Bible Classes
Finding Hope In The Apocalypse 13.
Then we'll need a hand-off or something like that, and we'll go to America.
Alright, let's go ahead and get started here.
I wish I had a quick review. I don't want to start a little time on review.
But lastly, you know, kind of the main thing.
I guess we'll recap from chapter 13.
Chapter 13, Satan prepares for war.
You see him kind of aligning his forces, getting his power established in beginning of fort, in the end of 13.
You see Satan's parody of the mark of God, he gives the mark of the beast, and identifies everyone who worships his idols and follows him.
In 14, you have this vision of a couple of angels coming out of the temple of God, or I think one is the son of man, one is an angel, but going to harvest the earth.
So he sweeps one harvest the grain, takes that in, and then the next harvest is of grapes, which are put in the wine press of God's wrath, and they're pressed, and now God's wrath is being ready to be poured out.
And really the picture that you get is, although Satan is doing his preparation for war, and from kind of the earth-bound perspective, there's a lot of turmoil,
there's a lot of trouble, there's a lot of powerful things moving from that perspective, yet heaven is in control.
And I think that's really the big picture of revelation is, God's in control, no matter what it looks like, or feels like, or seems like, God is someone in control.
He's the one who allows, or this allows Satan to be able to act on earth.
Hey Trevor, can I have you? Oh, Rick is going to beat you, here you are.
A few people came in, but I need that.
So that's kind of the big picture of you.
So in chapter 15, then, well actually before I get into, before I get into 15, so we've been talking about revelation, so, and this is kind of the way I would portray it, is 4 through 11, you have this, this judgment happening, but John is called up into heaven.
So he's up in heaven, watching what's happening in heaven, as a judgment is being prepared for and carried out.
So I use this picture of Niagara Falls, if you look at here, you know, you see the, from an airplane or whatever, and you can imagine if you're up there looking down, you see all the, the tumult, right, where the water is crashing down, but from that high perspective, you can see, okay, there's this place where there's a lack of peace, but I can see the big picture.
I can see the water is coming in, where it's supposed to go, and it's flowing out, and it's all working according to the way it's supposed to work.
So now you start in chapter 13, and you're the boat at the bottom of Niagara Falls.
Your experience is a little bit different, right, and it's interesting how both of these begin with a voice that sounds like many water.
So that's kind of what made me think of waterfalls. Up above, you're going to hear the waterfall.
Down below, you're going to hear the waterfall even more, and so it's the same view.
You're just getting a different perspective, and down on the boat, I wanted a picture looking out from the boat to see what that was like.
I couldn't find any though, but here's a picture of people on the boat, and all that turbulence and tumult is splashing onto them.
So if you're a Christian going through a time of judgment, and God is bringing judgment in a nation, what's it going to feel like?
What's your experience from the ground going to be?
In this second part of the vision, John is on the ground, and he is experiencing Satan preparing to resist God.
And really what he's doing is he's making war against the saints.
See, he couldn't kill the child, and he couldn't kill the child's mother, so now he's going after the children of the woman, which is the church.
So that's really what we're seeing here is, and as he goes after the children of the woman makes war against the saints, what he accomplishes is carrying out the judgment of God against the nation that needs to be judged.
But his goal is not that. His goal is going against Christians, and so the Christians are going to feel it and experience it.
But you know, there's a few times as we read through this that you get an insight.
You'll get an insight that says, if you have the mark of the seal of God on you, then you're going to be okay.
You're going to end up in peace. You're going to be protected. You're going to be victorious.
You're going to be able to persevere and overcome and see the defeat of Satan and the defeat of the things that are working against you.
If you have the mark of the beast, you're going to be tortured. You're going to be rewarded temporarily instead of eternally.
You're going to be subject to these plagues that are coming onto the earth.
And so even though there is some maybe immediate peace that comes with participating in the work of the beast and getting his mark and all that, what the end result of that is going to be punishment.
The ultimate result we'll see in a few chapters is you're going to be cast in the lake of fire where the Satan is cast.
And so you're going to end up having his fate as well.
Where those who have the mark of God, they're the ones who persevere and end up in heaven with God on the sea of glass.
So beginning of 15, that's what you see is all these saints on the sea of glass.
And that's kind of a this picture of from the beginning of the book in chapter four, sea of glass and only gods on it.
And he's holy and then you have Jesus walk out on it and he's worthy.
But those are the only two beings or people on the sea of glass.
And now chapter 15, you see everyone saved by the blood of Jesus is, I don't know, worthy is the right word.
But has been made righteous in order to be able to be on the sea of glass.
They've been made pure.
And so you see the extent of Jesus to sacrifice and the extent through the extent of access to God that we gained through having the mark of God on us.
So here's the first picture you can't illustrate that is.
Four through eleven, we're up high, we're looking down, we're seeing the big picture.
13 through 16, we're down in the middle of it and we're not seeing the big picture.
We're just seeing all this trouble and war and tribulation or wherever you want to.
I try to avoid using that word because it's kind of a catch phrase for pre-millennialism.
