The Seven Bowl Judgments Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

Everything that is happening today and will happen during the Great Tribulation are warnings from God to an unbelieving man that God will one day unleash his judgment and wrath. God has worked over all of the time since the fall of man to call man to repentance because there is going to come a time known as the Great Day of the Lord when His mercy is going to expire and He will end evil and the world’s evil systems once and for all.

Historically, what we have seen is that man’s heart is rebellious toward the things of God and will continue to rebel against God unless there is relenting and the heart is transformed by the saving power of Jesus Christ. If you pay attention to the patterns here in Revelation, including the Bowl Judgements, the goal is to bring repentance.

The Bible is full of great messages of comfort, refreshment, peace, and God’s love. There is so much that is affirming in Scripture, but to all of this is really the opposite. If we understand love, it is because we understand hate. If we understand truth, it is because we understand lies. If we understand goodness, it is because we understand wickedness. If we understand reward, it is because we understand punishment. And God cannot love righteousness unless He hates sin and unbelief. He cannot love truth unless He hates lies. He cannot love goodness unless He hates wickedness. He cannot reward unless He also punishes. So while the Bible is a book of hope, it is also a book of judgment.

Tonight we are looking at Chapter 16 which gives us a picture of the final destruction from God’s wrath at the close of the Great Tribulation. What we are studying tonight immediately precedes the return of Christ. You say, “well wait a minute, the return of Christ isn’t until chapter 19.” This is true, but chapters 17 and 18 go back over the Tribulation from another viewpoint. Not everything in Revelation is chronological, but it backtracks. Chapters 17 and 18 will go back into the Tribulation period and pick up some of the things from another perspective. But chapter 16 really happens immediately prior to the return of Jesus Christ.

I. God’s Command to the Seven Angels

"Then I heard a loud voice from the sanctuary, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” (Revelation 16:1)

What we have here is the voice of God from His throne commanding the angels to commence with the pouring of the seven bowls. This is God’s judgment and it is by His will these things are happening. The angels are His emissaries to carry out the judgment. As I mentioned earlier, this is based on God’s holiness and perfect character. Twenty times in Revelation we’ve heard the words of God from his throne commanding the exercise of his judgment and the purpose has always been to awaken the sleeping or apostate church and awaken the sinner to repentance.

II. The First Bowl: Malignant Sores

"So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who have the mark of the beast and who worship his image." (Revelation 16:2)

Now what we must first realize is these terrible plagues can be compared to two other sets of plagues. The first occurred in Egypt (Exodus chapters 7 through 12). The second set of plagues is the seven trumpets which are recorded in Revelation chapters 8 through 11.

Notice there are some similarities and some differences. The first set of plagues was local in the country of Egypt. The trumpets, extended beyond any one nation and covered one-third of the world. The Bowls are not limited to a nation but they cover the whole globe.

Also, the plagues in Egypt involved water turned into blood, frogs, lice, flies, disease among the cattle, boils, thunder and hail, locusts, darkness, and the slaughter of the firstborn. The Seven Trumpets involved hail, fire, and blood, destroying a third of the trees and green grass – hail, fire, and flood, I should say, destroying a third of the trees and green grass. and a flaming mountain cast into the sea destroying a third of the sea, and turning it into a blood-like substance, a third of the freshwater was poisonous and bitter, and then the smiting of the third of the sun and moon and stars brought about darkness. Then demons overrun the world, the loosing of the four angels found in the Euphrates, and the coming of the great demonic army from the east. And then in the announcement of the final victory of God, the seventh trumpet was blown.