1. “And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the seven bowls of the fury of God upon the earth.” The terms, “voice,” “voices,” a “strong voice,” a “loud voice,” and a “great voice,” have each their own special significance.
The word voice is variously used of Christ, of God, of angels, of the living creatures, of the altar, of the throne, etc. Wherever the word occurs, or to whom or to what it refers in the Apocalypse, there is implied an intelligent apprehension of the subject in question. Its metaphorical application as in Revelation 9:1313And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, (Revelation 9:13) is no exception.
The plural, voices, occurs eight times, and with one exception (Rev. 11:1515And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 11:15)) is directly associated with judgment. It is one of the premonitory signs of coming wrath (Rev. 4:5; 8:5,13; 10:3-4; 11:19; 16:185And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (Revelation 4:5)
5And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. (Revelation 8:5)
13And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! (Revelation 8:13)
3And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. (Revelation 10:3‑4)
19And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)
18And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. (Revelation 16:18)), and implies that the judicial dealing is not simply the exercise of arbitrary power, but is intelligently governed and directed.
Then we read of a “strong voice” (Rev. 18:22And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. (Revelation 18:2)), of a “loud voice” (Rev. 5:22And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? (Revelation 5:2)), and of a “great voice,” as in our text (see also Rev. 21:33And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. (Revelation 21:3)). The adjectives respectively set forth the character of the voice, which, again, is in exact keeping with the nature of the announcement.
1. The Seer hears “a great voice out of the temple.” The sanctuary itself, the holiest spot in the universe, is roused to action. The demand for judgment on the apostate scene proceeds not from the throne, but from the holy of holies. God’s wrath burns fiercely, and its strength is derived from what His holy nature demands and necessitates (Isa. 6). The voice heard in the temple may well be termed “great,” when the holiness of the place and the majesty of the Speaker are considered.
The completeness of the service in which these judgment angels are employed is signified by the number seven, the predominant and ruling numeral in the Apocalypse. These ministers of God’s wrath, although divinely equipped and commissioned, cannot act till God commands. “Go and pour out the seven bowls of the fury of God.” These broad-rimmed vessels had been filled in the sanctuary, not with incense, but with wrath—God’s righteous wrath. The voice which orders the execution of these seven plagues (vs. 1) announces their completion when all are poured out (vs. 17).
1. “Pour out,” not sprinkle; the expression refers to the fullness of divine wrath, each vessel overflows, and is to be poured out without stint or measure in succession till all are emptied. A similar phrase is not uncommon in the Old Testament (Zeph. 3:88Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. (Zephaniah 3:8); Psa. 69:2424Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them. (Psalm 69:24); Jer. 10:2525Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate. (Jeremiah 10:25)). These seven apocalyptic plagues seem like an answer to the prayer of the suffering Jewish remnant in the coming crisis. “Render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord” (Psa. 79:1212And render unto our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord. (Psalm 79:12)).
The scene of these plagues is “the earth,” not geographically but prophetically viewed, hence the course of judgment takes a wider sweep than that under the Trumpets (Rev. 8). Not the apostate Roman earth only, but the whole of the guilty scene within the range of prophetic vision is here given up to feel the vengeance of an angry God.
We are now about to witness these truly awful visitations of divine wrath successively inflicted out of the sanctuary, and from the Bowls, hallowed by temple use and service, now devoted to purposes of judgment.
FIRST BOWL OF WRATH
2. “And the first went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and there came an evil and grievous sore upon the men that had the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image.” In the enumeration of the respective Trumpets each of the seven angels is referred to as “second angel,” “third angel,” “fourth angel,” and so on (Rev. 8), but not so here. The introduction is more brief, the ordinals as first, second, etc., being simply employed, and the word angel omitted.
The plague here referred to as “an evil and grievous sore” reminds us of the sixth Egyptian plague (Ex. 9:10-1110And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast. 11And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians. (Exodus 9:10‑11)). This was the first of the plagues which attacked the persons of the Egyptians, and one under which the magicians, or wise men, specially smarted. It was a disgusting and loathsome disease (see Deut. 28:27, 3527The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed. (Deuteronomy 28:27)
35The Lord shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. (Deuteronomy 28:35)). There are two other New Testament references to this painful character of boil. Under the fifth Bowl it is mentioned in conjunction with other judgments (vs. 11), and in Luke 16:20-2120And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (Luke 16:20‑21) we learn that Lazarus, dying amongst the dogs on the street, was covered with these painful and generally incurable boils or sores, but the soul of the pauper was waited upon by the angels of God, and carried up and into the bosom of Abraham—the reserved place of Jewish blessing.
