Vials of Wrath

 

Revelation 16:1, 9:  “Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth/land”:

 

            The word translated “vial” by KJV is translated “bowls” by RSV.  The Hebrew word in view here is probably mîzrâq, a bowl for throwing or tossing liquid.  It is from the root zâraq meaning to sprinkle or toss.  It was probably the bowls used for catching the blood of the sacrifices that was used for sprinkling.

            It is interesting to note that the sacrificial blood was to be sprinkled ‘seven times,’ Leviticus 4:6, 17; 14:7; 16:14, 19; Numbers 19:4.  Here in Revelation we find that there were seven bowls to be used in seven sprinklings of wrath.

            These bowls for use in the tabernacle in the wilderness were made of silver, (Num. 7:84).  Some of the bowls, however, were made of bronze, (Exod. 27:3; 38:3).  In Solomon’s temple they were made of gold, (1 Kings 7:50; 2 Kings 12:13; 1 Chronicles 28:17; 2 Chronicles. 4:8, 11, 22).  These vessels were all carried away to Babylon when Nebuchadnezzar carried Judah captive, (2 Kings 25:15; Jeremiah 52:19).  When Nehemiah was restoring the services after the captivity, he received offerings of gold for the vessels of the temple, (Neh. 7:70). In this heavenly temple, the vessels are of gold.  Angels, (ministering spirits), are the ones who sprinkle, or rather “pour out” the blood of God’s wrath.

            Ezekiel foresaw the time when the nation would be regathered and be holy through the sprinkling of clean water, (Ezek. 36:25-29).  This is fulfilled in the New Jerusalem when the holy city is washed by the river of life, (Revelation 21 and 22).

            Isaiah 52:15 foretells that Jesus would be the sacrifice for the purifying of many nations from sin:

So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for [that] which had not been told them shall they see; and [that] which they had not heard shall they consider. (Isaiah 52:15)

            Hebrews 9:6-28 shows clearly how the sacrifice of Christ and the application of His blood is the fulfillment of the Old Testament pattern. (See also Hebrews 11:28; 12:24).  The “chosen people” of Israel, those who accept Christ, are “sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with His blood.” (1 Pet. 1:2). 

            Tragically, not all who heard the Gospel of Christ accepted His sacrifice, even those of fleshly Israel who had been taught the ordinances of God.  For those as well as all others who reject the truth there remains no further sacrifice for sin, Hebrews 10:26-31, and they come under the wrath of God who executes vengeance and fulfills the law.  It is the execution of the lawful wrath of God that we see carried out in the pouring out of the seven last plagues of the book of Revelation.

            Its immediate fulfillment was upon the unbelievers in the land of Judea and the city of Jerusalem in the first century.  Its ultimate fulfillment will be upon the entire race of Mankind upon planet earth when the Gospel has been fully preached to every creature and all creation, (Revelation 16:1-17:1).

            Bowls: The drunkards cup, a large bowl for the intemperate.  The time-telling sky was also pictured as a great inverted bowl filled with the events that transpired during that period of time.  As the time went by, the bowl was thought to be poured out.  Therefore, the seven great bowls of wrath would indicate seven time-periods, [perhaps years] of the judgments of God.

 

Armageddon

 

Revelation 16:16 RSV:  “And they assembled them at the place which is called in Hebrew Armageddon.”

The Armies and the War:  Revelation 16: 14, 16; 19:17-19.

The Weapons: Psalm 2:9; Isaiah 11:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Ephesians 6:17; Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 1:16; 2:12, 27; 19:15, 21.

The Armies and the War:

            The good news about Armageddon is that war is not inevitable. The fatalistic doctrine that everyone is destined to Armageddon is false and creates an apathetic despair.  As in the entire Bible, prophecy is a warning and shows us the choice between good and evil, life and death. 

The Weapons

            The weapon Christ uses against His foes is the Sword of His Mouth.  This sword is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, Ephesians 6:17.  If this “weapon” is used in time, it will prevent war, but even when war comes to the world, it will not be within those who are in Christ, (James 4:1-3).

            Christ is here acting as Priest, performing the ultimate sacrifice, the sacrifice of unredeemed Flesh.  On the one hand the penalty for unredeemed Flesh is death; on the other hand, through His own sacrificial death He can offer Life through the Word to those who accept it.  It is “the beast and the false prophet” that are thrown into the lake of fire.  The “beast” is the Flesh, and the false prophet is the spirit of idolatry, the worship of lies.  Even here Christ’s role is redemptive, for after the sacrifice of the Flesh, He “slays” the rest with the Word; in other words, He saves them.  Either way, the Flesh is slain, but through the Word souls can be redeemed from Death.

