Home / NT / Revelation / Chapter 16
THE REVELATION
OF ST JOHN THE DIVINE
CHAPTER 16
God pours out plagues upon the wicked—The nations assemble for Armageddon—Christ comes, islands flee, mountains cease.
1 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.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial [ First plague. ] upon the earth; and there fell a noisome [ "noisome" = Noxious to health, injurious; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; insalubrious; destructive; as noisome winds; noisome effluvia or miasmata; noisome pestilence; Offensive to the smell or other senses; ] and grievous [ Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne; Causing grief or sorrow; Distressing; Expressing great uneasiness; Provoking; offensive; tending to irritate; Hurtful; destructive; causing mischief; ] sore [ In Scriptures, grief; affliction. 2 Chronicles 6:28. So if we put all three of the words together to determine what this plagues may be we get a "hurtful and painful affliction" - something akin to a bad flu maybe? COVID? ] upon the men which had the mark of the beast, [ The first plague is designed to afflict those who are worshipping the false God's wormwood and Satan. These were those who took upon themselves the mark of the beast so that they could trade (buy and sell food and other items needed for their survival). Interesting here that if you chose not to have the mark of the beast you were most likely going to die, and now if you did take the mark of the beast you are for sure now going to be afflicted with great sores maybe so bad that you wish you could die, so in essence they inherit a living hell. ] and upon them [ The followers and disciples of Satan. ] which worshipped his image. [ Satan. ]
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; [ Revelations 17:15 interrupts "the sea" as people. ] and it became as the blood of a dead man: [ So if the sea means people - does this mean that when the second vile (the jab) was given do those who took it become dead men? Maybe except those who are partaking of the living water? Those who become living souls in the temple? ] and every living soul died in the sea. [ The living waters were removed from the sea. Again the phrase living souls. ]
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. [ The third plague causes the fresh water to be undrinkable. There is no living water to drink for them - so they are doomed. Wormwood and Satan have no plan or way to help men without the living waters of God they are done, and now they are beginning to realize it. ]
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, [ Physical pain was inflicted upon the backs of man. I am sure they just cried out global warming. ] and blasphemed the name of God, [ Even with all of these afflictions they curse God and don't turn to him. Why? Well most likely because they believe that they are Gods of sorts and have been able to change all matter of things before, so why do they need a God. ] which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. [ They are stubborn and will simply just not repent, which is all that the Lord is asking for here. Again I think it shows the state that these men feel about themselves, they are there on God, that they should be able to decide for themself what they want, if it makes you happy do it. You do not need to be accountable to some God that you do not know. ]
10 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,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; [ Which flows between Iraq and Iran. ] and the water thereof was dried up, [ We know that the Lord dried up the Jordan river for the Children of Israel to cross over into Canaan for the first time. In 2 Esdras 13:39-48 we learn that God dried up the Euphrates river when he lead the ten tribes to the North. So the reference here is that God will do the same again when the Lost Ten Tribes return. Who is the living water? Jesus Christ - could it be that they have totally driven all hope for Christ from their land?; as the waters that separated them were figuratively dried up, they figuratively became one land, and through Islam they have spiritually become one people. ] that the way of the kings of the east [ Kings of the East has reference to the Children Of Israel returning to the lands of their inheritance in the East as kings in the Kingdom of God. John has used the same reference to the faithful as becoming kings and queens, priests and priestesses - or those who will rule and reign in the House of Israel forever. Kings of the Lion, Bear and Leopard - Afghanistan is also east of these 3 countries Iran, Iraq & Syria-Lebanon. ] might be prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs [ Frogs are symbolic of reproduction, It is interesting to note that Islam is also one of the fastest-growing religions. CNN World News April 14 1997? the kingdoms of the the Lion, Bear and Leopard. ] come out of the mouth of the dragon, [ Satan. ] and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. [? Muhammad; Wormwood. ] [ They are all tied together 3 frogs speaking the voice of satan thru one false prophet. These lying spirits go forth throughout the world in the hopes of convincing mankind to join then and destroy the Jews in Jerusalem. At this point the Jews are the only portion of the House of Israel within the power of wormwood and Satan to destroy as the Americas are now protected by the return of at least a portion of the ten tribes and have sent wormwood and satan packing. ]
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, [ For the first time in history, Islam is now spreading into the Western world. ] to gather them to the battle [ Note the location of this prophecy: the River Euphrates, a river that runs between Iran and Iraq and into Syria. What other group might have such power today? What other group has such hatred against Christians & Jews? ] of that great day of God Almighty.
