March 21 - Seven Bowls of God's Wrath (pt. 3)

March 21 – Seven Bowls of God’s Wrath (pt. 3)
Rev. 16:17-21

“The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible.” (Rev. 16:17-21)

We don’t see exactly what happened when the seventh angel poured out his bowl, but we do hear the voice from the throne calling “It is done!” This is divine completion. Seven bowls filled with God’s wrath and judgment have just been released.

We’ve seen over and over how God’s fury has been sent to earth in lightning, thunder, and earthquakes. The earth can barely contain itself under this pressure. These are natural occurrences like we have never seen. Cities are collapsing all over the world. He singled out Babylon the Great and poured out His fury on that city. This city symbolizes everything that the secular world is and has done to separate God’s people from Him.

Islands are lost, mountains are flattened, hailstones rain down to destroy mankind.

These plagues are quite unlike the partial plagues we’ve seen up to this point. These are full-strength. In Revelation 8, the trumpet blast brought about the destruction of 1/3 of the waters, but here in Revelation 16, the entire water system is destroyed. In Revelation 8, 1/3 of the light from the sun, moon and stars is gone. Here in Revelation 16, the sun has full power to harm mankind.

Yet through all of this, mankind cursed God. There was no more repentance.

This is what separates those people of God from those who are hard-hearted and continue to curse God. Rather than seeing God’s awesome power, they can only curse His name.