The Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath
16:1 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.
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!”
7 And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 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 like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The Seventh Bowl
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. (ESV)
MMMMM! What a great chapter! Throughout reading this chapter, I was reminded of Pastor Lucas’ sermon at Revival ’08. Even as a staff member at Revival, I got a lot from this.
It encourages me to go out and evangelize more and more, because this is what the hell-bound are going to go through, and as most of us learned at Revival, we NEED to care for the damned, and what better way then sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. Amen?
But, wow, this isn’t even hell yet! The hell-bound are going through the 7 bowls of God’s wrath, before they are about to spend a life of eternal destruction in hell. Yet in verses 9 and 11, these people will still curse the name of the Lord. Again, we need to share the Gospel with the damned. As it says in 1Tim2:3-4 it says that God wants all men to be saved, so let us go out and spread the revival!!!
Its good to see that we are getting back in to the 30′s!! Let’s keep it up!
With Kingdom Eyes,
John Porter
9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
The people still refuse to repent, even after all of this. God’s power is being displayed before them, but instead of seeing His wrath as a result of their sin and repenting, they curse Him for it. The angels in heaven, though, are praising God for His justice. We as Christians can also take confidence in the fact that evil will not go unpunished.
But at the same time, as John said so well, this is not the worst these people are going to have it. They have nothing to look forward to but Hell. It’s one thing for us to look at these judgements and say, “wow, thats intense.” But if we do nothing because of it, we are no better off than we were before. Instead, we need to have an increase sense of urgency and compassion for the damned, and make evangelism the focus of our lives, not something that we do when we feel like it.
Laguna/Mission/Trabuco/El Toro Small group tonight!!!
Great comments Mike and John! This chapter is deffinately motivation for evangelism.
Wow, I thought yeterday’s chapter was powerful, but that was just the intro! God’s wrath on sin is so scary and complete that people will want to do die, but can’t because of God’s grace. Even through all of this God’s grace is shown by not immediately sending the unrepentant to hell. These judegements are not even close to what we deserve, we deserve the punishment that Satan gets; hell. God still loves us so much that he gives the unrepentant time to turn even in the last days of the tribulation. We need to love like God loves, never giving up hope, and always sacraficing of our selves to love the other person even if they don’t love us. This is true love and it is what showed us when He died on the cross. Praise be to His name forever!
Wow, I totally agree, this passage is a great motivation for evangelism.
9.) They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Just as Mike said, God is displaying His almighty power and wrath to all left on earth, but it is amazing that they still have not repented, even worse, they curse Him instead. God will have His justice and soon everyone will give Him he glory He deserves.
7And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
How true is this statement??? God’s discipline and punishments are always just and true! So many times when we are going through a hard time we put the blame on God or when He is trying to teach us something through difficulties we get angry with him. Who are we to test whether God’s motives and plan for our lives is better than the one he has already planned for us! When we go through a tough time God is always there to help us through it and he is there to comfort us as well! (Psalm 23:4) We learn so much through the trials that we face here on earth and maybe at the time it may not be completely evident what God is trying to teach us or cleans us from, but there is always a reason for what Christ does in our lives! And His judgments on the earth will be true and just!
9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
This is an intense desription of God in this verse! And we have the opportunity to repent of our sins, and its sad to see how people refuse to do that, and to glorify the Lord. We of True North need to be taking all the open doors we have to share the word of God! We need to be the examples, and hopefully all the people we talk to will get saved one day. We need to plant the seed! The judgement of God will be coming, and those who are not saved need to seriously think about it! Because if they are refusing to repent and bring glory to God, then they are not the Lord’s children.
21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
WOW! A hundred pound hailstones?!? Thats gigantic! That’s like having a huge boulder droped on you at high speeds. That is intense. But instead of repenting to God, they curse Him. Not a smart choice. If the God that is all powerfull is doing this to them, they probably should repent and ask Him to stop the hail. But of course they only curse Him, which is baisically asking for more hail the size of mini-vans. Once again I really don’t want any of my relatives or my friends to have to go through this.