The literality of the apocalyptic plagues (Rev. 16) is a moot question with some. It has been argued that because the Egyptian plagues were literal, so must these be, because of their general resemblance. Now, while strongly protesting against any limitation of divine power, or intruding on the region of sovereignty which God alone can and must necessarily occupy, yet we judge that the plagues of our chapter must be understood symbolically in keeping with the general character and design of the book. What is signified is a moral sore which will cause intense mental suffering. Physical suffering, no doubt, will also add to the anguish endured by men, but the chief and predominating feature will be judicial dealing with the soul and conscience—a suffering far exceeding any bodily infliction. It is called an “evil and grievous sore.” The word literally means a bad ulcer, that which produces and draws to it unhealthy humors, discharging these in a highly offensive form. Persons bearing the mark of the Beast and his worshippers—the active supporters of the apostate civil power then under the direct authority of Satan—are the sufferers under the first Bowl. It is God’s wrath on the adherents and devotees of the Beast throughout the prophetic earth. This truly awful judgment precedes the fall of Babylon (vs. 19), whereas the everlasting torment of the Beast worshippers succeeds that great event (Rev. 14:9-109And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: (Revelation 14:9‑10)). We gather therefore that the pouring out of the first Vial is a precursor of the doom announced as the fourth subject in that interesting Revelation 14 of grave and notable events.
THE TRUMPETS AND VIALS COMPARED
Besides a general resemblance to the plagues of Egypt, the Vials and Trumpets strikingly correspond. In the first four of each series the sphere of operation is the same, namely, the earth, the sea, the rivers, the fountains, and the sun. But in the Trumpets the area affected is restricted to a third part, that is, the Roman world. The effects produced under the Vials are different, and of a severer character, than those under the Trumpet judgments. Then the fifth, sixth and even seventh Trumpets correspond in some general respects to the last three Vials. But in the Vials the range of the various plagues is in no wise limited to a fourth (Rev. 6:88And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:8)) or third part (Rev. 8) of the prophetic earth. Wherever the evil is it is searched out and none escape.
SECOND BOWL OF WRATH
3. “And the second poured out his bowl on the sea; and it became blood, as of a dead man; and every living soul died in the sea.” All the Vials are poured on the earth, not geographically but prophetically considered (vs. 1). But the terms “earth” (vs. 2) and “sea” (vs. 3) both form part of the prophetic scene referred to in verse 1; that is, the term earth in verse 1 is of larger and wider import than the earth of verse 2. The latter is contrasted with the sea, and as a symbol denotes that special part of the prophetic earth then in ordered external relation to God, while the sea signifies that portion of the sphere of prophetic dealing, not organized, but revolutionary in character—the masses in general. It is important to lay hold of the force of these symbols and of their application in detail. The grand desideratum, however, is to hold in the soul and understanding the moral principles and teaching of the book. A detailed exposition, however interesting, and to some minds fascinating, should be subordinated to the moral element-to that which deals with the conscience and with God. The great moral principles of truth which run through all Scripture are meant to govern the heart and control the life.
The sea “became blood” is not a physical fact, as in the first Egyptian plague (Ex. 7:17-2517Thus saith the Lord, In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. 18And the fish that is in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall lothe to drink of the water of the river. 19And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone. 20And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. 21And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; as the Lord had said. 23And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. 24And all the Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river. 25And seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river. (Exodus 7:17‑25)), when the Nile, the justly celebrated river of Egypt, with its canals, streams, and tributaries, was turned into blood literally and actually. But in the Vial plague the sea becoming blood points symbolically to a scene of moral death. Christianity, or at least what then represents it, is abandoned. So complete and thorough is the apostasy that the blood (life, moral or physical, as the case may be) is “as of a dead man.” Here we have death in a double sense. First, spiritual death, as in Ephesians 2:55Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) (Ephesians 2:5), even in the case of those naturally alive; second, by apostasy, the giving up of all religious profession—the open, public renunciation of all external relationship to God, as in Jude 1212These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; (Jude 12)—”twice dead,” even when physically alive.
“Every living soul died in the sea.” The masses of people within the bounds of the prophetic earth are signified by the restless sea, while those in special outward relation to God within that same sphere are signified by the solid earth. “Every living soul died.” Each mere professor makes shipwreck of faith, of conscience, of truth, and gives up every vestige of religious profession. The apostasy and alienation from God are complete, not one left, save those who are real and whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life.
It has been contended that a violent physical death is here signified by the term blood, but this, we judge, is a mistake. A sword symbolically sets forth death by war or violence, and that is absent here (Rev. 6:8; 19:158And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:8)
15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15)). The scene before us represents a general state of corruption and apostasy amongst the peoples and masses of mankind not in ordered relation to God, as also the open apostasy of “every” one. A pagan world we have read and heard of with all its disgusting and filthy practices. A papal Europe shrouded in moral darkness there has been, and that at no very distant date. But an apostate world, with its blasphemy, cruelty, and frightful misery, abandoned by God and given over to Satan, is the appalling picture in the Apocalypse, one most sure, and, moreover, not far off. The character of the times unmistakably points in that direction.
