Rev 16:3-4 | KingComments | STEP | . John hears how out of the smoke-filled temple “a loud voice” sounds. ‘Loud voice’ is literally ‘great voice’. In this chapter the word ‘great’ occurs often ( ). The unrighteousness is great and God’s wrath is great. Great and extensive is the area of the unrighteousness, great and severe are therefore the means of God’s wrath. The loud voice commands “the seven angels” to act. They must go, each of them to the territory on earth that was assigned to them. There they must pour out “the seven bowls of the wrath of God”. ‘To pour out’ is a sudden and complete effusion of the content on the objects of God’s wrath. The wrath of God does not consist here, so to speak, of a tap with a stick to correct wrong action, but of a complete overpowering and striking down of evil. Bowl after bowl is emptied with a single move. The plagues follow one another in a great pace. Probably these judgments that spare nothing and no one, will be finished within a few days. They are not announced, as it happened with the two previous series of plagues – seals and trumpets. They happen without any warning because God has already warned enough ( ). . The first four bowls are much like the first four trumpets in Revelation 8. The plagues of the first four bowls strike the same areas as the first four trumpets did. However, the difference is that the trumpet plagues struck a limited part of the earth, a third part, while the bowl plagues doesn’t have that limitation. To emphasize the speed of action, it is not said ‘and the first angel went’, but “so the first went”. You find that also in each of the next cases. The first pours out his bowl on the earth. That is not the earth in the broad sense of , but in the limited sense of ‘the dry land’, because in the following there is also mention of other areas on earth, such as the sea and the rivers. When the angel has poured out his bowl the consequences immediately become visible. The people who are connected to the beast and worship his image, get a loathsome and malignant sore as a mark. This couldn’t be just a small sore that you can put a plaster on, but it is an enormous, striking sore that cannot be treated. A sore is an outburst of inner uncleanness that goes together with pain and that changes the outer beauty into repulsiveness. For people who sacrifice everything for a perfect body, both in terms of health and shape, this is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. They have done everything to keep their body in top condition and now by one act of God’s wrath their body turns into a wreck, a pitiful example of misery and pain. Such as satan once struck Job with loathsome sores ( ), God now strikes the followers of the beast with them (cf. ; ). . Without a renewed command from heaven – the command in is one command for all seven angels – the second angel empties his bowl. The area that was given to him is “the sea”. The emptying of his bowl has the direct result that the sea becomes “blood”. However, it is not blood that flows, in which movement is possible, but it is blood that is clotted. The blood in a dead person is not running anymore. The sea turns into a clotted mass. Everything that lives in it cannot move anymore and dies immediately on its spot. The stench of the whole will be terrible and unbearable (cf. ). Spiritually applied the sea is a symbol for all nations where things are disordered, in contrast to the earth as a symbol of an ordered whole. Everyone lives for himself, authority is not acknowledged. At the emptying of the second bowl this conduct will become a plague. In this way each individual will be left to his own, that it will be no more possible for him to be reached or to reach another person. As a result of utter mental numbing, all communication is dead. Loneliness prevails. As dead as they already were in the spiritual sense concerning their relationship with God, now death has also entered in their relationships with their neighbor. . In case there might still be any hope that fresh water can run to the sea from the rivers, which may cause it to live again, then this hope is erased by the third angel. The bowl that he pours out, strikes “the rivers” that they become blood. This also happens to the stand-alone “springs of water”. No water can be drawn for one’s own refreshment or to bring refreshment elsewhere. All the water has turned into blood. Every possibility to bring life where death is, is cut off. When man is cut off from God and from his neighbor, he is utterly subject to the influence of death, without any alternative. Now read Revelation 16:1-4 again. Reflection: What do you find poignant in the description of these bowl judgments?

