10

The Temple
of Doom

(Revelation 15:1–8)

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and marvelous are Your works,

O Lord God, the Almighty;

Righteous and true are Your ways,

King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name?

For You alone are holy;

For all the nations will come and worship before You,

For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then 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. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. (15:1–8)

When they think about the future, people worry about many things. The destruction of the environment, global warming, political unrest and instability, terrorism, crime, economic and financial collapse, and the continual decline in moral values that destroy all relationships are all causes for concern. A further cause for anxiety is the sense of forlorn emptiness fostered by the anti-God philosophy of humanism. For those who believe there is no personal God, there is no one home in the universe, so they have nowhere to turn for ultimate answers, help, or meaning.

But what is truly frightening about the future is not any of those things; what should stop the heart of sinners is what God will do. God’s judgmental anger and fury is a terrifying reality that looms just over the horizon of human history (cf. Pss. 96:13; 98:9; 110:6; Joel 3:2, 12; Acts 17:31; 2 Tim. 4:1). Because they willfully ignore that reality, people do not fear what they should fear. Jesus exhorted people to “fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28), because “God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day” (Ps. 7:11 NKJV). The writer of Hebrews adds, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

Throughout human history God has poured out His wrath in judgment on sinners. Adam’s sin in Eden brought the entire human race under judgment (Rom. 5:12). By Noah’s day, people had become so wicked that God sent the cataclysmic judgment of the Flood to destroy the world (cf. Gen. 6:5–8). Only Noah and those with him on the ark were spared. Centuries of disobedience by the Jewish people ultimately led to their judgment, as first the northern kingdom of Israel and then the southern kingdom of Judah went into captivity.

God’s wrath and judgment were the constant themes of the Old Testament prophets. They frequently warned of the coming Day of the Lord, whether an imminent historical judgment, or the final eschatological Day of the Lord. All the historical Day of the Lord judgments were previews of the last and most terrible Day of the Lord. (For more information about the Day of the Lord, see Revelation 1–11, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary [Chicago: Moody, 1999], 199ff.)

Isaiah warned of God’s coming judgment:

Ezekiel described the Day of the Lord as “a time of doom for the nations” (Ezek. 30:3). Joel exclaimed, “Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty” (Joel 1:15). Amos cried out to sinners in Israel, “Prepare to meet your God” (Amos 4:12). The prophet Zephaniah gave the following frightening description of the Day of the Lord:

Job warned that “the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity; they will be led forth at the day of fury” (Job 21:30).

The historical outpourings of God’s wrath fall into several categories. First is what might be called “sowing and reaping” wrath. People sin and suffer the logical consequences of that sin; “Those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it” (Job 4:8; cf. Gal. 6:7–8). A second kind of wrath is cataclysmic wrath, when God sends massive, destructive judgment. That judgment may engulf the entire world, as it did with the Flood (Gen. 6–8), or a smaller region, as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19:1–29). Romans chapter 1 reveals God’s wrath of abandonment when Paul three times used the phrase “God gave them over” to demonstrate God’s judicial abandonment of sinners, removing restraint to the deadly consequences of their sinful choices (vv. 24, 26, 28). Hosea 4:17 declares, “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” As previously noted, God’s temporal judgment is poured out in historical Day of the Lord judgments. Finally, there is eternal wrath, God’s eschatological wrath that will in the future be poured out on the whole world (1 Thess. 1:10; 5:9). The ultimate result of eternal wrath will be the sentencing of all unrepentant sinners to hell forever.

But throughout the entire historical outpouring of God’s wrath, from Eden to the final explosion of His eschatological wrath, a strange paradox exists: God is busily working to save sinners from His own wrath. God’s nature encompasses not only righteousness and holiness, but also grace and mercy. Even during the devastating judgments of the Tribulation, God will call sinners to salvation. He will do so using the 144,000 Jewish evangelists (7:2–8; 14:1–5), the two witnesses (11:3–13), a host of redeemed Gentiles and Jews (7:9–17), even an angel flying in the sky (14:6–7). As the outpouring of divine wrath escalates, God’s evangelistic efforts will escalate as well. The result will be the greatest harvest of souls in human history (cf. 7:9). A redeemed Israel and souls from all the nations will be saved, many to survive the Tribulation and enter the millennial kingdom.

