This celestial sign of the seven angels with the seven last ‘plagues’ has been mentioned earlier in verse 1 of chapter 15. We saw the seven angels with the seven last plagues in this celestial sign: “I saw in Heaven another great and marvellous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.”1 They now come forth, from the immediate presence of the holy God. As Christ was clothed2—He, who is the Lord of the angels3—so are His servants also clothed. The angels who are ‘servant spirits’4 are clothed in pure linen and girded around with golden sashes. It was the task of the priests in Israel – and especially that of the High Priest in Israel – to enter the Holy of Holies once a year on the Great Day of Atonement to make atonement for the sins of the people. He did this by sprinkling blood on the lid of the Ark of the Covenant.5 So to sacrifice and to pray, as it was once Zachariah’s task to offer incense, a symbol for prayers, on the altar of incense,6 and to bless the people of Israel afterwards when he reappeared from the Temple. In contrast, these angels do not come out from God’s Temple to bless the people, but to carry out God’s righteous judgment. These ‘angelic priests’7 are going to pour out seven ‘golden bowls’ with seven plagues on earth, with the ‘gold’ symbolising the perfect judgments of God. As the ‘living creatures’ (Revelation 4:6-11) were involved with the ‘seal plagues’,8 so one of the cherubim gives the angels the ‘bowls’. They are standing very near to the throne of God and the Lamb9 indeed, i.e. in the Holy of Holies of the Heavenly Temple. The seven ‘bowls’ will show many similarities with the seven ‘trumpets’. The first strikes the earth, the second the sea, the third the rivers and water sources, the fourth has to do with the sun, the fifth with darkness and human ailments, the sixth is connected to the great river Euphrates, and lightning, storms, thunder claps, earthquakes and hail are spoken of with reference to the seventh. This judgment of the ‘bowls’ also shows that even the worst judgments are not of devilish origin – although these demonic forces apparently look after the execution of some of them, as under the fifth trumpet10 – or that these disasters originate to some extent in human thought, or are the result of random natural catastrophes. No, these judgments form part of the ‘Heavenly liturgy’. These disasters come from God and are surrounded by great dignity and holiness. Even God’s wrath is holy in character. It is not some human, carnal rage, or an expression of a fit of anger. This is necessary in order to strike everything that goes against His love, holiness and justice. The Old Testament associates the word ‘wrath’ more than fifty times with the Lord.
Nevertheless, the Lord gives warnings, by the mouths of His prophets, before He pours out His wrath. And we as human beings on earth already have the Bible for centuries – spoken to Israel and given to us through them. Copied by Jewish scribes and Christian monks. Written on everything from tiny silver scrolls to papyrus that turned brittle with time. First published for a mass audience in print by Gutenberg; now available in 2,800 languages: the Bible has been spread more or less to everybody worldwide since then. The Bible is the most read/sold/published book of all time!
Nowadays, somehow the whole world also through internet and other modern means of communication can tap into it.
The doctrine of the ‘wrath of God’ is not only something restricted to the Old Testament, it is also presented in the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira drop dead, and breathed their last when they deceived the Holy Spirit and lied to God.11 Herod died a horrible death.12 The miracle of the New Testament is that God’s wrath strikes Himself in the first place. It strikes His only begotten innocent Son, just as in the Old Testament innocent sacrificial animals took the place of sinful man. This time at this stage of history these are no longer ‘bowls’ of sacrificial blood, but ‘bowls’ with the wrath of God.
• The Greek word for ‘bowl’ that is used here is the same as that which was used in Revelation 5:8, where the ‘golden bowls’ then contained incense, being the ‘prayers of the saints’.
• Once again there seems to be some suggestion of a connection between the ‘prayers of the saints’ and ‘God’s judgments’.13
Bible References:
1.Revelation 15:1 2.Revelation 1:13 3.Hebrews 1; Matthew 26:53; Mark 13:27; 1 Peter 3:22 4.Hebrews 1:14 5.Leviticus 16 and 23:23–32 6.Luke 1:5–23 7.See for their robes: Exodus 28 and 29; Ezekiel 44:17–18 8.Revelation 6:1, 3, 5, 7 9.Revelation 4:6, 5:6, 8, 14 10.Revelation 9:1–12 11.Acts 5:1–11 12.Acts 12:23 13.Comp. Revelation 8:5
