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World Magazine reported this week that North Korea kills 300 people each year for their faith. Thousands more face torture and imprisonment, with estimates of 50,000 believers living in the squalid surroundings of Kim Jong Il’s gulag. One Christian man was hung upside down by the local warden who demanded that he deny his faith in Christ. Refusing to do so, the warden “pushed him to the ground, ordering 6,000 prisoners to trample him to death.” Eight more had molten iron poured over them when they refused to deny the existence of heaven. Others are deliberately crippled, left naked, and starved.
Why such violent opposition to non-violent prisoners? Kim Jong Il is considered a god. Recently, when an ophthalmologist from another country gained access to perform humanitarian surgeries on 1000 patients with cataracts, upon bandages being removed, the patients immediately praised their “Great Leader” Kim Jong Il, bowing and worshiping with hands raised before his image, even claiming that he gave them the miracle of sight. I thought that I was seeing Revelation 13 before my eyes! Every morning, loudspeakers praise the Korean Worker’s Party and exhort its citizens to pray to “our leader, Kim Jong Il” [Priya Abraham, “Cruel and usual punishment,” World, April 28, 2007, p. 26; Ophthalmologist story summarized from National Geographic documentary, April 27, 2007]. The “beast” is worshiped while the “false prophet” of the state religion directs worship to the “Great Leader.”
Let’s face it; some of the images in Revelation, symbolism aside, seem unrealistic. Yet North Korea is just one example of precisely the kind of setting that John describes globally. John saw the same in the first century, with the emperor deified and the state pushing the religion of emperor worship, while intensifying persecution of Christians refusing to call Caesar “lord.” As we’ve noted so far in our journey through Revelation, John clues believers in on the global opposition to the gospel, to our Lord, and to the Church. Yet in the midst of opposition, the powerful, sovereign hand of God is at work to bring the rebellious world to the climactic point of judgment. Temporal judgment precedes the great day of the Lord when no sin is left unpunished and no rebel overlooked.
John explains this process through a series of visions involving seals and trumpets, and now, bowls of wrath. The seals survey the trials facing humanity while the gospel continues to conquer sinners; with the sixth and seventh seals portraying the apex of judgment. The trumpets show the movement of divine judgment temporally until its culmination in the sixth and seventh seals. The bowls of wrath, which we will consider in the present study and the next, move the process along in what Simon Kistemaker calls, “progressive parallelism” [NTC: Revelation, 439]. That is, while paralleling the details of the trumpets, the seals intensify the scope and effect of divine judgment until its culmination. God is glorified by the righteousness of His judgments. He never strikes with wrath where wrath is undeserved. Judgment is just and timely. How does John set this forth so that we are comforted and led to worship?
We’re accustomed to many deserving the judgment of national or international courts escaping judgment. So much judicial juggling takes place that sometimes leaves the guilty untouched by appropriate punishment. We agonize over how Kim Jong Il continues to treat his own people savagely without facing the severest judgment; or how Robert Mugabe can destroy Zimbabwe’s farms, economy, and society with impunity. We were stunned by Cho Seung-Hui’s slaughter of 32 Virginia Tech students and faculty, and then his seeming escape from justice by suicide. These may escape human courts but not divine justice. Cho hastened his judgment through suicide. Kim and Mugabe will answer before “the Almighty,” who will exact for eternity the full measure of justice.
It is easy to think of judgment when considering murderers and dictators. But judgment goes deeper…much deeper. The writer of Hebrews puts it in simple language: “…it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment” (9:27). Paul wrote, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12). Peter offered encouragement for believers and warning for unbelievers: “the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment” (2 Pet. 2:9). God’s justice will be demonstrated in His every act of judgment.
