And I saw another sign in the heaven, great and wonderful seven angels having seven plagues, the last; for in them the fury of God is completed.
This chapter opens a new section of Revelation. After the visions of the dragon and the beast, John sees a third sign in heaven. The verse tells us why these seven plagues are the last of their kind.
Two earlier signs appeared in heaven before this one. One writer sets all three side by side.
The seven angels having the seven last plagues are introduced to us as "another sign in heaven"... The wrath of the dragon and the beasts is against the Man Child and all who own Him. The wrath of God is against the dragon and all who own him.
Translations word this differently, and one writer explains which reading the verse supports.
In Revelation 15:1 the Revised Version rightly gives "seven plagues, the last" (that is, plagues which are the last), not "the seven last plagues" as in the older Authorised Version. The text attaches the reason why they were the last: in them the wrath of God was finished. It is hardly necessary to add that "finished" is the true rendering... not "filled up."
Finality here does not mean nothing follows. It means one line of dealing has run out.
This word of finality carries weight. It does not mean the bowls close up the story of divine wrath. It means they bring to an end the providential judgments of God. Further blows of divine vengeance certainly fall, but these come from the Lamb in Person at His Coming.
The verse says the wrath of God. Commentators set that apart from what comes after it.
Revelation 15, 16 are altogether separate. It is the wrath of God. This is not the same as the wrath of the Lamb. It is God acting in public government, and not Christ executing judgment in person.
The order matters, because the second is heavier than the first.
The bowls of wrath bring God's secret providential dealings to an end. After that, the Lamb in Person openly takes up the government of the world. But at His Coming the nations are in armed rebellion — turned away from God and wicked beyond anything we can imagine — so the wrath of the Lamb burns fiercely. The wrath of God is finished in the Vials, to be succeeded by the wrath of the Lamb.
Chapter 15 follows chapter 14 on the page, but not in time. One writer says the structure of this part of the book turns on that.
You will notice that it is not yet the coming of Christ. This is important for showing the structure of this part of the book. We must not suppose that the seven bowls come after the Son of Man has come for the harvest and the vintage of the earth... The very last of the bowls, the seventh, is the fall of Babylon... The last bowl is also the last outpouring of God's wrath before the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
The chapter goes on to show what the finishing of wrath looks like inside the temple itself.
It is the glory of God on whose behalf they serve, as the bowls or vials are also golden, and filled with His wrath. From the glory of God and from His power smoke fills the temple. No one can therefore approach to intercede. There can be no more delay: long-suffering patience is exhausted.
One writer turns from that coming hour to the reader's own moment.
Happy are those who heed the warning now, while the gospel is still preached. They flee from the wrath to come and take refuge in the precious blood of the Son of God. The time will come when it will be too late... Praise God that the gospel of His grace is still preached. The arms of pardoning mercy are still opened wide.
- Sign — This is the third sign in heaven, after Israel and the dragon. The first two showed wrath aimed at Christ and His people. This one shows wrath aimed at the dragon and all who follow him.
- Last — The better reading is "seven plagues, the last." In them the wrath of God is finished, not just filled up.
- Finished — One kind of dealing ends: God's providential judgments. Judgment itself does not end. The wrath of the Lamb, carried out by Christ in person, still follows.
- Placed — These bowls do not come after the harvest and vintage of chapter 14. The seventh bowl is Babylon's fall, the last outpouring before Christ comes.
- Now — When wrath is finished, patience has run out and no one can enter to intercede. Take refuge while the gospel is still preached.
And I saw as a glass sea, mingled with fire, and those that had gained the victory over the beast, and over its image, and over the number of its name, standing upon the glass sea, having harps of God.
The scene opens between the announcement of the seven last plagues and their pouring out. Before a single bowl of wrath falls, John sees a company already safe in heaven. The beast had killed them. Heaven calls them the winners.
The picture comes from the tabernacle and the temple, where a great basin of water stood for the priests to wash. Here the material changes, and the meaning changes with it.
