Waters of Life

Biblical Studies in Multiple Languages

Search in "English":
Home -- English -- Revelation -- 147 (The seven bowls of wrath)
This page in: -- Arabic -- Armenian -- Bulgarian -- ENGLISH -- French? -- German -- Indonesian? -- Polish? -- Portuguese -- Russian -- Yiddish

Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson

REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 5 - ANTI-CHRIST AND THE LAMB OF GOD (REVELATION 13:1 - 16:21)

PART 5.7 - THE SEVEN BOWLS OF THE WRATH OF GOD (REVELATION 15:5 - 16:21)


The temple in heaven filled with smoke (Revelation 15:5-8)

REVELATION 15:5-8
5 After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. 6 The seven angels who had the seven plagues came out, clothed with pure, bright linen, and wearing golden sashes around their breasts. 7 One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. 8 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power. No one was able to enter into the temple, until the seven plagues of the seven angels would be finished.

After the worship hymn of the choir of martyrs beside the sea of glass, the vision before the eyes of the seer changed. John saw for a moment the heavenly model of the temple of Solomon. Shortly afterwards this vision was superposed and replaced by the model of the tent of meeting.

The tabernacle, this holy place for the meeting of the Lord of the covenant and the stubborn people, was about 30 meters long, five meters wide and five meters high. It was the centre of the people of Israel during their forty years of wandering through the desert. As long as the Lord dwelled in the tent in the midst of the Israelites, they were secure. He did not abandon his people in the desert, and even in the days of his wrath he was close to them. To the Jews in the Diaspora it was a comfort to see the temple of God or the tabernacle from afar.

The tent of meeting was, however, also the place of decisive judgments and punishments. When the glory of the Lord appeared there in the cloud, it meant not always only grace and comfort, but sometimes also severe punishment and destructive judgment (Numbers 14:3-33; 16:1-35; 17:6-15 and other verses).

In the heavenly vision the seer saw how the curtain in the tent opened as if the song of the martyrs beside the sea of glass had marked the start of a new stage of the last judgment. The curtain to the holy place was normally closed, for no mortal man can see the Holy One, since he would be killed through the power of the radiance of his glory. The heavy curtain to the Holy of Holies had been opened at Yom Kippur for a short time so that the high priest could enter and reconcile himself, the Sanctuary und the people to God. When the curtains to the sanctuary opened on their own then it meant that the glory of God appeared for judgment. The opening of the temple as John saw it meant the beginning of judgments.

At first seven angels appeared dressed in courtly, priestly clothes. They were clothed with brilliant white linen. The golden girdle around their breast pointed to their divine tasks. They had no wings, they did not need wings as angels are light and fire and move faster than light.

The seven angels came from the presence of God and were responsible for the execution of his judgment. Not forces of nature or demons execute the judgments of God Almighty but his holy and pure princes of angels whom nobody can prevent from doing the will of their Lord. The precise execution of this bitter task was their service of God.

The seven judgment angels did not come with empty hands. One of the throne guardians in the Holy of Holies had given them big golden bowls filled to the brim with the wrath of God. In this stage of the last times it is not spoken any longer of the “cup of the wrath” (Revelation 14:10) but of the “full bowls” of his anger.

After the seven angels had left the temple in heaven, it was filled with impenetrable smoke. It may be thought of frankincense. The German word “Rauch” is closely related to the Arabic word for “spirit", “RUH". The glory of God wrapped itself in a cloud of his Holy Spirit. Nobody should see how the wrath of God looked like, nobody could bear it. If we look at the Crucified One, we get a sense of why he had prayed before, saying: My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as you will! (Matthew 26:39) The fullness of the wrath of the Father over the sin of the world was suffered by Jesus. But now the wrath of God concentrated on all hardened men, who mocked, rejected, despised, denied or blasphemed the dolorous atoning sacrifice of his beloved Son.

The wrath of God in the last times originates from his glory. This is not an unjust wrath and not a sign of lack of self-control or lack of rationality. In the Old Testament we read more than 50 times about the wrath of Yahweh, the Lord. For God's wrath is an expression of his love: he wants to break the resistance against his salvation. At the same time is the Lord “slow to anger", as he himself revealed: For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise I will refrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. (Isaiah 48:9) The Lord is longsuffering, but he by no means clears the guilty. (Numbers 14:18) We should not only speak of the love of God and his grace but also of his holy wrath. We should fear and love the Lord and trust him beyond all measure. Only He has the authority to condemn sinners. Jesus has redeemed us not only from sin, death and devil, but also from the wrath of God and the accusations by his Law. Only those who commit themselves to the Lamb, are delivered from the devastating wrath of God.

John saw the temple of God being full of his covered glory. Even in his wrath God remains patient and close to his saints. Yet nobody has access to the judge in his decisive actions. He punishes the worshipers of Satan and the enemies of his Son. At the same time God suffers inexpressibly in his wrath because of the destructive punishments which must strike his beloved creatures.

QUESTIONS:

  1. Why was the curtain of the temple opened?
  2. How is the anger of the Holy God connected with His eternal love?

www.Waters-of-Life.net

Page last modified on November 28, 2012, at 08:35 AM | powered by PmWiki (pmwiki-2.3.3)