Revelation-Part 35

By: Dr. Robert Thomas; ©2002

During the past three months we’ve looked at the first six of the bowl judgments. Now, in Revelation 16, we come to the initial description of the seventh bowl. The full account of this bowl’s contents extends all the way through the Revelation 22:5. We will begin to explore the seventh bowl this month with an introduction and an overview.

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First Look at the Seventh Bowl (or Vial)

After lessons in the last three months that introduce the seven bowls (15:1-8) and de­scribe the first six bowls (16:1-16), we arrive at the seventh bowl (or vial) as it is summa­rized in Revelation 16:17-21. Yet, as will be seen later, those five verses do not exhaust John’s description of the vision that instructed him about this climactic judgment. The full account of the bowl judgment that begins at 16:17 actually extends all the way through Revelation 22:5. After this month’s look at the seventh bowl’s introductory summary in 16:17-21 and an overview of the more extended section, we will in subsequent months pursue our discussion of the bowl in small segments of the text.

Introductory Summary of the Bowl

The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air (16:17), the element that people breathe and depend upon for life. The impact of this bowl is more pervasive that the previous ones in which the destination was the earth (16:2), the sea (16:3), the fresh waters (16:4), and the sun (16:8). The “loud voice out of the temple from the throne” accompanies the angel’s action. Fittingly, God’s voice accompanies the administering of this last of the seven last plagues. The message of the voice is brief, but profound: “It is done.” The pronouncement anticipates all that occurs between this verse and the pronouncement of “they are done” in Revelation 21:6. This last plague culminates the description of the dark side of how the new creation will come into existence.

The storm theophany accompanies the heavenly announcement: “[flashes of] lightning and voices and [peals of] thunder came, and a great earthquake such as has not happened since man came upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake so great, came” (Rev. 16:18). Those disturbances signal that the end has arrived, not just the end of the bowl series, but also the end of the seal and trumpet series too.” The judgmental aspect goes far beyond the effects of the great earthquake and even of that of the 108 to 130 pound hailstones— reminiscent of the seventh Egyptian plague (Exod. 9:23-24) and the first trumpet judgment (Rev. 8:7)—referred to in 16:21a. Even after these phenomena, people continue to blas­pheme God in defiance because of terrible ill-effects of the hail (16:21b). As terrible as they will be, the unprecedented earthquake and hailstorm will not culminate this judgment. They are only the beginning; the worst is yet to come.

The consequences of the great earthquake are threefold: “the great city became three parts, the cities of the Gentiles fell, and Babylon the great was remembered before God to give to her the cup of the wine of the anger of His wrath” (16:19). The earthquake will divide the “great city” Jerusalem into three parts, but it will wreak devastation worldwide on “the cities of the Gentiles.” As for Babylon, the earthquake will initiate a chain of events leading to that city’s destruction. This is Babylon on the Euphrates, the headquarters city of the beast. The Lamb’s conquest over that city is the central theme of the seventh bowl, a theme to be developed extensively in Revelation 17–18.

A further effect of the earthquake will be radical topographical changes. Islands will sink into the sea and disappear (16:20). The events thus described mark a dramatic beginning of the seventh bowl’s effects.

Overview of Revelation 16:17–22:5

Before proceeding further with a look at consecutive sections of the seventh-bowl ac­count, we do well to stand back and view how the inspired prophet John organized the broad section detailing that account. The structure of the section is as follows:

Announcement of the emptying of the bowl’s contents (16:17-21)

[No direct inflicting of wrath occurs in this introductory announcement, only a number of terrifying phenomena that move men to blaspheme God. The announcement centers in the proclamation of Babylon’s fall.]

a. Intercalation #1: Detailed description of Babylon, her past, present, future (17:1-19:10)

[The city whose destruction is foretold in the initial announcement is representative of a system of false religion and opposition to God and His people (chap. 17) and of godless materialism (chap. 18).]

1. The doom of religious Babylon (17:1-18)
2. The doom of commercial Babylon (18:1-24)
3. Heavenly rejoicing over the removal of Babylon and the institution of God’s kingdom on earth (19:1-10)

b. Events of the seventh bowl (19:11-20:15)

[Now comes a series of eight scenes that furnish in sequence the steps in the chronological implementation of the seventh bowl-judgment.]

1. Second coming of Christ (19:11-16)
2. Summons of the birds to a human feast (19:17-18)
3. Slaughter of Christ’s human opponents (19:19-21)
4. Satan’s imprisonment (20:1-3)
5. Satan’s release and final defeat (20:4-10)
6. Setting of the Great White Throne (20:11)
7. Sentencing to the lake of fire (20:12-15)
8. Sketch of the new Jerusalem (21:1-8)

c. Intercalation #2: Detailed description of the new Jerusalem (21:9–22:5)

[The new Jerusalem as part of the new creation is the divine counterpart to Babylon which will be destroyed under this same seventh bowl.]

1. The city’s physical features (21:9-21)
2. The city’s illumination (21:22-27) ( 3) Paradise restored (22:1-5)

Reasons to support this structural breakdown will appear as we divide the large section into small manageable segments for purposes of discussion. We will proceed methodically as we learn how God will dismantle this old creation so riddled with sin and replace it with a new creation completely free of sin’s contamination.

The book of Revelation has often been viewed as pessimistic in its outlook on the future. Insofar as the future of this old creation is concerned, that is true. Events will continue in their downward moral spiral until Christ returns to the earth to establish a kingdom of righ­teousness throughout the world. But even after that kingdom, fallen man will stage a last rebellion against His rule, a rebellion whose squelching will mark the end of the old cre­ation. That is where the pessimism ends. Unbounded optimism steps in at that point in the form of a new creation, from which all evil will be excluded. Individual believers in Christ already have a foretaste of this new creation. Paul writes about it in 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; be­hold, all things have become new.” May we live our lives as members of the new creation, shunning temptations to sin, as we await the new creation of the future.

Note: For more details about the seventh bowl in Revelation 16 and the overview of the seventh-bowl judgment, see my discussion in Revelation 8–22 (Moody Press, 1995), pages 271-278, 567-585. To order this volume, you may contact Grace Books International at (800) GRACE15 or www.gbibooks.com.

 

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