Revelation 15
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Chapter 15
1. 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.
2. And I saw what
appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire – and also those who had
conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside
the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.
3. And they sing
the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great
and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your
ways, O King of the nations!
4. Who will not
fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will
come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
5. After this I
looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,
6. and out of the
sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright
linen, with golden sashes around their chests.
7. And one of the
four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the
wrath of God who lives forever and ever,
8. and the
sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and
no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels
were finished.
There are three series of seven judgments in the book of
Revelation. In chapter 6 and in 8:1, we learn of seven seals, which had the
power to destroy a fourth part of all that they effected. They seemed to
involve calamities that man brought upon himself. In chapter 8, 9 and 11:15, we
studied seven trumpets bringing judgments, which showed signs of demonic activity,
and they destroyed 1/3 of all, into which they delved. This chapter begins to
relate the woes of seven bowls, which come entirely from the wrath of God and
they bring unlimited destruction, upon everything and everyone on which they
fall.
By the time that the Bible student comes to this part of
Revelation, he should have developed a correct theology concerning God’s wrath.
No one with a normal personality derives any pleasure from the subject, but, on
the proof of Scripture, he is obligated to acknowledge that wrath is
necessarily a part of God’s character. I cannot imagine anyone lacking this
understanding, who will find any profit from reading chapters 15 through 20.
All humanists, including agnostics and atheists, are
appalled by the revelation of God in the Scriptures. Recently, I heard an
atheist refer to a number of God’s commands, concerning the total destruction
of nations, including women and children, and then angrily declared, “It is not
that I will not, it is that I cannot accept the existence of such a
God!” If I had obtained his mentality of humanity over deity, I also would come
to that conclusion. However, it is fully logical that the Giver of all human life,
has the right to take it away, when He sees fit.
I do not need to apologize or make excuses to modern society over the fact of God´s anger. On the contrary, He will deal with me at the Judgment Seat of Christ, if I do not boldly and proudly tell humanity about His wrath. I maintain that the rights of the Creator trump human
rights. He is absolutely just and we are not. I believe in a God of infinite holiness and thereby I can accept His
awful aversion to sin. I begin to see His absolute authority and therefore
understand the infinite insubordination of disobeying and rebelling against
Him. (Even a soldier can be executed for insubordination to an officer.) I understand the magnitude and hideousness of sin, to which the humanist
is blind, therefore he thinks eternal punishment to be disproportionate to the
crimes committed. He proclaims the innocence of the unevangelized pagan and
cannot accept the need for the torture of a cruel cross. In short, he totally
misunderstands and undermines God’s righteousness and justice. Unfortunately,
he finds too much sympathy among church attenders in our times, including those
who occupy their pulpits.
If the God of the New Testament is unchanging, then He is
the same as the God of the Old Testament. John the Baptist declared, “Whoever does not obey the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (Jn.3:36). All the wrath,
which we study in Revelation is post-Calvary wrath; as the Baptist claims,
concerning those who are disobedient to the Son… “the wrath of God remains…”
It is particularly evident in the last days and therefore
prominent in the book that we study. Remember that these are proclamations from
the beloved disciple and apostle John: “The
great day of their wrath is come” (6:17 and 11:18): “The nations raged, but your wrath came” You will recall that the
last chapter that we studied contains these spine-tingling words: “He also will drink the wine of God’s
wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented
with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of
the Lamb” (14:10 and verse 19): “The
great winepress of the wrath of God.” In this chapter, we read of, “seven plagues, which are the last, for
with them the wrath of God is finished” (verse 1 and verse 7): “One of the four living creatures gave to
the seven angels golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and
ever.” In 16:19: “Drain the cup of
the wine of the fury of his wrath” and 19:15 speaks of Jesus: “He will tread the winepress of the fury of
the wrath of God the Almighty.”
We have still to contemplate His wrath upon Babylon in chapters
17 and 18. We will observe it in the final judgment upon all the damned in 20:11-15.
We will see the eternal exclusion of sinners from the celestial New Jerusalem
(21:8) and the same in the final chapter (22:15). God’s wrath is a
well-established Bible fact.
The Holy Spirit, before the outpouring of the calamitous
bowls, first gives us a scene from heaven, regarding the blessedness of the
faithful and loyal tribulation believers. They conquered over the person of the
beast, they refused to bow down to his image, and they did not cooperate with
his financial system. Warren Wiersbe points out: “Since they did not cooperate with the satanic system and receive the
mark of ‘the beast’, they were unable to buy or sell. They were totally
dependent on the Lord for their daily bread… The Tribulation saints whom John
saw and heard were standing by the ‘sea of glass’ in heaven, just as the
Israelites stood by the Red Sea. The song of Moses is recorded in Ex.15:1-27
and its refrain is: ‘The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my
salvation’. When Israel returned from Babylonian Captivity and reestablished
their government and restored temple worship, they used this same refrain at
the dedication services (Ps.118:14).
In the future, when God shall call His people back to their land, Isaiah
prophesied that they will sing this song again (Is.11:15-12:6).
In the first heavenly scene, the sea was as clear as
crystal, but now it is mingled with fire to devour the adversaries of the
triumphant. The Song of Moses is somewhat paraphrased, but in essence, they are
the lines from Exodus 15:11, 14-16. God is unlimited in His deeds and carries
out perfectly His ways, which are not discerned by fallen human nature. Man
cannot possibly understand His ways. In
His deeds and His ways, He is sovereign over the nations. Verse 4 points just
ahead to the Millennium, when all nations come to Mount Zion to worship, as
Christ reigns in righteousness. Many of these singers are Jewish believers and
they also know the song of the Lamb. They are redeemed by His blood.
The refrains of the old hymn open the door of the
heavenly tent of witness. This was made possible by the cross and the prayers
and songs of the saints enter. From the Holy of Holies, God responds. Notice “your
righteous acts have been revealed” at the end of verse 4, when “the
sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened” in verse 5. Perhaps
the tent in the wilderness depicted
better the heavenly throne room than the magnificent temple erected in Jerusalem,
and we will note that God never asked for more than a tent to represent Him on
earth.
The angels, noted in verse 1, come forward in verse 6 to
pour out the plagues of perfect judgment onto the earth. The messengers from
heaven are pure and holy; the earth is filthy with sin and mutiny. The angels
are adorned with the pure golden riches of heaven, to demonstrate to the earthlings,
the glory of heaven in its righteous judgment upon the earth. A representative
from the living creatures gives to the angels the vessels from the heavenly
sanctuary. They are seven bowls, from which godly judgments, emanating from His
wrath, will proceed. He is the eternal
God and His judgment is eternal (v.7).
We saw the divine principle previously that declares that
judgment glorifies God’s holiness and now, from the heavenly sanctuary, smoke
from the fire of His blazing glory and His omnipotence fills the sanctuary.
Whether in heaven or upon earth, when the glory of God fills a place, there is
no room for man. When Moses erected the tabernacle in the wilderness, “the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter
the tent of meeting… the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle ((Ex.40:34,
35) Much later, the Israelites experienced another glorious day when “the house of the Lord, was filled with a
cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud,
for the glory of the Lord filled the house of God (2 Chr.5:13, 14). There was
no room for King Solomon, the human constructor himself. The Lord will not give
His glory to another (Is.48:11) He alone will be glorified in judgment until
the plagues finish His purposes (v.8).
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