11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
This shows again of the power and pain to come. This verse describes sores and pains on the body. Kinda like a eternal 3rd degree burn.
6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.”
This chapter is a powerful description of God’s wrath in the future, but this is a little bit of a note about the past, which is actually our present. An angel is making a comment here that the people of this world world have been killing God’s people. This is such a foreign idea to us. We don’t think it happens here in America today. Nevertheless, we need to be ready to suffer persecution for Christ, even to the point of death. The world is only going to get worse…let’s prepare ourselves to make a stand in Jesus’ name!
19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
What struck me about this verse is that is says “God remembered Babylon the Great.” Babylon has been prospering and living apart from God as it has gained the distinction as being the most powerful city in the world. It might seem that God was not doling out the punishment that they deserved during the time of their prosperity. The truth of this verse is that God remembers every wrong done to Him and that in His perfect timing He will demand a payment for all sins. This encourages me now when I see the wicked thriving in their relationships, careers, and finances while many Christians I know are struggling in these areas. God is just and one day He will restore order and it is the Christians who will prosper for all of eternity in heaven while the wicked have an eternity of separation from God.
15″Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
I remember when Bobby was preaching about when all of our sin will be exposed! This is a scary thought we should be living like each day is our last day to stand up for Christ on this earth, because it very well could be. How can we even think about sinning when we know Christ is coming back at any moment, we need to be ready for His return and we will be blessed!
21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.
Like what Max said, WOW!! It kind of makes me want to say “well, that’s stupid of them” but how many times have we been told to do something, and not do it?? People aren’t confused by the gospel, they’re just confused by us!! Pray for boldness and open hearts, so these people may understand!! :D
9They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony
11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
WOW!!!! The sun was able to scorch people! That would be sooo painful! A bad sunburn hurts, but the sun being able to scorch you with fire! At the end of verse 10 it says, “Men gnawed their tongues in agony.” That is so intense. They were in so much pain and turmoil that they gnawed their tongues! It hurts bad enough when I accidentaly bite my tongue, but gnawing it our of agony! This chapter is so intense. All the pains in the world now, seem to be multiplied by 1000 in this chapter. Also, in verses 9 and 11, it says they cursed God, but refused to repent. Wow! We all deserve the wrath of God, yet they are cursing Him for it. And after all this; the seven bowls of wrath, and everything in previous chapters, they still refuse to repent!!! Wow, that is intense. Is the world really worth that much to them??!! What a motivation for evangelism, as many people have already said.
what really amazes me abut this whole book is how unwilling people are to repent and come to Christ. Even after the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls of wrath, the water turning to blood, the scorching of one-third of the earth, all of these horrible painful things, people are STILL unwilling to repent and acknowledge God. it really amazing, God’s wrath, and when it happens its awful and destructive, but nonetheless it is just. these people that have hard hearts make me sad because though there are all these radical and unexplainable things hapening (except for God) people dont believe, and they are going to hell forever. Isaiah 45:23 sayas that every knee will bow; every tongue will profess the name of the Lord
I seriously got goosebumps reading this chapter! From the first verse saying:
“1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”
That already sound intense. Bowls of wrath!? Bowls normally hold things right? So the wrath of God that has been stored up is gonna be released against those who have not repented. These plagues totally reminded me of Pharaoh and Egypt. A lot of the plagues seemed either repeated or familiar yet the peoples hearts were hardened against God. No matter what happened, they would not humble themselves to repent! Then it goes on in verse 15:
15 “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”
We need to be ready for the coming of Christ. No one knows the hour or day of His return, but we do know that it is imminent! We need to be prepared for His return by (as a lot of people have already said) spreading His word and evangelizing as much as possible!
Then i was just blown away by the Power displayed in these verses:
18 Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake.
19 The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
20 Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.
There is gonna be an earthquake so great that it will spit cities, flatten mountains, and erase islands! Our God is sooooo powerful, we need to fear His coming wrath and again, tell as many people about the Good News of Christ, so that they don’t have to experience God’s coming wrath.
