the Third Week of Advent
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 5 of 5
Revelation 16:1-21
The seven vials poured out on the earth are reminiscent of the plagues on Egypt: sores, water changed into blood, darkness, frogs, thunder, hail and fire (see Exodus 9:23). Instead of repentance, these great disasters provoke only blasphemy, see (vv. 9, 11, 21). However, a three-fold testimony is given to the Righteous God: by the band of victors (Revelation 15:3-4), by the angel of the waters (v. 5) and by the altar itself (v. 7 JND trans.).
The first four plagues strike the same areas respectively as the first four trumpets (Revelation 8:7-12). The 5th reaches the throne of the Beast. The 6th is in preparation for "the battle of that great day". Finally, as the last vial is poured out, the great voice from the throne resounds: "It is done". How different it is from the cry which announced for us the end of God’s wrath against sin, after His Son had drunk, on the cross, the cup which we deserved: "It is finished" (John 19:30).
These terrible events are much nearer than we think. May we ever think of the world as a place about to be judged, conscious of the terrible wrath which it cannot escape. That will keep us from being indifferent either to the evil which is in the world, or to the divine judgment which awaits it.
