Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Predestined suffering in the government of the world
I. All the dispensations of this suffering are under the direction of God. “And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon theearth.” From the very Shrine of the Almighty, the Holy of Holies, He deals out and regulates every item.
1. He orders their agents. Each of the “seven angels” or messengers are sent forth by Him. “Go your ways.” The Supreme Governor of the universe conducts His affairs through a vast system of secondary instrumentalities. There is not a pain that quivers in the nerve of any sentient being that comes not from Him. Is not this a soothing and a strengthening thought under all the dispensations of sorrow?
2. He appoints their seasons. The “seven angels” do not all come together, each has its period.
3. He fixes their places. Each of the seven angels who, under God, are to dispense the plagues, has his place assigned him. Each had his “vial,” or bowl, and each bowl had a place on which it was to be poured. The first came upon “the earth,” the second on “the sea,” the third upon “the rivers and fountains,” the fourth upon “the sun,” the fifth upon “the seat (throne) of the beast,” the sixth upon “the great river Euphrates,” and the seventh “into the air.” Whether there is a reference here to plagues in Egypt, or sufferings elsewhere, I know not.
4. He determines their character. The sufferings that came forth from the bowls were not of exactly the same kind or amount, some seemed more terrible and tremendous than others. The sufferings of some are distinguished by physical diseases, some by social bereavements, some by secular losses and disappointments, some by mental perplexities, some by moral anguish, etc. “Every heart knoweth its own bitterness.”
II. All the dispensations of this suffering have a great moral purpose. They are not malignant but merciful. They are not to ruin souls but to save them. They are curative elements in the painful cup of life; they are storms to purify the moral atmosphere of the world.
1. The righteous punishment of cruel persecution. “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
2. The righteous punishment of supreme worldliness. “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat (throne) of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues.” Worldliness in the ascendant is indeed like this beast pourtrayed in the Apocalypse. It sits supreme; it has a throne, a crown, a sceptre that extends over all.
3. The overwhelming ruin of organised wrong. Great Babylon, what is it? The moral evils of the world organised into its metropolis. Falsehood, sensuality, pride, ambition, impiety, fraud, tyranny, embodied in a mighty city. This is the Babylon, and all unredeemed men are citizens in it. The Divine purpose is to destroy it. All His dispensations are against it, and will one day shiver it to pieces. Take courage, be of good cheer!
III. All the dispensations of this suffering have an influence co-extensive with the universe. There was not a drop from the bowl in either of the angel’s hands that terminated where it fell. The contents of these bowls are not like showers falling on the rocks in summer, which having touched them are then exhaled for ever. No, they continue to operate. The bowl that fell on the earth became an evil and painful sore, that which fell on the sea became blood and death, that which fell upon the sun scorched mankind, that which fell on the beast spread darkness and agony in all directions, that which fell upon the Euphrates produced a drought, and drew out of the mouth of thedragon wild beasts and strange dragons, the bowl that poured out its contents on the air produced lightnings, and thunders, and earthquakes, causing Babylon to be riven asunder, and every mountain and valley to flee away. Observe--
1. Nothing in the world of mind terminates with itself. “No man liveth unto himself.” Each step we give will touch chords that will vibrate through all the arches of immensity.
2. Whatever goes forth from mind exerts an influence on the domain of matter. (David Thomas, D. D.)
The first five bowls
I. Ere the end cometh God’s judgments of wrath will be poured out upon the world.
II. God hath his “bowls” in which are the contents of his wrath waiting to be outpoured.
III. The bringing out of these hidden forces is foreseen and determined.
IV. When the angels of judgment pour out the “bowls,” all nature may be full of whips and stings (cf. Rev_16:1-4; Rev_16:8-11).
V. The effect of these judgments on ungodly men will be to excite to anger, and not to bring to repentance. “They repented not”; “they blasphemed” (Rev_16:9; Rev_16:11).
VI. The holy ones see in the Divine retribution a manifestation of righteousness. In Rev_16:5 “the angel of the waters” celebrates the righteousness of God, and in Rev_16:7 “the altar” is said to do it; so the Revised Version reads; meaning, probably, the soulsof the martyrs beneath it (Rev_6:9). Only those beings who are in full sympathy with the Divine righteousness and love are in a position to judge rightly of the Divine procedure. Note--
1. Although all Scripture points to trouble on a vastly greater scale than we as yet see it, ere the end shall come, yet on a smaller scale God’s judgments are ever at work. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” That which is a bulwark to the good is a detective to the evil.