Chapters 15 and 16 present the specific phenomena of the final outpouring of God’s wrath before Christ’s return. That wrath is expressed by the effects of the seventh trumpet (11:15), which are the seven bowl judgments described in chapter 16. Chapter 15, the shortest in Revelation, forms an introduction to those rapid-fire judgments, but this chapter is not written for the specific purpose of defending God’s wrath. Since “His work is perfect [and] all His ways are just” (Deut. 32:4), God’s actions need no defense. Nevertheless, several reasons for the outpouring of God’s wrath can be discerned in this text.

A scene in heaven anticipates the bowl judgments, as it did in the case of the seal (chaps. 4–5) and trumpet (8:2–6) judgments. This is the third heavenly sign that John has seen in Revelation. In 12:1 he saw the sign of “a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars,” while in 12:3 he saw the sign of “a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems.” The terms great and marvelous express the enormous importance of this sign as it contains the final outpouring of God’s wrath on the wicked, unrepentant sinners of the earth.

The sign itself consists of seven angels who had seven plagues. The same beings who care for and minister to God’s people (cf. Heb. 1:14) will bring God’s wrath to the sinful world (cf. Matt. 13:37–42). Pl?g? (plagues) literally means “a blow,” or “a wound,” and is so used in such passages as Luke 12:48; Acts 16:23, 33; 2 Corinthians 6:5, and 11:23. In 13:3 and 12 it describes the beast’s fatal wound. Thus, the seven plagues are not really diseases or epidemics, but powerful, deadly blows (cf. 9:18–20; 11:6) that will strike the world with killing impact.

These seven plagues (the seven bowl judgments) are the last (and worst) plagues, because in them the wrath of God is finished. It is important to note that the fact that they are called the last implies that the preceding trumpet and seal judgments were also plagues expressing the wrath of God. God’s wrath extends throughout the Tribulation and is not confined to a brief period at the very end, as some argue. That they are the last also indicates that the bowls come after the seals and trumpets in chronological sequence.

This tremendous outpouring of God’s final judgmental fury was actually anticipated earlier in Revelation. It is the culmination of the “great day of [God the Father’s and Jesus Christ’s] wrath” (6:17). It is the “third woe” predicted in 11:14; the time of destruction (11:18); the unmixed wine of God’s wrath (14:10); the final reaping of the earth (14:14–16); the final trampling of the grapes of God’s wrath (14:17–20).

Thumos (wrath) is a strong word, describing rage, or a passionate outburst of anger. God’s anger must be expressed against all unforgiven sin (cf. 14:8, 10). In 16:19 and 19:15 God’s final wrath is called His “fierce wrath.” The prophet Zephaniah wrote of this final outpouring of God’s wrath in Zephaniah 3:8:

It is true that, as Peter wrote, “The Lord … is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Yet those who refuse God’s love, reject His grace, and scorn His mercy will inevitably face His wrath.

As this chapter unfolds, three motives for the final outpouring of God’s wrath will become evident: the vengeance of God, the character of God, and the plan of God.

THE VENGEANCE OF GOD

And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. (15:2)

In this remarkable vision, John saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire. The sea was not an actual ocean, because in 21:1 he “saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.” What John saw was a transparent crystal platform before God’s throne, shimmering and glistening like a tranquil, sunlit sea. John saw this same sealike crystal platform in 4:6: “Before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal.” Moses also had a vision of it when he and the elders of Israel “saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself” (Ex. 24:10). Ezekiel described it as “something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal” (Ezek. 1:22).

But the tranquil beauty of the sea was mixed with the fire of God’s judgment, which was about to be poured out on the earth. Those who reject God’s grace and mercy face “a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries” (Heb. 10:27), because “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). Fire is frequently associated in Scripture with God’s judgment (cf. Num. 11:1; 16:35; Deut. 9:3; Pss. 50:3; 97:3; Isa. 66:15; 2 Thess. 1:7–9; 2 Pet. 3:7).