That's not what I'm going for, but just a lot of trouble.
So, now here is the reason why.
It says, that's what you might say.
It's okay, you keep saying this, Steve, why do you think these are parallel accounts?
Why would lead you to believe that?
And so I'll show you why.
And we haven't talked about the bowls of wrath yet.
But here is parallel accounts.
So you go looking, you say, okay, what were the trumpets of God?
Well, the first trumpet affected.
The earth, the second trumpet affected the sea, the third trumpet affected the freshwater,
fourth trumpet, the moon and stars, the fifth trumpet, the key, the pit is open
and Satan's demonic army is let out, the sixth trumpet, the Euphrates River dries up,
and the seventh trumpet, Christ begins to rain, but it's followed with thunder and earthquake
and large hailstones.
So that's what happens with the trumpets.
And also, the seventh trumpet, it is finished.
We have, on the sounding of the second trumpet, the judgment of God will be complete.
So we have that.
Now let's look at the bowls of wrath.
And if you, when we read that, one of the things you're going to want to notice,
or if you highlight in your Bible, you're going to want to highlight,
it says, he poured out the bowl on, and then it tells you where the bowl was poured out on.
Okay, well, the first bowl was poured out on the earth.
The second bowl was poured out on the sea.
The third bowl was poured out on the fresh water.
The third bowl was poured out on the sun.
The fourth, the fifth bowl was poured out on Satan's throne.
You say, well, the pit and Satan's throne is a little bit different,
but the effect was the same.
Basically, Satan was given power to torment people.
Sixth bowl, affected the Euphrates River, and the seventh bowl,
Satan's authority is judged and destroyed.
So you have a contrast there where Satan begins to reign on the seventh trumpet.
Satan is dethroned on the seventh bowl.
Basically, the same event, but just from a different perspective.
You say, okay, one is from, if you're up in heaven, what are you seeing when you see Satan loose?
Jesus take his throne.
If you're down on the earth and you see Satan loose, what do you see?
Satan loose his throne.
And so you just see this, there's a lot of parody in both of these things.
And so because of the parody, that's why I would say parallel tellings of the same event from different perspectives.
Now, that's not the only way you could interpret it.
You could say it's two judgments, but God's judgments are always the same.
That seems like a reasonable response.
You know, you see, okay, one is true, someone is Rome or whatever.
And you say, okay, God kind of goes about things in a similar way.
Not to me, doesn't quite jive for me, but, you know, take it for what you will.
So here's kind of questions I would ask now.
Because I think there's a key in this.
Christ reign is commenced.
That's the seventh trumpet and the seventh bowl.
Christ reign is commenced.
And if you look, they both kind of have that same kind of a message.
All right, so let's just ask a question.
If this is future to us, Christ has been reigning, so what changed?
So if you want to take revelation, okay, this is to our future.
Like this is the end of the earth or something.
Well, then what's going to change?
Christ has already been reigning, right?
So is there a way we could say from a biblical, is there a way that the Bible says?
Because we can make all sorts of stuff up.
If it's not corroborated with the Bible, it doesn't matter.
So as there a way, the Bible says that once the earth is destroyed,
Christ reign is going to become somehow different.
Well, there may be some things like that, like the wedding of the lamb or something like that.
But Christ isn't going to begin to reign.
He's already been reigning, okay.
Let's just say it's the fall of the Roman Empire.
In what way did Christ reign begin at the time of Rome's fall?
So there's two points where you can maybe point out, okay, Rome fell,
is maybe during the 300s, where you have constant income to power
and become, Roman takes on a Christian disposition rather than idolatrous one,
or you could go look in the 600s, where the Germans come down and conquer Rome.
But in 300 or in 600, what changed about Christ's reign?
If that's what this is talking about.
And so this is the reason why I have a hard time assigning a lot of this to the Roman Empire
or something future to us because it says Christ begins to reign.
And so the third one is, okay, let's just say this is for the fall of Jerusalem.
Is there a way Christ began to reign at the fall of Jerusalem in the temple?
So here's a few scriptures that we can look at.
So let's go ahead and do this real quick.
Look at Isaiah chapter 66.
And I'm not going to look at all these, but this is just kind of,
if you want to say, okay, Steve, why do you say what you do?
Here's kind of just the reason why.
Here's the questions I would ask and say, you know,
this is what I would like to know the answer to if we're going to make a different claim.
But, you know, this is just how I'm thinking on it.
But, you know, you're welcome to disagree with me.
That's fine.
So this is Isaiah 66 for seven.
This kind of parallels chapter 12 as well.
So I think that's a good key for us.
Before she trovelled, she brought forth, before her pain came,
she gave birth to a boy.
So this is talking about Israel.
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such a thing?
Can a land be born in one day?
Can a nation be brought forth all at once?
As soon as Zion prevailed, she also brought forth her sons.
So you have this picture of a woman in labor,
but before she goes into labor, before she troveils, she has a son.
And I think this is a prophecy of the Messiah, right?