To help us understand this, John paints another scene on the canvas of Revelation. He introduced the seven angels and seven plagues in 15:1, and then moved to a hymn of worship ascribed to God as the judge. He returns to the bowls of wrath in verse 5. “After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened.” He goes to great lengths to describe a particular place as the origin of the judgments that he will unfold. The “temple” or “sanctuary,” as the Greek gives it, identifies the presence of God as holy Sovereign. Here, in the very presence of God in all of His beauty, glory, and purity judgment ushers forth. There’s no hint of an invisible despot slashing away at innocent people. Rather, the judgments to follow have come from the very presence of the altogether holy God. He furthers this by specifying, “the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven.” The tabernacle of the testimony borrows language from the Old Testament. The “testimony” referred to the law of God contained in the Ark of the Covenant covered by the mercy seat. In other words, what John implies is that the basis of divine judgment is God’s law. There’s no willy-nilly vengeance by a raging, out of control deity. Judgment, instead, is God’s just response to the moral law of His universe. The realm of His judgment is universal, pictured by it coming out of heaven. Every lawbreaker will be justly judged by the omniscient Judge who knows all the secrets of men’s hearts, and through His omnipotence that is capable of applying the full measure of judgment required by the breach of His law. Just that clause alone implies that none escape divine judgment.
What John does throughout this section is to reiterate that men have especially broken the first table of the law. We live in a society where breaking at least some of the 2nd table of the law faces temporal judgment: murder, rape, stealing, and perjury among them. But no attention is given to the greater offense of having other gods before us, worshiping graven images, taking God’s name in vain, and dishonoring the Sabbath. While God will judge those that have broken the 2nd table of the law, He will not by-pass judging those that have dishonored Him by breaking the 1st table. Those being judged by the bowls of wrath are “people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image”; men who “blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and…did not repent so as to give Him glory” (16:2, 9, 11; cf. 13:3-4, 8, 12-14, 16-17; 14:9, 11). In other words, they worshiped other gods, worshiped images of these false gods, and blasphemed God’s name.
But someone might cry “Foul!” They say that God has no right to judge them. Yet as both Creator and Judge, He has the moral responsibility for justice in His creation. Men have sought through sin “to ungod God” [Ralph Venning, The Plague of Plauges, 194]. None will be judged errantly. The Puritan, Ralph Venning, explained, “God will not argue the case with men merely as a Sovereign, but as Judge, who proceeds not by will only, but by rule” [194]. The hymn in 15:3-4 and the additional angelic hymn in 16:5-7, emphasize that God is righteous or just in His judgments. “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things…Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
Once again John returns to using the number seven as a number of completion and perfection. “Seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple.” They were given “seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.” The triple use of seven is emphatic. In other words, John wants to make sure that we understand God’s righteous judgment to be thorough; nothing will be left undone or to work itself out by chance. Since the judgments originate from the temple, that’s language insisting that God is the one who ultimately judges; and He does so perfectly.
Talk of judgment can leave us squeamish. We may feel uneasy about it, concerned, as we look at our own judicial system, that someone might suffer innocently or punishment might be too harsh or too light. The Apostle works this issue from several angles. The seven angels that deliver the judgments “came out of the temple clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes.” With the angels garbed in both priestly and kingly array, John heightens the picture of the divinely delegated authority in the discharge of judgment. They stand in contrast to the demonic spirits called “unclean spirits like frogs” in 16:13, who deceive and trade in evil. God’s emissaries of judgment radiate purity. Another angle involves the description of the Lord in the midst of judgment. “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One…true and righteous are your judgments.” To be righteous is to be morally just; to be true indicates no hidden motives, no deceit. As Leon Morris pointed out concerning God’s judgment, “This is no bestial thing, evil with passion. It is a pure concern for the right” [TNTC: Revelation, 190-191]. That’s why the hymn of worship in 15:3-4 naturally flows out of the revelation of God’s judgments. We can praise Him that He is just, that His judgments are pure and right.
