Chapter 14 and 15 were the final preparations for the final act of God’s judgment against mankind upon the earth. He has brought home the 2 witnesses, the 144,000 and the vast majority of all the believers upon the earth. He has sent forth one last messenger, the angel of chapter 14, who would be heard all around the world,  proclaiming the everlasting Gospel for the last time.

Now He has called forth his angels of wrath from within the Temple and they are sent to the earth and specifically to the kingdom of the Beast.

The 7 Bowl Judgments: The Last Judgments of God’s Wrath Outpoured

Revelation 16:1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.  

1st Bowl Grievous Sores

Revelation 16:2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

The word vial in the Greek is φιάλη/ phialē, which is a small shallow cup or bowl.

There are many parallels with this last series of judgments and the plagues that God unleashed upon Egypt in the book of Exodus. Just as God targeted the kingdom of Pharaoh, He now targets the kingdom of the antichrist. In Exodus, each plague was an attack on the pagan gods of Egypt, from their river the Nile, to their sun god Ra, to the bull they worshipped as their god of fertility.

Now the plagues, the bowls are targeted at the beast, his kingdom, his city and his mark. Once again God shows that only He is God and all others must answer to Him. The great dragon, the terrible beast, the false prophet are powerless to stop the judgment of The only true, Almighty, Holy righteous God of heaven and earth.

The Greek word for grievous sore is helkos, the word that our word ulcer comes from. It is a loathsome, foul, incurable, running sore. And notice it is specifically poured upon those who have the mark of the beast and who worship Him. Suddenly, they realize that their all powerful leader can’t do a thing to help them. Just as Pharaoh was helpless before the God of Moses, the antichrist is helpless before the God of Revelation.

2nd  Bowl: Sea Turned to Blood

Revelation 16:3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.

3rd Bowl: Water to Blood

Revelation 16:4-7 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

These two vials are poured out upon the waters of the earth. The second angel turns the sea to blood, and the third angel turns the fresh water, fountains, springs and rivers to blood. Very much like the first plague of Egypt in Exodus 7:18.  This is also an amplification of the plague of the second trumpet back in Revelation 8:8. The trumpet judgment  only turned a third of the sea into blood; here the entire water system of the world is turned to undrinkable blood.

This angel of the waters the praises God for this terrible judgment, not because it is so harsh but because it is just. Revelation 16:5-6 Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

The people of the earth, under the power, authority and influence of Satan have shed the blood of the saints, and now they are left with only blood to drink. Pharaoh had drowned the Hebrew males, and then his army was drowned in the Red Sea. Haman, in the book of Ester planned to kill the Jewish throughout Persia and he built a gallows to hang Mordecai on but instead it was Haman and his lineage that were hanged.

Answered Prayer

This final series of judgments are the answer to the prayers of the saints from chapter 6 on. It is the answer to prayer of the persecuted saints, the people of God, the beloved of God, throughout the ages. Untold millions of Jews have died at the hand of Satan’s warlords and kings. Untold millions of Christians have been massacred, burnt at the stake, and tortured by nations, kings, pagan tribes and even by a those who dared to call them selves The Church of God, but truly were the universal church of Satan.

Revelation 6:9-11 is the prayer that summarizes and distills all the prayers of all those who have suffered as God’s people. “And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.” This is that fulfillment, it is finally, finally here. After all the tears, all the pain, all the loss, all the persecution, God has said, “This is the boundary and the prayers of my people are answered now.

No, God is not cruel. God is just. God is righteous. God is holy and yes even as we read these terrible things we still can say, God is merciful. For He has been sending warning after warning, not just during the tribulation but throughout history. The prophets, the church, the nation of Israel, the Bible. God in his mercy is telling man to repent, warning man what is coming, but mankind is unwilling to accept their sin and therefore he also will not recognize his need for mercy.

4th Bowl: Scorching Of the Sun

Revelation 16:8-11 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

The judgments of the fourth and fifth angels as they pour out God’s wrath touch the sky, the heavens. The 2nd and 3rd plagues were upon the water and now the plagues are poured out even on the heavens themselves. The fourth angel’s bowl causes the sun to scorch men. God turns up the power of the sun. It may mean that the buffering layer of the ozone or the magnetic belts has been damaged by the strikes from the comet and the asteroid, or it just may be the power of God over the sun and He just sends a sun storm so powerful it sweeps through the solar system and burns everyone exposed to it.

Malachi 4:1 seems to describe this day, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

5th Bowl: Darkness In The Kingdom of the Beast

Revelation 16:10-11 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

The fifth angel’s outpoured bowl of wrath brings not brightness but darkness. It is poured upon the seat of the beast, again much like the 9th plague in Egypt the plague of darkness. This darkness is so terrible, so overwhelming that it seems to drive those in the Beast’s kingdom, his seat of power mad. Vs. 10 says, “they gnawed their tongues for pain.”

Joel 2:1-2 describes the darkness of God’s judgment, “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;  A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness,

The 6th Bowl: Gathering of the Armies

Revelation 16:12-16 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

In Exodus, God delivered Israel from Egypt by drying the Red Sea, here God dries up the Euphrates river to not to save his people, but to set a final trap for the armies of the kings of the east, who come to aid the anti-Christ in his attack on Jerusalem, but instead the they are gathered together, by the demons that look like vile frogs. These demon bring all these armies under the complete control of Satan and the Beast. They then are gathered to Armageddon. Armageddon literally means the hill of Megiddo and it is a description of the vast hundreds of square miles battlefield that begin at the foot of Mount Megiddo and runs all the way to Jerusalem.

Now Jesus speaks at this critical moment as the armies of the Beast see an open a path of attack to the city of Jerusalem and the remaining people of God barricaded there. To these embattled believers Jesus calls out. Vs. 15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

This is a both a promise and an encouragement from the coming Messiah to the saints on earth at that time. Jesus is telling them, “I am coming, don’t give up, don’t give in. I am coming!”