Before Jerusalem was conquered, she brought forth her son.
And her son became king, leader, head of the natural progression of Israel or Jewish religion.
If you were a faithful Jew, you would become a Christian, basically.
But then Israel troveils is judged by God.
And out of that troveil, she brings forth her sons.
Now, if you're put in the time of Isaiah,
you might say, okay, well, what did that look like for Isaiah talking about this?
And you know, a Syria comes down, captures them, only the faithful are saved.
The righteous remnant is preserved.
The wicked are destroyed.
And that was a Syria.
When Babylon came, Nebuchadnezzar, they destroyed Jerusalem.
Wipe out the temple.
Jeremiah keeps talking about these two baskets of figs.
They're good figs and they're bad figs.
The good figs are the ones who are taken into captivity.
The bad figs are the ones who are left behind and killed.
And so you say, after the judgment, God preserves his righteous.
So if we project this on to the Roman destruction of Jerusalem,
you have a similar thing, right?
Everyone who stays in Jerusalem doesn't listen to the prophecies of Jesus,
doesn't get out when they see the signs that Jesus said to look for.
They're trapped in the city.
They're slaughtered.
But Christians buy in large escape.
And so you can kind of see there's this.
But after Jerusalem fell, Christianity was no longer officially a sect of Judaism,
which is what it was considered before.
So the Romans tolerated it after Israel fell.
And after their temple was destroyed, it became illegal to be a Jew.
They lost their...
They had a...
Can't remember what it was called.
It was like an ethnic status or something in Roman Empire.
They had a special variance on being able to practice their own religion
without having to offer Caesar worship.
When the temple was destroyed, they lost that.
And the Christians lost that as well.
So the Christians were persecuted by Rome because they wouldn't follow Roman law in that.
So anyway, we see that, you know, so that would tie to it.
Revelation 312, 21, 2 through 5.
Here you see, after this judgment, we see an emergence of a New Jerusalem.
So what...
Where does Christ reign?
What's he reign over?
New Jerusalem.
So you've got to establish this New Jerusalem, or maybe...
Consecrates, I think would be a better word, because it's already been established,
but it's been recognized now, consecrated, which you see a temple opening in heaven.
Same concept.
So the New Jerusalem is where Christ reigns.
And so you can say, okay, definitely at the fall of the temple in Israel,
there's this shift, right?
The temple is no longer on earth, it's up in heaven.
New Jerusalem comes onto the scene.
Israel is not God's chosen people anymore.
Christians are, I have several references that talk about that.
Jesus talks about this specifically as we go through here.
If you wanted to look in Matthew 24, 42 through 51, I don't want to spend a lot of time reading that,
but what you see is Christians are God's chosen people.
That's really what's being told, talked about here.
So for all those reasons, I tend to point it at Israel, but I think generically in the class,
let's just say judgment is coming, what should we expect to see and what will we see.
So now let's go and open our Bibles up.
Any thoughts or questions out before we move forward in our class?
All right.
Let's go ahead and open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 16.
I actually want to back up to chapter 15 and verse 5,
because this is really where our context picks up.
So Revelation 15-5.
After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened,
and seven angels who had seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright,
and girded around their chest with golden sashes.
Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of wrath,
full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
And 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.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels,
go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.
So here we have, remember in the beginning of the class I said,
it's hard to grasp Revelation unless you can imagine what's going on.
And so what you have here is a description of a thing, and it's interesting.
You start noticing the visual details.
Seven angels dressed in white linen with golden sashes around their body,
and they came out, and as they come out, they're given one of the living beings,
brings them seven bowls, each one gets a bowl.
But you just get this picture it's drawing, right?
You have this temple, and it's a temple in heaven,
and these angels are coming out, seems like in some sort of a priestly role,
I would say, because they dress like a priest, they come out of the temple like priests would,
and then they're given these golden bowls to pour out.
So you see this kind of a presiding priestly role going on.
And then I heard a loud voice, the 16 loud voice, the Greek word is megas,
and that just means bigger, large.
But that's going to be kind of a consistent thing you're going to see,
especially in the last few verses of this chapter, which is the seventh bowl,
you see seven megases in that reading.
So there's generally when you see groups of seven in Revelation,
pay attention to it.
So that's why we're pointing it out.
So I hear this loud voice in the temple, go and pour out on the earth,
the seven bowls of God's wrath.
So the first angel went, poured out his bowl on the earth,
I'm going to get you, the first angel went, poured out his bowl on the earth,
and it became a loathsome and middleignant sore on the people
who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.
So what happens?
Where's the bowl poured out?
It's on the earth.
So just something to pay attention to.
This...
Hold on, before I...
Something to pay attention to, I guess, is...
The word earth is Greek word gay, G-E,
and it means land, or soil.
So what this would be, kind of, it's not like you have a kumine,
which would mean the world, like populated world,
or controlled world, like the Roman Empire would be the oikumine
because it's all the world.
And then you have cosmos, which is the world,
but from the sense of creation.
So it poured out on the whole creation.
