Study – Grow – Know

Revelation 16: 6th and 7th Bowls

April 4, 2023 at 5:00 PM 4 comments

Video and PPT are here: SermonAudio.com/StudyGrowKnow

Last time, in this series, we went through the first five bowls of wrath that God, through His ministering angels, pours out onto humanity and the globe. In this installment, we’ll look at the final two of the 21 judgments total that are poured out during the Tribulation. With the pouring out of these two bowls, the 7-year Tribulation period begins to come to a close. All things will work out according to God’s perfect planning and nothing men and women, Satan or Antichrist can do will stop what is coming. It is appointed for all people to die at some point and then face God’s judgment (Hebrews 9:27-28). During the Tribulation, humanity will continually face God’s unrelenting judgment as a warning of what is to come eternally if repentance is not done. Sadly, most will continue to reject and even blaspheme God.

As a reminder, the first five bowl judgments go as follows and are listed for us in Revelation 16:1-11:

• –First Bowl – painful sores
• Second Bowl – sea turns to blood
• Third Bowl – fresh waters turn to blood
• Fourth Bowl – sun gets hotter; people scorched
• Fifth Bowl – complete darkness over Antichrist’s kingdom

These five alone provide massive forms of destruction as we previously noted, but God is not done yet and in fact, it is not until He announces “it is done!” that things begin to wind down. Let’s consider the text of Revelation 16:12-16.

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 Sixth Bowl of Wrath is noted in Revelation 16:12. There we are told that Euphrates River, a source of water for many in the Middle East for centuries, dries up. Notice also that same verse tells us why. It is because the way is being prepared for the kings from the east to gather in the area of Megiddo for a final battle. By the way, the Euphrates River has been in the process of drying up for a number of years, leaving the “breadbasket” of Syria decimated, for example. [1]

Revelation 16:13j-14 continues with the Sixth Bowl. Notice the “…three unclean spirits like frogs.” (v 13) that come from the dragon, the beast (Antichrist), and False Prophet. This appears to be some sort of proclamation to the kings of the earth because it comes from their mouths and this proclamation or mandate is what causes the world’s armies to mobilize and converge on Palestine. This is presented to these kings as if converging together in preparation for battle will be done for their “advantage,” but in reality, results in their complete destruction by our Lord and Victor, Jesus upon His physical return.

Note the text indicates that fallen angels/demons are sent forth to help mobilize the armies. We know how powerful Satan is based on Genesis 3 and Job 1 alone. He is masterful at deceiving human beings and his abilities also allow him to create physical harms.

Frogs in Scripture are “unclean and loathsome” (Lev 11:10-11; 14) and remind us of the second Egyptian plague that involved frogs (Exodus 8:5), but these are real demons, simply like frogs. They are not actual frogs.

Revelation 16:15 is a parenthesis in the action here. God is stating that the time of His physical return is nearly at hand! The world had better prepare for it too, but unfortunately will not. While His message is judgment to the world, it is encouragement for believers living at that time in human history.

God in Christ will come like a thief meaning the lost will not be expecting His return! Many to most people believe the concept of God is thoroughly dead. They live their lives without acknowledging Him. In fact, they believe, because of their arrogance, that since God does not exist, they have nothing to fear. Life is what you make it, period. It is not based on whether or not God “blesses” people because since He does not exist, He cannot bless or curse.

Christians must remain awake and those who do will certainly expect His return! Imagine living at this point in the coming Tribulation and preparing your mind for the fact that God will soon reveal Himself physically to the world when He returns. Christians will be called upon to live in a way that fully acknowledges God’s existence and presence. Because they will continue to look expectantly to Him daily, they will be very aware that His return could occur at any moment as the final days of the Tribulation approach.

Today, we Christians must not be lulled into sleep by a “woke” world. We must remain true to God’s Word and His purposes. We cannot and dare not hate those in the world but we can hate what they traffic in and what they call “good” though it is “bad.” We need to call out the lies in a way that invites people to turn to the Lord in repentance. We must continue being lights to the world and preach the Gospel to the lost with our lips and with our lives. This is our calling and we cannot shirk it. If we do, we will end up being embarrassed when He does return. We will understand that we will have not lived in a way that brought Him glory.

This is ultimately what is meant by God when He says, we Christians need to keep our “…garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” We are naked and exposed (embarrassed), when we do not keep ourselves pure and unspotted from the world and are not watchful for His return.

