The 7 Bowls

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.” Revelation 16:1

The book of Revelation is really a book of “double mention.” The tribulation, the rapture, and the pouring out of God’s wrath are all mentioned twice. In fact, the first 11 chapters of Revelation give you the macro view of the end-times while the next 11 chapters give you the micro view. Revelation 16 is a parallel passage to Revelation 8 and they both describe the pouring out of God’s wrath once the rapture of believers has taken place. Instead of the seven trumpets he saw earlier, the vision John sees now consists of seven bowls:

Bowl #1 (16:2): Judgment will come upon the earth and men will be afflicted with foul and loathsome sores. When you compare this fi rst bowl with the first trumpet, you can understand that the sores will most probably be caused by hail and fi re falling from the sky.

Bowl #2 (16:3): When the second bowl was poured into the sea, it turned into blood. This is exactly what happened with the second trumpet when the “sea became blood” (8:8).

Bowl #3 (16:4): The rivers and springs of water will also become blood and undrinkable. This is exactly what happened with the third trumpet when a third of the waters became bitter (8:10-11).

Bowl #4 (16:8-9): Upon the pouring of the fourth bowl, the heat from the sun scorches the wicked on the earth. Again this ties in with the fourth trumpet (8:12-13).

Bowl #5 (16:10-11): Here we see men cursing God because they are tormented by great pains and sores. In the fifth trumpet, creatures that can fly like locusts and sting like scorpions were released from the bottomless pit. The poison injected by the creatures will render victims incapable of thinking, leaving them in such pain that they will wish they could die but will be unable to plan their own death (9:1-6).

Bowl #6 (16:12-14): Three unclean spirits from Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet were released to deceive the kings of the nations to battle at Armageddon. The most disastrous war in human history will explode in the Middle East. The River Euphrates is one of the most important rivers in the world because the history of the world as we know it began at this river. Likewise, with the pouring of the sixth bowl, the history of the world will also end at this river. Again, this coincides with the judgment brought by the sixth trumpet in Revelation 9:13-21.

Bowl #7 (16:17-21): Like the seventh trumpet, great hailstones will come down from heaven, each weighing a talent (approximately 27 kg). This plague of hail will be so exceedingly great that it will destroy the armies that come against Israel. This ends the Battle of Armageddon and ushers in the millennial kingdom of Christ.