So it's not using the words that would point to global catastrophe.
It's using the word that would point to a specific locale.
So whatever nation is being talked about,
that is what's being described in this word.
So just...
It's helpful to me because you say,
well, what's the scope of this plague?
Pour it out on the earth.
The way we use earth is, well, everywhere on the globe.
But really, the idea is it's really whatever location is specified,
whatever nation I would say is specified on that nation
is where this plague is going to go.
It's not uncontrolled. It's specified.
It becomes a loathsome plague.
And one of the things that you're going to see
is we pour out these bowls is...
There's a lot of parity with the plagues in Egypt.
So you'll see, like, this one source,
Egypt had boils, right? It was one of the plagues.
And so you see that as just one of the workings of God's judgment in that.
Here's another interesting thing.
So these are millignate source and infections.
It breaks out on all the people who
have the mark of the beast.
So is there a benefit now to being loyal to God?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's almost like the very mark of the beast became malignant, right?
It became the source of infection and the source of torment.
So that's what's happening to people.
In Revelation chapter 22 or 22 through 23,
I'm not going to turn there, but just remind you.
Remember, I can't remember the name of the church, maybe Tyatira,
but he's like, this thing I have against you,
there's this woman named Jezebel in your church.
And I've given her time to repent and she won't repent.
So I'm going to make her diseased and make her children
and everyone who follows her diseased
and they're going to die because of this disease.
So that the church will know that I am ruling over,
that I rule over it.
That's what Jesus says about this particular congregation
and this problem in the congregation.
But, you know, the consistent pattern is,
she refused to repent of her sin.
And because of that, this judgment was brought on her.
And so there's a consistency there.
Deuteronomy 28, 27 and 35.
If this is the part of Deuteronomy where it says,
if you break my law, then I will send these curses on you.
And one of the curses that was promised
was the curse of sores for unfaithfulness.
So you just see, okay, first plague is kind of a common plague
that God puts as a judgment against people.
So the plague of malignant sores.
So, verse three, the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea
and it became blood like that of a dead man
and every living thing in the sea died real quick.
When I say blood, what do you think of?
What are you imagining?
Like liquid.
What's the blood of a dead man like?
Jelly.
Think collagulated, that's a fun word to describe this.
Chunky, black, stink.
The blood of a dead man is a lot less pleasant than just blood.
And so the sea becomes like that, it's gross.
So this is foul.
That's really the idea.
The thing that is going to be foul, that happens.
But if you read an exodus about plagues in Egypt,
the river turned the blood and it became foul.
And they couldn't find water.
So you kind of see this parody here in that.
Verse four, then the third angel poured out a bowl into the rivers
and the springs and they became blood.
So you think, oh, it's two of the same things in a row.
No, it's not.
See, one is the blood of a dead man, one is blood.
So now you see, okay, something liquid, fresher, maybe,
maybe something drinkable or somewhat drinkable.
This is parodies with that star cast out of heaven called Wormwood.
It lands in the fresh water and many men died because they drink it.
I have the reference there, Revelation 8.
But that's that, the trumpet, the third trumpet,
that is affects the fresh water.
But here's kind of, here's what's happening.
They have a little commentary.
The angel, I have our verses here on the screen too.
So the angel is pouring out the blood into the fresh water.
And here's the commentary.
And I heard the angel of the waters saying,
righteous are you, who are and who were,
and oh, holy one, because you judge these things.
For they poured out the blood of the saints and prophets.
And you have given them blood to drink.
They deserve it.
So here's the question I have.
Who do we know in the Bible that is accused of pouring out the blood
of the prophets and the saints?
Yeah, the Jewish nation, right, they're the ones who are guilty
of pouring out the blood of the prophets and the saints.
I think that gives us maybe a clue as to who's being addressed here.
But notice what it says, they poured out the blood of the prophets
and you've given them blood to drink.
They deserve it.
That's a harsh, like aren't you supposed to watch people
who are suffering and like empathize with them?
And yet this angel is saying, you are a just God.
You know, and I think it's good to just pay note, take note of.
God brings about justice at the right time.
Verse 7.
And I heard the, I heard the author saying, yes, O Lord God,
the Almighty true and righteous are your judgments.
So you have, the angel of the waters say they deserve it.
Maybe they've been watching and saying, we've been waiting for this to happen
for a long time because, in fact, I don't know if I have it in this note.
Yeah, I do.
Here's just a quick note.
So look in before that.
I'm just going to go through our, this is the bottom of the second,
of the first column on the left.
It says, what, okay, mirrors the plague of Egypt.
I think that's pretty good comparison.
What was pure and clean became polluted and foul?
I think this is a really good concept for us.
When Israel began, it was pure and clean, right?
And they kept pouring out innocent blood.
And as they poured out the innocent blood, it became polluted and foul.
And then this angel pours this bowl of God's wrath into pure clean water.
And it became polluted and foul.
And they were forced to drink it.
Well, what was God forced to take from them?
What was Israel offering up to God?