THIRD BOWL OF WRATH
4-7. “And the third poured out his bowl on the rivers, and (on) the fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Thou art righteous, Who art, and roast, the Holy One, that Thou hast judged so. For they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; they are worthy. And I heard the altar saying, Yea, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous (are) Thy judgments.” In the third Trumpet, to which the third Vial corresponds, the rivers and fountains come under judgment. In the former, however, they become wormwood (Rev. 8:1111And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. (Revelation 8:11)); here they are turned into blood. In the former all national life, character, and source of thought and action are morally poisoned; in the latter the national corruption is of a deeper kind—moral death and complete alienation from God are the results. The “rivers,” the ordinary life of a nation characterized by known and accepted principles of government, social and political, its life-breath so to speak, as also “fountains of waters,” the sources of prosperity and well-being, are all turned into blood, symbolically of course. We would again remark that, allowing a certain parallelism between the Trumpets and Vials, the latter are, at the same time, of wider extent and more severe and searching than the former.
5. “The angel of the waters” seems at first sight an ambiguous expression. But when it is borne in mind the large part which angels occupy in the economy of the redemption of the inheritance the expression assumes a definiteness quite in keeping with other portions of the book. Almost every subject in the Apocalypse has its angel. An angel is the intermediary between Christ and John (Rev. 1:11The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: (Revelation 1:1)); the seven churches have each their angel or moral representative, not a celestial being (Rev. 2-3); an angel challenges the universe to produce one competent to fulfill the counsels of God respecting the earth (Rev. 5:22And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? (Revelation 5:2)); the numberless throng of angels worship the Lamb (vss. 11, 12); angels control the elements (Rev. 7: 1); an angel seals the servants of God (vss. 2, 3); each Trumpet and each Vial has its respective angel (Rev. 8; 16); angels are the combatants in the heavenly war (Rev. 12); an angel announces the Everlasting Gospel (Rev. 14:66And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, (Revelation 14:6)); an angel proclaims the fall of Babylon (vs. 8); an angel declares the awful doom of the worshippers of the Beast (vs. 9); an angel comes out of the temple (vs. 15); and another out of the altar (vs. 18). If the winds, the fire, and the abyss have each an angel, the waters too have their appropriate and guardian angel. The peoples symbolized by the waters (Rev. 17:1515And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. (Revelation 17:15)) are controlled by an angel, all, however, under the governing hand of God.
The angel of the waters acquiesces in the divine judgment. It might be naturally supposed that he would deprecate judicial and retributive dealing in the sphere over which he presides. On the contrary, he justifies God, saying, “Thou art righteous.” The plague does not overstep by a hairbreadth the just measure of strict righteousness. Then the eternity of God’s Being, “Who art,” and His past relation to men and angels, “and wast,” are next affirmed. “The holy One.” This peculiar word occurs but twice in the New Testament in relation to Christ; the other instance is in Revelation 15:44Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. (Revelation 15:4).
In the Authorized Version of verse 5 the words “O Lord” and “shalt be” are unnecessary interpolations, and are rejected by most critics, while the title the “holy One” is omitted (see R.V.).
6. “They have poured out the blood of saints and prophets.” This sentence conclusively proves the symbolic character of the plague. Apostate peoples and nations are referred to as “waters.” They had freely and wantonly poured out the blood of saints and prophets. In Revelation 11:1818And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth. (Revelation 11:18) the order is prophets and saints; here it is saints and prophets. In the former it is a question of public acknowledgment of service and faithfulness, hence the most responsible and distinguished company is first named; whereas in our text it is the martyrdom of all who stand for God, of all who witness for Him, negatively and positively, according to the principle in Luke 11:50-5150That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. (Luke 11:50‑51). “Saints”213is a common enough term in both Testaments, signifying true believers on God. “Prophets” designate those who truly witness for God in a dark and evil day.
6. “Thou hast given them blood to drink: they are worthy.” Water is the ordinary source of life and refreshment. Wine is the symbol of earth’s joy. Blood is the witness of death. In retributive justice, in holy righteousness, God judicially gives over the persecutors of His people to drink blood, to realize in their own souls and consciences death. The penalty is an awful one. The drinking of blood does not mean physical death, it is infinitely worse. The punishment is as horrible as it is righteous. It is really an installment and foretaste of the horrors of the lake of fire. “They are worthy.” Not only is it a righteous judgment, but these apostates have fully earned their awful doom. “They are worthy” to have this terrible and judicial character of death inflicted upon them, to drink it, and thus fully know its bitterness.