The tabernacle had the laver, and the temple had its molten sea — a larger vessel of a similar kind. In it the priests washed their feet and hands when they went in to do the service of the Lord. In this case it is a sea of glass, and therefore not used for purification. It was not a sea of water, but was solid. Because it is glass, it shows a state of firm and settled purity. It was not the thing used to cleanse. It was the image of purity that nothing can defile. These saints no longer need cleansing by the washing of water by the word. That was over… What is meant here is not washing in the sea, but standing on it.
In the earlier vision of chapter 4 the same sea is clear as crystal. Here fire runs through it, and that points back to what this company came through.
In the first of these heavenly visions (Rev. 4) John saw a sea of glass like crystal spread out before the throne of the Eternal. It showed a fixed state of purity in keeping with the holy character of the throne… But in the vision before us the crystal is left out… Here the sea is "mingled with fire." This points to the fiery persecution under the Beast, a trial far worse in its mix of suffering than anything experienced up to that time.
By his power the beast had the last word on earth. God's verdict runs the other way.
To man's eyes his power had crushed them. But before God they were conquerors through Him who had loved them. It was the same, on the outside, with our blessed Lord: "He was crucified through weakness, yet He lives by the power of God." Man's victories are showy and loud. Moral triumphs are silent and unseen. They often come, as with these saints, with the loss of everything in this world.
Earth and heaven say two different things about the beast.
On earth the cry is, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" In heaven the song is, "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?" God always wins in the end. So do those who trust Him.
These are not the elders. Their description ties them to one stretch of time.
Victory over the beast is never said of the elders in any way. There is no connection with the elders here… no one can deny that these conquerors belong only to the time of the devil's last efforts through the beast and the false prophet… Their melody in praise of the Lord was none the worse for the sea of tribulation they had passed through into His presence.
Their instruments carry a name: harps of God. That name matters.
"Having harps of God." The Authorised Version wrongly puts the article before harps… The words "of God" mean that He provides them for His own direct praise and worship. They are God's harps, since the instruments, the musicians, and the themes are His.
The chapter sets the victors beside the plagues. Faith's victory comes first.
We see the seven angels with the seven last plagues, which fill up the wrath of God. But at the same time — all joy in the thought! — we see those who had won the victory over the beast and his image and his mark. Faith wins its victory before God removes in judgment the evil that faith had to fight… They have judged and overcome the evil before God sweeps it away. They have vindicated God in what He does.
- Fire — the sea is mingled with fire because of what this company walked through. It was the persecution under the beast, a trial beyond anything known before it.
- Fixed — glass, not water. The laver washed; this sea cannot cleanse and does not need to. It pictures purity that nothing can defile, and the washing days are over.
- Victory — the beast killed them, and heaven calls them the winners. The pattern is Christ's own: crucified in weakness, alive by the power of God.
- Harps — the instruments are God's, given by Him for His praise. The players and the themes are His too. Even the song of the rescued is His gift.
- Order — faith wins before judgment falls. They stand vindicating God before He pours out a single bowl on the world that killed them.
And they sing the song of Moses bondman of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful [are] thy works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true [are] thy ways, O King of nations.
Revelation 15 pauses before the last plagues to show a company already safe and beyond the beast's reach — people who lost everything on earth, now standing and singing. Their song carries two names: Moses and the Lamb. Why two songs, and what do these singers praise God for?
Scripture marks these singers out by what they overcame. On earth it had looked like total defeat.
They are those who "had conquered the beast," and so on. To human eyes the beast's power had surely crushed them. But before God they were conquerors through Him who had loved them. On the outside it was the same with our blessed Lord: "He was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God." Man's victories are loud and showy. Moral triumphs are silent and unseen, and they often cost everything in this world, as they did for these saints. Their occupation is praise: they have harps — symbols of triumphant gladness — and they sing.
Each name in the song points to a different side of the same victory.
In Revelation 15:3 we read of those who had won the victory over the beast. They sing "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." The song of Moses points, we judge, to Exodus 15 rather than Deuteronomy 32. In it they will glorify the power of God in the victory He had given them. The song of the Lamb shows that they had gained that victory through weakness and apparent defeat.
The scene matches Israel standing safe on the far side of the Red Sea while Egypt lay under plagues.
