J Philip Bible Readings

"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.

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. ³ And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,

⁵ After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, ⁶ and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes round their chests. ⁷ And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives for ever and ever, 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."

Revelation 15:1-8

The next two chapters constitute a further section of the book of Revelation. They deal with the seven vials of wrath. It is important to see the connection with what has gone before. We have already dealt with the seven seals, and the seven trumpets, and now the seven vials, in direct sequence. Indeed we can see the general progression of the whole book at this point as unfolding a great historical pattern, as one commentator has shrewdly pointed out. Through the preaching of the Word, Churches are established - this is the situation represented in chapters 1-3. Then, wherever the Word has made its way, persecution follows - this we see in the opening of the seals (chapters 4-7). Then come the answers of God in the trumpet judgments, to induce repentance in men (chapters 8-11) and when these fail to make men turn ('neither repented they') - because of the sinister, demonic powers at work behind the scenes (chapters 12-14), the final judgments of God are poured out in the vials of wrath (chapters 15, 16). The over-all pattern unfolded in Revelation corresponds therefore in a marked way with what history itself teaches us about the experience of the Church down the ages. We shall turn to a further consideration of this thought in tomorrow's Note; in the meantime it is valuable to pause to take a general, panoramic view of the argument as a whole, so as to keep the main picture and the main message in our minds.