Additionally, John tells us that one of the four living creatures gave the seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God to the seven angels (15:7). Since these four creatures represent the entire created order (4:7), it indicates that creation is vindicated by God’s judgment upon men who brought sin into the world and defiled God’s creation. Their bowls are “full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever.” This fullness indicates completeness. “They are full,” writes William Hendriksen, “to indicate the fierceness and unmitigated character of God’s wrath. It is everlasting wrath for it proceeds from the ever-living God” [More than Conquerors, 160]. The particular plagues in each bowl are the particular means that God uses to “hurl the wicked into hell” [Hendriksen, 161].
Where does the wrath fall? These are “bowls full of the wrath of God.” The angels pour them out “on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image” (16:2). The focus of wrath is aimed where wrath has not been spent. Though, as we’ve noted, believers are affected by the temporal judgments on the world (e.g. 6:3-11), none of God’s wrath touches them. His wrath has already fallen in infinite measure upon the Lamb of God at the cross, who bore this eternal judgment on behalf of all that believe. Again, I quote Venning: “Thus on all accounts sin’s sinfulness vindicates the justice and judgments of God. But though God’s judgment is just, yet he is pleased to pardon and forgive some sinners” [195]. In the midst of the seven plagues of wrath, we are reminded of the price of our redemption. The Lamb of God absorbed the full measure of God’s wrath so that we might be forgiven and have an eternal relationship with God.
Judgment is not a bad thing; it is a display of infinite righteousness. The moral law of God by which He governs His creation demand justice. Laws that are not enforced are worthless laws; those failing to enforce good laws are immoral governors unworthy of the title. Occasionally, we run across archaic laws that, in spite of remaining in the law codes, are deemed of no value such as the illegality of wearing a fake mustache that causes laughter in church or purchasing a license before hanging clothes on a clothesline [http://www.lawguru.com/weird/part01.html]. But no laws of God’s reign are silly or useless. Each command has moral value that enables the creature to reflect the perfections of the Creator. When violated, then the Judge has the moral responsibility to apply the appropriate sentence. Since “the aim of sin is to ungod God,” as Venning put it, “what punishment can be thought bad enough?” [194].
John wrote in a period when unjust laws were enforced to the detriment of believers. There were problems with both the laws and the judiciary. Evil men with malicious motives established immoral codes requiring Roman citizens to pay homage to Caesar. The same takes place in our day. Open practice and propagation of the Christian faith meets with imprisonment and even death in some countries. Wicked rulers seek to undermine and usurp the divine rule. Though they may have some temporal success, the God “who lives forever and ever” will bring all to justice.
No dictator or sheik or tyrant lives long. We see evil men ruling for several decades or even half of a century, such as Mao, Stalin, and Castro. That seems to be a long stretch to us since we tend to measure things by the span of our lives. Yet their rules are but vapors in the scale of eternity. Our God is distinguished from them in His rule. John emphasizes the eternal nature of God’s rule. He “lives forever and ever.” God is eternally just; He is unchanging in nature, character, and judgments. He does not flip-flop in His judgments; His righteousness is never scaled to accommodate the whims of mankind. God is God! “With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding?” wrote Isaiah. “And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge and informed Him of the way of understanding?” (Isa. 40:14)
John links together some interesting attributes of God in 15:7-8. He tells of “the wrath of God…the glory of God and…His power.” Wayne Grudem explains, “God’s wrath means that he intensely hates sin” [Systematic Theology, 206]. That hatred of sin flows out of God’s holiness. Because He is holy, utterly pure and separated from sin, “and devoted to seeking his own honor,” He must hate sin [Grudem 201]. So, God’s wrath is His necessary and righteous response to sin.