Plagues struck Egypt, the oppressor. Israel crossed the Red Sea, saved and set free, and sang on the eastern bank — the first song recorded in Scripture (Ex. 15). All this has its spiritual counterpart here. A series of plagues strikes the Beast, the enslaver of God's saints. The godly remnant stand beyond the malice of the Beast, saved and triumphant, singing the song of Moses on the sea of glass — the last song recorded in Scripture (Rev. 15).
The song moves in two steps — first what God has done, then how He does it — and the order matters.
Now if we look at Psalm 103:7, we find that the Holy Spirit highlights two things — the ways of Jehovah and His acts. "He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel." The difference is this: Moses knew the deep, hidden ways of the Lord, while the public acts were plain before all Israel. Here these saints take up, not His ways first, but His displayed works... And then they rise to celebrate His ways.
His ways show His character, and not every eye can read them.
His tenderness, His grace, His love, His wisdom, and every gracious, moral feature shown in His dealings with His saints pass before the victors in review... Israel saw the striking acts of Jehovah with their own eyes. These acts of power did not call for an intimate knowledge of Jehovah's character. They were self-evident to all. But only the spiritual could discern the ways of God — those dealings that flow from what He is. His ways here, though, are ways of judgment, and that judgment, however it is put, is "just and true."
"Lord God Almighty" gathers up three names God had already made known, each with its own history.
As Jehovah He was known to Israel (Ex. 6:2-3). As God He stands related to creation (Gen. 1). As the Almighty He revealed Himself to the patriarchs (Gen. 17:1). The order of the divine names and titles here differs from the order in which He revealed them... How true God is to His own Word and Name!
Some older English versions read "King of saints" here. William Kelly explains why that reading cannot stand.
Everyone who knows the best reading must drop "King of saints," the wording of the received text in Rev. 15:3. It should be "of the nations," though "of the ages" has excellent authority. Whichever of these we take, it is certain that "of the saints" has almost no support... "Of the nations" seems drawn from Jer. 10:7, or at least fully agrees with it. Christ is King of Israel in Zion. As Son of Man all the peoples and nations and languages shall serve Him. As Jehovah He shall be King over all the earth.
- Defeat — The beast seemed to crush them, yet Scripture names them the ones who overcame it. Before God the losers were the conquerors.
- Deliverance — The song of Moses praises power that parts a sea. The song of the Lamb praises a victory won through weakness and apparent defeat.
- Depth — Israel saw God's public acts; Moses knew His hidden ways. The song starts where all can see and climbs to what only the spiritual discern.
- Dependability — Jehovah to Israel, God to creation, Almighty to the patriarchs. Every name He made known still holds good in the last song of the Bible.
- Dominion — Not "King of saints" but King of the nations, echoing Jeremiah 10:7. His rule reaches Israel, all peoples, and the whole earth.
Who shall not fear [thee], O Lord, and glorify thy name? for [thou] only [art] holy; for all nations shall come and do homage before thee; for thy righteousnesses have been made manifest.
Revelation 15:4 closes the song of the victors, and it is a question, not a statement. They throw it out over the whole earth, just before the bowls of God's wrath fall. The expected answer is "no one." The verse then gives three reasons: who God is, what the nations will do, and what His judgments have shown.
One commentator notes both which word for "holy" the verse uses and which tense the promise about the nations takes:
Then the victors in their song throw out a universal question. The word for is repeated three times. It gives three reasons why all should answer that call to fear the Lord and glorify His Name, and each reason rests on the character of God. The word here translated "holy" is not the word usually applied to God when speaking of His holy character... here it means that the sum of what God is gives Him alone the right to every creature's worship. How fitting that this word describes the Lord at a time when the world marvels at the Beast and worships it. Such worship belongs to God alone... The prophecies in this book are usually written in the present tense, but this one is an exception: it uses the future. These ways of judgment by the "King of nations" break the iron will of the peoples. They turn from human supports and confidences to God, and worship in His presence.
This song is sung on the edge of the bowls, and the word for "holy" in it repays a close look:
The word used for "holy" here is an unusual one. It is the same used where Scripture speaks of the mercies of David... There is the common word for "holy." It appears in Revelation 4: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty." That word always implies separation from evil — absolute separation. The holiness spoken of here implies mercy, which is quite another thought. We are about to hear of the bowls, and the first thought would be, "how dreadful!" God's wrath is going to be fulfilled. But who and what is this God who is about to complete His wrath? He whose holiness is full of mercy... They look past the judgments, and they see that the end is always this: "the Lord is compassionate and merciful."