Instead of pure and clean worship, they were offering something polluted and foul.
And so God gave them something polluted and foul.
And the angel says, yeah, they deserve it.
But, you know, you start thinking about,
we need to take into consideration our own actions, right?
Our actions have an effect, you know?
We can, we can follow Lord and be pure and clean and offer something pure and clean to God.
Or we can pollute ourselves and offer something polluted and foul.
But whatever we offer to God, we deserve ourselves.
And so that's one of the things you see going on here.
And second Chronicles 36.
This is an interesting passage.
It just gives a quick commentary on what was it like to be a prophet towards the end of Jerusalem and the time of Nebuchadnezzar.
So 36, 15.
It says, the Lord, God of their fathers, sent word to them again and again by His messengers.
Because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
But they continually mocked the messengers of God,
despised His words and scoffed at His prophets until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people until there was no remedy.
Isn't that interesting?
God had compassion.
And He kept sending His prophets.
And in fact, He sent Jesus to Israel, right?
And He sent Him to call Him back.
And after Jesus, He sent others.
You have Stephen calling them out for their sins.
You have Paul calling them out for their sins.
You have many other faithful men and women calling Israel to repentance.
And they just kept rejecting them.
They kept mocking them.
They kept killing them.
And it says, until there was no remedy.
God's judgment doesn't come until it's ready.
And when there's no remedy, then the judgment comes.
And so as we consider, how does God interact with me?
I think this painting is a pretty good picture.
He's going to keep calling you and calling you and calling you.
And you can either choose to listen or you can choose to reject Him.
But there will be a time when there's no remedy.
In Romans chapter 1, it says, God gave them up.
And I heard someone say, I think it's a good thing to...
It's kind of witty and easy to remember.
The worst thing God can do is give you what He want.
Give you what you want.
Because that means He's let you go.
And so when God gives you up, there's no remedy.
And then you'll have an angel saying, give Him blood to drink.
He deserves it.
Or she, whatever the case may be.
And you don't want to be in that position.
You don't want to find yourself in the position where you were called to repentance,
but you resisted and resisted and resisted until it became right for you to be given a dose of what you've been returning to God.
Any thoughts or comments on this section here on this plague?
So that is number three.
The fourth bowl.
It says, the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun.
And it was given to...
It was given to it to scorched men with fire.
Men were scorched with the fear-seat.
And they blasted him the name of God who has the power over the plagues.
And they did not repent so as to give him glory.
So in the trumpet, the trumpet sounded and the sun and moon stars were darkened.
And I was thinking about this.
Why is it darkened in one and brightened in the other?
Well, maybe from heaven's perspective, you have this...
The sun and moon is darkened, maybe made more sinister, that kind of a concept, but what's the experience of it?
Maybe the look of it is darker, but what's the experience of it?
It's brighter.
And here's another interesting thing.
This thing affecting the sun.
In Isaiah 49 and 10, it says, the blessing of the Lord is protection from the scorching sun.
This bowl removes a protection and exposes them to the torment of the sun.
In Revelation 7, 15 through 17, I actually want to read that verse.
So this is Revelation 7, 15 through 17.
It says, for this reason, they are before the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple.
And he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them.
They will hunger and thirst no longer.
They will hunger no longer, nor thirst any longer.
Nor will the sun beat down on them any longer.
Nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat.
For the lamb is at the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life.
But you notice what happens?
What happens when you get in heaven?
You're not hungry?
You're not thirsty?
The sun isn't going to burn you.
Don't eat sunscreen.
Don't eat sunscreen.
Yeah, we're good to go.
Because you are in the sheltering protection of the Lord.
Right?
And I only use these two verses.
There are actually many verses that talks about taking refuge under God's wing and being protected from the sun by God.
And so when he pours this bowl out on the sun, what's he doing?
I'm removing my protection from you.
You no longer get the shield that I have been towards you.
And so he removes his shield.
And as a result of removing that shield, rather than saying, why is it like God's not protecting me?
Why are these things?
Why is the sun so hot?
Rather than saying something like, maybe I ought to consider what I'm doing.
It says, men were scorched with the fierce heat, and they blaspheme the name of God.
Who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent to give him glory.
I think it's an Amos, maybe chap.
I can't remember what chapter.
Some were an Amos.
He says, I sent a drought, and they didn't listen to me.
And I sent wild beasts, and they didn't listen to me.
And I did this, and they didn't listen to me.
And I did this, and they didn't listen to me.
So now, prepare to meet your God.
When righteous men face the hardship of this world,
they turn toward God.
But when the wicked face the hardship of this world, they turn against God and bless,
blaspheme his name.
But this is a good test for our own attitudes, isn't it?
How do we respond to hardship in our life?
It wouldn't have been any difference, really, if we had been different.
And I can't give them glory.
They're still rejoicing.
I mean, isn't it too late for these other strife?
I think that if people would turn to God, he wouldn't turn them away.
Like, you know, because each one of these, because you'll notice what it says.
And I think it's a clue to us.
When it says, and they did not repent.
