A Revelation Invitation

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”

So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. (Revelation 16:1-2 ESV)

Wouldn’t we all prefer to live in a world without wrath? Typically, our encounters with wrath are at the hands of family, neighbors and coworkers. Or we witness it in political leaders, social media figures, protesters and the like. We experience wrath in the form of road rage, petty disputes, or even in abusive relationships. It’s easy, even cathartic, to walk through life with a chip on the shoulder venting anger from the heart and resentments from the soul. These experiences of wrath whether warranted or not come from people settling accounts as they feel justified in their own eyes. The bowls about to be poured out in Revelation come from heaven’s temple. The wrath is deserved. The judgments are God’s righteous retribution applied.

Most people live as if there are no repercussions from how they live likely missing that these bowls of God’s wrath are deservedly aimed at themselves. Coming from the sovereign God stepping in to address rampant wickedness in the world, these bowls of wrath are poured out with intention. Especially when God’s people are oppressed, the Lord dishes out just punishment. At the creation God commissioned Adam and his descendants to care for his world. Now by way of these plagues God’s world is passing judgment on those who have failed in their rule. God is not a loving God if he permits wickedness to flourish unchallenged. However, God does allows evil the time and space to collapse under its own weight in a fitting display of his divine judgment.

This first bowl reminds us of the sixth plague that Moses sent upon Egypt the great oppressor of the children of Israel. “Let my people go,” was Moses’ demand. When Pharaoh refused he and the nation were stricken by ugly, painful sores. But Pharaoh would not relent. With Revelation’s first bowl of wrath, God punishes the wicked who have oppressed the church. Fittingly, God brands with sores those who have been “branded” with the mark of the beast, those who had sworn allegiance to Rome. This imagery clearly portrays payback upon a rebellious and unfaithful world.

It would be easy to look at these bowls as judgment that happens to others, judgment that I’m exempt from. Our own baptisms speak against this as we acknowledge the judgment for our sins that fell upon the Son of God. It was through judgment that we are saved. It is that judgment, seen in the death and burial of Jesus Christ, that we pass through in baptism when we are raised with him. We cannot therefore become self-righteous. We must not gloat over the suffering that judgment brings upon others, judgments except for the blood of Jesus Christ that should have fallen upon us as well.

The judgment that fell upon the Egyptians was not because they were necessarily worse people than the Israelites. Those judgments fell upon Egypt because Egypt had prevented Israel from worshiping their God. We must look upon the judgments that fall upon others as a call to ourselves to worship the God of judgment. Rome’s idolatry and paganism were worship gone wrong, something that we can easily be guilty of ourselves. We must not settle for religion, but must arduously seek to worship the Lamb in spirit and in truth.

Lord God, I thank you and praise you that you do not allow evil to continue on unpunished. I see that clearly in the cross where you punished sin. You display your righteous judgment in our world in many ways. Therefore, I will persevere toward Jesus’ return when your wrath will finally and completely be satisfied. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.