John saw gathered around the throne of God those who had been victorious over the beast. These are the believers redeemed during the Tribulation (6:9–11; 7:9–17; 12:11, 17; 14:1–5, 12–13). They will be victorious over the beast because of their undying faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Revelation 20:4–6 describes their resurrection and reward. In 13:7 it says of the beast (Antichrist), “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.” But Antichrist’s triumph will be short-lived, and in the end the Tribulation saints will be granted triumph over him, prevailing under the pressure to which the world succumbed (cf. 13:4, 14–17; 14:9, 11; 19:20).

Not only will the Tribulation saints triumph over the beast, but also over his image and the number of his name. The beast’s crony, the false prophet, will perform many lying wonders to deceive people. One of them will be to set up an image of the beast, which he will order everyone to worship on pain of death (see the discussion of 13:14–15 in chapter 5 of this volume). The false prophet will also require everyone to receive a mark representing either the beast’s name, or the number of his name. Those without that mark will face execution and will be unable to buy or sell (see the discussion of 13:17 in chapter 5 of this volume). But the Tribulation believers will, by God’s power, eternally triumph over the whole enterprise of Satan, the beast, and the false prophet. Even those martyred for their triumphant faith will receive their glorious rewards (20:4).

That the Tribulation saints are seen holding harps of God indicates that they are rejoicing and singing praise to God. Harps were also associated with praise earlier in Revelation (5:8; 14:2), as they are frequently in the Old Testament (cf. 2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chron. 13:8; 15:16, 28; 2 Chron. 5:12–13; Neh. 12:27; Pss. 33:2; 71:22; 144:9; 150:3). These believers rejoice because their prayers for God to take vengeance on their persecutors (6:9–10) are about to be answered.

The appearance of the Tribulation saints makes the point that God sends His wrath as an act of vengeance on those who mistreat His people. Jesus warned:

Unbelievers will be condemned to eternal hell for mistreating God’s people, because that mistreatment reveals their evil, impenitent hearts:

The apostle Paul wrote, “Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). The Old Testament likens persecuting God’s people to poking a finger in His eye (Zech. 2:8). The psalmist also wrote of God’s vengeance for His people:

The believers pictured here will have undergone the terrors of the Tribulation and suffered painful, violent deaths as martyrs. Yet despite having endured the most intense persecution the world will ever know, their faith, which is a gift from God, will endure. Eventually, they will stand triumphantly before the throne of God, watching as God takes vengeance on their persecutors.

THE CHARACTER OF GOD

And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

“Great and marvelous are Your works,

O Lord God, the Almighty;

Righteous and true are Your ways,

King of the nations!

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy;

For all the nations will come and worship before You,

For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”

(15:3–4)

The song sung by the glorified saints before the throne is an anthem of praise to God. The ultimate motive of God’s wrath is His holy, righteous character, which demands that He judge sinners. It is God’s holy nature, soon to be revealed in judgment against their persecutors, that elicits this song from the redeemed.

The song of Moses is the first of several songs recorded in the Old Testament. The Israelites sang a song of praise when the Lord gave them water in the wilderness (Num. 21:17–18). Moses taught the children of Israel a song of remembrance shortly before his death (Deut. 31:1922; 32:1–44). That song of Moses is not in view here, because it deals with Israel’s unfaithfulness and God’s punishment of the nation before her restoration. The context of Revelation 15 is not one of unfaithfulness, but of faithfulness that triumphs. Deborah and Barak sang a triumphant victory song celebrating Israel’s defeat of the Canaanites, whose forces were led by the notorious Sisera (Judg. 5:1–31). There was a song sung to the Lord as part of the restoration of true worship in Hezekiah’s day (2 Chron. 29:27). In addition, David and others wrote the Psalms, the hymnbook of ancient Israel, and Solomon wrote the Song of Solomon.

The historical setting for the song of Moses comes from the time of the Exodus. As the bond-servant of God, Moses was called to lead the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt. God delivered them from Pharaoh’s pursuing army by parting the Red Sea, stacking the water on either side of a path, thus allowing the Israelites to cross safely on dry land. After they were safely across, the collapsing waters drowned the Egyptian army. On the far side of the Red Sea, the Israelites sang a song of praise to God for their deliverance.