As a child, when I knew my parents were on their way home from being out, my sister and I made sure the house was not messy and we had done what our parents expected us to do while they were gone. Otherwise, we would have been embarrassed and sometimes disciplined for falling short.

After this parenthetical statement from God, Revelation 16:16 points out that all the kings and their armies of the world will gather at Armageddon under direction of the demons sent forth by the dragon, Antichrist and False Prophet.

Armageddon is from the Hebrew “Har-Magedon” or literally, the mountain of Megiddo and it may refer to the small hill on the south-central edge of Jezreel (Esdraelon) Valley in northern Palestine where Megiddo stood long ago. It could also mean the mountain closest to Megiddo – Mt. Carmel (Elijah).

Probably, so that there’s room enough, Har-Megiddo refers to hill country around Megiddo that border approximately 14 by 20 miles. The Valley of Jezreel is where Deborah and Barack defeated Canaanites as just one example. Numerous important biblical events occurred in this same area. Megiddo means “place of slaughter,” and this is what is going to occur again with the Battle of Armageddon. There will be massive slaughter and it is not as though God had not taken the time to warn humanity about the direction in which they were headed.

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 pounds4 each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. (ESV)

Revelation 16:17 states: “It is done!” a very important statement. Notice angel pours contents of bowl into the AIR, which is what humans breathe to remain alive. God’s voice declares all is finished, referring to judgments He chose to pour out onto the earth and its inhabitants. We forget that we live in God’s world. He owns the earth because He created it. Though He lost the title deed through the deceit of Satan, Jesus gained it back at the cross. This earth is His. We live here solely because He created us and allows us to live here. We are all on borrowed time. God controls all things.

The 7th bowl judgment is just about to occur. This “it is done” probably refers to God’s demolition of man’s final weapon in human warfare (nuclear?), but what does “it is done” remind you of? Does it take you back to the cross when Jesus cried out, “It is finished!”? (John 19:28-30) When Jesus said that, He attested to the fact that He had done everything to fulfill the Father’s will in order that the sacrifice of His life was acceptable as full propitiation for sinful humanity. It remained then that those who come to Him in faith receive that forgiveness and become new creations in Christ.

The “It is done!” here is in reference to the finalization of God’s judgments poured out onto the earth especially for those who rejected the “It is finished!” from Jesus over 2,000 years ago. They ignored and rejected God’s offer of salvation so now they receive what they deserve.

Revelation 16:18 prepares the world for the coming final seventh bowl judgment. Flashes and lightnings and the greatest earthquake this world will ever have experienced will produce destruction that follows! These are divine signs of judgment and are in preparation for the 7th bowl of wrath judgment that brings to the end all 21 judgments.

The “great city” here could refer to:

• –Jerusalem
  –Rome
  –Babylon
  –Euphrates
  •

I believe it refers to Jerusalem because the word “great” is also used in Revelation 11:8 when describing the situation where the slain two witnesses’ bodies will lie in the street. Zechariah 14:4 also lists the geological changes that will occur in Jerusalem prior to the Lord’s return. Notice also that the “cities of the nations fell” – not just Jerusalem. There is massive destruction occurring here because the leaders of the world and their armies have vehemently rejected God’s rule so God wipes out their cities as an invading army would do during times of war.

Note the type of massive destruction that occurs:

• –Islands literally move
• No mountains found
• Giant hailstones fall from heaven to
  earth – 100 POUNDS each

–Hail was often used as divine judgment in biblical history. It was a harbinger of God’s anger and He will use it here as well. If we consider the weight of a 100 pound hailstone, –I can pick up on 80 pound bag of concrete mix but it’s a struggle. When I need to buy concrete I usually stick with the 40 or 50 pound bag. But imagine a 100 pound bag of concrete hitting you after it falls from the sky! We don’t know how large these hailstones will be but they will likely be fairly large, larger than any other hailstones we’ve seen or experienced. They will not be golf ball sized stones. –Death and destruction awaits!

What is the reaction of the lost of this world? They curse God! They are unable to repent yet they know God exists! How ironic is that? They’ve chosen to believe God does not exist, yet they curse Him. This is the thinking of people affected by their own sin.

Next time, we will look at Revelation 17 and begin looking at the final fall of Babylon, city, system or both?

[1] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210830-desert-drying-euphrates-threatens-disaster-in-syria

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