Revelation 16

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Revelation 16 Commentary

by Brad Boyles

The continuity of the seals and the trumpets is broken up with the bowls as they move seamlessly through all seven with no interlude between the 6th and 7th as we have traditionally seen. We must appreciate the story that is being painted before our eyes. The seals and trumpets primarily announced the coming destruction and executed them only partially (1/3 of the earth burned, 1/3 of the sea becomes blood, etc.)

However, the bowls are now universally complete in their wrath. With the seals and trumpets, people were directly and indirectly affected. Now, there is no one who can avoid the incoming attacks.

The bowls increase in their intensity as they move along just as the plagues did when God sent them upon Egypt. This is important to remember for the sole reason that the early churches would have seen Rome as the ‘New Egypt’. They oppressed Christians in every way possible and ruled as if they truly believed they were gods.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.  4  The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.  

5  And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.  6  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!”  7  And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

Revelation 16:3-7 ESV

There are a lot of references to blood here. If you remember, the very first plague in Egypt involved turning the water into blood when Moses dipped his staff into the water. Interestingly, I learned just this week that clean water was a major problem for the Egyptians even before Moses did this. Many of the commoners would drink beer because it was a safer option and many of the nobles would consume wine. The effect is obvious. Without clean water, the entire globe plunges into chaos and turmoil.

A curious detail included here is found in verses 5 and 6 when an angel adds some commentary to the event. It’s not just any angel, but an angel who is specifically in charge of the waters. A common worldview for those in John’s time was that there was an angel in charge of every aspect of nature. We see this in John’s writing as he has already described an angel in charge of the fire and 4 others who were restraining the 4 winds of the earth. So, we now have wind, fire, and water all represented by heavenly beings.

This particular angel declares not only that God is just in His actions but that those who have shed the blood of His people deserve to drink blood.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Isaiah 49:26 ESV

The imagery here speaks to the fact that for so long, God has been patient with humanity. He has continued to extend grace, offering what seems like an innumerable amount of time to repent. It is God, through Jesus Christ, who has restrained the judgment that humanity has earned. This is an important fact to remember. God is not doing this out of vengeance or whimsical behavior. He is simply giving people what they have chosen. This is the way He built the world to work.

We have, in past blogs, explored the question – what would it be like if God removed the Holy Spirit from the earth? What would it be like if He removed His hand completely from this world?

The answer is found right here in Revelation 16. For every action, there is a consequence, and now, in the end times, the world is seeing firsthand what happens when God allows for humanity to get what they deserve. If God’s behavior angers us, or we read these events in Revelation and think they are unfair, we only illustrate just how out of touch we are with the unbelievable grace that He has extended to us for so long through Jesus Christ.

His wrath is not unpredictable. It comes as an expression of His righteous character. If we believe the universe is moral, then we must appreciate God’s absolute hatred for sin. Any picture of God that ignores His hatred for sin reveals just how tricky sin can be. Just like our nature is prone to sin, God’s nature is without sin. Therefore, when Jesus returns to right all the wrongs in this life, it would be catastrophically disappointing for Him not to destroy every ounce of sin and evil forever.

Har Megiddo

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.  13  And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.  14  For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.  

15  (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)  16  And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

Revelation 16:12-16 ESV

And finally, we have the place at which all this will take place. We know Armageddon as an event, however, John describes it as a place. The literal translation is Har Megiddo. Megiddo would have been familiar to John’s readers because it was a fortified city that was strategically located as a natural battlefield. In this area, God miraculously overthrew the Canaanite kings by aiding Deborah and Barak in Judges 4 and it is also the place where Josiah was defeated and slain.

The paradox lies in the fact that it is not just Mediggo but Har Megiddo. Har means mountain and there was no mountain in Megiddo.  The name Megiddo comes from a Hebrew root meaning to “cut off” and thus means “slaughter.” Just the mention of the famous battleground of Armageddon to a Jew would suggest a horrific slaughter, so it is most likely not describing an actual place, but a battle of incredible, cataclysmic carnage.

Thief In The Night

When the sixth bowl is poured out, Jesus reiterates what He tells us in Matthew 24.

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.  43  But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.  44  Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  45  “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time?  

46  Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes.  47  Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.  48  But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’  49  and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards,  50  the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know  51  and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Matthew 24:42-51 ESV

All of us have engaged in decisions and behaviors that would have exposed us had Jesus decided to return at that moment. We’ve all been places we shouldn’t have been doing things we shouldn’t have been doing. Jesus doesn’t want us to be like the soldier who can’t find his weapons and armor when the war starts. He doesn’t want us to be like the man who buried his talents in the ground instead of investing them in the Kingdom.

When something you believe will happen doesn’t, and then years go on and on, it’s natural to begin to doubt. Many of us begin to dabble in compromise. While I’m here waiting I might as well enjoy it. This is the attitude Jesus is attacking! The worst mindset we can have right now is to think that Jesus won’t come tomorrow just because He hasn’t returned for so long. That’s the attitude that will cause us to grow complacent and make compromises.

Ask yourself, if Jesus came back tomorrow, what would He find? What decisions and behaviors would you be engaging in? Noah was vigilant in preparing himself and his household for the flood while everyone else was mocking him and living it up. How are you preparing yourself and your household for the return of Christ? The fact of the matter is that those who fail to be diligent servants now will not share in the blessings of Jesus’ millennial kingdom when He arrives.

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