What was God's intention in doing this?
To have them repent.
And so, I don't think he's going to turn them away if they repented.
Maybe he would pull up short.
Do you remember, is it in, I think it's an Ezekiel, where he says,
if I have determined evil and that city repents and changes and devotes himself to me,
then I can change my mind and give them good those who I've determined evil on.
But what was that?
Yeah, like with Nineveh, but you know, there's just God has this conversation.
I always think of these conversations as being something with Ezekiel, but it could have been Jeremiah.
And he's like, but then there's this city I intended to do good for.
But they turn their back on me and sinned against me and broke my laws.
And so the city that I intended good for, I gave them evil.
And so God watches, and he's able to relent and to turn and to change his mind
if you respond to him, which is an encouraging thing for us.
And even in his wrath, you see how it's tempered with mercy.
Just the fact he noticed they didn't repent.
You know, if you throw up your hands and you're like, they're getting it.
You wouldn't note, and they didn't repent.
You wouldn't have to be paying attention to that in the first place.
But God is not throwing up his hands.
He's doing what's right, but he's also calling them back at the same time.
So let's go ahead and move on now.
It will be in the fifth bowl.
So the fifth angel poured out, this is Revelation 1610.
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast.
And his kingdom became darkened.
And they nod their tongues because of pain.
And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains.
And their sores.
And they did not repent of their deeds.
Here again, what happens again?
They refuse to repent.
They are tormented further, but they refuse to repent.
So if you go back to Revelation 9, the fifth trumpet,
it says that an angel fell from the heaven or star fell from heaven
and had the keys to the abyss.
And he unlocked it and released this demonic army.
And it says, and their leader's name was a polyon or the destroyer.
But I think that name has a lot of parity with Satan.
So Satan is their leader.
So you kind of get this picture of Satan is released with his minions.
And he's allowed to make war, but he's very limited in that.
So you remember the locus?
They could hurt people, but they couldn't kill people.
And they only had five months in which they were doing that.
And then there are these horse things.
And they were allowed to kill, but in a limited fashion,
one third of the people or something like that.
Although there were millions upon millions of them.
They could only kill a limited amount of people.
But the end result was, if you actually look over in Revelation 9, verse 20,
is very similar result.
It says, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues
did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship the demons
and the idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and of wood,
which can either see nor hear nor walk.
And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries,
nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts.
So you get a little bit more detail the counting going on.
This just says they blasted and didn't repent.
Well, what were they doing?
They were turning to idols.
They were turning to demons. They were worshiping demons.
They were worshiping Satan.
So they had all these things going on, and they weren't going to stop them.
In fact, they maybe were more fervent, right?
Deliver me.
But instead of turning to God, they turned to their idols.
And that's basically what you have going on in this plague.
Now, the throne of the beast, we've heard that before.
In chapter 13, it says that Satan is a dragon with seven heads,
and the dragon gave the beast authority and his throne.
So the beast wielded the power of Satan,
and when people worshiped the beast, they worshiped Satan.
Like, so that's, you know, beginning of chapter 13,
you kind of have that throne of the beast brought up,
and what we know about it is that Satan's throne.
And so when you see this bowl poured out on the throne of the beast,
who's that else, who's thrones that being poured out on?
Thrown a Satan, right?
So that's the picture going on here, and so you see,
okay, who ruled over all these demonic things that come out of the pit,
Satan, he ruled in the abyss, or had some authority from that perspective.
So you see a parody on that.
We're on the backside of this now.
So in chapter 16, 12 through 16, we have the sixth angel,
and he pours out his bowl on the great river, the River Euphrates,
hang on, and its water was dried up,
so that there would be a way to prepare for the kings from the east.
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon,
oh, I want to stop right there real quick.
So this is definitely parody with the sixth trumpet, same thing,
angels at the River Euphrates, that brought forth an army.
So in the trumpets, what happens is you have this army come forth,
that is just, it's basically the final army to bring about the judgment that's going to happen.
And so here you have this similar thing, this, the river dries up,
so now the kings from the east can assemble their army,
and a great army is gathered, so how is the army gathered?
In fact, let's just look, I want to go back to Revelation 9.
I want to read this, because I think this,
comparing these two things helps us to get a big full picture.
The sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar,
which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel,
who had the trumpet, released the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates,
and the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year,
were released, so they would kill a third of mankind.
The number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million.
I heard the number of them, I heard the number of them,
and this is how I saw in the vision, okay, so those horses that were coming with those four angels,
they were the armies assembled from around the world, and there's 200 million of them,
so you got a lot, so keep that in mind,
because here's what happens next in our reading in chapter 16, verse 13.
I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast,
and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs.
There are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world,
to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.
What are the frogs going in doing?
Gathering an army.
They're going out to the other nations, and they're performing signs and great deeds,
and making prophecies and all the things they were doing with the beast and the false prophet and the dragon.
They're going out and doing to convince these other nations come to war.
And so this great army is assembled.
How many people do you suppose are in that army?
Maybe it's the same army, right?
