Revelation Chapter 15

Revelation 15:1

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

John sees another sign in heaven that he describes as great and amazing. These are not usually words we would associate with plagues that are finishing up the wrath of God. Even if we believe it is God’s right to pour forth wrath upon the earth, in a fleshly sense it might seem to us unfair or mean or dare I say, unjust. But those words don’t describe what John saw but instead the sign is great and amazing. Naturally the question must then come up, how does he glean the words great and amazing out of this sign? I would argue that these descriptive words are not gleaned words, as in a leftover perspective of something God has to do to finish these events; but instead His great and amazing power He shows is very much in our face, that He can show us completely who He is and how great the riches of His glory are. “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory”. Paul explains to us in Romans that the people that are to endure the full wrath of God were created for this purpose. God in fact created them as a vessel of wrath, destined for destruction. These vessels had absolutely no hope of being saved because God did not fashion them for that purpose but instead continues in His purpose of election as it is written, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” This seems harsh due to the fact that they never had a chance but neither of the vessels are in any position to argue with the potter about how He chose to make us. Instead we will look upon this great and amazing sign in the way John did; that God does this to make known the riches of His glory for the vessels of mercy. To deny God His right to pour out His wrath upon the earth is to deny the fullness of His glory. The truth is every last one of us had a choice and we all chose in this way: “All have turned away; all alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.” Now there are many, and some of them being Christian that refuse to allow God to show His glory in this way. It is incomprehensible to them that there exists a portion of His glory that is only shown through the destruction of the dishonorable vessels. I can’t help but wonder when these events begin to transpire if those Christians that refuse to believe God can do such a thing, will be shown to be vessels of destruction. This is the God we serve and if we reject this teaching we are in danger of fulfilling another one of God’s prophecies, “They have stumbled over the stumbling stone...Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” Sometimes in our fleshly thinking, the acts of our Holy God seem to be a rock of offense that some have and will stumble over on their way to becoming vessels of wrath.

ref: Romans 9:22-23, 32-33; Matthew 22:14

Revelation 15:2

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.

The last time we saw a sea of glass was back in Rev. 4. “From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.” Now we don’t know exactly the meaning of symbols in this vision mean but it is interesting that John saw the 7 torches of fire before the throne and the sea of glass before the throne and now he is describing the sea of glass mingled with fire. Is this the Holy Spirit being kindled before the throne of God in preparation for the finishing of His wrath? I cannot say for certain but the similarities between the two scenes is very striking especially when we get to a later verse that says that smoke filled the temple so no one could enter it. This is especially intriguing once you put another verse with it saying, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face:now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” If the glass (or mirror) is seen in part (darkly), then perhaps the sea as clear as crystal is the unhindered view of God; and an unhindered view of God will most certainly include fire since there are many scriptures that describe Him in this way.

Now on to the people who are holding the harps. Once again these are the people we have formerly seen in heaven. First we saw them underneath the altar and then later with white robes and holding palm branches in their hands, and now holding harps ready to sing a song. If you remember our discussion (see link below) regarding the palm branches we talked about this being the feast of booths mentioned in the old testament. The point I want to focus on today is this verse, “You are to celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress.” It would appear that the previous scene in Revelation 7 takes place after the full number had been killed and after the angels have gathered everything from the threshing floor and the grapes in the winepress have been trampled. This was the instruction God gave them so it stands to reason that He was trying to teach them something about the way His Son was going to be making His return and about how God should be glorified in it. So after they are seen with palm branches in their hands following the destruction at the winepress we will see God’s anger kindled and then finally in full blaze. And the people’s reaction to these events?..they sing a song in praise and honor to God.

ref: Revelation 4:5-6; 1 Corinthians 13:12; Deuteronomy 16:13; Revelation 7:9

Revelation 15:3

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!

Just a few people in scripture rose up enough in status to be actually compared and mentioned with our Savior Jesus. Not that they stand beside Him as equals but obeyed God enough that He would show them that kind of honor. Here Moses is referenced as “the servant of God” and I would argue this is one of the greatest honors given to us as people. For it is written, “Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son.” Faithful as a servant in all God’s house as a servant. We don’t often hear words like this in the modern church possibly because we are too busy equating ourselves as near equals of God. Today He is our buddy and friend and daddy. We no longer show reverence and fear and in fact the word fear gets erased entirely from our vocabulary when discussing our feelings toward the Almighty. Nevertheless those who were seen earlier crying out to God under the altar, wanting Him to avenge their blood, they begin to sing the servant’s song; the song of both Moses and the Lamb.