Commentators differ here. One reads the word as God's exclusive right to worship. The other reads it as holiness full of mercy.
The verse gives its own explanation for the world turning to God, and it is not preaching but judgment:
Verse 4 shows how God will bring the nations to Himself: He will fully display His judgments. Isaiah 26:9-10 shows the same principle, and it is key to understanding God's ways here. "If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness." That is what the gospel sets before us. But when God's judgments are on the earth, the people of the world will "learn righteousness."... The gospel will not bring the people of the earth under God's rule. Its work is to gather the church for heavenly glory. The nations come and bow down before God because He has made His judgments plain.
The final clause uses a word worth weighing:
The song closes with three reasons why God should be feared and glorified. The first is what He is in His gracious holiness... The third is the rightness of His judgments, now on display. The word here is literally "righteousnesses," the same word used for the righteous acts of the saints in Revelation 19:8.
The singers are not on earth. What they celebrate is what is coming to the earth:
Next they consider the effect of God's judgments... These saints, remember, are in heaven. From there they look ahead to the earth's full blessing in the thousand-year kingdom, when all nations are subject to Christ as King. And this comes about because God has made His judgments plain. (See Psalm 72:8-11; Zephaniah 3:8-9; Zechariah 14:16.)
Not every response to judgment is worship:
In Revelation, the plagues that strike the earth provoke blasphemy instead. Men are forced to give glory to the God of heaven. They admit His decrees are just, even while those decrees terrify them. But they will not give Him glory by repenting.
- Question — the verse asks who will not fear and glorify God. It answers itself with three reasons, each drawn from who God is.
- Holy — the word here is not the usual one for absolute separation from evil. It marks God's sole right to worship, and some read in it a holiness full of mercy.
- Judgments — the nations come because God has displayed His righteous acts, not because the gospel won them over.
- Reach — saints already in heaven sing ahead of time about all nations bowing to Christ as King.
- Warning — judgment can also harden. Men may admit God is just and still refuse to repent.
And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of witness in the heaven was opened;
Chapter 15 pauses the action: before the last seven plagues fall, John sees what lies behind them. What opens in heaven is not a throne but a sanctuary — so why does judgment come out of the place tied to worship?
One writer takes the opening words as a technical formula, and draws out what changes with them.
The opening words of this vision are a technical phrase. They signal a complete break, and bring in an entirely new subject. So the bowl plagues are altogether unique, and form a body of special judgments by themselves. They differ from the seal and trumpet judgments in two important ways. The throne in "the Heaven" is the source and authority of those. The temple is the scene from which the bowls of wrath are poured out. The temple takes the place of the throne. That changes the situation completely. It brings in a harsher course of dealing — one flowing from what God is in His righteous and holy character.
Older translations render the phrase "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony." One writer traces where its two halves come from.
He saw the seven angels with the seven last plagues come out of "the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven." This is a remarkable phrase. In the Old Testament we read of "the tabernacle of testimony" in the wilderness. We also read of the "temple" when the people were in the land. Both were figures of the true. Here both figures are combined. The seven angels came out from the inner shrine of the Divine presence, where the testimony to all His purposes had been kept. They were empowered to deliver the final strokes of judgment. This comes before Christ appears and makes His purpose for the earth plain.
One writer sets this open sanctuary beside the one seen earlier, in chapter 11.
In Revelation 11:19 the temple was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant was seen; but no ark appears now. There the ark was the fitting pledge that God's faithfulness is secure — that His purposes towards His people Israel never change. But here His enemies are in view, not His people. There is nothing but the tabernacle of the testimony, and it is brought into use, as it were, in judgments on the men of the earth. It is opened for wrath as yet, not for gospel triumphs… And terrible to say, they come out of that in which no ark was now seen. And what would be, what is, the effect? Nothing but wrath — the more awful because it flows from the sanctuary.