Notice that the wrath of God, as John describes it, comes out of His temple. Upon the wrath being delivered into golden bowls and given to the angels to discharge, “the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power.” God’s glory expresses the weightiness or heaviness of His own nature. It is the radiance of His character displayed in the brilliant “revelation of himself” [Grudem 220]. The fact that John shows God’s glory displayed at the revelation of His wrath demonstrates the rightness of His wrath against sin. Now, what place does “His power” have in this revelation of God? John is showing that not only is God righteous in the discharge of His wrath but He also has the “power to carry out that righteousness” [Grudem, 205]. In other words, God’s righteousness is not simply a state of being with God; it is the positive certainty of God’s moral justness governing eternity. God actively pursues righteousness in everything that He does. It is evident in His wrath toward sinners. But most clearly, it is found in God pursuing the only just means of declaring sinners to be righteous—through His Son rendering satisfaction with regard to the sin of His people. Paul declares, “Being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:24-26, italics added). God’s righteousness is shown, not only in judgment but particularly in the substitutionary judgment upon Christ at the cross. There God, the eternally righteous God, satisfied moral justice by pouring out His wrath on the Lamb of God, and accepting Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf.
In light of God’s faithfulness to justice at every level, even when it meant judging His Son on our behalf at the cross, “the angel of the waters” is heard to declare, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things.” Then John heard “the altar saying, ‘Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments’.” The altar, as we saw earlier in 6:9, is the place where the martyred saints cried for justice. Now both the angel and the altar echo the righteousness of God in the exercise of His wrath against those bearing the mark of the beast and those worshiping his image. Kistemaker summarizes John’s implications: “That is, the time has now come for God to exert his attribute of holiness, vindicate the saints who suffered because of his Word (6:9-10), and inflict punishment on his adversaries” [442].
John’s picture of God defies the fluffy cream-puff ideas held by so many sentimentalists of our day. Our God is not like what the world thinks He is! Distortions shape the theology of the unregenerate so that they have no fear of God before their eyes nor do they “give Him glory.” One message that rings loud and clear throughout Revelation stands contrary to the mindset of the world: God will execute judgment.
The judgments of the bowls came out of the temple so that “the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.” Just as the glory of God filled both the tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem so that the priests could not enter, John gives a similar picture in this heavenly temple. The point in the Old Testament of the priests’ inability to enter was due to God revealing Himself. So holy, so glorious, so majestic, so righteous is our God, that when He is revealed, none can stand before Him. John shows us that the same holiness and majesty of God is made known through His judgments. In other words, even in wrath God reveals His holiness and glory.
But there is an ominous warning as well by this scene. The time will come when God sends forth the bowls of His wrath, and the day of mercy is past. Kistemaker explains, “no one may enter the inner sanctuary until the bowls have been poured out and the destruction of the wicked has been completed, for God’s mercy is forgotten, his compassion withheld, and his patience suspended” [433]. The foreshadowing of this great day of the Lord is a warning to any among us that have dallied with God, presuming upon His mercy. The day will come when mercy will not be found.
When the angel of the waters rang out in praise to the Lord for His judgments, he particularly identified divine vengeance on those that persecuted to the death His people. “For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” Literally, it means they are worthy of God’s wrath. What they dealt to the saints by their measure, God will deal to them with His measure. “Righteous and true are Your ways…For Your righteous acts have been revealed…Righteous are You…because You judged these things…Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments” (15:3-4; 16:5, 7). God is just to judge those that refuse to repent of their wickedness and refuse to glorify Him (16:9, 11).
We’ve noted the temporal judgments in both the seals and trumpets. Now the vision of the plagues intensifies judgment while moving toward the culmination in the seventh bowl (16:17). The progress of judgment as the angels pour out God’s wrath shows that no one can deter God’s timing. “When God’s good time has come nothing can stop final judgment” [L. Morris, 191]. The seemingly rapid pouring out of wrath “suggests that at the end of time, haste is God’s mode for accomplishing his judgments” [Kistemaker 439].
The world is on course toward judgment. Only where judgment has been spent can you find refuge from the wrath of God. That solitary place is the cross where the sinless Son of God hung suspended between heaven and earth as our Mediator bearing the full measure of God’s wrath for all that will trust Him as Savior and Lord. Judgment is coming. None will escape except those for whom judgment has already been applied in Christ Jesus the Lamb of God.
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