Then the altar speaks, not as in the Authorized Version, the angel of the altar, but the altar itself. The brazen altar is here referred to (Rev. 6:99And 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: (Revelation 6:9)), the altar of consuming judgment. The lives of God’s saints and witnesses had been sacrificed on the altar (so He regarded it), and their souls after death are heard underneath it crying to God for vengeance on their bloodthirsty persecutors. God hears the cry. For about six thousand years it might have seemed as if God slept or was indifferent to the cruel and heartless treatment of His people in all ages. But no The long, lingering patience of our God has now come to an end, and the slumbering vengeance of Jehovah bursts forth. The cry of the altar is a vindication of the God of wrath. It exults in the holy and righteous character of these retributive judgments. In the first book of Scripture (chap. 4:10) we hear the cry of the blood of the first of the martyred band; now in the last book (Rev. 16:77And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. (Revelation 16:7)) we listen to the cry of the altar which had borne its testimony to the slaughter of God’s saints from Abel onwards. It is the appeal of the altar itself in the near approach of the final consummation of judgment under the seventh Vial. It is both an appeal to and a vindication of God in His true and righteous judgments (see Rev. 15:3; 19:23And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. (Revelation 15:3)
2For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. (Revelation 19:2)).
FOURTH BOWL OF WRATH
8-9. “And the fourth poured out his bowl on the sun; and it was given to it to burn men with fire. And the men were burnt with great heat, and blasphemed the Name of God, Who had authority over these plagues, and did not repent to give Him glory.” There is a marked and striking parallelism between the first four Trumpets and the first four Vials. In both the order is the same. The great departments of nature, symbolic, of course, come under judgment, namely, the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun. In the Vials the whole prophetic scene is involved, whereas in the Trumpets the Roman earth is specially in view.
The previous visitation of the sun in judgment (Rev. 12), that is, the supreme governing authority, resulted in a scene of intense moral darkness, confined, however, to the revived Roman world. But the fourth Trumpet, both in severity and range, must pale before the greater horrors of the fourth Vial. There darkness, here intolerable agony; there an area of circumscribed judgment, here the judgment extends to the utmost bounds of Christendom; there the circumstances of men are in question, here men themselves in their own persons are the agonized sufferers.
9. “Burnt with great heat.” The power of the sun is increased to such an intense degree that men are scorched or burnt with its fire. It is not, of course, a physical judgment produced by the great celestial luminary; we must therefore seek to ascertain what is the moral significance and symbolic meaning of the sign. The sun as a figure denotes supreme government (see on Rev. 6:12; 8:12; 9:2; 12:112And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; (Revelation 6:12)
12And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. (Revelation 8:12)
2And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. (Revelation 9:2)
1And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: (Revelation 12:1)). We understand, therefore, that the great governing authority on earth becomes the cause of intense and frightful anguish to men. “Burnt,” or scorched, would naturally convey as much (Deut. 32:2424They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. (Deuteronomy 32:24); Mal. 4:11For, 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. (Malachi 4:1)).
9. We are next called to witness the effect of these dire plagues upon the consciences of men. Are they humbled and made repentant thereby? Are they crushed in spirit under the repeated and increasing severity of these judicial chastisements? No! They “blasphemed the Name of God.” What an answer on man’s part to the expressed wrath of the Almighty! How incorrigibly bad and thoroughly corrupt is the will of man! Had there been godly repentance the storm of divine wrath might have been arrested, for God “had authority over these plagues.” All were in His hand, and He possessed supreme control. God is the source of these apocalyptic judgments. We are not living in a world of chance, but in a world which belongs to God and which He controls, even down to the minutest circumstance of life. There was produced, not repentance, but increased hardness of heart; not glory to God, but blasphemy of His blessed Name. In this plague God and the creature stand out strongly contrasted.
FIFTH BOWL OF WRATH
10-11. “And the fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the Beast; and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues with distress; and blasphemed the God of the Heaven for their distresses and their sores, and did not repent of their works.” The seven churches (Rev. 2-3), the seven Seals (Rev. 6; 8:1), the seven Trumpets (Rev. 8), and the seven Vials (Rev. 16) are each divided into two distinct groups. In the case of the churches the division is into three and four, whilst in the others the grouping is reversed, four and three. Number seven in itself signifies completeness, spiritual perfection. When separately numbered as one, two, and so on, the various parts of the whole are distinguished, and when grouped into the two unequal divisions of three and four it intimates a special and characteristic feature peculiar to each group.
