Rev.#52~16:-pt.2~9-12~ GOD POURS OUT HIS WRATH ON THE EARTH- DWELLERS ~5-1-10
” Revelation” as we’ were told in chapter 5:1 was a 7 sealed book. And it contained 3 sets of judgments, the 7 seals of judgment, 7 trumpet judgments & 7 vial judgments. The last seal, the 7th seal contains and opens up the seven trumpet judgments - and when the seventh trumpet judgment is opened, it opens up seven bowl judgments, or seven vial judgments that cover the second 3 1/2 years of the seven-year tribulation period.
The trumpet judgments and the Bowl judgments inflicted by the pouring out of the wrath of God are very similar in many ways.
In both the trumpets and the vials, the first in each series deals with the earth, the second with the sea, the third with rivers and fountains of water, the fourth with the sun, the fifth with darkness, the sixth with the Euphrates River, and the seventh with lightings, thunders, and a great earthquake.
But there are some differences; the first four trumpet judgments deal only with one-third of the earth, while the vial judgments seem to be universal and much greater in intensity.
The judgments described in the trumpet pronouncements and the vial pronouncements fall in rapid succession like trip-hammer blows, and they all will be consummated within a short period of time toward the close of the great tribulation.
The Bowl judgments, the climax of God’s divine dealings with a blasphemous earth, lead up to the second coming of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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After the rapture of the True Church in chapter 4: this crooked politician & strategic minded person will come on the scene, with his smooth talking and conniving ways he will appear to the people that at last we have a great leader, he is set on becoming world dictator as our current administration is doing today, as the old saying goes,” give the devil a inch and he’ll take a mile”.
The 1st half, 3 ½ years go fairly well, this great Political Leader, (that we know as the Antichrist) has brought a false peace and made an agreement with Israel, that he, with the backing of the 10 confederated nations of Europe-some times referred to as the U S o E, some times the Ec.C o E or
[R- R- E] would see to it that Israel could live in peace there in their own land, but as we’ll now see in the last half of the 7 years he breaks his agreement and he himself sets out to destroy the Jews.
Daniel 9:27 And he shall confirm** [strengthen the covenant with many**[Jews and Arabs] for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation**[offerings] to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation,*[ meaning destruction] and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
This verse in Daniel 9: tells of the coming of the Antichrist during the Tribulation Period that starts just after the Rapture of the church, he’s seen for the 1st time in chapter 6:2.
The Antichrist will pledge protection for Israel for a seven-year period, but in the midst of the week** he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation (Offering) to cease.
After three and one half years, the Antichrist will break his covenant with Israel and defile their new Temple that he allows them to build as he is in charge for a time.
In II Thessalonians 2:4 Paul declares that the Antichrist, the man of sin, will sit “… in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”
Up until that point the Antichrist will have seemed to be Israel’s protector. His true intentions will at this point be revealed.
Revelation 13:5 says that power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. –3 1/2 years.—the last half, and lets be sure and notice that God allows him to continue, he will be carrying out Gods Plan.--
Let us never forget that all power comes from God, God will allow him to continue for 3 ½ more years, and let me remind us that the reason for the Tribulation in the 1st place is to punish the sinful Nations and His people Israel and to turn Israel back to Himself.
Jeremiah 30:7 Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble;-- let me point out that Jacob and Israel are one and the same person.
God changed Jacobs name to Israel, when we talk about Israel today we’re actually talking about the decendence of Jacobs 12 sons; the 12 sons are the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Gen 32:27-28 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. 28And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel:-and we find it again in
Gen.35:9-10 And God appeared unto Jacob again, when he came out of Padanaram, and blessed him. 10And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel.
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The antichrist will have only one half of the seven-year period left after he breaks his compact with Israel. As a result, Israel will be forced to flee and to hide under God’s protection in a place that we believe will be PETRA just in side Jordan.
Rev 12:14 … for a time, and times, and half a time …a reference to the last 3 1/2 years of Daniel’s Prophecy.
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Ø Now lets briefly go over verses 1-8 here in chapter 16: and then we’ll take up where we left off at verse 9.
Revelation 16:1
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
This great voice is most likely God; as it comes out of the Temple in Heaven, He is the director of all that goes on in every dispensation.
2And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.
We see here that immediately, in obedience to the voice from the temple, the first angel “poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and painful sore on the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.”
“Loathsome” means “evil, injurious, and malignant, and refers to what brings about a crippling effect, and is very painful and destructive. This is an abscessed or ulcerous sore, often caused by infection. This stresses the effect, degree, and intensity.
They’ll be unable to walk, sit, or lie down without pain. Such will be the case during the tribulation for those who experience these sores. The world’s population will have to suffer from sores that nothing can cure.
This plague and those that follow are not the expression of God’s wrath against sin in general, nor are they punishments for individual wrongdoing.
