Fifth Bowl: Pain And Darkness Upon The Beast And His Kingdom Series

Book of Revelation

By: Tom Lowe Date: 4/8/17

Lesson: IV.B.6: Fifth Bowl: Pain and Darkness Upon the Beast and His Kingdom (16:10-11)

Revelation 16:10-11 (KJV)

10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

Commentary

10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

“And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast”

The previous judgments had been preparatory to this. They all had a bearing on this, and were all a prelude to it; but the “seat”?the home, the center of the power of the beast?had not yet been reached. Here, however, there was a direct blow aimed at that power, but it did not have enough strength, as yet, to secure its final overthrow, for that is reserved for the pouring out of the last vial, Revelation 16:17-21. All that is represented here is a heavy judgment which was merely preliminary to that final overthrow, but which affected the very “seat of the beast.” The phrase “the seat of the beast” means the “seat” or “throne” which the representative of that power occupied, the center of Anti-christian domination and authority.” I know your works, and where you dwell, even where Satan's seat is: and you hold fast my name, and have not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwells” (Revelation 2:13). Some understand this as referring to the very seat of papal power?Rome?the Vatican.

The word translated here as “seat” is the same word from which we get our word "throne." The word means “a seat”; then “a high seat”; then “a throne,” such as that on which a king sits. Here it refers to this power as exercising dominion over the earth. This throne is set up in arrogant mimicry of God‘s throne; the dragon gave his throne to the beast (Revelation 13:2).

The kingdom of the world, organized by Satan against God and His truth, is the object of this judgment, particularly irreligious, atheistic, humanistic nations. This throne of the beast may aptly apply to the Roman Empire in John's day, but its position varies at different times. Wherever the world-power is worshipped, there the beast has his throne. This predicts the corruption of human governments into instruments of suppression, persecution, and destruction of God's truth in Christ. Russia is an excellent example from our own times of what Rome was in John's. This pouring out of the bowl upon the kingdom of the beast is prophesy and a warning that the brutal godless governments faced by the first Christians will reappear at the end, or near the end-time. It should not be overlooked that the hardening of the pre-Christian Gentile nations is again to take place when "the times of the Gentiles" is fulfilled?“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24). When history has run its course, once more the judicial hardening of impenitent mankind will occur. Romans 1is therefore a vital comment upon what is prophesied here.

Observe here, the gradual approaches which Almighty God makes by his plagues and judgments towards the antichristian beast; he began farther off at first, and then came nearer and nearer to him; the first vial was poured out upon the earth, the second upon the sea, the third upon the rivers, the fourth upon the sun, now the fifth upon the seat of the beast; that is, probably, the seat of his empire, the chief place where he appears in the highest majesty and glory. This should teach us all at the first alarm of judgments to draw near to God by a true and timely repentance, before He comes nearer to us by a succession of plagues and punishments.

“And his kingdom was full of darkness”

“His kingdom was full of darkness”; this bowl did not destroy him (the beast), rather, it distressed him; it filled his kingdom with the darkness of misery and trouble, of calamity and confusion, of false doctrine and superstition. The prophet saw darkness as the emblem of calamity?“Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, We grope like those who have no eyes; We stumble at midday as in the twilight, Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men” (Isaiah 59:9-10). It is not that the kingdom of the beast was a kingdom of darkness before, but that darkness was a darkness of ignorance and error; this is a darkness of calamity and horror, created by the loss of that lustre, respect, and reverence, which the throne of the beast had before, but was lacking now.