"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels , go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Revelation 16v1
This chapter could be described as "the great chapter" of the bible; it begins with great and ends with great and is great all the way through. In verse 1 we have a great voice, in verse 9 we have great heat, in verse 12 we have the great river Euphrates, in verse 14 we have the great day of God Almighty, in verse 17 we have another great voice, in verse 18 we have a great earthquake, in verse 19 we have the great city, in verse 19 we have great Babylon, and in verse 21 we have a plague which is described as exceeding great. It is evident that the Holy Spirit wishes to draw attention to this chapter which brings the curtain down on the entire world system. At the very heart of this scenario is the expression "the great day of God Almighty." The patience of God with mankind has been awesome. His longsuffering is manifest in all of history. When we consider the scripture expression "God is angry with the wicked every day" the fact He has waited so long for this day is indeed remarkable. It is nigh on two thousand years since they humbled and mocked and murdered His only Son. The bible speaks continually of the patient longsuffering of God with sinful man (Romans 2, Romans 9, 2nd Peter 3 and many more); but God's patience is now exhausted and His great day has come when He will finally rid this world of sin and sinners and all rebellion. He will glorify His Son on the earth which dishonoured Him.
The chapter begins with a great voice coming from the temple. We can be sure that the unidentified voices in the Revelation are the voice of God. Notice the voice comes from the temple. Many times in this book we have seen and heard commandments coming from the throne. This speaks of God's sovereignty. However, lately the voices have been coming from the temple. The sovereignty of God is one thing, the holiness of God is yet another and when the temple is thrown open and God confronts sinful man in the undiluted outpouring of His wrath, it is surely something to make everyone of us tremble. The ominous command is given to the seven angels from the very centre of the presence of God "go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Nothing will stand in the way of this onslaught. When Pharaoh of old was confronted with the unfettered power of God, he said "who is the Lord that I should obey Him?" Were he here today, he would tell us all exactly who the Lord is. This Old Testament narrative represented the judgment of God in one nation only; what we have here is that same God bringing His vengeance on the entire world; no one will escape. The judgments go on from here until we reach the judgment of the great white throne (another great). From here on, everything is great because it is final. God will bring to a close human history.
The judgments here of the seven vials are similar to the judgments of the seven trumpets.
- Trumpet 1/vial 1 - Judgment falls on the earth.
- Trumpet 2/vial 2 - Judgment falls on the sea.
- Trumpet 3/vial 3 - Judgment falls on the rivers and fountains of water.
- Trumpet 4/vial 4 - Judgment falls on the sun.
- Trumpet 5/vial 5 - Judgment has to do with darkness, but it is a moral darkness; in trumpet 5 we have the fall of Satan and in vial 5 we have the moral darkness of his henchman the beast.
- Trumpet 6/vial 6 - There is activity around the river Euphrates.
- Trumpet 7/vial 7 - God occupies the kingdom of Satan and the vial is poured into the air, the sphere of his kingdom, the result of which the entire world system collapses.
Thus there are similarities but there are obvious differences. Mainly the differences have to do with the scale of things. In the trumpet judgments only one third of the elements were involved but when we come to the vial judgments, there is no such limit. "Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." Thus in these vials judgments, all of the earth is engulfed in the wrath of God.
Amazon bookshelf George Neilly
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