The judgment comes from God because of the world’s allegiance to the antichrist. It says, on the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.”
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3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
“And it (sea) became as blood of a dead man,” Every living thing (sea creature) in the sea will die. This is not talking about the Mediterranean Sea only.
The Tribulation judgments are universal. This is global catastrophe.
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4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. –Notice not as blood but became blood, this is telling us that there’ll be no water to drink. Not only are the world’s oceans and seas affected in verse 2, verse 3 tells us so are the fresh bodies of water.
This resembles the first Egyptian plague where the Nile River and its tributaries were turned into blood and all the fish died (Exo.7:14-21).
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5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
which art, means He is--and wast, this means He always has been--and shalt be, this means He always will be.
Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
The angel here in verse 5 is saying that these earth dwellers brought this on them selves, God is long-suffering but eventually God’s holiness must act and His judgment against sin will be delayed no longer.
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Ø The Tribulation will show God is a God of holiness who is acting justly in His judgment against sin. This same angel continues to speak—
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
Their now reaping what they’ve sown, they have slain saints for thousands of years, they have also killed Gods prophets.
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7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
“And I heard another out of the altar say ”
This evidently refers back to the saints under the altar who had been praying for justice to be done:
(Rev. 6:9–11).
“And 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: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, (Christians and Jews) that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” -a reference to the tribulation martyrs yet to be killed as they were.
Here their prayer is answered, the time is come for answering their prayer. As I said last time, God don’t always pay off on Friday but He always pats off.
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8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Here they are with these oozing and painful sores, these boils, they’ve had no water to drink, and now the suns heat is increased, they have nothing to drink but blood, and still they curse God.
Like the fourth trumpet, the heavens are again affected, especially the sun.
In the fourth trumpet one-third of the sun, moon, and stars are affected diminishing their light by one-third.
Revelation 8:12 And 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. --(Night and day).
The earth dwellers will have been living under these conditions for months; now instead of the sun being diminished it is now increased in its intensity.
God will increase the intensity of the sun’s heat to such a degree that it will scorch and burn the skin of men.
Psalm 19:6 -- there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
There will be no escape from this judgment for unbelievers.
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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.
“This - seat of the beast-
Is the center of anti-Christian government. The seat of the beast is the one we read about in (ch. 13) Rome, is his capital city.
- and they gnawed their tongues for pain
This is the only expression of its kind in the Bible and speaks of the most intense agony and suffering, think of the worse pain maybe you’ve ever had and consider it never easing up.
Ø The apostle Paul spoke of this in Rom. 2:4–5
Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God”
And here we see it come to pass—the righteous judgment of God. And man continues to harden his heart and refuses to repent.
Ø The Old Testament prophets spoke of this coming darkness:
Isa. 60:2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee”
Joel 2:1–2 & 31 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations…. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
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12 And 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.
In verse 12 the bowl is poured out and we are told of its purpose; it prepares the way for the kings of the east.
The Euphrates River will be supernaturally dried up for the sole purpose of making the way of the kings of the east to get to the valley of MEGIDDO, where the battle of Armageddon will take place, these are the people that we know as the Chinese, Japanese, and other people of that part of the world.
Lets realize that God is in the process of gathering all the armies of the world together at this time, these kings of the east think at this particular point in the tribulation that they’re coming to do battle with the Antichrist and his forces because of the destruction that has already taken place with Russia and her coalition that we read about in EZK. 38:& 39: although it was God that destroys 5/6th of that coalition, but these don’t know that, their unbelievers, God is gathering these armies together in order to destroy them.
People call this “the battle of Armageddon”, which is not a term used in the Bible.
This will be the most one sided battle that has ever been known, the participates are the worlds forces against ONE MAN, the God Man, He will simple speak His Word and they’ll drop like flies. The church don’t lift one finger, what a SAVIOUR WE HAVE, bless His Name.
We’ll read and talk about it extensively when we get to chapter 19:
This important river was mentioned earlier in connection with the sixth trumpet judgment.
This is the largest river in western Asia and has figured largely in history and prophecy.
The river is 1,800 miles long and has always stood as a natural barrier separating the east from the west.
The river forms in Armenia and 1,800 miles later empties into the Persian Gulf. About 90 miles from the Persian Gulf it is joined by the Tigris.
The kings of the east refer to lands like China, Japan, and the nations of the Far East.
“The great River Euphrates. The word “great” stresses the prominence of this river. This is the largest river in western Asia.
The Euphrates is called “the great river” and in the Bible the Mediterranean Sea is called “the great sea.”
It is first mentioned in Genesis 2, it is mentioned over twenty-five times in the Bible.
It was prominent in the first state of man on the earth, we read here also to do with the last state of man.
It was the cradle of man’s civilization and obviously will be the grave of man’s civilization.
It was a border between East and West, eighteen hundred miles long, It was wide and deep, which made it difficult for an army to pass over it.
