Revelation 16:8-12

Last time, we considered the first three bowls filled with the undiluted wrath of Almighty God against sin and those who hold to it as their reason for being. These final judgments on the Earth are all kill-shot-level events with two purposes in mind. The first of those is God finally pouring out His long-delayed wrath upon a very deserving planet. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, the Apostle Paul told us (Rom. 3:23). The debt of sin that we incurred by our first disobedience in the garden alone is enough to send everyone on Earth to Hell forever. However, God Himself became a man, lived a perfect life under the law of Moses (which He Himself wrote), at the right time laid down that life, and became the perfect atoning sacrifice to pay the penalty for that and wash us clean from its influence in our lives. God was so pleased with that sacrifice that He raised Him from the dead to show it! Second, it was an attempt to get men to yield the fight against God and turn to Him and away from their sin. That has had some differential effects.

The first of these judgments was loathsome and malignant sores that were only inflicted on those who took the loyalty mark of the Beast. These sores represented not only evil, but ACTIVE evil. These sores were biting-your-cheek sore, running, smelly, cancerous, incurable sores. It doesn’t expressly say, but I am under the impression that left long enough, they could end an individual.

The second judgment is the entirety of Earth’s oceans turning to blood. Is it actual blood? I don’t know, but I have no reason to believe it isn’t. The blood of a dead man takes on an oily substance and no longer carries the life-giving nutrients the body needs to the rest of the body. It immediately begins to smell. It kills all the life in the oceans, disrupting the food sources of nations as well as the transportation routes for the trade and sale of goods. In short, the life span of humans has been shortened to 2-3 weeks on the outside; no one can live without food for more than that, barring significant stores. Then there is the stench of all that rotting death from the sea.

The third judgment is the same, but on the Earth’s potable water. With nothing to drink, barring stores (and it is not clear this is possible), the life span of the average human is cut from weeks to 2 or 3 days. The same issue with rivers and lakes is now present, as it is already in the oceans. This will also cause the animals on the surface of the planet to begin to die off en masse, adding to the stench of death on the planet. Bodies of humans may begin to fall in the streets. At this point, if it seems to be getting a little personal, ask yourself why. It is because humanity loves their sin so much and they refuse to let go of it in favour of Him who knows best.

We talked about how this must be getting very close to the end of humanity without divine intervention, but don’t worry, that’s coming in chapter 19. For now, this is just the first three bowl judgments of the final fury of the wrath of God. Make no mistake, it is designed to convey death and destruction on a people that will not surrender the moral low ground, and as C. S. Lewis put it in his Narnia Chronicles, “move further up and farther in,” as referenced by a few characters in The Last Battle, the last book of that series. For now, it will be more and stronger judgment on the world.

With all of that in mind, in this study, we pick up where we left off and examine the rest of the bowl judgments upon sin and those who will not cease from it. I broke the text down into the following thought units:

KV9: Actions Bring Consequences

9: Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

8-9: The Sun Burns Humanity

10-11: The Darkness and Pain

12: Setup for Armageddon

If you stop a moment and think about this, there is a difference between thinking about an action and performing the action. This is why men are judged by their deeds, not merely their thoughts. I can tell you I have entertained some pretty dark things in my days, even as a Christian. Ultimately, because I love the Lord and have no wish to bring shame or blasphemy to His name, I chose alternatives that brought no shame to God and repented of my dark and sinful thoughts. I use myself as a bad example here because I know this example only too well.

In this study this evening, actions are chosen over the course of people’s lives that do not lead to the pathway of repentance and the evidence of this is not only seen, but is made noteworthy in Scripture. Choice is evidence of motive, like fruit is indicative of a tree. If you have bad fruit, there is something wrong with the tree, even if it is not immediately evident. As believers, we are not called upon to attribute motive without proof or confession, and this text does nothing to change that view. Overall, the context is dealing with the long-suffering God who is finally releasing all of His undiluted, unmitigated wrath upon a richly deserving humanity that even now clings to its sinfulness.