The same river dried up.
The same time an army was called forth.
Likely, it's the same army.
That's how I would probably, or not probably, that's how I would interpret that.
What?
Yeah, or Russia and China, they make the evil alliance, right?
Yeah, no.
So what you see is there's this nation that's ruled by Satan, the throne of Satan,
but his demonic influence is allowed to go out and carry some things for him.
Now look in verse 15.
This is like a really interesting blip in the narrative.
So you have this bowl poured out, the river dries up, these frogs come out of the mouth,
and just imagine that picture for a minute.
A little bit reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt again, right?
You have the plague of frogs, unclean things.
Look in verse 15.
Behold, I'm coming like a thief.
Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk around naked,
and men will not see his shame.
What's that remind you of?
Have you heard scriptures like this before?
It's a collage, isn't it?
I'm coming like a thief, wherever we heard that.
Yeah, Jesus said it prayerable, if the man knew when the thief was going to come into his house,
he would have stayed awake, right?
So be on alert, that's what Jesus says.
Because you don't know the day or the hour, the Son of Man will return.
In 1st, 2nd Peter 3, the Son of Man is going to be coming like a thief.
In Revelation, Son of Man is coming like a thief.
How about this one?
Stay awake, keep your clothes on.
That's several parables that Jesus tells says, stay awake in readiness, right?
You'll remember Matthew 25.
There were these five prudent maidens and five imprudent maidens.
They weren't ready, and so they didn't get to come in.
And then you see in 2nd Peter, chapter 3 again.
It says, if this is how things are going to go,
what sort of people ought we to be knowing and hastening the day of the Lord?
You need to be ready, be on alert.
1st Peter, I think I put it in here.
I have it on my notes, probably.
But anyway, I think I threw in a ton of scriptures on my research.
I did a bunch of scriptures that just talked about, where does it tell you to be alert?
I think in 1st Peter 5.8, be on alert.
Satan's going around like a roaring lion.
Be on alert.
Be ready.
Be awake.
The Lord's coming like a thief.
All these sigs are repeated themes in Jesus' teaching.
So what you have is this, it's almost like Jesus spoke up in the middle of this vision.
Like that's how I would interpret this.
Although it's not read in my Bible, but I would say this one should be read.
Jesus speaks up.
Behold, I, so it's not like 3rd person, it's 1st person, so you would say that's a quote.
I'm coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes on so that he will not walk around naked,
and men will see his shame.
So here you also see what did he tell they ought to see it to do?
Buy clothes for me so you're not naked, right?
Turn to me.
And so you see a lot of the things that you see in earlier in this book and also in Jesus' teaching,
kind of a collage here.
And so be ready.
That's the message.
Be ready.
Because you don't know when it's going to happen.
Verse 16, and they gathered them together to the place in which in Hebrew is called harm again.
So this says harm again.
What do we recognize that as being?
The Battle of Armageddon, right?
What does Armageddon mean?
It's kind of like when I say the apocalypse.
What's the apocalypse?
Right?
The end of time or like we say it's an apocalyptic scene.
What's that mean?
Society's been destroyed.
Apocalyptic actually means revelation.
Armageddon is actually, I don't know if you knew this.
So I think it's a little ways north of Israel.
There's this plane.
And it's the plane of Megeto, staging area.
And many famous battles in the Old Testament were fought in Megeto.
Now Har is the mountain of Megeto.
So this maybe isn't an actual place because there isn't a mountain on Megeto.
The closest mountain would be Mount Carmel, which maybe would, you know,
where did the prophets of Bale and some other things happen to Mount Carmel.
So I don't know if that's relevant or not.
But what this is just saying is, you know, here's this battlefield.
Armageddon or Megeto was what they would say.
It's a natural battlefield.
It's a plane.
It has good staging area, water, everything you need to bring two massive armies together
to have a conflict.
Armageddon or Megeto was the place when he's talking about this.
And Hebrew, it's called Megeto.
Armageddon, it's basically my understanding is that it's talking about this particular place
that is known as a battlefield.
You have a map of it.
You have a map of it.
Yeah.
It's got all the places on it.
Mm-hmm.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
A lot of times the armies would meet there.
Like Josiah, like, that's where he died, was actually biting on that battlefield, big old battle.
And it's very interesting.
It's very interesting.
So because he, Lord said, do something else and he wouldn't do it.
He did his own thing and he died.
So.
Yeah.
So that's what Megeto is.
Here's something interesting.
Actually, I'm not going to get into something interesting.
If you want to read something interesting, just read the paperwork I gave you.
Yeah.
So let's, I want to look at this last bowl.
We're right on the edge of time, but this is a quick one.
So chapter 16, verse 17, then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air.
So our last one poured out upon the air.
This guy is pouring it on his face.
I'm not exactly sure why.
But it's supposed to be on the air.
What is it, straight arm?
Like, anyway, at camp, they try to drink the soda from a bottle with a straight arm.
Like, anyway, that's what it kind of looks like going on there.
But anyway, the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done.
