Revelation 15-16 "Armageddon"

1. Armageddon

a. Science Fiction
150 years ago, H. G. Wells wrote "A dream of Armageddon". He wrote it before the time of nuclear bombs, yet he saw that by modernising technology, battles of the future will be on a massive scale. The name 'Armageddon' comes from Rev 16:16, which translates "The Mountain of Megiddo". It's a place in the middle east. It overlooks 2 great roads of trade and commerce. In the past, there were many battles there. For example, we read of a major battle in Judges 5 that was in Megiddo.

b. Old Testament battles
There were many battles in the Old Testament of the Bible, but perhaps the greatest of them all was the battle in Egypt. It was the battle that brought the people of God out of Egypt. They were slaves in Egypt. They had no standing army of their own and were powerless to escape from slavery under the hands of the Egyptians. But God sent 10 plagues onto Egypt, through a person called Moses, forcing Pharaoh to let God's people go. Pharaoh was so stubborn in allowing them to go that even after he had let them go, he chased after them, only to finally be stopped by the Red Sea. God parted the Red Sea, allowing His people to cross, but drowned Pharaoh's army as they gave chase through the parted Red Sea.

c. Battle against God
In Revelation 15 and 16, we read of another battle against God. Here, it is the dragon against God (Rev 16:16). Those who are on the dragon's side, the evil governments of the world and the false philosophies of the world, summarised as Beast 1 and 2 in the previous chapters. It echoes of the Exodus. The clearest indication that this battle echoes of the Exodus is that there are 7 plagues (Rev 15:1)

2. Seven last plagues

a. Read as a whole
These are the complete, total last plagues. (Number 7 symbolises completion). Armageddon as we read in Rev 16 is the last plague, but really, should be read together with the other plagues.

b. "Last"
It's called last plagues, because it is about the very end -judgment day. Last week, in Rev 14, we saw the picture of judgment day. Rev 15-16 should be seen like an action replay of the same event in Rev 14.

c. Song of Moses & the Lamb
In Rev 14:2-3, we get a glimpse of what happens to those who conquer the beast and its image, those who have been redeemed from the earth - they are playing harps and singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. In Rev 15:3-4, we see what they are singing - they are singing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. What is the song of Moses? It was first sung after the Israelites saw the Egyptian army being drowned in the Red Sea:

"Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, 
"I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name. 
Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.' You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 
Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them."You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased. You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The LORD will reign forever and ever. For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea." (Exodus 15:1-19)

But here in Rev 15:3, it is now also called the Song of the Lamb. It is all about the victory of God. God is mighty. God is powerful. All the nations will glorify Him. It was similar back then in the Exodus, when the world's most powerful army (like the present day US Army) was wiped out by God.

Why is it called the Song of the Lamb, the song of Jesus? It has got to do with 'typology'. There are things in the New Testament that are types of the Old Testament. Things in the Old Testament which are pattern of things in the New Testament, visual aids, to teach us certain truths. What does the Exodus teach us? It teaches us that God is powerful, powerful to save. He saves His people from slavery by destroying His enemies.

When we look forward to the New Testament, the song of Moses becomes the song of the Lamb, because in Jesus, as we go into another time frame of history, we find the same pattern occurring, where once again God's people are enslaved to sin, unable to pull themselves out of slavery to sin, and heading to be punished in hell. But Jesus comes as God's servant, who by His death on the cross, by rising again, rescues His people out of slavery, as God defeats His enemies, not the Egyptians this time, but the dragon.

God doesn't just try to save us, He is powerful to save us. He is able to save us.

d. From the tabernacle
The song is sung before the bowls of wrath come (Rev 16:1). The bowls are from the tabernacle. They come from the angels who carry them, and these angels come from the tabernacle (Rev 15:5-6). It reminds us of the Exodus, because after the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were to make a tent, a tabernacle, a sanctuary. In this tabernacle, God was to dwell in the Holy of Holies. It was a symbol for God's dwelling place. But in Rev 15:5-7, we see the real dwelling place. No one can enter God's dwelling place till the seven plagues are finished (Rev 15:8).

e. Bowls of wrath
The seven bowls are the full, complete bowl of God's wrath (Rev 15:7). Not half full, but over-the-brim full.

3. God's wrath poured out

The idea of God's wrath is not popular today. Some people think that the God of Christianity is a cruel monster. Atheists would think the world is better off without religion. They believe Christianity makes humanity worse. Is God really inhuman?

a. Plagues on Egypt
We must look at the bowls together, not individually. Together, they are the last 7 plagues of God. They are a big echo of the 10 plagues in the Exodus.

Rev 16:2 - sores and boils
Rev 16:3 - sea turned to blood
Rev 16:10 - darkness
Rev 16:12 - river is dried up
Rev 16:13 - frogs
Rev 16:21 - hailstones

These are the same stuff as the 10 plagues. It is a symbolic reminder of the phyiscal destruction of Egypt. Back in the Old Testament, it was real hailstones. But the symbol of the Old Testament plagues, is not as bad as the real thing. The real judgment of God, is actually worse than sores and hailstones. It is being outside the goodness of God.

These are judgments on creation. They are poured out on the earth (Rev 16:1), on the sea (Rev 16:3), on the rivers and streams (Rev 16:4), on the sun (Rev 16:8), into the air (Rev 16:17)

They are poured out on all creation. The apostle Peter writes, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!" (2 Peter 3:10-12)

The world as we know it will come to an end. In Rev 21-22, we read that there will be a new heavens and a new earth.

b. "Smart bowls"
These 7 bowls which are poured out are 'smart bowls', like 'smart bombs'. These bowls are smart because they target - 'the people who have the mark of the beast' (Rev 16:2), those who shed the blood of the saints and prophets (Rev 16:6), those who continue to curse God (Rev 16:9, 11), the throne of the beast (Rev 16:10). The great city of Babylon that persecutes God (Rev 16:19) is the kingdom that splits into 3.

