There are similarities between these plagues and the plagues of Egypt.
Verse 1 - 2
“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.”
“And 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.”
This is the first vial or bowl judgement.
These sores are similar to the sixth plague in Egypt.
Sores are typically an outward sign of an inward corruption. They mean there is something deeper wrong.
In Deut 28:27 & 35 we see a prophesy that has not yet been realised. They are for those that have sinned and are cursed.
Verse 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.”
Here we have the second bowl of wrath poured out.
Again the first Egyptian plague ties in.
Though it does not say that the sea becomes blood, but as blood, whatever causes this it is deadly for all creatures in the sea. Also anyone that enters the sea.
There is a phenomenon that happens today where a dense collection of algae forms. This algae forms toxins in the water and kills all like in that area.
Verse 4
“And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.”
This is similar, but this time it says they actual became blood.
Verse 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.”
It seems that there is an angel of the water, some think that there are angels assigned to various roles and given the task to keep it in order.
We will see the whole way through these judgements that it is affirmed that God is righteous.
Verse 6
“For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
We have the blood poured out in reply of the blood that was shed when God’s people were martyred.
What we would commonly say as “What goes around, comes around”
Verse 7
“And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”
This reminds us that the alter sheltered the martyrs, as we seen in chapter 6.
The first 3 bowls are aimed at men that dwell on the earth.
The last four are linked to Babylon.
Verse 8
“ And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.”
Sun worship was the earliest from of Paganism, it began on the plain of Shinar, all other paganism comes from it. It all goes back to Nimrod. Gen 10. His name means “we will rebel”. He was the earth’s first dictator. He defied God.
They built the first temple to this called Babel.
The Zodiac first came from this worship. The original “zodiac” was know as the mazzaroth, the knowledge of it was given to Adam, it told the gospel story, but this was corrupted at Babel.
Verse 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.”
The people on earth are suffering, the sun is increasing in intensity and people are being burned, but still people curse God instead of seeking Him.
Verse 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,”
The fifth angel’s bowl of wrath is poured out directly upon the anti-christ.
Again this is like the 9th plague of Egypt. If we read about that plague, we see that it was not just the absence of light, it had a thickness, it could be felt, in that they did not see each other for 3 days.
The feeling of this darkness must create a level of pain in the people that they actually continuously eat at their tongue due to the pain.
The darkness can also be linked to the spiritual darkness that there will be in that day, and the spiritual pain that it causes is being realised in a physical way.
Verse 11
“ And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”
Again they seem to be so much tied up in their sin that they cannot see that repentance would end it, instead they continue to blame God and blaspheme Him.
Verse 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.”
The Euphrates shoes up right through the Bible (25 times). It was in Eden and is still flowing today, although probably not on it’s original course.
It dries up to prepare for the final battle.
It marked the eastern side of the promised land that God give to Abraham.
It is 1730 miles long.
Verse 13
“ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.”
Frogs were the second of the plagues in Egypt. Remember that locust were used to describe demons and here we have a tie with frogs and demons.
Verse 14
“For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.”
This is leading up to Armageddon. It is spiritually inspired, these demons are starting to gather the nations of the world together to come and face God at Megiddo.
Verse 15
“Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.”
Keeping with the continuous format in Revelation, we have a break here. We have had 6 judgements, then as usual there is a break before the seventh. In this case it is for only one verse.
We are familiar with the term that “as a thief”, but in 1 Thess 5:4 we see Paul saying “But ye, brethern, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” The Lord will overtake those that are in darkness, not those in the light (his people)
The term garments makes us think of the parable of the wedding feast (Matt 22), when the man was not dressed in the proper garments. When we are saved we are dressed in new clothes, we have to keep these garments if we want to get into Heaven and the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev 19:9).
Verse 16
“ And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”
We seen where this was at the end of the previous chapter, this is at Mount Megiddo.
This is where Gideon’s 300 defeated the Midianites, the Amalekites and the children of the east. Where Samson triumphed over the Philistines. Where Saul was slain. It is a natural battleground where right through history, through Alexander, crusaders, Napoleon all had battles.
Verse 17
“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.”
This is an assault on the last sphere of Satan’s influence.
Where is it poured out on?- The air.
One of Satan’s title in Eph “:” is “Prince of the power of the air”, so whatever that is referring to then this is probably what it is being poured on. This is the last mention of the Temple.
Verse 18
“And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.”
An earthquake larger than any that ever happened before, there have been many very large earthquakes with the largest recorded one being on 26th Dec 2004, recording a magnitude of 9.1 to 9.3 on the Richter scale. It was in the ocean and caused approx 225,000 deaths with the resulting Tsunami.
Verse 19
“ And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.”
We will see more on Babylon in the next two chapters.
Notice also that the cities fell, there seem to be something evil in the cities. It is said that God made the country and man made the cities.
If we think back to after the flood God told the people to spread throughout the whole earth, it was when they grouped together that sin came, in the form of Babel.
Verse 20
“And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.”
Haggai 2 and Jeremiah 4 have similar passages.
There are going to be great upheavals in the earth at this time. Islands will disappear under water, and mountain will fall.
Verse 21
“And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.”
Again a similar event as to what happened in the plagues of Egypt.
What weight is a talent - A Greek talent was about 6 stone (39kg).
A Hebrew talent used for Silver was c. 7 4/5 stone (50kg)
They are going to BIG hail stones, the damage they cause will be unbelievable, they will destroy everything in their path.
The people are still blaspheming God, even after all they have come through, now at the end of the judgements.
Note: the Old Testament punishment for blasphemy was stoning to death.
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