Commentators differ on what "testimony" points to. One takes it as the two tables of the law, which then set the standard of the coming judgment.
Here "the testimony" is prominent — that is, the testimony embodied in the two tables of the law. That shows us the standard by which God will proceed to judgment. He judges through the angels, the providential instruments of His government. So He is about to make good His character as revealed by that testimony.
Another reads the change from ark to testimony as a move from what was secured to what is now made good.
It was a testimony opened out. It was not a covenant which gave security in the hour of evil. It was a testimony which made good what the ark of the covenant secured. The temple was opened, and the messengers of judgment came out. This was God's judgment for the restoration and blessing of Israel, by the judgment of the Gentiles and all who corrupted the earth.
Asked directly what the phrase means, one writer answers by stacking the terms one on another.
It was not merely "the tabernacle," but of the "testimony" which was opened in judgment; nor yet the house or "temple" only, but this "in heaven" — the fullest possible expression of the highest source from which the wrath of God was coming forth on the apostate earth before the Lord Himself appeared.
The scene has no comfort in it, and one writer turns that into an appeal for today.
The whole scene expresses wrath coming out from the sanctuary of God. There is not a cheering ray… How very solemn! Happy are those who heed the warning now, while the gospel is preached. They flee from the wrath to come by taking refuge in the precious blood of the Son of God. The time will come when it will be too late.
- Break — The verse opens with a phrase that signals a complete break. The bowls stand apart from the seals and trumpets.
- Sanctuary — The temple replaces the throne as the source. Judgment now flows from what God is in His righteous and holy character.
- Testimony — One phrase joins the wilderness tent and the settled temple. What opens is the inner shrine, where God kept the testimony to all His purposes.
- No ark — Chapter 11 showed the ark, the pledge of His faithfulness to Israel. Here only the testimony appears, because His enemies are in view.
- Warning — Wrath is more awful because it comes out of the sanctuary itself. Refuge is still open while the gospel is preached.
and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in pure bright linen, and girded about the breasts with golden girdles.
A strange procession comes out of God's sanctuary. Not priests with incense, but seven angels with seven plagues, dressed in bright linen and gold. Their clothing is not decoration. It tells us who is acting, and on what terms.
Everything turns on where these angels come from — the opened temple. One writer draws out how strange that sight is.
What a strange sight meets John's eyes! Not the priests serving in the holy place, or the high priest in the holiest place of all, but the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple. Not priests, the servants of grace, but angels, the servants of judgment. God Himself commissions and equips them for their service. They come out from His own presence with full power to uphold the rights of the God of Israel and to clear His character in judgment. The temple of old was a witness of grace; here it is opened for judgment. Human wickedness deserved it, and the holiness of God demands it.
Where it starts shapes what it is. This is not a sudden outburst.
The temple appears here in connection with judgment to impress on us that judgment must come out of the calm stillness of the sanctuary, the holy presence of God.
Three details fill out the picture: the number, the linen, and the golden sashes.
There are seven angels. As usual this number shows the completeness or perfection of the work they are given to do. Two things mark their dress: pure white linen, and golden sashes. The white linen stands for spotless purity, complete cleanness in God's sight. Babylon should have shown that cleanness, but corruption and "abominations" took its place there. The golden sashes show that divine righteousness girded these angelic instruments for their service.
Their purity is not only their own. It is the standard this judgment answers to, and one writer says the judgment reaches further than punishing people.
Cleanness in God's sight and divine righteousness marked this judgment and drove it — clean linen, pure and white, and golden sashes... It is not brass burning in the fire, the bare carrying out of judgment on people, though that did take place. It is God making good His own nature and character against corruption.
A working belt sits at the waist. These sashes sit higher. Commentators read that in two ways. One takes it as the measure of the wrath itself.
Why are they belted at the chest, and not at the waist as usual? Because the holy nature of God measures the wrath that is about to be poured out.
Another writer reads the chest as the seat of feeling. The sash then pictures affection held in.
The angels are clothed in pure white linen. This bears witness to the holiness of God's temple and matches it. And, as suits those who are about to carry out judgment, a golden sash holds their affections in — a sash that speaks of the righteousness of God.
