Scripture Daily

Context No. 51 of 4322 · Revelation

Context · Reflection

Revelation 16:7-11: in context

7I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.” 8The fourth poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. 9People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory. 10The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was darkened. They gnawed their tongues because of the pain, 11and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. They still didn’t repent of their works.

Revelation runs its judgments in sets of seven, and the bowls are the last and heaviest. Seven angels pour out seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth, and this passage is the fourth and fifth. The sun is given power to scorch people with fire. Then the throne of the beast itself is struck, and its whole kingdom goes dark, and people gnaw their tongues in pain.

The refrain matters more than the disasters. Twice the text stops to say what the people did in response: they cursed the name of God, and they did not repent. Not could not. Did not. The plagues in this book are patterned on the plagues of Egypt, and they run into the same wall Pharaoh did, a heart that hardens under pressure rather than softening.

The other voice here is the altar, agreeing that God's judgments are true and just. In an earlier vision the souls of the martyrs were under that altar, asking how long. So the affirmation comes from the people who were killed, not from the people watching in comfort. Pain by itself changes no one's mind. What has gone wrong in my life lately that I have met with cursing rather than any change of direction?

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