It cannot be said often enough in studying the Bible: Context is everything. The whole context -- cultural, historical, linguistic -- as well as the adjacent text. The Book of Revelation is itself a context. In the past two chapters, we've seen a lot of condemnation on Babylon, the ancient city symbolizing idolatry and arrogance. Further, it symbolizes spiritual compromise, often tied to the Harlot Church. As we enter chapter 16, Babylon is still front and center in much of what happens.
The parallel between the Exodus and these last judgments is painfully obvious. Paul made it clear the Exodus and Conquest were recorded as symbols for our spiritual journey (1 Corinthians 10:1-11), and it's no great leap for John to extend that parable to illustrate our departure from this plane of existence into Eternity. Thus, the last plagues on fallen humanity will be the gateway to a New Heaven and a New Earth. As God commanded Moses to execute the symbolic actions for each plague, so the voice from the Temple in Heaven commands the angels to dump their bowls of wrath.
The First Bowl mimics the sixth plague on Egypt (Exodus 9:8-12), generating painful sores on the flesh of those dwelling in spiritual Babylon who worship the Beast and have his mark. The Second Bowl recalls the first plague on Egypt (Exodus 7), as well as the Second Trumpet. All life is gone in the sea. The Third Bowl extends the plague to every source of water on the planet, an intensification of the Third Trumpet. The angel pouring that bowl rejoices, and the altar carries the refrain, with phrases drawn from Deuteronomy 32:3-4 and Isaiah 49:25-26 to indicate how this is God matching the punishment to the crimes.
One thing upon which all life is dependent -- the sun -- is next turned against sinful mankind, as the Fourth Bowl vastly intensifies the energy output, scorching the earth. Yet this dire suffering only intensifies the blasphemies of the fallen. This is quite the reverse of God's comforting words to His people seen earlier in 7:16. The Fifth Bowl brings upon the throne of the Beast, in City of Babylon, that tangible darkness of Exodus 10:21-23 in the ninth plague. However, this darkness brings intense pain. This will also be insufficient to turn hearts in repentance to Him, just as with Pharaoh.
Thus far, the Bowl Judgments are difficult to relate to spiritual realities in reference to known Hebraic imagery. It seems to leave the whole earth as thoroughly devastated as the Exodus left Egypt. These first five bowls follow a rather logical sequence of an earth which becomes uninhabitable in a more literal sense: ubiquitous disease strikes the world, water becomes universally poisonous starting with the liquid-state end-point and progressing to the sources, the sun becomes unstable and heats up, and the whole earth becomes unlivable. While there may well be a literal meaning to this doom, it is far more important to see this in the broad general sense of fulfilling the threat inherent in the Covenant of Noah. Should mankind allow government to fail its original purpose of keeping civil order, God would withdraw His hand from actively keeping natural order. Thus, as moral chaos rises, God provokes a matching chaos in His Creation, and we must remind ourselves not to lose sight of this basic principle in John's writing here.
As Babylon symbolizes all Satan's efforts to destroy God's witness on the earth, so Jerusalem was the symbol of His throne, the Temple His presence. In that sense, Jesus called Himself the Temple. The one natural barrier between Babylon and Jerusalem was the Euphrates. In the Sixth Bowl, that river is evaporated. The "kings of the East" are a standard symbol of every pagan force against God's truth. This time, the Trinity of Evil manifests itself as frog-like spirits issuing from the mouths of the Dragon, Beast and False Prophet. These perform false signs to rally all human governments for one last battle.
John pointedly quotes Jesus warning us we cannot predict this "day" as a recognizable single event in human space and time. Rather, we are reminded in Isaiah 41-46 how the drying of the Euphrates was a good thing, coming as a promise from God to remove the barrier to their Return, and how drying the river flow under the walls of Babylon allowed the conquering Medo-Persians to enter the city unopposed. This is not a fearsome battle in spiritual terms, but a last pitiful outburst of a doomed Kingdom of Darkness. They gather at Armageddon, a Greek word based on the Hebrew term Har-Mgiddown: The Mountain of Assembly -- Mount Zion. (There is no justification in Hebrew for making this out to mean any valley of any kind, much less the Valley of Meggido; see Zechariah 14.) The Armies of Darkness have always striven to fight the revelation of God wherever He appears throughout human history. Satan always fails, too.
With the Seventh Bowl, we first hear from God all things are finished. The forces of fallen humanity gathered in anticipation of a great battle meet with war from the earth under their feet. There is no place to stand, as the ground heaves as never before since Creation. Babylon is ripped apart, and all the cities of humanity crumble into dust. The final recompense of resistance to God's revelation falls, and cup which Jesus drank in Garden is passed to the Beast. Even as the ground quivers like gelatin under their feet, recalcitrant sinners receive from above, like the seventh plague of Egypt (Exodus 9:13-21), hailstones at some 70 pounds (30kg) each. Yet all this saw men's hearts hardened in blasphemy.
As always, a literal meaning would miss the point entirely. John is warning his flock God is aware of the ways of Satan working among fallen humanity, building resistance to the gospel of Jesus Christ. No one denies there may be here a measure of literal description of the very last moments before Christ's Return. Rather, it is vital we see, for John's flock and every Christian living since he wrote this, all mankind is a tool of Satan turned against the followers of Jesus. These are dark visions of sorrow, hopelessness in the flesh, but behind it all is a glorious truth in the spiritual realm. Suffering on this earth for the sake of Christ is merely a sign of spiritual power and victory. If you and I do not suffer the loss of property, comfort and life itself, we aren't much of a threat to Satan -- he only fights where he sees God.
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Ed Hurst
11 October 2007
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