These angels are not the only ones who wear a golden sash at the chest.
The sash itself stands for righteousness and faithfulness, qualities that always marked the Lord in all His ways (Isaiah 11:5). The angels of judgment, like our Lord, wear golden sashes at their chests.
Later in Revelation, armies in fine linen ride out of heaven with Christ. Are they the same group? One writer points to the wording.
In Revelation 19:14 we are told that the armies which follow the Lamb out of heaven are "arrayed in fine linen, white and pure." The same chapter says (verse 8) that the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. People may ask, are angels not said to be clothed in linen? Yes, they are. But it is not the same word that is used in Revelation 15:6. The Spirit of God uses a different expression there, and never mixes the two things.
- Source. The plagues do not erupt from chaos. They walk out of the opened sanctuary, sent by God Himself to clear His own character.
- Purity. The pure bright linen is spotless cleanness in God's sight — the very thing corrupt Babylon should have shown and did not.
- Righteousness. The golden sashes show that divine righteousness girds these messengers for their service.
- Restraint. The sash sits at the chest, not the waist: wrath measured by God's holy nature, with all affection held in.
- Completion. Seven angels mark a complete work. In it God makes good His own nature and character against corruption.
And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls, full of the fury of God, who lives to the ages of ages.
The sanctuary in heaven stands open, and seven angels come out with the seven last plagues. One of the living creatures hands them golden bowls, and three things in that act need explaining: the giver, the vessel, and the wrath inside.
The one who hands over the bowls is not an angel. It is one of the four living creatures, and that choice fits what is about to happen.
One of the four living creatures gives "to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever." So it is the eternal God who is about to deal with the world through these providential judgments. When we say "providential" we mean this: He will not display His power in the open, except to the eye of faith. To the eyes of the natural man, the things that happen will look like the result of natural laws. The living creatures are symbols of God's attributes as displayed in creation. They are always tied to God's throne, and to His throne in its judicial aspect — its relation to God's government of the earth. The golden bowls tell again of God's righteousness, what suits His own nature, which He is about to vindicate in judgment.
The word behind "bowl" (older translations say "vial") comes from worship.
One of the four living creatures — these are the great presiding executors of the providential judgments of God — "gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls." The word means bowls or cups. It comes from the vessels used for pouring out drink offerings and the like before the Lord.
That link to worship carries a sting.
They suggest the drink offering. Joy in God refused brings woe indeed.
Judgment here moves by steps, not in a rush.
The living creatures are the executors of the judicial government of God. There are three distinct steps in this work of judgment. First, God commissions and equips the angels in the sanctuary (v. 6). Second, they receive golden bowls full of God's fury from one of the living creatures (v. 7). Third, they take no step in the act of judgment until God gives the authoritative command (Rev. 16:1). How calm and measured are the ways of God in judgment!
One writer turns that restraint into a model for anyone who serves God.
Note the attitude of the seven angels as a pattern of all true service. It is an attitude of perfect obedience. They come out from the presence of God. They receive the tools of their service from one of the living creatures. And in the end they do not move a step until they have a divine command; they "do His commandments, listening to the voice of His word."
Why does the verse describe God as the One who lives forever and ever? That detail sets the scale of the wrath He pours out.
The bowls handed to the angels were full of the wrath of God, who lives to the ages of ages. The eternity of His Being adds endless weight to His wrath.
The same phrase measures one other thing in this book.
The lake of fire endures forever and ever, or "to the ages of ages" — a term five times given as the duration of the life of God Himself (Rev. 4:9-10; Rev. 5:14; Rev. 10:6; Rev. 15:7).
Why does the text call these the last plagues?
Here is the reason why these seven plagues are the last: in them the wrath of God is exhausted, that is, His providential dealings in judgment with a wicked and apostate scene. The bowls of wrath bring God's secret providential dealings to an end. After that the Lamb in Person publicly takes up the government of the world.
- Source. The bowls come out of the open sanctuary from a living creature's hand. God's judgment on the world flows from His throne and His rule over creation, not from chance.
- Vessel. The "bowl" is a worship vessel for drink offerings poured out before the Lord. Joy in God refused comes back as woe poured out.