The last time we saw Moses in song was back in Deuteronomy and was basically saying the same things seen here. “For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” Then speaking of Israel, Moses would go on to describe the turning away of Israel from God in a way that is strikingly similar to what we are witnessing the gentiles do in the pages of Revelation. Moses sang, “They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded." This sounds strikingly similar to how Daniel described Leviathan, “He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god.” What follows in the rest of Moses’ song are the things God was to send upon the Israelites for their idol worship. Closer study of this will take you almost identically to the plagues and judgements we saw being played out earlier in Revelation. His anger is kindled to devour the earth, spent arrows on them, waste them away with hunger, devouring them by plague and pestilence. He will send beasts against them, the sword prevails against them and it says He would have wiped them from existence had it not been for His enemies because then others would say that it wasn’t the Lord who did all these things. This is profound and answers (at least partially) the reason He doesn’t erase life from the earth, because some would say that His enemies prevailed rather than Him.

ref: Hebrews 3:5-6; Deuteronomy 32:1-43; Daniel 11:38-39

Revelation 15:4

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed."

In the last lesson we discussed the song Moses sang in Deuteronomy. The end of the song echoes the end of this song as well. "Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's land." There is a re-iteration for all to worship Him and there is clarification on His righteous acts being revealed. He avenges the blood of his children. If you remember, those who are singing this are those that were under the altar calling for God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” How appropriate is it for these to sing this song and finally be avenged by the Lord they were pleading with! His righteous acts involve taking vengeance on His adversaries and repaying those who hate Him. He does this by treading the winepress of wrath. Furthermore there is a call to cleanse His people’s land which we discussed pretty thoroughly in previous lessons in the form of waiting until the harvest and gathering the weeds from among the wheat so they may be gathered and burned. Everything Moses sang about seems to be fulfilling itself before our very eyes and it is difficult not to be shocked by the way that it is happening. We say things like 'we believe in scripture being real' but when we actually see prophecies coming true it is funny how we are still shocked that it happened exactly as He destined it to be. We do fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name for You alone are holy.

ref: Deuteronomy 32:1-43; Revelation 6:10

Revelation 15:5

After this I looked, and the heavenly sanctuary — the tabernacle of testimony — was opened.

Imagine what we have seen in heaven thus far. We’ve seen thrones, an altar, and a sea of glass which was later mixed with fire. We saw the Spirits of God, living creatures, angels, and elders. We’ve seen a Lamb looking slain and flashes of lightening, along with palm branches and white robes. All these things are glorious and sometimes difficult to imagine in their splendor. Then now we see the heavenly sanctuary, the tabernacle of testimony in heaven. Try to imagine what this sanctuary looks like. Especially if you live in the western world, you might imagine something splendid and grandiose. I imagine great pillars and something probably along the lines of the temple Solomon built. I imagine the same sort of thing the disciple were trying to point out to Him as impressive right before He proclaimed, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” So what exactly is this tabernacle John sees in heaven? This word tabernacle is literally translated as “tent”. So John sees the heavenly sanctuary, the tent of testimony. This is a different kind of idea as to what we think is in heaven even though scripture fully supports this. When Moses was given the instructions to build the tabernacle that Israel was to carry with them into the promised land it was to be made as the pattern show to him on the mountain. Moses was given a pattern for the tent that mirrored exactly this tent seen in heaven. In the history lesson given by Stephen in Acts he said Israel had the tabernacle of testimony with them in the wilderness but then says something that brings the people to anger. He said it was this way until the time of David who asked if He could build a house for God but it was Solomon who actually does it and then says, “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says, ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things?’” Going forward to Hebrews it mentions tents again as a temporary situation as those with faith were strangers and foreigners on earth. “By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob...For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.” After all the acts we experience in Revelation we will come to see this city with foundations, whose designer and builder is God. It goes on to say that in the city with foundations that it had no temple for the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are its temple. So it seems that there is this tent in heaven because God had no intention in making heaven His permanent resting place, just as the earth was not to be Abraham’s final resting place. And it seems the Christian’s main objective in life is to make it to heaven and I wonder if they realize that a time will come where heaven and earth will actually pass away as the holy city becomes the final dwelling place of God and His servants whom He has chosen.

ref: Matthew 24:1-2; Acts 7:44-50; Hebrews 11:9-10

Revelation 15:6

and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.

