Revelation

Lesson 9

Revelation chapters 15 - 16:17

Comments, Questions and Discussions

COMMENTS

First let me note the phrase as recorded in 16:17

" Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, 'It is done!"'

Someone, a good sister named Marie, has suggested that "it is done," may imply that the things have been set into motion and will not be halted. This is reasonable in my mind, but it could also mean that the plagues are completed. In any case, It seems to me that verses 18-21 of chapter 16 provide an excellent introduction to the judgment against the great harlot who sat on many waters. So, we will take up those verses next lesson when we consider the judgment against the great harlot.. Remember the chapter divisions came by man later on.

15:1 seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

We have just noted the words in 16:17 "It is done." These are described as the 7 last plagues. That an end or finish is coming is clearly taught in this verse. This deals with the wrath of God, not necessarily all the wrath God will ever have or all the wrath He had before this time but wrath that must be identifiable. The readers must have known to what wrath John had reference. Wrath is discussed in Romans more that once, but one phrase comes to my mind, Romans 2:5:

But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

It appears that John sees the completion of an important expectation. John the baptizer, mentions this wrath in his preaching as recorded in Matthew 3:7. There was an expected time of wrath and John saw the completion of it.

15:2 those . . . standing on the sea of glass,

This sea of glass, as a sea seems to represent a separation. Those who were righteous had no problem. They were not hindered in their worship of God.

15:3-4 The song of Moses and the lamb.

These are those who have overcome the sea. These are those who have lived faithful. Who sings the song of Moses and the Lamb? Answer is those of Israel who believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

Note the closing words in verse 4. "For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested." God had in Israel's history shown judgments that declared to all that he was God. Pharoah, Nebuchadnezer, Cyrus, Belshazer, those of Jericho, Neneveh and other places. Now the time has come for the last plagues. They are against Israel and against Jerusalem and against the temple which at that time were going to be destroyed one last time as a judgment of God. All nations would see once more His own manifestation that He is God. Then, after that destruction, we find that Christ's kingdom grew tremendously. Did it happen? Yes it did!

15:8 "No one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed."

During the war there was a time when the daily sacrifice stopped. Perhaps this refers to that time.

This, not being able to enter, was because it was filled with God's glory and power. The Judgment against Jerusalem and the temple worship was of God's doings.

It is also according to the laws of atonement.  See Leviticus 16:14-24.  While atonement for the holy place was being made, no man could enter the tabernacle of meeting.  When we consider Hebrews 9:28, "He (Jesus) will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation," this pinpoints these events to the time while Jesus was in heaven before his return.for the judgment against the Jews.  That 40 or so years is a very important period.  As mentioned elsewhere, it is the period waiting the restoration of all things spoken by the prophets, after which Christ was to return, Acts 3:20-21.

We might also consider that this was a judgment. The Jews had been taught the gospel for almost 40 years, more if you count the time of Jesus on earth. God was longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, II Peter 3:9. But the time came for the new heaven and new earth and the time for judgment. (II Peter 3:13). We will study this more. Revelation 21:11-12 says:

"He who is unjust, let him be unjust still; he who is filthy, let him be filthy still; he who is righteous, let him be righteous still; he who is holy, let him be holy still." 12 " And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.

Those that were in were in, those that were without were out. Speculation? Maybe, but it sure fits nicely. The Jews in those times gathered into Jerusalem, to make their stand. Josephus reports that there were no fewer than 3 million at the onset of the war. Book 2, chapter 14 #3. Later the numberinmg took place by counting the sacrifices, Book 6, chapter 9 #3. which says:

And that this city could contain so many people in it is manifest by that number of them which was taken under Cestius, who being desirous of informing Nero of the power of the city, who otherwise was disposed to condemn that nation, entreated the high priests, if the thing were possible, to take the number of their whole multitude. So these high priests, upon the coming of their feast which is called the Passover, when they slay their sacrifices, from the ninth hour till the eleventh, but so that a company not less than ten belong to every sacrifice (for it is not lawful for them to feast singly by themselves), and many of us are twenty in a company, found the number of sacrifices was two hundred and fifty-six thousand five hundred; which, upon the allowance of no more than ten that feast together, amounts to two million seven hundred thousand and two hundred persons that were pure and holy;

At 12 per lamb it would come to 3 million, 78 thousand. The conclusion is that there were millions of Jews in Jerusalem to be destroyed.

16:3 - Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died."

Remember those faithful were on the sea not in it. This assumes the sea was the same sea.

16:5-6 "You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because You have judged these things. 6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due."

Who but Jerusalem and the Jews are charged with shedding the blood of the saints and prophets? Who did Jesus say would be held accountable for the blood of the prophets? One more time - Matthew 23:33-36:

"33 "Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 34 "Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 "that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 "Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation."

