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. Just like the ‘trumpet’ judgments, the seven ‘bowls’ remind us again of the ‘plagues of Egypt’. The whole world is ‘Egypt’ now, however. The first ‘bowl’ reminds us of the sixth ‘plague’,2 the second and the third ‘bowl’ of the first ‘plague’,3 the fourth has no parallel in Egypt, the fifth ‘bowl’ reminds us of the ninth ‘plague’,4 the sixth of the second ‘plague’,5 and the seventh ‘bowl’ reminds us of the seventh ‘plague’.6 The ‘plagues of Egypt’ are ‘child’s play’, however, compared to what is happening here on a worldwide scale. What stands out in the comparison with the ‘trumpets’ is the fact that ugly, festering sores break out on the people who have the ‘mark of the beast’ and who worship its image. Previously, under the ‘trumpets’ the judgments appear to have generally struck the earth indiscriminately. Those who bear the ‘mark of the beast’ now receive another ‘mark’: lumps, bubonic plague, tumours, and cancers. More horrible sicknesses are hardly imaginable.
Fear of illness is universal. Who has not been gripped by fear at being told by medical personnel that they have detected something malignant? Who doesn’t feel the anxiety of having to be operated on or going through chemotherapy? Fighting a disease is like being in a battle.
Cancer is sometimes called an ‘assassin’. Some kinds of cancer appear to be curable and the development of others can be slowed down. But others start growing and spreading so explosively they are unstoppable. The patient has then to prepare himself for death. How do you do that? By seeking God’s face. By asking Him to make clear to you, through His Holy Spirit, if there perhaps is something that is in the way, between you and Him, such as unconfessed sins, guilt, including wrongdoings towards others. Isaiah 59:1-2 “Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.” When you confess your sins and your guilt – however great and ‘unforgivable’ they seem to be – you will be cleansed of it through the blood of Jesus, and receive forgiveness. 1 John 1:5-9 “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
You can then depart and cross over with your mind and heart at rest. God gives His children grace to live, but also grace to die. The angels stay with you and they will bring you to Jesus,7 Who loved you so much that He allowed Himself to be crucified in your place, so that you would not be lost, not go to hell, but have eternal life. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” It is doubtful whether the worshippers of the ‘beast’ will be very conscious of this when they are stricken with tumours. They will probably depart cursing, not praying, to meet the eternal Judge.8
• We are living in the time that the Jewish people are returning to Israel. The ‘plagues’, the judgments of the earth which are described in the Book of Revelation – which should be interpreted literally are seen by the prophet Isaiah9 and other prophets as taking place when the Jewish people are coming back into their own land Israel, as the beginning to the ‘salvation’ and the ‘redemption’ of Zion.
Bible References:
1.Revelation 4:6, 16:17, 21:3 2.Exodus 9:9 et seq. 3.Exodus 7:17 et seq. 4.Exodus 10:21 et seq. 5.Exodus 8:1 et seq. 6.Exodus 9:13 et seq. 7.Luke 16:22; John 5:24; 1 John 4:17–18 8.Romans 2:2; Matthew 23:33; Hebrews 9:27, 10:27 9.Isaiah 66