As a sort of point to my commentary here, I personally view this as a strong encouragement to continually choose to dedicate myself to choosing God’s plans and purposes. Come that day, should I see it or one like it, I believe the habit of godly priority in choices will make the choice very easy then. Exodus 8-14 tells the story of how Pharaoh in Egypt hardened his heart every time God judged Egypt with a plague. Seven times (8:15, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7, 9:34, 10:1, 11:10) Pharaoh hardened his own heart against God and His servant Moses, who had been raised as a brother to Pharaoh. Then it says in 14:8, “The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he chased after the sons of Israel as the sons of Israel were going out boldly.” There comes a point where God sees fit to call an end to it, and you, lest the situation become even worse for you who harden your heart. This was the occasion that Pharaoh chased fleeing Israel into a channel between walls of water, and he and his entire army were drowned as the sea collapsed back in on itself after the children of Israel passed through on dry land.

Think about that as we study tonight. You’re still breathing air, my friends. You still have the opportunity to repent, that is, change your mind. Change your way. Change your opinion. Change your direction. I pray that we all will. I need it as much or more than you do. Let’s get into the text.

KV9: Actions Bring Consequences

9: Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

If I may be permitted to use myself as a bad example here, I can tell you what I have experienced and then back it up with Scripture. When I have chosen poorly to continue in or with my sin, I have suffered for it. For those of you who may not have known, I was a smoker in High School. I was saved after grade 12 and before grade 13 in June of 1985. It took me a while to stop. I was shown the passages about my body being a sanctuary (naos) of the Holy Spirit, and how smoking was a kind of defilement of that temple. I ignored it. Then one day, a couple of years later in university, I was unable to walk up three flights of stairs to my room without huffing and puffing like an old guy. I was just 20. That’s the background.

That whole time, I called myself a Christian, but you wouldn’t have known it by my lifestyle and behaviour. I had, in my shortness of breath, a moment of clarity. You can say the words, and not live the life, and your words (as well as your life) are empty. Or you can quit the defiling behaviour and get better. I struggled with that for a few months, but I started to turn from the little sins I had let come back into my life while I was sleeping, I suppose. I repented of them. I stopped them. I began to follow Jesus Christ in earnest, and people around me started noticing. Not always in a good or encouraging way. But that was a start. I have other stories, but those will remain private for now. I can theorize now with you: What if I had not changed? It was certainly easier to stay the way I was, and I think I may have been a bit more successful than I have been to date. But the eternal costs for poor choices and their resulting actions are very much in view this evening. Let’s have a look at the text, because it is clearer than anything I can say.

8-9: The Sun Burns Humanity

You might well ask if all choices have this kind of result. Maybe not all of them. One could choose between chocolate or butterscotch ice cream, or whether to eat pancakes, recalling that trope by Spurgeon. But choices involving the keeping or breaking of God’s moral law will always have consequences. It may be a while before those consequences show up and make themselves known, but they are real, and they will come out. It is by looking at the consequences that meet you that you can tell how you have ultimately done. For those that do well, it says in 1 Cor. 2:9, “but just as it is written, ‘THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.'” It’s so good, it cannot even be imagined.

For those who do poorly, it is an entirely different matter. That verse still applies, but the same is true of the opposite. Eye has not seen. Ear has not heard. No one can imagine the horrors and terror waiting for those who will not obey the Lord. What we are reading here is an accounting of the latter. Let’s read the text.

8: The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.

Unlike the fourth trumpet that resulted in the darkening of the sun, it seems here the sun is made more intense, brighter, hotter, and significantly enough that it will burn exposed flesh. The heat will literally bake the sinners left here, not to mention the stinking and rotting flesh in the sea and on the land as a result of all the waters becoming blood. And there is nothing with which to slake the thirst any may have. It decreases the lifespan that much more of a now-dying humanity, particularly those who have foresworn God to follow the Antichrist and took his mark of loyalty. Another painful experience for those who will not turn and repent. How do we know? Next verse.

