Rev 16:17The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.19The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
In the books that I have referenced and that I have been reading, not much is said about these verses. Except a plea to those who do not know Christ, to search, find and know him in this light because the darkness to come will not be forgiving or comforting.
All that is said in these verses is what is anticipated to occur. And still men have hearts of stone and curse our Beautiful Savior.
My plea is Don't Be That Guy! Search your heart right now, know that our Lord and Savior is ready willing and most certainly able to take you in, just ask!
Next: Chapter 17 and Judgement.
Blessings on all,
Calabash
Rev 16:12 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.
the Euphrates river has dried up. We have seen rivers drying up before. Exodus 14:21 with the Red Sea; Joshua 3:17 with the Jordan; Isaiah 11:16 for the Egyptian sea men could pas through and remain dry; Jeremiah 51:36 was the threat from God to dry up the sea and finally, Zechariah 10:11, the Nile to dry up. All of the above mentioned are signs of Gods power. Can this be done...YES!! and it will be done again, here.
Who are the "kings from the East"?
Possibilities:
The "lost 10 tribes of Israel"?
Persia, Afghanistan....
If you look at the wording of "the east" it can also mean "the sun-rising". Could this have something to do with Japan (the kingdom of the rising sun)? Might there be a future ally with India? East vs West?
Lets look at it in context with verses 13-16. These verses are parenthetical, they are in parenthesis, this will happen between the 6th and 7 bowls and explains who the kings will be.
13 Then I saw three evil spirits that looked like frogs; they came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. 14 They are spirits of demons performing miraculous signs, and they go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them for the battle on the great day of God Almighty.
The kings are the kings of the Earth who are not under the influence of the Antichrist, but will be convinced to work with him. The kings will be gathered by the spirits out of the mouths of the Dragon, beast and false prophet. So, could we summarize that the speech coming from the mouth of these three could be the demons and would be the convincing of these kings to be an ally? Know this, the word for spirit is pneuma which happens to be the word for breath. Maybe....but it could mean a literal evil spirit.
Why frogs? Well frogs are associated with plagues, generally noisy, unclean animals. So if it is not literal, then the speech these persons are making are dirty,noisy, empty words and promises.
We already know who the players are, right?
The Dragon is Satan
The Beast is a man that will be a powerful agent for Satan. The Antichrist. (Some say it was the Roman Empire, prior blogs explain why I do not think it is.)
The False prophet....Wait, this is the first time we have heard of him.
Actually,The false prophet is the second beast. He is actually called this three times, here in chapter 16:13, then again in chapter 19 and a third time in chapter 20. Two times he is associated with the "First Beast" (the Antichrist) and once with the Dragon (Satan). Since we know that both of the Beast and the Dragon are "persons" so should this be.
Look in Matthew 24:24 "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible" This is Christ talking. Notice there is two separate mentions of Christs and prophets, therefore, they cannot be the same. We also know that the "Second Beast", the False Prophet comes up out of the Earth...Resurrected person? Maybe, why not?
It does say that they will
15 "Behold, I come like a thief ! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."
Does this passage sound familiar? It should.. Christ has warned us before.
16 Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon
Well, the kings have been "riled up" and are ready for a final fight, but where???
Here is another big question, where is Armageddon going to take place? The big battle between good and evil.
Other versions of Bibles have different spellings and names for Armageddon. Moffatt has Harmagedon, Revised Version displays Har-Magedon. Magedon might have something to do with Megiddo, the Plain of Esdraelon, a highway from Egypt to Damascus. It is actually already a great battleground.
Armageddon can translate to mean the city of Megiddo and Harmagedon can translate to mean the mountain of Megiddo. Many scholars are going with the second. There is more info that needs to be included here. look in Ezekiel 38 & 39 where the description of the battle with Gog and Magog, the final fight was going to be in the mountains of Israel. John may be talking of the Mount of Megiddo, it would fit with prophecy.
This, like other issues in Revelation, will just have to be seen.
The seventh bowl on the next blog.
Blessings on all,
Calabash
Rev 16:8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. 9 They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him.
Notice the bowl is poured out upon the sun. We take great comfort in the sun. We utilize it's power for growing, warming, vision and time keeping. Think back to the 4th trumpet, part of the sun was effected. Here the entire sun was effected and turned up really hot!!! The sun has become something of an enemy of these people. Remember these "bowls" are being poured out on those people who have taken the mark of the Beast or are worshipping the Beast
These verses are literal at this point. There will be scorching with fire and those suffering the intense heat will curse the name of God. These people will know their suffering and will know they are cursing God. At this point they are being indignant and stubborn.
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony 11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, but they refused to repent of what they had done.
Remember, none of the things that have been "poured out" onto these people have been ended or taken away. So, as it reads, they were burned, (scorched) and they were thrust into darkness and they still have all these sores on them. Still, they do not repent and worship God. Usually people who are suffering will seek God, not so with these people. These people are rejecting Christ and their punishment will be for eternity!
As we all like to say, "DON'T BE THAT GUY"!!!
Blessings on all !!
Calabash
Rev 16:2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
Lets look at Exodus 9:8, "...and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land.".
Then lets go to Deuteronomy 28:35, "35 The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head."
Finally, Job 2:7, "7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head."
So, this tells us that, number one, it is an easy thing to repeat. Number two that it can be placed on specific persons, in this case, just those who have the mark and worshiped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. 4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
Again, this is like turning the Nile into blood in Exo 7:17-21. The biggest difference here...more intense. Much death and destruction...on top of what has already happened.
5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say: "You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were, the Holy One, because you have so judged; 6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve." 7 And I heard the altar respond: "Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments."
Really read this, the angel is saying it is fine with him that it is all destroyed, BECAUSE he is the Holy One! There is an assurance that even if all is destroyed, it can be re-created at Gods will. The angel knows that God's judgement is true and right. If we would have that kind of faith in God right this minute we would all realize there is NOTHING HE can't do or handle in our lives right this minute! You can be in that perfect peace and knowledge by just trusting and believing in HIM!
Blessings on all till next time,
Calabash!
