filled the sanctuary, and why in this particular case none might enter the sanctuary until the plagues were finished, and prove this from the next chapter, and thereby show the plagues are punitive and not chastisements.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON REVELATION 16

13. Repeat the general idea of interpretation suggested by the analogue Exodus 1:15.

14. Show how a great preceding judgment is like in its completeness to the Egyptian plagues, and apply both to the case in hand.

15. What symbolic words in Revelation 16 show that these plagues strike the whole circle of environment?

16. What correspondence, in part, do you find between the trumpets of Revelation 8 and the bowls of wrath in Revelation 16, and why?

17. The Har-Magedon of Revelation 16:16 – explain it literally, geographically, historically, and prophetically.

18. With what part of this have we present concern? (N. B. – The exegesis of the war of Har-Magedon reserved till next lecture.)

EXEGESIS OF CHAPTER Revelation 16:1-14

19. Revelation 16:1-2, what plague of Egypt the symbol here?

20. Explain pouring this bowl of wrath on the earth.

21. The Egyptian plague afflicted the body: give the meaning here and illustrate from Tom Moore’s "Lalla Rookh,"

22. Revelation 16:3: Explain at some length the pouring of this bowl of wrath on the sea: apply and illustrate the interpretation.

23. Quote and show application of passage from John Bunyan.

24. What Egyptian plague the analogue here? Apply the meaning broadly and explain the significance of "the blood of a dead man."

25. What the first effect of the apostasy smitten by this plague?

26. Revelation 16:4-7: What the second effect on the apostasy given in Revelation 8:10-11, and show how the judgment here corresponds.

27. In what two directions did the first Egyptian plague work, and which one considered here in the meaning of the symbol?

28. Revelation 16:8-9: Recalling the fourth trumpet (Revelation 8:10), what the third effect of the apostasy, the meaning of the symbol there, and the nature and fitness of the corresponding judgment here?

29. Illustrate from farewell address of Moses.

30. Revelation 16:10-11: Explain the throne of the beast.

31. Revelation 16:12: What is the historic background furnishing this symbolism, and what is the meaning of the Euphrates here, and how brought about, and how long unshaken, and then by what dried up?

32. Revelation 16:13-14: In general terms the meaning of the three frogs? And the purpose?

33. In specific terms?

34. What two factors greatly helped to enforce these decrees?

36. In what ways have the Jesuits most helped Rome?