            The fury of the wrath of God is wrought when He allows sin to take its course in human affairs.  When men are given over to sin, it destroys them and they destroy one another.  God does not engage in carnal warfare; He simply allows men to remove themselves from under His protective cover where they are exposed to the murderous onslaughts of the destructive powers of Sin.  The universe is a hostile environment outside of God’s canopy.

            As always in Scripture sin brings about its own destruction. Sin is the enemy, not only of the soul, but also of the fleshly life, and either sooner or later destroys its host flesh.  Satan has access to men through sin and sin has access to men through the flesh and so satan works through the lusts of the flesh.  Through the lusts of the Flesh, wars are created, (James 4:1-2).

            Primarily, warfare is introduced into the individual soul because of sinful lusts and lack of faith.  This condition then automatically creates external wars on every level of social life, from the individual to the family, to the tribe, and nation.  The ultimate war, Armageddon, is only a consequence and outgrowth of the inner strife of each soul.  The sword of the Spirit deals with the inner problem, (Hebrews 4:12), and eliminates war from its roots.

            Gethsemane is the opposite of Armageddon.  Submission and surrender to God brings the inner peace that cannot be incited to war.

            When does Armageddon happen?  It happens to the individual soul when he has continued to reject the wooing of the Holy Spirit until He no longer strives with him.  It happens also on the corporate level to families, tribes, tongues and nations.  It happened historically in fulfillment of Scriptural prophecy upon the nation of Israel in AD 70 as a witness and an example to nations, churches and indeed to the whole race of mankind.  In every case the call to come out has gone forth and a remnant has been saved.  However, in the final and ultimate end, the Flesh must be either destroyed or translated into the likeness of Christ‘s glorified Body.  Until then, the Spirit and the Bride continue to say “Come.”

War‘s Companions:

            Famine and Pestilence always accompany war.  Indeed famine is the arrows of the Lord in judgment, (Ezek. 5:16), and the Lord fights against the wicked with famine and pestilence, (Jer. 21:5-7).  Indeed, when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, famine and pestilence were more grievous than death by the sword: 

Lamentations 4:9 RSV: Happier were the victims of the sword than the victims of hunger, who pined away, stricken by want of the fruits of the field.

Fulfilled Again in the Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70:

            Josephus (Wars, 5.13.7), tells how these same prophecies were finally fulfilled upon Jerusalem:

Manneus, the son of Lazarus, came running to Titus at this very time, and told him that there had been carried out through that one gate which was intrusted to his care no fewer than a hundred and fifteen thousand eight hundred and eighty dead bodies, in the interval between the fourteenth day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] when the Romans pitched their camp by the city, and the first day of the month Panemus, [Tamuz.]….After this man there ran away to Titus many of the eminent citizens, and told him the entire number of the poor that were dead; and that no fewer than six hundred thousand were thrown out at the gates, though still the number of the rest could not be discovered; and they told him farther, that when they were no longer able to carry out the dead bodies of the poor, they laid their corpses on heaps in very large houses, and shut them up therein; as also that a medimnus of wheat was sold for a talent; and that when, a while afterward, it was not possible to gather herbs, by reason all the city was walled about, some persons were driven to that terrible distress as to search the common sewers and old dung-hills of cattle, and to eat the dung which they got there; and what they of old could not so much as endure to see they now used for food.

 

Lamentation 4:10 Fulfilled

 

The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

 

            Josephus records:

Now there was a certain woman that dwelt beyond Jordan, her name was Mary; her father was Eleazar, of the village Bethezub, which signifies the House of Hyssop.  She was eminent for her family and her wealth, and had fled away to Jerusalem with the rest of the multitude, and was with them besieged therein at this time….and it was now become impossible for her any way to find any more food, while the famine pierced through her very bowels and marrow, when also her passion was fired to a degree beyond the famine itself: nor did she consult with anything but with her passion and the necessity she was in.  She then attempted a most unnatural thing; and snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, ‘O thou miserable infant! for whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition?  As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves!  This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us; yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other.  Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets and a bye-word to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews.’ As soon as she had said this, she slew her son; and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed.  Upon this the seditious came in presently and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not shew them what food she had gotten ready.  She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them; and withal uncovered what was left of her son.

            Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight; when she said to them, ‘This is mine own son; and what hath been done was mine own doing!  Come, eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself!  Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also.’ After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother.  Upon which the whole city was full of horrid action immediately; and while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard-of action had been done by themselves.  So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die; and those already dead were esteemed happy, because they had not lived long enough either to hear or see such miseries (Wars, 6.3.4).

 

Armageddon Defined

 

Revelation 16:16:  “And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.”

 

            The word ‘Armageddon‘ should be seen in the context of its definition “in the Hebrew tongue.”  It is most often seen as meaning ‘mount,’ (‘har’), plus ‘Megiddo‘ as referring to the town near the pass between the plain of Sharon and the valley of Jezreel.  This valley of Jezreel and the plain of Esdraelon was the scene of many Old Testament battles.

            Since the word, as such, is not found in the Hebrew Old Testament, it is necessary to look at the referents concerning this place of the great battle as well as to examine the possibilities for the Hebrew roots of the word.  It was originally probably not one word but rather a combination of words taken together.

            I suggest that the word may be divided in at least two ways: (1) har–Megid–dan, or: (2) (c)haram–gad (or gadud)-dan).  (The ancient Hebrew texts did not contain vowel markings.  It is common in any language that, in combining words, double letters combine into single letters. There are also many words in which the Hebrew letters ה, transliterated ‘h’, and ח, transliterated ‘ch’, often interchange in the orthography.)

            In (1), har–megid-dan, the first word is clearly har, ‘mountain’.  The second part, megid, ‘glorious,’ or ‘excellence.’  Or this part may be the word megiddo, abbreviated in the combination.  Megiddo is from the Hebrew root verb gadad, a form of which is gedud, used figuratively of God’s attacking forces, and His chastisement, Job 19:12, (25:3).  In Jeremiah 48:37 it is used as ‘a wound inflicted as a sign of mourning.’  The last part of this suggested division is dan, ‘to exercise judgment,’ ‘to execute judgment, requite.’

            This meaning of the word is appropriate considering the referents and the context.  In the context we see that the most excellent throne of Almighty God is judging and executing the penalty of judgment upon Babylon, verse 16:19.  This ultimate judgment and wrath of vengeance is the subject of the section following which is the seventh vial of wrath poured out; that is, 16:6 through 19:21.  Reference is made in 18:8-9 to “the Lord God who judges her.”  Also in 19:4, God is seated upon His throne as the Judge. 

            The second suggested form above, (2), (c)haram-gad (or gadud)-dan,) is also appropriate to the referents and context.  The word (c)haram means ‘ban, devote, exterminate…anathematize; excommunicate …’ [1]

            In Zechariah 12:11 we see the linking of Jerusalem with Hadad–rimmon.  This “day of the Lord” will be when “they look upon Him Whom they have pierced.”  John 19:34 quotes Zechariah 12:10 as having occurred in the crucifixion.  Some studies would place ‘Hadadrimmon’ in the plain of Jezreel which was in the plain of Megiddo, as does Zechariah 12:11.[2]. This would furnish the basis for use of the term ‘Armageddon‘ to symbolize the slaughter which occurred in the destruction of Jerusalem.

            A part of the valley of Kedron in Jerusalem, as it extended westward became known as the “valley of Hinnom.”  Jeremiah prophesied (19:1-14) that there would be a great slaughter and destruction of Judah and Jerusalem in which this valley would be filled with the unburied carcasses of the idolatrous unbelievers.  This was the valley in which, in the Old Testament, the idolaters had sacrificed their children to Molech, (Jer. 32:35) and so brought down the judgment of God upon the nation.  In the New Testament it is the place of burning of refuse and is called ‘Gehenna’ which is translated ‘hell.’

            Joel 3:2 speaks of the “valley of Jehoshaphat” as the place where God will gather all nations to the great judgment.  This is, by interpretation, “the valley of Jehovah‘s judgment,” since the name ‘Jehoshaphat’ means ‘Jehovah’s judgment’.  This will be “in the day when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem.”  In the same context of the destruction, however, there is also the restoration of God’s elect, the New Jerusalem.  (See Joel 3:1 and Revelation 19:6-9).

            Much of the literal fulfillment of this prophecy is recorded by the historian Josephus in his description of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 (Wars and Ant.).