And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Thou art righteous, who art and wast, the holy one, that thou hast judged so;
The third bowl falls on the rivers and springs. A voice from within creation answers, and it declares God right in what He has just done. Two questions follow. Who is this "angel in charge of the waters"? And why does he praise God for a plague instead of pleading against it?
Angelic representatives run through this book, and the waters have one too.
"The angel of the waters" seems at first an unclear expression. But remember how large a part angels take in the work of redeeming the inheritance. Then the phrase becomes clear and definite, and fits the rest of the book. Almost every subject in Revelation has its angel... If the winds, the fire, and the abyss each have an angel, the waters too have their own guardian angel. An angel controls the peoples symbolised by the waters (Rev. 17:15) — and all of it stands under the governing hand of God.
The one voice you would expect to object is the voice that agrees.
The angel of the waters may here represent the Creator's tender care over creature-life. In this case that care turns against the persecutor and applauds His judgments — just as the altar does, the altar where the martyrs' lives were poured out to God.
What he approves is not simply the fact of judgment but its exact size.
You might naturally expect him to plead against judgment and retribution in the sphere he presides over. Instead he justifies God: "You are righteous." The plague does not go one hairbreadth beyond the just measure of strict righteousness. Then comes the eternity of God's being, "Who is," and His past relation to men and angels, "and was." Then "the Holy One." This unusual word occurs only twice in the New Testament in relation to Christ; the other place is Revelation 15:4.
This title unfolds the name Jehovah.
What then is the meaning of Jehovah? It means, HE who IS. The extension of this is found in the Scriptures, "Which is and which was, and which is to come" (Rev. 1:4; 8:4, 8; 16:5). God is — Jehovah... In the past God is, in the present God is, in the future God is. There never was a time, past, present or future, when God will not be. God IS.
The end of the verse raises a question of wording. Older printings add "and shall be." One writer holds that the best manuscripts give a title of holiness instead — the reading modern versions carry.
In verses 5-7 a word or two, when corrected or rightly read, add to the full force and clearness of the passage... The words "and shall be" have no force at all here. Another word is best attested — "the Holy One," the less usual word for "holy." Before God pours out these bowls, He is celebrated in His merciful holiness.
Two different words are translated "holy," and this verse uses the rarer one.
God is holy, knowing good and evil perfectly — wills absolutely good and no evil... The other word means gracious, fitting affections at work in the relationships we stand in — to God, to parents, and so on. It also covers God in mercy to us, and Christ in whom these are displayed... It is goodness and grace in God — piety and recognition of Him on man's part.
So the angel's praise is not cold. He names God as gracious at the very moment God strikes — and his cry matches a cry already heard in heaven.
"You are righteous." This was plain, for God was pouring out His wrath on men in their wickedness, just because He was righteous. But more than this — "who is and was, the Holy One." That stays true before God pours out the bowls, and while He is pouring them out. The angel of the waters bears witness to His graciousness, even while He was judging in this way, which might have seemed to contradict it. He too, from below, answers the song above. If the saints, at rest on the sea of glass, celebrate Him as merciful in holiness, the angel confirms it.
One writer sets these judgments beside the cross.
Look at the wrath of God poured out on the nations. Then pause, and gaze on the Son of God, once bearing the wrath of God on the cross. God is everlastingly the same. He will surely act according to the cross of Christ, whether in purifying His saints or in pouring out His wrath.
- Voice. The waters have their own angel, as the winds, the fire and the abyss do. Waters stand for peoples, all under God's governing hand.
- Verdict. The guardian might have pleaded for his own sphere. Instead he justifies God: the stroke does not go one hairbreadth beyond strict righteousness.
- Name. "Who is and who was" is the name Jehovah unfolded: there was never a moment when God was not.
- Character. The rarer word for "holy" here speaks of goodness and grace in God. He is merciful in holiness at the very moment the bowls fall.
- Echo. From below, the angel confirms what the saints sing above. The same God who pours out wrath once bore it at the cross, and He never changes.
for they have poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; they are worthy.