The song of Moses was a song of victory and deliverance for the righteous, and at the same time of judgment and wrath on God’s enemies. The Tribulation saints, gathered in triumph in a place of safety and security, will echo the same song of deliverance sung long ago by the people of Israel.

In addition to singing again with new meaning the song of Moses, who led Israel in the redemption from Egypt, the redeemed saints before God’s throne also will sing the song of the Lamb, who is their eternal Redeemer. That song was first heard in 5:8–14:

Like the song of Moses, the song of the Lamb expresses the themes of God’s faithfulness, deliverance of His people, and judgment of His enemies. Commentator John Phillips compares and contrasts the two songs:

The words of the song recorded here do not match exactly either the song of Moses in Exodus 15, or the song of the Lamb in Revelation 5. But the themes and many of the key terms are similar. This song adds some new stanzas to the triumph song of God’s redeemed people, yet every one of its lines finds an echo in the Old Testament. Great and marvelous are Your works is reminiscent of Psalm 139:14, “Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it very well.” The title Lord God, the Almighty, celebrating God’s omnipotence, essential to the triumphant power of the last judgments, appears frequently in Revelation (cf. 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 16:7, 14; 19:6, 15; 21:22), and the title “God Almighty” was the name by which God revealed Himself to Abraham (Gen. 17:1; cf. Gen. 35:11; 48:3; Ex. 6:3). The exclamation righteous and true are Your ways reflects the Old Testament truth that “all [God’s] works are true and His ways just” (Dan. 4:37; cf. Deut. 32:4; Hos. 14:9). God is called the King of the nations in Jeremiah 10:7. The phrase Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? is also drawn from Jeremiah 10:7 (cf. Ps. 86:9). The truth that God alone is holy is an oft-repeated Old Testament theme (cf. 1 Sam. 2:2; Pss. 22:3; 99:5, 9; 111:9; Isa. 6:3; 57:15; Hab. 1:12). The phrase for all the nations will come and worship before You quotes Psalm 86:9 (cf. Jer. 10:7), while the phrase Your righteous acts have been revealed echoes such Old Testament passages as Judges 5:11; 1 Samuel 12:7; Psalm 103:6; Daniel 9:16; and Micah 6:5.

The song of these redeemed saints extols God’s character as the omnipotent, immutable, sovereign, perfect, and righteous Creator and Judge. Because He is all that, God must and will judge sinners; if He ignored their sin, He would not be holy, righteous, and true to His nature. The prophet Habbakuk, speaking to God, put it this way, “Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and You can not look on wickedness with favor” (Hab. 1:13). “Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert what is right?” asks Job 8:3. Psalm 19:9 answers, “The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether.”

The song closes with joyful anticipation of the millennial reign of Christ, when all the nations will come and worship before God. In the words of the psalmist, “All the earth will worship You, and will sing praises to You; they will sing praises to Your name” (Ps. 66:4). In the earthly, millennial kingdom, “it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths” (Zech. 14:16). After God’s righteous acts of judgment have been revealed during the Tribulation, the time anticipated by Isaiah will come: “‘And it shall be from new moon to new moon and from sabbath to sabbath, all mankind will come to bow down before Me,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 66:23). That time will mark the first phase of the fulfillment of Philippians 2:10–11: “At the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and … every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

THE PLAN OF GOD

After these things I looked, and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then 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. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. (15:5–8)

Each of the angelic players in this unfolding drama will fulfill his assigned duty according to God’s plan. It has always been God’s purpose to judge sinners and destroy sin. The “eternal fire … has [already] been prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41) and awaits those whom God will one day sentence to eternal punishment there. God’s holy angels await the time when they will play their role in God’s judgment of sinners (cf. Matt. 13:41–42, 49–50). Here, in a new vision, they are given the instruments of execution.