9: Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

There are a couple of things of note here. We know that humanity is now scorched by the heat of the sun. I do not know the mechanism. Possibly, the Earth’s magnetic field is failing, but that is my speculation. Possibly the effect of the substance poured by the angel upon the sun somehow swells the sun’s capacity to burn more hydrogen, or other parts of the sun, like helium or iron (both components of the sun that I learned in astrophysics). Whatever it is, it burns hotter. It doesn’t say it swells, but that might also be at least a partial explanation. It is the reaction of humanity that tells the story for us.
They blasphemed the name of God. The text points out that it is He who has the power over the plagues with which He is now striking the planet. From this statement, we may infer that the people who are being scorched KNOW who is doing this to them, and they probably know why! They know it is God Almighty, and they know it is a punishment for them.
These individuals are savvy enough to know who and why, but are greatly deceived about what to do about it. God chastises those whom He loves, and gives opportunity after opportunity to turn away from the sin and toward the one who can cleanse the sin. However, they WILL not. Why not? They love their sin. They see and feel how much trouble it is bringing them, and they defiantly yell at God to bring His worst. They will have their request.

Is it their choices that have led them truly to this spot? It can be nothing else. How many times have you heard me answer the accusation of why bad things happen to good people? Quite frankly, there are no good people. Romans 3:10-18 says, “as it is written,

‘THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE. THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,

WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS; WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS; THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN. THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.’” Verse 23 says, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” I say again, there are NO good people. Not even ourselves. Beloved, we deserve everything that will happen to those people then because we ourselves as humans are still guilty of not only original sin, but all the ones we ourselves have committed on top of that. We repented. They will not. That choice, at least, will result in the kind of pain that is visiting them then. And it is not finished. Next thought unit.

10-11: The Darkness and Pain

What is about to happen is almost like a preview of what might be coming. The concept of the eternal place of punishment is described in a couple of different ways in Scripture. We are all familiar with the burning lake of fire, and we’re going to meet that place of destiny in a few chapters. It is also described as the Outer Darkness. Does this mean a literal darkness? I hope not to ever personally find out. If it is, it is a place of pain, darkness, lack of power, and even lack of identity, because even if you meet another individual, you will have no way of knowing who they are. No one will know your name. You will be nobody forever in your suffering, left to your own thoughts and feelings, which I believe will be amplified beyond the worst feelings you’ve ever had here. But enough about that. We’ll see that in Revelation 20. Here is a sampling of darkness and pain.

10: Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain,

This bowl is poured out on the θρόνον of the beast. Some have suggested that this is the seat of authority of the head of the revived Roman Empire (Vine), but I think it matters less. It is the θηρίου, the Antichrist, who is on it, and it is the place from which he rules his evil kingdom. And it has some effects.
His entire kingdom becomes dark. That is the entire planet if you have been following along. When this happened in Egypt, it says in Exo. 10:22-23, “So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.” The darkness was only upon the Egyptians. If that is the case here, only the worshippers of the Beast are affected, this is a supernatural darkness, and it would not affect the people of God then as it did not in Egypt. If it is the same kind of darkness, it has a thickness, a gloominess about it that is not only heavy, but painful to them. It says they gnawed their tongues because of pain. Maybe this is why. It is so dark it can be felt, and it is not a pleasant experience. From the wording, one could see a suggestion of that outer darkness described in Matthew 8 as a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. As I said, I hope to never personally find out.
So far, the worshippers of the Beast are covered in painful and malignant sores that ooze painfully, they have no food, they have no drinking water, there may be the horrible stench of death, they have been burned, and now cannot see to move, and are in enough pain to chew on their own tongues to distract themselves from the pain. Beloved, this does not sound like a party I want to attend! Worse, there is a very disturbing commentary on it in the next verse.

11: and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.