The third bowl turns rivers and springs into blood. This verse gives the reason. The people who shed the blood of God's servants are now handed blood to drink, and the verse closes with the angel's verdict: they deserve it.
An angel speaks up to defend God's justice in this stroke.
The angel justifies God in His righteous judgment. Those who have shed the blood of saints and prophets, who testified to the truth, should themselves drink the cup of death. And they drink it in its most terrible form: everlasting separation from God. That is just, since they have poisoned men's minds with error. Men may be mighty. For a time God may let them show the evil of their hearts by persecuting His people. But the Lord God is Almighty, and in His own time He will avenge the blood of His people. The reference to the martyrdom of saints again shows that these judgments are aimed at the kingdom of the beast.
The plague strikes people, not literal rivers. And the two words come in a different order here than in an earlier chapter.
"They have poured out the blood of saints and prophets." This sentence proves beyond doubt that the plague is symbolic. Apostate peoples and nations are called "waters." They had poured out the blood of saints and prophets freely and without restraint. In Revelation 11:18 the order is prophets and saints; here it is saints and prophets. There the point is public recognition of service and faithfulness, so the most responsible and distinguished group is named first. Here the point is the martyrdom of all who stand for God, of all who witness for Him... "Saints" is a common term in both Testaments, and means true believers in God. "Prophets" means those who witness truly for God in a dark and evil day.
What does it mean to be given blood to drink? The same writer sets blood beside water and wine.
Water is the ordinary source of life and refreshment. Wine is the symbol of earth's joy. Blood is the witness of death. In retributive justice, in holy righteousness, God as Judge hands the persecutors of His people over to drink blood, so that they know death in their own souls and consciences... The drinking of blood does not mean physical death, it is infinitely worse. The punishment is as horrible as it is righteous. It is a down payment and foretaste of the horrors of the lake of fire. "They are worthy." Not only is it a righteous judgment, but these apostates have fully earned their awful doom.
An older picture shows the same principle. Moses once made Israel swallow what they had worshipped.
The children of Israel had to taste their own idolatry. Moses burned the golden calf, put its ashes in the water, and made them drink it (Ex. 32:20). They have to taste the vileness and bitterness of their apostasy. They reap what they sow. All the joys of life pictured by rivers and fountains of water are poisoned and corrupted. It is a retributive judgment of God falling upon the earth.
Who exactly is judged here, and who is doing the judging?
Those struck down had themselves struck down saints and prophets, and this would be true above all of the beast and his followers. Jehovah, Elohim, Shaddai, by His angel, is acting, and they are simply getting what they richly deserve.
Time can hide a crime from people. It cannot hide it from God.
The moral character and springs on which men think and act become deadly. This is the retribution for the heartless cruelty of Christendom, at that time as well, toward saints and prophets. God does not forget such ways, even when men hide them afterwards under tombs, statues and titles of pretended honour raised since those deaths.
The verse carries a warning for the world and a comfort for God's people.
How little do men think that God will act in retributive justice! And how awful the thought! Men, with all their boastful cries of "improvement" and "progress," are hurrying on to the time of God's anger. But so it is. He will yet arise and call men to account for all the righteous blood they have shed, and He will avenge His own elect. Again, this reminds us with force of the safety of those who shelter under the precious blood of Christ.
- Blood shed. The charge is exact: the blood of saints, true believers, and of prophets, who kept witnessing for God in a dark day.
- Blood given. Water refreshes, wine gladdens, blood witnesses death. To drink blood is to taste death in the conscience — a first taste of the lake of fire.
- Blood deserved. The judgment matches the crime. Israel had to drink their own golden calf; these reap what they sowed, and the angel says they deserve it.
- Blood remembered. God's memory outlasts the monuments. Tombs, statues and honours raised over murdered saints erase nothing.
- Blood that shelters. The God who will one day call men to account for all righteous blood is the safety of everyone sheltered by the blood of Christ.