As it does throughout Revelation (cf. 4:1; 6:2, 5, 8; 7:9; 14:1, 14; 19:11), the phrase after these things I looked introduces a startling, dramatic new vision. Something is about to draw John’s attention away from the redeemed saints singing their praises before God’s glorious throne. This new vision revealed to him the bowl judgments (16:1–21), but first John saw the angels who will carry out those judgments. As he watched, the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened. The apostle had seen a similar sight in an earlier vision, which anticipated this opening, when “the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm” (11:19). Naos (temple) refers to the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary where God’s presence dwells, emphasizing that God is the source of the plagues. The tabernacle was sometimes referred to as the tabernacle of testimony (Ex. 38:21; Num. 1:50, 53; 10:11; Acts 7:44) because the most important item in it was the ark of the covenant, sometimes called the ark of the testimony (Ex. 25:22; 26:33–34; 30:6; Lev. 16:13; Num. 4:5; 7:89; Josh. 4:16). It was so named because it contained the testimony, the two stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments (Ex. 25:16, 21; 40:20; cf. Ps. 78:5).

In an earlier vision, God’s throne room was opened so the faithful could see in (4:1ff.). In this vision, the heavenly tabernacle, of which the earthly tabernacle was only a copy (Heb. 8:2, 5), was opened to reveal the most severe earthly judgment ever on the unfaithful. As John watched, the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple. The time has come in God’s sovereign plan for the seven plagues, which represent the final, deadly judgments, to be poured out on the world (cf. Heb. 10:31). These seven angels will execute that plan. They were clothed in linen, clean and bright, the fabric representing their holiness and purity (see the discussion of 19:14 in chapter 15 of this volume; cf. Acts 10:30). As befits such glorious, holy, majestic beings, the angels were girded around their chests with golden sashes, running across the torso from the shoulder to the waist.

After solemnly proceeding from the inner sanctuary of God’s heavenly temple, the seven angels received the means by which they will dump God’s judgment. One of the four living creatures (cherubim; an order of high-ranking angels; 4:6, 8–9; 5:6, 8, 11, 14; 6:1, 6; 7:11; 14:3; 19:4; Ezek. 1:4–25; 10:15; cf. 1 Sam. 4:4; 2 Sam. 6:2; 22:11; Pss. 80:1; 99:1; Isa. 37:16) gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. Phialas (bowls) refers to shallow saucers. The imagery is not that of a stream being poured gradually out of a pitcher, but of the whole contents of the shallow saucers being hurled down in an instant flood of judgment. Bowls were part of the temple furnishings (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Kings 12:13; 25:15; 1 Chron. 28:17; Zech. 14:20) and were associated with the sacrifices (Ex. 27:3; 38:3). Those who refuse to drink the cup of salvation (Ps. 116:13) will be drowned in the judgments poured from the bowls of wrath. Because God lives forever and ever, He has the power to put an end to sin, so that it cannot exist again forever in His holy presence.

Out of the heavenly temple came not only the angels, but also smoke symbolizing the glory of God and His power. Smoke, an emblem of majesty (Ex. 19:16–18), also symbolized God’s glorious presence in the Old Testament tabernacle or temple (Ex. 40:34–35; 1 Kings 8:10–11; Isa. 6:1–4). This smoke also symbolizes God’s wrath; thus no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. The glory cloud will remain in the heavenly temple until the earth is completely purged, cleansed, and prepared for the King and His kingdom.

The scene described in this chapter establishes the background for the final, definitive judgments, poured out in chapter 16. Once the wrath of God was poured out on Jesus Christ because of what He did for sinners; in the future, wrath will be poured out on sinners because of what they did to Jesus Christ. It is true that “The Lord is … patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9), and that even in His wrath, He will remember mercy (cf. Hab. 3:2). Yet mercy refused brings judgment. By the time God pours out the seven bowls of His final wrath on earth, sinners will have been warned repeatedly to repent. They will have experienced numerous terrifying judgments, which they will acknowledge came from God (6:16–17). They will have heard the saving message of the gospel preached by the 144,000 Jewish evangelists, the two witnesses, other redeemed Gentiles and Jews, even from an angel flying in midheaven. Yet, tragically, they will harden their hearts and fall into calamity (Prov. 28:14). They will pay a fearful price for failing to heed the Scripture’s warning: “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Heb. 3:15; 4:7).