- Order. Three measured steps: commissioned, equipped, commanded. God's judgment is calm, not impulsive, and the angels' obedience is the pattern for all service.
- Scale. The wrath belongs to the God "who lives forever and ever." His endless life gives that wrath its weight.
- End. These bowls finish God's hidden dealings. Then the Lamb Himself openly takes up the government of the world.
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one could enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
In this vision God opens His own dwelling, yet no one may come in. Smoke pours from His glory and power, and the door stays shut until the seven plagues are done.
So why does the sanctuary, of all places, become a place no one may enter? (The writers quoted here call it the temple, as older translations do.) Where these judgments come from is part of the answer. One writer shows how the seven bowls differ from the seals and trumpets that came earlier.
They differ from the seal and trumpet judgments in two important ways. The throne in "the heaven" is the source and authority of those earlier judgments. The temple is the place from which the bowls of wrath are poured out. The temple takes the place of the throne, and that changes the situation entirely. It brings in a harsher course of dealing, one that flows from what God is in His righteous and holy character.
Earlier in the book the same sanctuary opened, and the ark of the covenant could be seen. This time something is missing.
In Revelation 11:19 the temple was opened in heaven, and the ark of His covenant seen; but no ark appears now. There it was the fitting pledge of the security of God's faithfulness — of His unchanging purposes towards His people Israel. But here His enemies are in question rather than His people... It is opened for wrath as yet, not for gospel triumphs. It is God's testimony, in judgment, about the condition of man. Man is guilty: what then could result? "The seven angels came out of the temple." And terrible to say, they come out of that in which no ark was now seen. And what would be, what is, the effect? Nothing but wrath — the more awful because it flows from the sanctuary.
The smoke comes from God's glory. One writer asks what that glory is, and the closed door then explains itself.
The glory of God is the display of what He is. So any showing of what God is — in grace, in power, or in holiness — is a display of His glory. Here power in judgment is in question. So here it is the display of what He is in judgment, according to the requirements of His own nature. (Compare Isaiah 6:1-4, also 2 Chronicles 7:1-2.) This at once explains why no one could enter the temple until these judgments were completed. For who could stand before a God of judgment?
The image has a history. Smoke had filled a sanctuary before. It had also covered a mountain. Both times God came near in a way that warned instead of welcoming.
Now, though the temple is there, it is filled with smoke. So Isaiah had seen the earthly temple, when the Lord came to announce the desolation of Israel. (Isaiah 6:4.) God had shown Himself the same way to His people at the giving of the law. Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln. (Exodus 19:18.) When God deals with man in righteous judgment, He must be "a consuming fire." The world has rejected grace, and refused the call to repentance; and now God is about to vindicate His righteousness.
The shut temple keeps out one visitor in particular. No one can go in to ask God to hold back.
From the glory of God and from His power smoke fills the temple. No one can therefore approach to intercede. There can be no more delay. His long patience is at an end.
Another writer asks whether worship stops as well as prayer: "Does this not show that when God is acting in judgment there will, in this solemn time, be neither worship nor intercession in His presence?" (Hamilton Smith)
Smoke has already appeared once in this book, rising from the pit. One writer sets the two clouds side by side, then looks past the plagues to what follows them.
And again, the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God. In chapter 9 we had smoke from the pit. It stood for Satanic influences, which shut out all that is Divine. Here the Divine glory shuts out all men and all that is merely human, while these last plagues run their course. The plagues of Egypt came before the death of the firstborn. In the same way, these seven plagues will come before the revelation of God's Firstborn from heaven.
- Source — these judgments come from the temple, not the throne. They flow from what God is in His righteous and holy character.
- Sign — no ark appears this time. The sanctuary opens for wrath, not for gospel triumphs, and that makes the wrath more awful: it comes from the holy place.
- Smoke — the smoke is God's glory itself, the display of what He is, shown now in judgment. Who could stand before a God of judgment?
- Shut — with the temple full of smoke, no one can enter to intercede; patience has run out and there can be no more delay.
- Stop — the shut door lasts only "until" the seven plagues are finished. Egypt's plagues ran their course before the firstborn died. In the same way, commentators say, these run out before God's Firstborn appears from heaven.