Vine explains that the word is used in this instance of those who speak contemptuously of God or sacred things. They revile God. They speak incredibly evilly and poorly of Him. Why? They KNOW He is the one ultimately causing this all to happen to them. God warned them repeatedly, and they would not reverse course, insisting upon making direct bearing for the rocky shallows and shipwreck. Even though they know that it is the Almighty One causing this, and because of their sinful choices, they will STILL not change course, change direction, change their minds, or repent. For those who took the mark of loyalty, that isn’t possible anymore, but what of those who have not taken that mark but still have not repented of their sins? They are here also, as hard as it is to imagine. There is an old “Left Behind” series. In the final sequel in the series, the fourth, titled “The Prodigal Planet,” minutes before the return of Christ to Earth, one of the main protagonists has not taken the mark and has even had her daughter be saved in front of her, is still faced at this last minute with the choice of yielding to Christ or not. I really hope no one is in that position, but you never know. The rest cursed God for their troubles, not seeing that He was calling them with their suffering to repentance. He calls us like that now, Beloved! This is one of the reasons that the prosperity gospel is no gospel at all. We are promised God’s grace to face our problems, not the money, health, or power to flee them. We need to learn this long before this time in history. Otherwise, our pains and sores make the choice for us, and we see here how that ends. They did not repent of their deeds. Worse, this seems to be the very last time this is said about anyone who is left alive by now.

I could spend a long time on this. Clearly, we have choices to make. Now, before anyone thinks I’m turning in my Calvinist creds, I am not. It is a choice to follow a command given by God. Some will, some will not. Whatever the choice, we will all be held accountable for our choices regarding that command. Our 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith makes this plain. Allow me to quote from chapter 3: “God hath Decreed in himself from all Eternity, by the most wise and holy Councel [sic] of his own will, freely and unchangeably, all things whatsoever comes to passe [sic]; yet so as thereby is God neither the author of sin, nor hath fellowship with any therein, nor is violence offered to the will of the Creature…” There is more, but that’s the point. God’s will is what happens. He always gets what He wants, and no violence is ever offered to the will of the creature, which here is us. Even though God always gets what He wants, He often gets it by using beings whose will is diametrically opposed to His in every way. And every man will still be held accountable for His choice. To make this about “works” is a rather large category error. We can talk about that some other time. For now, we will move on.

12: Setup for Armageddon

This sixth angel’s bowl has a very specific application. This moves from wrath against worshippers of the beast in general to something of preparation for the last battle. It is still wrath, but there is some setup required, apparently.

12: The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.

As this is a setup for the battlefield for the battle in the valley of Megiddo, it is also a setup for where we are going next week. It very clearly identifies the angel as the sixth angel, and he poured out his bowl on the Euphrates River. Not to put too fine a point on this, but that will prepare the travel route for the 200-million-man army to join the forces that will be somehow supernaturally and demonically gathered to the valley of Megiddo, where the last battle of this war of Jacob’s Trouble will be fought.

This is the information that is conveyed in this verse. I’m going over this now because that will be our consideration next time. The next one will cover verses 12-16. Yes, I mean to include verse 12, but only as a refresher for your finger in the pages of your Bible. There are too many ways to break the chapter into sections, so I am stopping this evening in a place that can be used as a connection and a review. And that’s what I saw in the text this time.

Coming up to July, we will likely miss a couple of sessions. There will be no study on July 3 because I have the pulpit at Bethany on the 6th, and it is a communion service, so I will need the time for sermon preparations. On Saturday, July 19, I will be attending a wedding of a sister in our congregation to a brother in another congregation. They have invited our whole family, and have invited us all day. If you have ever been to an African Wedding, you may know that only close friends and family are invited to that, and they are usually 2-3 day affairs, and we are honoured, so we are going. For those of you who know Grace, she’s getting married. A few of us have known her for years. I was at her high school graduation. I had to pay attention because it was in French, but it was fun. Now she is getting married! Okay, I’m feeling old. But there will be no book study that day, was my point.