Woah…..if THAT doesn’t invoke a fear of God then you got serious issues. But like John said, this chapter, in fact this whole book, reminded me of Pastor Luke’s Sermon about caring for the damned. We read all about the pain and suffering that non-Christians will endure yet we sit by and are afraid of what they’ll think of us if we evangalize to them. If can’t go out and make disciples at our schools how can we make disciples of ALL NATIONS?! I LOVE GOD’S WORD!!! It makes me feel so alive for Christ!
MARANATHA!!!!!!!
21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible
I remember a couple of chapters ago that people who are facing God’s wrath wanted the stones from the mountain to fall on them, they got what they asked for but these stones that are a hundred pounds fall from the sky. It is still sad to see these people still cursing God, and won’t repent of their sin.
10The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony
11and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
It’s sad and it hurts to see that people will not only refuse to repent but will also curse God, which isn’t a smart idea. It’s like when Job’s wife said, “curse God and die”. And death is exactly what they’ll get- for eternity. We need to, like Mike said, evangelize constantly, not just when we feel it, so that they might be saved and pray for these people constantly that God might soften their hearts and draw them to Him.
This is what we all deserve. We are all sinners but God chose us to be HIs disciples. What a wonderful God He is. Amen???!!!!! He is soooo merciful and awesome can’t wait to live with Him for eternity.
21From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible
Ok, first they curse God and refuse to repent after being scorched by the sun, then He puts them in darkness until they bite their tongues and they still don’t repent! But then this!!!! why do they keep cursing our Heavenly Father after all of that?! The earthquake comes and they still refuse to listen to the God who has complete control over their lives….I don’t understand why they would refuse to listen to Him.wow I’m just shocked by this chapter… People, believe in Him and you won’t have to suffer like this! :)
wow i agree, this is a great motive for evangelism!
why do we fear man, for man can only kill us…when we need to only be fearing God who determines our eternity after this temporary life!so be bold and spread Gods word
7And I heard the altar respond: “Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.”
This is extremely true.Especially when going through rough times, we need to rely on God. Because true and just are His judgements!even if the answer to prayer we get is completely different from what we wanted, we need to still praise God. i would think that God would know how to handle a situtation better than i could.therefore i lean on God, and i find myself having a peace that overcomes me:)
Oh my goodness! Such a great chapter! I still cant understand the people that dont repent and put their trust in God even after all this had happened to them!! This chapter definatly makes me fear God and his wrath and encouragess me to go out and evangelize, not caring what the world thinks.
3The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.
20Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found.
Both of these verses to me were super cool. They show how awesome and powerful our God is. But it is insane to think that if and angel puts a drop of blood in the ocean. But what i love is how cool the Bible is about it. They’re just like: “oh yeah…everything died” like it’s nothing. It’s INSANE!!!
5Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: “You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged;
Justice is one of God’s many attributes. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” We can be assured that God will repay every evil that has ever happened or will ever happen in the world. As a sinner, I am so thankful to Christ that I won’t have to endure the punishment that I deserve (described in Revelation) because Christ endured it for me (Isaiah 53: 5-6, 2Corin5:21).
It breaks my heart that after each of these plagues they would curse God and not repent. Without God we can’t please God. It shows how evil we truly are as humans, and it is truely by God’s grace that we can even worship him.
“What horrible horrible things God will do in the future!”
This phrase is false! They are not horrible, but Just! Just is one of God’s attributes, Just is who God is, God is also Holy. These two attributes of God promise to bring judgement on those who deserve it, but even more is the sin of the people who God will punish!
I am grateful for Christ! If I get burned on my hand from touching the stove, I get hurt when I give myself a paper cut, but God throws inquenchable fire to the earth and makes the sun scorching hot!!!!!! I have not lived to know pain, I am such an orange county boy who is naive when it comes to the wrath of God!
We need to fear God on a dealy basis, not thinking of His holiness when we fear Him but the fact that these days are coming!
wow this chapter is so good….i cant believe what the people who havent repented and puit there faith in god will have to go through, this maked me realize how much more important it is to be evangalizing everry oppertunity that we can!!! i totally agree with you matt that me should be fearfull of god and his wrath!!