‏ Revelation of John 16:3-4

The First, Second and Third Bowl

Rev 16:1. John hears how out of the smoke-filled temple “a loud voice” sounds. ‘Loud voice’ is literally ‘great voice’. In this chapter the word ‘great’ occurs often (Rev 16:9 ; 12 ; 14 ; 18 ; 19 ; 21). The unrighteousness is great and God’s wrath is great. Great and extensive is the area of the unrighteousness, great and severe are therefore the means of God’s wrath.

The loud voice commands “the seven angels” to act. They must go, each of them to the territory on earth that was assigned to them. There they must pour out “the seven bowls of the wrath of God”. ‘To pour out’ is a sudden and complete effusion of the content on the objects of God’s wrath. The wrath of God does not consist here, so to speak, of a tap with a stick to correct wrong action, but of a complete overpowering and striking down of evil.

Bowl after bowl is emptied with a single move. The plagues follow one another in a great pace. Probably these judgments that spare nothing and no one, will be finished within a few days. They are not announced, as it happened with the two previous series of plagues – seals and trumpets. They happen without any warning because God has already warned enough (Pro 29:1).

Rev 16:2. The first four bowls are much like the first four trumpets in Revelation 8. The plagues of the first four bowls strike the same areas as the first four trumpets did. However, the difference is that the trumpet plagues struck a limited part of the earth, a third part, while the bowl plagues doesn’t have that limitation.

To emphasize the speed of action, it is not said ‘and the first angel went’, but “so the first went”. You find that also in each of the next cases. The first pours out his bowl on the earth. That is not the earth in the broad sense of Rev 16:1, but in the limited sense of ‘the dry land’, because in the following there is also mention of other areas on earth, such as the sea and the rivers.

When the angel has poured out his bowl the consequences immediately become visible. The people who are connected to the beast and worship his image, get a loathsome and malignant sore as a mark. This couldn’t be just a small sore that you can put a plaster on, but it is an enormous, striking sore that cannot be treated. A sore is an outburst of inner uncleanness that goes together with pain and that changes the outer beauty into repulsiveness.

For people who sacrifice everything for a perfect body, both in terms of health and shape, this is a disaster of unprecedented proportions. They have done everything to keep their body in top condition and now by one act of God’s wrath their body turns into a wreck, a pitiful example of misery and pain. Such as satan once struck Job with loathsome sores (Job 2:7), God now strikes the followers of the beast with them (cf. Exo 9:10; Deu 28:27 ; 35).

Rev 16:3. Without a renewed command from heaven – the command in Rev 16:1 is one command for all seven angels – the second angel empties his bowl. The area that was given to him is “the sea”. The emptying of his bowl has the direct result that the sea becomes “blood”. However, it is not blood that flows, in which movement is possible, but it is blood that is clotted. The blood in a dead person is not running anymore. The sea turns into a clotted mass. Everything that lives in it cannot move anymore and dies immediately on its spot. The stench of the whole will be terrible and unbearable (cf. Exo 7:19-21).

Spiritually applied the sea is a symbol for all nations where things are disordered, in contrast to the earth as a symbol of an ordered whole. Everyone lives for himself, authority is not acknowledged. At the emptying of the second bowl this conduct will become a plague. In this way each individual will be left to his own, that it will be no more possible for him to be reached or to reach another person. As a result of utter mental numbing, all communication is dead. Loneliness prevails. As dead as they already were in the spiritual sense concerning their relationship with God, now death has also entered in their relationships with their neighbor.

Rev 16:4. In case there might still be any hope that fresh water can run to the sea from the rivers, which may cause it to live again, then this hope is erased by the third angel. The bowl that he pours out, strikes “the rivers” that they become blood. This also happens to the stand-alone “springs of water”. No water can be drawn for one’s own refreshment or to bring refreshment elsewhere.

All the water has turned into blood. Every possibility to bring life where death is, is cut off. When man is cut off from God and from his neighbor, he is utterly subject to the influence of death, without any alternative.

Now read Revelation 16:1-4 again.

Reflection: What do you find poignant in the description of these bowl judgments?