The fifth vial. Revelation 16v10-11.
"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."
The seat of the beast is better rendered "throne" ; the fifth trumpet and the fifth vial have to do with darkness, as also with the ninth plague in Egypt recorded in (Exodus 10v21-23). History repeats itself; the passage of time still finds man in rebellion; it also finds God with the same attitude to such rebellion. Surely by this time man has learned that God will judge sin again and again. We considered the outpouring of this vial in three ways.
- The throne of the beast. - This throne obviously refers to a particular place. Much speculation has there been, as to whether this place is Rome, or Jerusalem, or even a rebuilt Babylon. No light is shed on this except to understand from (Revelation 13v2) that it was the dragon who gave him his power and his throne and his great authority. Every empire has a headquarters from which they operate. It is a well known ploy by those engage in warfare to target the head of the opposing army and his headquarters. This is what God is doing here. We must also bear in mind that the beast is both a man and also an empire, such an empire that covered much of the entire world. Thus the darkness that was brought upon the throne of the beast affected his headquarters of operations and pervaded throughout his entire kingdom. There is no need to see this darkness as anything other than physical darkness, because it follows on the previous vial where the intensity of the sun was multiplied. The only escape from the scorching sun would be inside buildings or in underground chambers and such like, into which God now introduces darkness. We well know that the present world runs on light produced by electronic means, thus the picture here is indeed very solemn. God has withdrawn everything that makes up light from the beast and his empire. He can no longer function. God has paralyzed most of their operations, and where they can operate it is only with great difficulty.
- This darkness produced physical pain. - "They gnawed their tongues for pain." Much attention is paid in scripture to the words of the beast particularly in the book of Daniel where the remark is made constantly that he had "a mouth speaking great things." (Daniel 7v8, v11,v20,v25). No doubt those who followed him were very vocal and there was a constant propagation of his ways across the whole world . It is almost as if God is saying you have been very busy with your tongues, I will give you something else to do with them. The darkness described here is such that causes physical pain. In (Exodus 10v2)1 it was described as thick darkness. The epistle of Jude in verse 13 speaks of "the blackness of darkness." This is darkness that could be felt and produce intense pain. Those who work in mines deep underground have often experienced such pain. The scene here is awesome. On the outside is unbearable heat, on the inside impenetrable darkness! Jesus spoke of this in a moral sense in (Matthew 6v23) "if therefore the light is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" The beast, who represents Satan as the angel of light, as the new light of the world, in a world which has rejected the only true light of the world, is now plunged into darkness and all his followers with him. Their moral darkness has issued in physical darkness.
- They blasphemed the God of heaven. - The expression "the God of heaven" is used much in the book of Daniel to differentiate between the true God and every other God. By this time it is clear that who is bringing these judgments is none other than the true God against who they have rebelled. In spite of that clear knowledge, and in spite of their pains and their sores and their suffering, they continue to blaspheme Him and it is repeated in verse 11 that "they repented not." This must be one of the saddest commentaries on mankind that exists. This kind of behaviour is verging on insanity. The bible holds nothing back, it records these things both in the past and into the future for our warning. The bible just tells it as it is. At this time there will be no longer any atheists or agnostics yet still man will refuse to honour the God of heaven.
- Amazon bookshelf George Neilly
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