Out of the tent of testimony came seven angels. These angels were in the sanctuary with God, receiving the seven last plagues. This got me thinking about the way we perceive angels to behave. I’ve heard sermons and teachings about the time when Jesus was about to be taken when He said He could call on His Father and at once legions of angels would be at His disposal. I’ve heard it said that the angels were just sitting there waiting for the opportunity to attack. The image given that they are naturally inclined to want to destroy us and the only thing holding them back is God. While there may be truth to this we cannot say with certainty that this is the case. This may seem like a moot point but there may be evidence that the angels are actually inclined not to want to harm us unless specifically instructed to by God. After God had destroyed the earth by water, He spoke to Noah saying, “And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” Now it doesn’t speak specifically of angels here but God is speaking in a very firm way about the shedding of human blood and it’s hard to imagine that the angels were not listening to His commands. The lifeblood of men requires a reckoning so though we tend to not think twice about saying (even in play) that we would shoot someone in a second, I imagine the angels would give pause to such a thought. As for these seven angels, they are dressed for action. They are clothed in bright linen, and much like Jesus are seen with golden sashes around their chests. They have the approval and command from God to deliver the final plagues upon the earth and I imagine that this is not something that they take lightly or go and perform with a great amount of joy. They are about to pour destruction upon creatures that are made in the image of God and afterward await their own judgement...and Paul states that this judgement will be coming from mankind.

ref: Genesis 9:5-6; 1 Corinthians 6:3

Revelation 15:7

And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever,

With the return of one of the living creatures to the scene we’ll do a quick rehash of them. We don’t know which one of the creatures it is in this scene but you’ll remember that one was like a lion, another an ox, another had a face like a man, and the other was like an eagle in flight. They were full of eyes in front and in back and their distinguishing characteristic was that they never ceased saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” So even as one of them are handing the bowls of wrath to the angels they are sure to be saying this line, almost reminding them that the Lord God Almighty is holy and lives forever and ever. Of all the words they choose to repeat in multiples it is important to us that holy is the word of choice. We say this word possibly without the benefit of knowing what it means. Holy, in a word, is sacred. Going further it means pure, morally blameless, and consecrated. God is sacred. He truly is and was and is to come; being everything past, present and future. He is pure and blameless. Who is able to bring a charge against Him? We are not able to speak back to Him or question His motives for He will do what He wants to do without repercussion or blame placed on Him. We could go on forever speaking this way about Him and how great He is so the creatures summed it up with the simple word “holy”.

One other note about this scene is that the creature hands over seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God. The last time we saw golden bowls they were also in the hands of the living creatures and the 24 elders. They were full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. I do wonder if these bowls have anything to do with one another or if they are the same bowls for that matter. You might remember back in chapter 8 that an angel came forward and had a golden censer with the prayers of the saints and filled the censer with fire and hurled it to the earth. Apparently the prayers of saints, whether added with fire or mixed with the wrath of God, have great power. We had previously talked about the cup of wrath God will pass around in in several places it is said to be mixed or even mixed well. There will come a time when this wrath is full strength but now possibly being mixed with the prayers of saints there may still be hope for those that repent. The preferred desire is repentance, even receiving the wrath of God the aim is to have us learn from that, turn from our evil ways and be saved. In the next chapter this will be the theme played out, that they are not receiving the full wrath of God but wrath that desires repentance and possibly a final chance at salvation.

ref: Revelation 4:6-8, 5:8-10

Revelation 15:8

and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

We’ve already discussed this sanctuary a little bit and now we’ve come to a point in scripture the likes of which we haven’t really encountered yet. The power of God is something we contemplate on often but don’t fully understand, and I don’t think we ever will. To fathom just a little bit of what God has His finger on is an insurmountable task. We are so focused on our lives and cannot really get that straightened out for long periods of time, that it is difficult to imagine throwing one more responsibility on us; much less upholding all of existence. The amount of things He has to control in time and history to make it to this very moment and have it happen exactly as He planned it to happen is not something we can get a grasp on. Nevertheless we have made it to this point and now it seems God is focusing His attention on the bowls of wrath that are about to be poured out and His power is concentrated. The sanctuary fills with smoke from His glory and power. Think about that. His power and glory are so pronounced that they become a physical thing for John to see. When we get mad we might turn a little red and possibly start to shake in our bodies. When God focuses His power there is literally smoke filling the tent. Not only that but think of everyone scripture says is in the vicinity. We have living creatures and elders along with countless angels and possibly even dead men with white robes; and none of them are able to enter the tent. Those in heaven are what we would consider immortal and ought to be able to withstand a little smoke and a taste of God’s power and glory but no; that is how different He is from His creation. It is unfathomable how much better He is than everything that is beneath Him. Sometimes we put up in our minds Satan vs. God but this does not even rise to a challenge for our God. He doesn’t even have to leave His throne in order to destroy all of what He has created. It is verses like this that should give us pause in our minds and make us rethink who we believe God to be. He is not like us nor anything else we might conjure in our minds. Today, we fear you O Lord.