We have had in the preceding Vials the four great departments of nature symbolically represented, as the earth, the sea, the rivers, and the sun. But now we pass from the realm of nature to witness a characteristic and specific subject of judgment, that is, the kingdom of the Beast, which is smitten in the center and seat of its power. The Beast himself, or the personal head of the empire, is, with his fellow in crime, the Antichrist, reserved for an awful doom (Rev. 19:2020And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. (Revelation 19:20)). But till then the civil and political power of earth established by Satan (Rev. 13:4; 17:84And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4)
8The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. (Revelation 17:8)) is in its strength and center made to feel the stroke of divine judgment. The executive of the kingdom, not the subjects of it, is referred to here. The “throne,” the strength and glory of the kingdom, is overwhelmed with judgment. The impious and insolent challenge, “Who is like unto the Beast? who is able to make war with him?” (Rev. 13:44And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? (Revelation 13:4)) is unmistakably answered here, and subsequently too (Rev. 19:19-2119And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. 20And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. 21And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh. (Revelation 19:19‑21)).
10. “His kingdom became darkened.” No doubt there is here an allusion to Exodus 10:21-2321And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. 22And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: 23They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. (Exodus 10:21‑23). There, however, the darkness was physical, here it is moral. It is difficult to realize in any conceivable degree the horror of such a doom. One main characteristic of the misery endured in the eternal abode of suffering, the lake of fire, is darkness and blackness (Matt. 25:3030And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30)). That darkness is here foreshadowed with its accompanying consequences. “They gnawed their tongues with distress.” “This is the only expression of the kind that we have in all the Word of God, and it indicates the most intense and excruciating agony.”
11. Under the distress caused by the former Vial men blasphemed “the Name of God”; here there is advance in an evil sense, they blaspheme “the God of the Heaven,” not His name merely, but God Himself. There is remorse and suffering in the morally darkened kingdom, The very knowledge that God is in Heaven and is the author and source of their misery, judicially inflicted, does not bow the heart in repentance. The will is yet unbroken. And “did not repent of their works,” the very deeds which God was answering in judgment were gloried in. They loved darkness and its evil deeds. Heavier strokes must yet descend.
SIXTH BOWL OF WRATH
12-16. “And the sixth poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings from the rising of the sun might be prepared. And I saw 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, as frogs; for they are (the) spirits of demons, doing signs; which go out to the kings of the whole habitable world to gather them together to the war of (that) great day of God the Almighty. (Behold I come as a thief. Blessed (is) he that watches and keeps his garments, that he may not walk naked, and that they (may not) see his shame.) And He gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.”
THE EUPHRATES
“The great river Euphrates.” This justly celebrated river is the largest in western Asia, and figures largely in history and prophecy. It is first named in Genesis 2, and last mentioned in Revelation 16:1212And 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. (Revelation 16:12). The two apocalyptic references to it are expressed in exactly the same terms (Rev. 9:14; 16:1214Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. (Revelation 9:14)
12And 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. (Revelation 16:12)). The Euphrates formed the limit in the east of Roman conquest, and forms the eastern boundary of enlarged Palestine in the future. It has ever stood as a geographical barrier, a natural separating bulwark between the west and the east. The golden Bowl of the sixth angel is poured on the great river, so that its water was dried up. The barrier is removed by this act of judgment, so that the eastern nations can the more readily pour their armies into Canaan.
We gather from the object in view that the Euphrates, or part, will be literally dried up, miraculously no doubt. A somewhat similar judgment will be witnessed in the west (Isa. 11:1515And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. (Isaiah 11:15)). Both the Nile and the Euphrates are dealt with—the western and the eastern boundaries of the land of Palestine. There need be no difficulty in accepting the statement in our text in its full and literal sense. The future is brimful of wonders and startling events, and if the river divides the east from the west, that of necessity must be removed sufficiently to allow the eastern armies under their respective kings to cross the country and assemble in Palestine. The reason of divine judgment on the river is “that the way of the kings FROM (not “of” as in the Authorized Version) the rising of the sun might be prepared.” These kings cannot be the Jews, a strange supposition. The mass of the Jewish people will enter the land from the west, while Ephraim or the ten tribes are restored chiefly from the north and south. Besides, it is not the kings of the east, but from the east, peoples on the eastern side of the Euphrates, that are in question.
