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| Chapter 16 |
| Bible Text | Notes and Thoughts |
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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." 2 And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast and upon them that worshiped his image. 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. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, "Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art, and wast, and shall be, because Thou hast judged thus; 6 for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy." 7 And I heard another out of the altar say, "Even so, Lord God Almighty; true and righteous are Thy judgments." 8 ¶ And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. 9 And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory. 10 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 from pain; 11 and they blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 12 ¶ 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. 13 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. 14 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 for the battle of that great Day of God Almighty. 15 "Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." 16 And he gathered them together at a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. 17 ¶ And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of Heaven from the throne, saying, "IT IS DONE!" 18 And there were voices and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not been since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. 19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came to remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great. |
We are now entering the final stages of God’s plan. The angels are now commanded by a "great voice" from the temple in heaven to pour out the contents of their vials of God’s wrath onto the earth. Each angel and their vial contents have specific targets. They affect the earth, the sea, the rivers, the sun, the place of the beast, the air, the river Euphrates and the people. v2 First vial - Grievous sores. Those who had rejected the first angels warning, Rev 14:6-7, and received the ‘mark of the beast’ and worshiped him were affected. The words "grievous sore" basically mean "a bad ulcer." Verse 10,11 suggests that this punishment continues throughout this period. The entire population seems to be affected, constant pain and no cure. v3-6 Second and third vials - Water turns to blood. This vial and the third vial are similar to the plagues in Egypt, Exodus 7. The second vial affects the sea while the third vial affects the rivers and fresh water. All water becomes like the watery blood of a dead man, affecting the whole earth, all the creatures in the sea and rivers now died. v5-7 The people had rejected the blood of Christ, killed God’s people and spread out their blood on the earth, so this is a justified punishment, they must "drink this blood." v8-9 Fourth vial - The sun increases in heat. Life on earth is totally dependant upon the sun’s heat and light. The heat now increases, the water is useless so suffering will be terrible. Yet they still do not turn to God, the exact opposite happens, they curse God. v10,11 Fifth vial - darkness. This darkness seems to only affects the throne and kingdom of the beast. His image is in the temple of Jerusalem so this may be the place of the throne. The other alternative will be Rome. The beast rules the world but it is possible that some parts of the world has light, the darkness covers and controls the headquarters of the beast. v12-16 Sixth vial - Euphrates dries up. This river was involved in the earlier trumpets Rev 9:13ff when an army of demons was released. Now we find the river has dried up and allows an army from the East to have access to the Holy Land. The Satanic Trinity release demonic powers to call the nations to the "great battle," the Battle of Armageddon. Just as God has planned. The Bible does not mention "The Battle of Armageddon." The name comes from two Hebrew words Har Megiddo, the hill of Megiddo. The word Megiddo means a place of slaughter. Mount Carmel overlooks this plain. The area is about 14 miles wide by 20 miles long forming a perfect battle field. Look at Zechariah 12 and Zechariah 14 which describes this coming event from the Israel point of view. v17-21 Seventh Vial - IT IS DONE. The contents of this vial are poured into the air, The result is a voice from Heaven - saying, "IT IS DONE!" followed by a great earthquake, so great there had never been one like it before. The Great City, probably Jerusalem, is split in three. Zechariah 14:4. Cities of the nations collapsed, probably all the capitals or major cities, destroying all the finance, offices and businesses. The City of Babylon - The beasts great economic system collapses, destroyed by God. v20 John continues to describe the effect of this earthquake, it is world wide. v21 In addition there is a tremendous hail storm, each hail stone being a "talent" of silver weight, about 125 lbs . Earth dwellers are being stoned to death - just as blasphemers are to be punished, Leviticus 24:16 - yet they still blasphemed and cursed God. |
Easy English Translation
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