15 Behold, I come as a thief. [ He's coming to see if we are awake if we're doing our job if we're keeping our covenants. The phrase, thief in the night, is a Hebrew idiom, and refers to the practice mentioned in Leviticus 6:8-13 which stated that the priest who was in charge must wear linen clothing and must keep the fires of the altar burning: “The burnt offering is to remain on the altar hearth throughout the night, till morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar. The priest shall then put on his linen clothes, with linen undergarments next to his body, . . . The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.” The priests were assigned to constantly watch over the altar fire and over the Menorah and were never to fall asleep during their night of service. In order to insure that the priest(s) stayed awake, the High Priest (or the Captain Of The Guards) would walk around the Temple looking for the priest(s). If a priest was found sleeping during a surprise visit, the High Priest (or Captain) would take hot coals from the altar fire, place some of the hot coals in a fire pan and take them over to the sleeping priest. He would then gently place the pan and hot coals under the sleeping priest’s clothing. The priest’s linen clothing would soon be ignited in flames – clothing in those days did not have flame retardant chemicals imbedded into the cloth as do modern clothes. The guilty priest would have no choice but to leave his burning clothes and run burnt, naked, and ashamed back home. Quite a lesson not to fall asleep on the job or to be un-alert! It was this practice of surprise visits that according to Jewish tradition got the High Priest (or the Captain) nicknamed the “Thief In The Night”! This provides a symbolic teaching for us that we like the priest's of old are not to fall asleep while we are waiting for the Lord to return as the Lord taught in Matthew 24:42-44. ] Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, [ The "captain of the temple" - would take his walks through every watch with torches lighted before him: if he found any upon the watch, that was not standing on his feet, he said, Peace be with thee: but if he found him sleeping, he struck him with a stick, and he might also burn his clothes. And when it was said by others, What noise is that in the court? the answer was, It is the noise of a Levite under correction, whose garments they are burning, because he slept upon his watch. Hence because he slept his garments were burned and he became naked. See Lightfoot. ] lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. [ If he was asleep on his watch and caught the high priest (or Captain) would take hot coals from the altar fire, place some of the hot coals in a fire pan and take them over to the sleeping priest. He would then gently place the pan and hot coals under the sleeping priest’s clothing. The priest’s linen clothing would soon be ignited in flames – clothing in those days did not have flame retardant chemicals imbedded into the cloth as do modern clothes. The guilty priest would have no choice but to leave his burning clothes and run burnt, naked, and ashamed back home. ]
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. [ While they think they are gathering together to put an end to the Jews it is really God who is bringing them together for their own destruction. Ezekiel refers to this great event as the battle between Gog and Magog. Ezra sees it as the last two feathers that were held until the very end, John sees it as the last stand of Wormwood and Satan.IN the ancient War Scrolls it is referred to as the battle between the son's of Light and the son's of darkness. They all refer to the same event however. ]
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the great city [ Jerusalem. ] was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: [ 75 pounds. ] and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. [ So great that there is literally no way to withstand such destruction unless you have the protection from a divine source. God will have to provide for the Saints during this time as it will be greater than the ability of man to withstand. Think about what things will look like on the earth. In vs 20 you had all of the mountains leveled, and with hail stones weighting 75 pounds falling thousands of feet, well when the hit they will thrash all vegetation, they will level the buildings that where not destroyed by the massive earthquakes. The earth quakes would have taken care of most of the larger buildings, maybe some of the smaller structures could have survived the earthquakes but the hail stones not a chance. ]