It sounds very much like the Exodus. The 10 plagues only affected the Egyptians, not the Israelites. Judgment day is God's wrath on those who are not His people. These 7 plagues are terrible. In Rev 8 and 9, we read of the 7 trumpets, which remind of the Exodus as well. They were warning signs of the things already happening in our world today. But back in Rev 8 and 9, it was a third of things which were destroyed. A third of the sun, a third of the earth etc.

c. Total
But in Rev 16, it is total.  

Rev 16:3 - every living thing in the sea died.  
Rev 16:20 - no island and no mountain is left.

God is finally taking His vengeance on those who reject and hate Him.

d. Martyrs avenged
In Rev 6:10, those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne, Christians, cried out in a loud voice "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" They were given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of fellow servants and their brothers should be complete.

In Rev 16, it is time.

e. Final battle
The bowls build up to the final battle. In the Old Testament, Euphrates was seen as the eastern border of civilisation, beyond which were barbarians. God now allows it to be dried up so that the hordes, kings from the east could come across and invade the known world (Rev 16:12).

"And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (Rev 16:13-14)

That is, God is allowing Satan and his evil governments, false evil philosophies and wrong religions, telling lies to gather people around the world to make war against God. It is just like atheists going around recruiting more atheists to go against God. Their arguments are really bad -- by taking the worst of religion, they say all religion is bad. It's as good as saying science produced the terrible atomic bombs and weapons of mass destruction, therefore all science is bad.

f. Done!
But just as the enemies are gathered at Armageddon (Rev 16:16), the seventh angel pours out his bowl and exclaims "It is done!" (Rev 16:17) It is finished. Babylon is destroyed without a struggle. It is a walk over. There is no hope for the forces of evil, those on the dragon's side, to win on judgment day (Rev 16:18-21).

g. Agony.. yet unrepentant!
Those on the dragon's side will experience agony - harmful and painful sores (Rev 16:2), they have to drink blood (Rev 16:6), they will be scorched by the sun (Rev 16:8), they will gnaw their tongues in anguish (Rev 16:10), just like Jesus had predicted earlier. They will be pounded by enormous hailstones (Rev 16:21)

The people who are undergoing these awful plagues, curse the name of God, who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give God glory (Rev 16:9, 11). Instead of knowing that they have done wrong, they curse God who has done justice.

Rev 15 and 16 gives us this graphic picture of hell. God's anger poured out to the full. Is God really a wicked monster, like some atheists claim him to be?

4. Armageddon: God's ANGER

a. Power, justice & glory
He is powerful. Just as He is powerful to save, He is powerful in defeating His enemies. Some people are angry, but not powerful, e.g. a young girl throwing tantrums - very angry, but not powerful at all!

In these 2 chapters, God is described as Lord God Almighty (Rev 15:3, 16:7, 14). God's anger is just. He is not evil in His anger.

Our society is confused with the purpose of our jails. We may think 1) they are to there to protect society - keep the criminals off the streets. 2) to deter others from committing crimes 3) to correct, rehabilitate. However, without retributive justice, it is actually unjust, actually cruel, immoral. With 1) alone, you'll end up with the situation in Minority Report, where people are put in jail before they do anything wrong. With 3) alone, you can end up with a police state, where those who don't fit in with society will be sent to jail for 'rehabilitation'. With 2) alone, the state can easily chop off the hands of thieves to to deter people. Yet in all these 3 scenarios, these are all unjust.

God is not a cruel monster, because humanity deserves its punishment for sinning against God. Just and true are God's ways (Rev 15:3, Rev 16:5, 7). we keep saying to God, 'get lost' - no matter how we express that, whether in establishing our own morality or our purposes in life.

In hell, even if haters of God were given an opportunity to repent, they would not. They will continue to curse God for eternity. God is not a cruel monster. He is just judge.

What about our loved ones who don't turn to God? God's judgment is glorious (Rev 15:4). It shows His holiness. We must learn to love God's glory, even more than our own family members. If anyone who does evil, hating God and can ultimately get away with it, it is unfair. Then God is unjust, He is not glorified.

b. Who will win?
The real question is not who will win - the real question is whose side we are on.

c. Whose side will you be on?
We are either on one or the other. There is no neutral ground. Are we on the side of the saints, the side of God's people, those who can enter the throne room of God, who will sing the victory one, the blessed ones who are awake and have garments on (Rev 16:15).

Rev 16:15 - what does it mean to be awake and have the garments on? Being awake alludes the letter to the seven churches (Rev 3). The church of Sardis had the appearance of being alive, but they were dead. They need to wake up! (Rev 3:1-3). Having garments on alludes to the letter to Laodicea - Rev 3:14-18. They are lukewarm - they think they are ok, they are rich, needing nothing, but in fact they are poor and naked. Jesus will spit them out of His mouth. Rather, we should be clothed with white clothes, which refer not just to purity, but victory (white signifies victory in Jewish culture). They are white because the robes have been washed in the blood of the Lamb (Rev 7:13-14)

d. Unexpected
All of us deserve the judgment laid out in Rev 15-16, if we don't turn back to Jesus. Some of us may think we would rather 'enjoy' life now, and turn back to Jesus later at our deathbed. But how do we know we will turn back then if we don't turn now? As we perpetuate our decision, we make it harder to turn back later. And by postponing the decision, 'not wanting to make a decision now', we are making a decision - a decision to keep Him on hold. And thirdly, Jesus says, He is coming like a thief, anytime soon! Don't think Armageddon is a long way to go! We cannot be sure we will reach 40 or 80 before Jesus returns.

So whose side are you on?