16:6-11 The blood, the fire, the darkness and the disease

The destruction of Jerusalem certainly fits. The water was ruined by the massive amounts of blood from the dead. The city was being burned. The smoke caused darkness and the people, were in a famine, were worn down by the war and suffered with sores and pain. Yet they did not repent.

16:12 "the way of the kings from the east might be prepared."

Titus was aided by those of other nations. The river Euphrates was the eastern border of the great Jewish empire of long, long ago now from that area, the east came help for Titus. Josephus says Wars, book 5 chapter 1

(40) for Titus, when he had gotten together part of his forces about him, and had ordered the rest to meet him at Jerusalem, marched out of Cesarea.

. . .

(44) . . . There followed him also three thousand drawn from those that guarded the river Euphrates.

and

from Wars Book III chapter 4 Regarding those who Joined with the Romans.

(68) There were also a considerable number of auxiliaries got together, that came from the kings Antiochus, and Agrippa, and Sohemus, each of them contributing one thousand footmen that were archers, and a thousand horsemen. Malchus also, the king of Arabia, sent a thousand horsemen, besides five thousand footmen, the greatest part of whom were archers;

16:15 "I am coming as a thief"

We'll just note the passages with which we can identify this phrase.

I Thess. 5:2-4 - "For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. 3 For when they say, "Peace and safety!" then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. 4 But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief."

II Peter 3:10 - "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

16:16 Armageddon - (the field or valley of Megiddo)

Battles were here, King Ahaziah had died here. Josiah had been killed here. Note the account from II Chronicles 35:22-25:

"22 Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him, and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo. 23 And the archers shot King Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, for I am severely wounded." 24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot and put him in the second chariot that he had, and they brought him to Jerusalem. So he died, and was buried in one of the tombs of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 Jeremiah also lamented for Josiah. And to this day all the singing men and the singing women speak of Josiah in their lamentations. They made it a custom in Israel; and indeed they are written in the Laments."

For Israel, Armageddon was a bad remembrance. This mention no doubt triggered the sureness of God's purposes and the horror that was about to come.

Zechariah 12:10-11 says:

And I will pour on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a firstborn. 11 "In that day there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

16:17 "Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!"

A short verse about the final scene. The next few chapters will deal more in detail about these events and the effects of the destruction. If the understanding by my good sister Marie is correct, that "it is done" marks the setting in motion of the events which will come to pass, then we have another remarkable event recorded by Josephus. Titus the Roman general who conquered Jerusalem is recorded as saying:

"We have certainly had God for our assistant in this war, and it was no other than God who ejected the Jews out of these fortifications; for what could the hands of men, or any machines, do towards overthrowing these towers!" Wars, Book 6, Chapter 9.

Josephus himself says

and here I cannot but speak my mind, and what the concern I am under dictates to me, and it is this: I suppose, that had the Romans made any longer delay in coming against these villains, the city would either have been swallowed up by the ground opening upon them, or been overflowed by water, or else been destroyed by such thunder as the country of Sodom perished by, for it had brought forth a generation of men much more atheistical than were those that suffered such punishments; for by their madness it was that all the people came to be destroyed. (Wars, Book 5, Chapter 13)

In the final accounting of Josephus we find:

But he who first built it was a potent man among the Canaanites, and is on our tongue called [Melchisedek], the Righteous King, for such he really was; on which account he was [there] the first priest of God, and first built a temple [there], and called the city Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem. However, David the king of the Jews, ejected the Canaanites, and settled his own people therein. It was demolished entirely by the Babylonians, four hundred and seventy-seven years and six months after him. And from king David, who was the first of the Jews who reigned therein, to this destruction under Titus, were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine years; but from its first building, till this last destruction, were two thousand one hundred and seventy-seven years; yet hath not its great antiquity, nor its vast riches, nor the diffusion of its nation over all the habitable earth, nor the greatness of the veneration paid to it on a religious account, been sufficient to preserve it from being destroyed. And thus ended the siege of Jerusalem. (Wars, Book 6, Chapter 10)

* Bible quotations are from the NKJV. Josephus is quoted from Whiston's translation in Ages digital Library.

Revelation Lesson 9

Questions

1. What is the wrath of God?

2. Where else in Revelation is a sea mentioned? Is this the same as the sea of glass?

3. Is there any significance to "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven" being opened?

4. What references do you find to Armegeddon or Megiddon and what is the significance?

5. Explain 16:13 Please!

6. How great was the pain that the inhabitants of the kingdom experienced?

7. To what kingdom, does verse 10 refer?

8. Where did the 7th angel pour out his bowl? Is this significant?