And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder.
And there was a great earthquake, such as there has not been since, since man came upon the earth.
So great was the earthquake.
So great and earthquake was it.
And so mighty, the great city was split into three parts.
And the cities of the nations fell.
Babylon, the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
And every island fled away and mountains were not found.
And huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each, came down from heaven upon men.
And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because the plague was extremely severe.
So, here again, the final bowl is poured out.
You hear it is done.
Now, same thing with the seventh trumpet.
When the seventh trumpet sounds, it's done.
We see flashes of lightning and peels of thunder.
A great earthquake, but so from 18, I think I have it on your notes if you want to look down.
And this is kind of an interesting little side thing.
I highlight, I bolded out the words that's the Greek word megas.
And they're different words.
So you have loud, great, mighty.
One great is actually a different word.
That means large, not great.
So you notice it's not bolded out, but it's actually a different Greek word.
That's why.
But notice what's happening.
It says that there was a...
It says the seventh angel poured out his bowl and there was a great voice coming out from the temple of the throne, saying it is done.
So there's your first great thing.
And there were flashes of lightning, sounds and peels of thunder, there was a great earthquake.
And how great was it?
Hadn't been seen on the earth.
It was so great, mighty.
The great city was split into three parts.
Babel on the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
Here's the interesting turn of phrase.
And every island fled away and the mountains were not found.
Remember at the end of chapter six, you have this judgment.
And all the skies split apart.
And the islands fled, flee away.
And men are calling on the mountains, fallen us and hide us from the throne.
And he who sits on it.
And the question is asked, who can stand?
So judgment seemed.
Who can stand in the judgment?
And then he goes on to answer it in chapter seven.
Well, that's what you see this.
Who can stand?
There is no time now to mark.
Everyone's going to face this judgment.
This great.
You know, it's interesting how the things God has done is described as great.
And the wickedness of that city is described as great.
And so you see this different thing.
Huge hail sounds about 100 pounds each.
The other day, Mel sent me a video.
And she said, I'm never living in Nebraska.
And it was this video of a hail storm.
The hail was like golf ball size coming in sideways and breaking out the windows on the house.
And she's like, we're not moving to Nebraska.
Like that's off the table.
But can you imagine 100 pounds, like probably basketball size or maybe a little bigger than a basketball falling out of the sky?
So I read someone, they made a note on this.
And they said it is appropriate for these blast femurs to be stoned.
Because that is what the law calls for.
And I thought that was kind of an interesting observation.
If someone's a blast femur, you stoned them to death.
What's God doing here?
Throwing great hail stones on them because of their blasphemy.
It doesn't stop them, but that's what's happening.
So this is the end of the judgment.
Now starting in chapter 17,
this book takes a shift in pace.
So you see a judgment.
Now we're going to see, okay, well, what happens?
What happens with things?
So you're going to see, these are my titles,
but we're going to be shown, okay, the great harlot,
which I would say is a parody of the bride of Christ who is pure and clean.
Well, you have what I would call the bride of Satan,
who is a drunk harlot with a cup on the back of the beast,
like making all the nations drink of her immoralities
and become condemned by her cup is full of the blood of saints.
It's just the exact opposite of the bride of Christ.
So I call her the bride of Satan just to give us some parody.
It's an idolatrous Israel or Satan's religious system.
Let's say, Revelation 18, Satan's power,
Babylon the Great is destroyed.
Revelation 19, Satan's war and armies,
what happens to his military, what happens there?
Revelation 20, what happens with Satan?
And I think in Revelation 20,
starting I think in verse 6,
that is where we stop talking backwards
and start looking forwards.
So just if you want to take note 20 verse 6,
that's where we start looking future to us in the book of Revelation.
But we'll cover that.
We'll start looking at those things next week.
Any? Yeah?
I was reading it in verse 12,
when it says that the crazy water was dried up,
that as you were going through it,
that's literal.
I mean, that was fully literal of that practice.
Because of the rivers and in Genesis,
I thought it was the Euphrates that actually has dried up.
And there are archaeologists,
and I know an expedition Bible.
I think he goes looking for the Euphrates River,
because he likes to find...
Well, the Euphrates River still exists,
and it kind of has these phases.
So every time it dries up, people get excited about the end times.
Then there's one of the four, correct?
That has completely dried up?
I don't know.
But I know that the Euphrates River is still a thing.
And so every time it starts to be lower,
they get all excited about the return of Christ.
And so lately, it's in that cycle,
and they think we're in the end times,
partly because the Euphrates River is drying up.
The interesting thing I was going to note about Josephus,
is Josephus actually talks about how,
when Titus returned to Jerusalem to do his final siege on Israel,
there was a couple of Roman legions that stayed over there
to kind of guarding Roman's eastern flank.
And he pulled those legions to go help him in conquering Jerusalem.
So I would probably say that's probably what it's indicating,
is this army that's staged along the Euphrates was brought forth.
But that's just my guess on that.
Any other thoughts or questions?
All right, let's close with a word of prayer.
