Armaggedon: Revelation 15-16

We noted earlier on in the series that there were three sets of seven.

There were the seven seals, and then the seven trumpets, and finally the seven bowls.

These three sets of seven are three sets of seven divine judgements and the numbers 3 times 7 indicate that this is as Scot McKnight and Cody Matchett says the “perfect erasure of evil.”

They continue on to say:

Though these scenes may seem graphic to our modern sensibilities, the judgements are not scenes of bloody revenge as much as graphic depictions of God establishing justice.

Scot McKnight & Cody Matchett( Revelation for the Rest of Us)

When we started off reading about these three sets of seven divine judgements we started with a picture of this scroll with seven seals that had yet to be opened. We thankfully find this slaughtered Lamb who is the only one worthy to open this scroll. In chapter 10 of Revelation though John is instructed to eat this scroll. This is imagery from Ezekiel 2:8-10

“But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and behold, a scroll of a book was in it. And he spread it before me. And it has written on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.(ESV)

When John eats this scroll he is warned that “it will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”(Rev. 10:9 NIV) Again we take these helpful words from McKnight and Matchett’s book ‘Revelation for the Rest of Us’ which says:

These judgements do not simply elicit celebration, but instead they usher the listener into an embittered joy, a painful truth that the world must experience for it to be redeemed. These judgements are a necessary but bitter reality. They are a bitter sweetness.

Enter the Throne-room

Chapter 15 starts off with John describing “another great and awe-inspiring sign in heaven”(15:1 CSB). This “great and awe-inspiring sign” is “seven angels with the last seven plagues.”

(Note: v.1 & 8 can be used as brackets based on the fact they are a repetition probably used to close off this section.)

These last seven plagues will complete God’s wrath.

Verse two then describes more of what John is seeing and it is quite an image. John sees “something like a sea of glass mixed with fire(v.2 CSB).” The sea of glass is temple language specifically from earlier in Revelation 4:5-6:

Flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder came from the throne. Seven fiery torches were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.  Something like a sea of glass, similar to crystal, was also before the throne. Four living creatures covered with eyes in front and in back were around the throne on each side.

John is back describing this throne room in heaven where the throne is sitting on this sea of glass imagery which depicts the cosmos. The cosmos was this crystalline heavenly expanse sitting beneath God’s throne. Along with this throne room scene though we also are told that “those who had won the victory over the beast…were standing on the sea of glass(the cosmos) with harps from God”(v.2 CSB). These are those who found victory in Jesus and not in the ways of the world, and as they stand on the cosmos they sing a song. This song is reminiscent of Moses’ song in Exodus 15:1-18 where Moses is singing about how God delivered Israel from the plagues of death, here we have in John’s vision a similar group of believers in Yahweh singing about being delivered or victorious from the plagues of death(this also brings to mind the Lake of fire imagery hinted at in Revelation 15:2 where it says: “I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire”)

Verse 4 though gives us another hint at this special type of victory that John is seeing take place. This victory according to the song:

All the nations will come and worship before you because your righteous acts have been revealed. (15:4 CSB)

We find this in Psalm 86:9-10

All the nations you have made
will come and bow down before you, Lord,
and will honor your name.
For you are great and perform wonders;
you alone are God.

These judgements from God come because of a people’s refusal to repent and instead continue in the destructive ways of the world. Through this refining, God is bringing about deliverance and restoring what was broken. As well as using this remnant of people who do repent, to be a sing to the ongoing world of the wonders that God can do.

Finally by the end of chapter 15 we see the image of 7 angels bringing 7 plagues. These are the final seven plagues which are depicted as bowls given to the angels by one of the four living creatures in the throne-room. These bowls are filled with the wrath of God and causes the temple to be “filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power”(v.8 CSB).

What are the 7 Bowls?

In Revelation 15:7 we are told that the last seven plagues of God’s wrath will be depicted as bowls, but these are not your Homes and Garden’s bowls you get from Walmart, these bowls are offering bowls or urns likely for incense according to v.8 which gives us the imagery of smoke filling the temple because of these bowls.

These bowls just like the previous plagues recalls the plagues in the Exodus story.

List of the Bowls:(Taken from Revelation 16)

1. The first angel poured out sores on the people who received the mark of the beast(v.2)
2. The second angel poured out his bowl causing the sea to turn into blood and all the life in the sea to die.(v.3)
3. The third angel poured his into rivers and springs causing these smaller bodies of water as well to turn into blood.(v.4)
4. The fourth angel poured his bowl onto the sun. The sun then scorched people with the “intense heat” and thus the people “blasphemed the name of God.” The people did not repent after this.(v.8-9)
5. The fifth angel poured the bowl on to the beast causing the beast’s kingdom to be pushed into darkness. The people were in so much pain they gnawed their tongues to death and again blasphemed the name of God and not repenting. (v.10-11)
6. The sixth angel poured his bowl on the Euphrates river causing the river to dry up in preparation for the Kings of the east to have a way through. John then sees three unclean(demonic) spirits coming out of the dragon’s mouth, the beast’s mouth and the false prophet’s mouth like frogs. The frogs bringing to mind the image in Exodus 8:2-4: “But if you refuse to let them go, then I will plague all your territory with frogs.  The Nile will swarm with frogs; they will come up and go into your palace, into your bedroom and on your bed, into the houses of your officials and your people, and into your ovens and kneading bowls.  The frogs will come up on you, your people, and all your officials.” These demonic spirits rally the troops in a sense to go and “battle on the great day of God”(v.14 CSB). We are then told that Jesus is “coming like a thief”(bringing to mind Jesus’ line in Matthew 24:43 & Luke 12:39). He then says that it is good for people to remain clothed and not naked meaning it is best to be prepared, alert, and of sober mind. Being naked was highly shameful in Jesus’ day, so instead be clothed, be shameless and ready for the coming of the Kingdom.
7. The seventh angel pours his bowl into the air which brings with it a loud voice proclaiming “it is done.” Incredible feats of weather take place causing the great city to split into three parts and “the cities of the nation fell”(v.19). God’s wrath has finally been unleashed on Babylon the Great and v.20 gives us language of cosmic judgement followed by hail like no other in v.21.

A brief note on Armageddon

The Hebrew word for Armageddon is the name Mount Megiddo. Mount Megiddo in the book of Zechariah is described as a plain.

On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.(Zechariah 12:11 CSB)

According to the book of Joel, judgement will take place in a valley. Craig Keener, New Testament scholar, lets us rest in knowing that geography within apocalyptic literature is “flexible.” Meaning a valley and a plain can be referring to the same space.

Mount Megiddo is mentioned in the Old Testament as a place of battle.

Kings came and fought.
Then the kings of Canaan fought
at Taanach by the Waters of Megiddo,
but they did not plunder the silver. (Judges 5:19 CSB)

As well as in 2 Kings 23:29

 During his reign, Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt marched up to help the king of Assyria at the Euphrates River. King Josiah went to confront him, and at Megiddo when Neco saw him he killed him.(CSB)

In Revelation 16:16 John is using the language of a place where battles were fought to invoke the imagery of a battle of cosmic proportions taking place.

Summary

John wraps up his three sets of 7 divine judgements with the imagery of 7 bowls. These bowls depict God’s wrath bringing Babylon the Great down.