We see no reason why the Turkish empire should be referred to in the naming of the Euphrates in either of the two texts where the river is named in the New Testament. Turkey is not referred to in the Scriptures at all. It needs no prophetic statement nor remarkable foresight to predict the falling to pieces of that most corrupt and the worst governed power on earth. Its dismemberment has commenced, and its complete and final overthrow is only a matter of time, and not a long one either. Palestine and adjacent countries, now part of the Ottoman empire, are rapidly coming to the front. This assemblage of opposing forces in the Holy Land is prefigured in that millennial chapter, Genesis 14. In and about Judea God will gather the nations and kingdoms to pour upon them His indignation and fierce anger (Zeph. 3:88Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. (Zephaniah 3:8)). Persia, Ethiopia, etc., are under the power of Russia and follow in the train of Gog, the last ruler of the Russian peoples (Ezek. 38:2-62Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 4And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 5Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:2‑6)). Greece seems to act an independent part in the near crisis (Zech. 9:1313When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man. (Zechariah 9:13)), but all these powers are politically hostile to restored Judah (Psa. 83; Zech. 12; 14). Egypt will be subordinate to and an ally of the Beast, and thus an object of attack by the king of the north-Israel’s determined political foe (Dan. 11:25,29,42-4425And he shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the south with a great army; and the king of the south shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand: for they shall forecast devices against him. (Daniel 11:25)
29At the time appointed he shall return, and come toward the south; but it shall not be as the former, or as the latter. (Daniel 11:29)
42He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. 43But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps. 44But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. (Daniel 11:42‑44)). The Beast and Gog are opposing powers. Their policy and aims are widely different. The former is the would-be protector of the Jewish people; the latter their destroyer.
A SATANIC TRINITY
Not only are natural hindrances and barriers removed, so that the great Asiatic powers might have the way prepared to take their allotted part in the conflict and confederacy of the last days, but Satan himself provides a “universal ministry” to effect the most gigantic combination of opposing forces ever witnessed. The sixth Bowl of wrath is not exhausted in the judgment on the Euphrates. There are “three unclean spirits,” termed the “spirits of demons,” likened to frogs—loathsome, filthy, disgusting, bred out of the mire and pestilential vapors and moral wickedness of the corrupt scene—these are sent out on their terrible mission. They are to influence by word, and sign, and miracle the peoples of the earth; to lure them on to the “war of (that) great day of God Almighty.” God is about to set His King on mount Zion (Psa. 2), so the might of the whole habitable earth is gathered to thwart and defeat the divine purpose. It is a universal gathering of the powers. A trinity of evil—the concentrated malignant influence of Satan—is employed to effect the gathering together of the kings of the earth. These spirits issue out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the Beast, and out of the mouth of the False Prophet. The mouth is regarded as the source and means of destructive agency (Rev. 1:16; 2:16; 9:17; 19:1516And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. (Revelation 1:16)
16Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. (Revelation 2:16)
17And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. (Revelation 9:17)
15And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. (Revelation 19:15); see also Isa. 11:44But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. (Isaiah 11:4)). The dragon not only works actively to effectuate his plans, but his two prime ministers share in the work—the Beast and the False Prophet. The former is the vast apostate civil and political power of Rome; the latter is the second Beast of Revelation 13, here termed for the first time the False Prophet, as by his lies and influence he can the more readily act upon the peoples. We have here a combination of direct satanic power, apostate brute force, and malignant influence, all employed in this hellish work (compare with 1 Kings 22).
ARMAGEDDON
16. “And He gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.” The pronoun he no doubt refers to God. He is behind the scenes and the actors in this judicial judgment and course of dealing. It is God Almighty, therefore, Who effects, in righteous retribution, this vast gathering of the nations, employing the dragon, His declared enemy, and the great apostate chiefs of earth to carry out His purpose. Why is the gathering place Armageddon? There the Canaanitish kings gave battle to Israel, but Jehovah fought with and for His people, and the signal victory granted to Israel is celebrated in glowing and triumphant strains by Deborah, the prophetess (Judg. 5:19-2019The kings came and fought, then fought the kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no gain of money. 20They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. (Judges 5:19‑20). Now one great object which the assembled nations have before them is to crush and overthrow Israel (Psa. 83:3-53They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. 4They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance. 5For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: (Psalm 83:3‑5)), but God intervenes, and effectually destroys them and delivers His own, as He did in the early days of the Judges. The early victory is here alluded to as a pledge and earnest of the latter. It is not that the actual hill of Megiddo or its valley is to be the gathering center of the nations; its circumscribed area must forbid any such notion. But the simple meaning is that God will have gathered by satanic agency many of the nations of the earth to Palestine, their object being to overthrow and crush Israel, and fling themselves in their combined might against Jehovah. But, alas for them, they do so only to their own destruction. God pours upon the assembled nations His fury (see the prophets Joel and Zephaniah). It has been remarked that the valley of Jehoshaphat is the place of slaughter, and Armageddon the place of gathering by the nations. Both places, however, are intended to present in principle certain closing scenes in the last days. Both the mountain and valley point to a future assembling of kings and peoples in the land of Palestine, and probably in the vicinity of Jerusalem. There the great governmental question of the sovereignty of the earth is to be decided in the complete overthrow of the nations, and in the establishment of the world kingdom of our God and of His Christ; in the settlement, too, of Israel in perpetual possession of her land, and in headship and supremacy of the nations in the millennial earth.
