“The Lord is patient and great in mercy, pardoning unrighteousness and transgression, although He certainly does not let them go unpunished, but visits the unrighteousness of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation.”
The great loud voice from the Temple has sounded. It is the voice of God Himself, or of one of the four ‘living beings’ who are always at the throne,1 who speak on God’s behalf. The last ‘plagues’ are clenched together to be unleashed on to the earth.
Following the tumours, with which also Israel was afflicted if it did not listen to the Lord,2 the sea turns to blood ‘like that of a dead person’. Not only a third, but all the living creatures in the sea die.
The souls under the altar find rest.2 The prayers of all the saints are answered.3 God’s judgments come to completion. Earth is being cleansed of all unrighteousness and made ready for the Kingdom.
The altar speaks—not only the souls ‘under the altar’2 or the ‘prayers of the saints’ on the altar3—but the altar itself. We already heard a voice from between the four horns of the golden altar4 that gave the sixth ‘trumpet’-angel the order
Many people are worried about the climate. There is talk of the ‘greenhouse effect’, on account of the emission of noxious gases by cars and factories. The holes in the ozone layer are getting bigger and larger
The ‘bowls’ are poured out as a ‘fistful’. As a result, the worldwide adherents of the ‘beast’ are stricken with tumours (bowl 1), all life in the sea perishes because the water turns to ‘cadaver blood’ (bowl 2), as do the rivers and water sources (bowl 3).
The sixth ‘bowl’ corresponds to the sixth ‘trumpet’ in the parallel between the ‘trumpet’ and the ‘bowl’ judgments. The water of the Euphrates dries up – is it evaporated by the heat of the blazing sun?
It is clear that the above scenario involves more than just the ‘kings from the rising sun’, from the Near and Far East. The ‘kings of the whole earth’ are involved. They are marching to Israel for a dramatic final battle
How wonderful this text is, in the midst of the world’s misery and the preparation for the greatest battle ever fought on earth. It is a beatitude—an encouragement for the believers!
In this book, which is written in Greek, it is expressly stated that the place where the ‘kings of the earth’ will be gathered, together with their armies, is called ‘Har-Magedon’ or ‘Armageddon’ in Hebrew.
The voice that cried from the cross, “It is finished!”1 is the voice that now calls from the throne: “It is done!” He is seated with God on the throne.2 This converges with—and is mentioned in the same breath as—the Temple in Heaven.