RETROSPECTIVE VIEW
But now we must retrace our steps somewhat. It will be observed that verse 16 naturally follows, and indeed completes the subject of verse 14, hence the passage between (vs. 15) forms a parenthesis of great moral value. “Behold I come as a thief.” The kings and peoples gathered by satanic agency shall in the moment of apparent success and victory be suddenly surprised by the Advent of the Lord in glory (1 Thess. 5:2-32For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:2‑3)). The whole world will be asleep in midnight moral darkness, and congratulating itself on “peace and safety,” when suddenly the Lord Himself bursts in upon the scene, unexpectedly, as a thief in the night. That aspect of the Coming neither forms our hope not causes fear (vs. 4). We are not of the night, nor of darkness, and hence can never be so overtaken. To us, ere the day breaks, He appears as the bright and morning star. Then the parenthesis closes with a serious word of much-needed instruction at all times, but especially at the moment and occasion of this latter-day prophecy. The believer who in that day “watches and keeps his garments” is pronounced “blessed.” It is not here a question of life or salvation, but of walk. How needful then, as at all times, to look carefully to one’s ways, lest there be exposure in sight of the enemy, and they see our shame and moral nakedness.
VIAL AND TRUMPET COMPARED
In bringing our remarks on the sixth Vial to a close we would briefly note the correspondence between it and the sixth Trumpet. In both the Euphrates is named. In both, too, the Asiatic powers take their part in conflict; various other points of resemblance may be noted by careful readers. We may further remark that the sixth Vial in itself does not present a scene of conflict by the various powers, nor does it unfold a universal slaughter; it rather points to the general gathering of the peoples from all parts of the earth, so that they are there when the Lord comes in power (Rev. 19). Other Scriptures, however, enable us to fill in details. One or two statements to emphasize points of prophetic truth are important to grasp. Judea, especially in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, is the final gathering place of the nations and peoples of the earth. Most of the nations, particularly those in the north and east, seek to destroy the Jewish commonwealth, then politically restored and in measure upheld by the western powers. All the nations are more or less combined in undying hatred to God and to His Christ, and all are judged and punished at the Lord’s Advent in power (Rev. 19; Isa. 66; Zech. 14).
SEVENTH BOWL OF WRATH
17-21. “And the seventh poured out his bowl on the air; and there came out a great voice from the temple of the Heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, such an earthquake, so great. And the great city was (divided) into three parts; and the cities of the nations fell; and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. And every island fled, and mountains were not found. And a great hail, as of a talent weight, comes down out of Heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, for the plague of it is exceeding great.” The events described under the previous Vial were preparatory to the final outpouring of God’s wrath on the apostate civil power, and on the yet more guilty Babylon of ecclesiastical fame and history, the religious corruptress of the earth. We have just witnessed the providential judgment of God on the “great river Euphrates,” and the universal gathering of the nations under the marvelous energy of Satan infused into the three frog-like spirits of demons. The world has been warned, “Behold I come as a thief,” and saints solemnly counseled to walk with undefiled garments, hence all was fully prepared under the sixth Vial. There is, therefore, no further delay. The seventh golden Bowl is now poured out, exceeding in magnitude and severity anything hitherto witnessed since man began his sorrowful history outside Eden.
17. “The seventh poured out his bowl on the air.” This judgment falls upon the moral life-breath of the world. The air, essential to natural life, is symbolically visited in judgment. The realm of Satan is really the sphere of this awful plague (Eph. 2:22Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2)); only we gather that the “air,” as used in this prophecy of the consummation of judgment on the organized systems of evil, denotes the ruin of all right moral influences and principles which act upon men—the destruction of the moral life of all individual, social, religious, and political society. It is a far-reaching and permeating judgment.
17. The temple and throne unite, and He Who dwells in the one and sits on the other announces with a great voice, “It is done.” The end has come. Details of Babylon’s overthrow are unfolded in the two subsequent chapters. Here the mere fact is stated, particulars are reserved. The close of providential dealing has come, and there remains but the last and most awful stroke of judgment inflicted by the Lord in Person at His Coming. The wrath of God is closed up in the pouring out of the seventh Vial, to be followed by the more awful exhibition—open and public—the wrath of the Lamb.
18. “There were lightnings, and voices, and thunders.” These symbols (in a threefold form) of almighty power in judgment occur four times. The term “voices” intimates that the execution of judgment is intelligently directed. The order in which the symbols occur differs somewhat from that in the Authorized Version. The transposition of the words in this formula of divine visitation has, no doubt, its special significance in each case; they are calculated to strike terror to the hearts of men. In addition to those signs and tokens of Jehovah’s wrath upon the guilty scene “there was a great earthquake,” which in magnitude and dire results exceed anything recorded in history” such an earthquake, so great.” There will be physical earthquakes in divers places (Mark 13:88For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows. (Mark 13:8)). But the vast and unparalleled upheaval under the seventh Vial is not that of the elements of nature, but symbolizes a violent disruption of all government, the total collapse of authority from the highest down to the lowest. Under it thrones totter and fall, crowns are broken, scepters are shivered; the whole framework of society is overthrown. It will be a revolution unexampled in the history of the race. The fact that this mighty convulsion is stated separately from the usual formula, “lightnings, voices, and thunders,” marks its specialty and its magnitude.
19. The disastrous effects of the mighty earthquake are next briefly and tersely stated. “The great city was (divided) into three parts.” That is, the vast and consolidated power of Rome, from its center in the seven hilled city on the Tiber on to its utmost extremities, is broken up into a tripartite division, while its utter ruin follows in due course. The break-up and dismemberment of the empire in its political and social organization is what is signified. Satan’s gigantic confederation is smashed.
19. “The cities of the nations fell.” The seats and centers of Gentile commerce—the political world apart from and outside the Roman earth—are involved in the general ruin, which overtakes all human combinations. From the building of Babel (Gen. 11:1-91And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. 2And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. 3And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. 4And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. 5And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. 6And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. 8So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. 9Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth. (Genesis 11:1‑9)) till the day and hour of the seventh Vial human progress in civilization, in religion, in social and political government, in the arts, in science, in literature, has been the aim. Here we witness judgment on all that men have built up in these and other spheres of life, from the days of Cain (Gen. 3), when the world system without God was inaugurated, and from Babel (Gen. 11), when human combination, secular and religious, took its rise. What a blow to the pride and ambition of man!
DOWNFALL OF BABYLON
19. But the chief subject of judgment is now singled out-one more hateful to God than all others. “Great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.” Babylon is a name and word of ominous signification. It is the full-blown development of all antiChristian elements, of all that is opposed to God. It is the concentration of all mere human religion. The city and tower which men built on the plains of Shinar—the former the civil center, and the latter the religious center of gathering apart from God—have in the days of the Apocalypse attained the zenith of greatness. Popery is not Babylon, pure and simple, but is part of it. In guilt Babylon towers over all, and hence its Judgment is commensurate with its sin. Undoubtedly it is the mystical Babylon that is referred to, and not the great Euphratean city which was doomed to eternal destruction (Jer. 51:62-6462Then shalt thou say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. 63And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: 64And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 51:62‑64)). It is the false church, the corruptress of the earth, the mother or source of all that is religiously vile. The very name of Christ which she bears, and the assumption of being His body and bride, intensifies her guilt. Her title, “great Babylon,” points to her vast assumption of religious power. The anger of God burns fiercely on this awful counterfeit and travesty of what should have stood for Him in grace, in holiness, and in testimony to the truth.
The details of Babylon’s judgment, her relation to the apostate civil power, and many particulars are unfolded in the two chapters which follow; while her utter doom, celebrated in Heaven in triumphant strains of gladness, is the subject of the first four verses of Revelation 19.
20. “And every island fled, and mountains were not found.” Detached or isolated interests and governments, as islands separated from the mainland, are overwhelmed in the universal catastrophe; while seats of authority and stability, as mountains, are dissolved. Ruin is everywhere, and on everything, however seemingly firm and stable. Everything that God has not established must go in the general wreck. Such, then, are the effects of the mighty earthquake.
21. But, in addition to this, the general horror is intensified by a hurricane of divine judgment, which descends upon men with irresistible and crushing force, a storm of divine wrath, which even the guilty world will have to acknowledge as heaven-sent: “A great hail as of a talent weight.” We have already, more than once, been told of a hailstorm, singly, and in conjunction with other destructive agencies (Rev. 11:19; 8:719And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19)
7The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. (Revelation 8:7)) But this exceeds in weight and intensity the previous hailstorms. As hail descends from Heaven, and is sharp, sudden, and disastrous in its effects, so the judgment here. The nature of it is not explained, but its severity and its source from Heaven are truths unquestionably graven on the face of the prophecy.
Has this crowning act of divine judgment wrought repentance? Is the will broken and the heart crushed under the mighty hand of God? No! Man is unchanged, unless the Spirit of God, in mighty sovereign grace, converts and saves. The moral effect of this awful judgment is stated in the plainest terms, “men blaspheme God”—not glorify Him, as we might naturally expect—”because of the plague of hail, for the plague of it is exceeding great.” How patient is God! How perverse the creature!