2. Let us not forget that the wondrous way in which the balance of nature’s forces is preserved, so as to bring us life and peace and comfort, is owing, not to nature, but to God.
3. In our daily life we can sing of both mercy and judgment. No cup is all sweetness. A dash of bitter mingles with all. Not all bitter, lest we should pine away; not all sweet, lest we should become insensible to life’s peril and responsibilities.
4. We are indebted to Divine mercy even for the sanctifying effect of our trials. (C. Clemance,D. D.)
They repented not to give Him glory.
The hardened heart
“They repented not to give Him glory.” This impenitence is told of in Rev_9:20, and in this chapter again at Rev_9:11; Rev_21:1-27.
I. A very certain fact. The late Mr. Kingsley, in his book, “The Roman and the Teuton,” draws out at length the evidence both of the horrible sufferings and the yet more horrible impenitence of the Roman people in the days of their empire’s fall. He refers to these very verses as accurately describing the condition of things in those awful days, when the people of Rome “gnawed their tongues forpain, and blasphemed,” etc. (Rev_9:11). And it is to Rome and her fall that St. John is here alluding. There can hardly be doubt of that. But the sinners at Rome were not the only ones who, in spite of the judgments of God resting upon them, have, nevertheless, hardened their hearts. Who has not known of such things?
II. And very wonderful. We say a burnt child dreads the fire, but it is evident that they who have been “scorched with great heat” (verse 9) by the righteous wrath of God are yet not afraid to incur that wrath again. Nothing strikes us more than the persistent way in which, in the “day of provocation in the wilderness,” the Israelites went on sinning, notwithstanding all that it brought upon them in the way of punishment.
III. And very awful. “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” “Why should ye be stricken any more?”--no good comes of it, punishment does not make any difference.
IV. But yet not inexplicable. For--
1. Times of such distress as are told of here are just the most unfavourable times of all others for that serious, earnest thought which would lead to repentance. Distress distracts the mind, drags it hither and thither, so that it cannot stay itself upon God. To trust to the hour of death to turn unto God is, indeed, to build upon the sand.
2. Resentment against their ill-treatment holds their mind more than aught else. Where that fear is not, God’s wrath will exasperate, enrage, and harden, but there will be no repentance.
3. They attribute their sufferings to every cause but the true one.
4. “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil “ (Ecc_8:11). (S. Conway,B. A.)
Judgments and no repentance: repentance and no salvation
I. Judgments, apart from Divine grace, may produce a kind of repentance.
1. Judgment may produce a carnal repentance--a repentance that is of the flesh, and after the manner of the sinful nature of men. Though the man changes, he is not savingly changed: he becomes another man, but not a new man. The thunders, and the storms, and the hail, and the noisome sores can produce in men nothing more than a fleshly repentance; and flesh repenting is still flesh, and tends to corruption.
2. And hence, again, it is but a transient repentance. They repent but for a season. While they see the immediate evil of their sin in its results, they cry out as if they really hated sin; but their hatred is only a little tiff, which lasts for a while, and then they make friends with their sins, as Pilate made friends with Herod. Their goodness is as the morning cloud; and as the early dew it passes away.
3. Such a repentance is superficial. It only affects the surface of the man. It does not go to the heart, it is hardly more than skin deep. Beware of a superficial repentance, for God abhors it. God is not mocked; He sees the loathsomeness of the ulcer through the film which seeks to hide it.
4. The awful terrors of God may produce a despairing repentance. What an awful thing it is when the law of God and the terrors of God work upon the conscience, and arouse all a man’s fears, and yet he will not fly to Christ I
II. Judgments do not and cannot of themselves produce a repentance such as gives God glory. “They repented not to give Him glory.” Now, this not giving God glory is a very important omission, and one which vitiates the whole matter. True repentance gives God glory in many ways. Is yours true repentance or not? That is the question.
1. It reverences and adores God’s omniscience. It is a confession of the fact of God’s knowledge, and the truthfulness of His statements, for the man says, “O Lord, I am what Thy Word says I am. Before Thee have I sinned. In Thy sight have I done evil. Thou knowest me altogether, and I adore Thine omniscience.”
2. The truly penitent gives glory to the righteousness of God in His law. Impenitence rails at the law as too severe, speaks of transgression as a trifle, and of future punishment as cruelty; but the truly repentant soul admires the law, and champions it even against its own self. Do you know all this in your own heart?
3. The sincerely penitent also adores and glorifies the justice of God in His punishment of transgression. Is sin really sinful to you? Do you see its desert of hell? If not, your repentance needs to be repented of.
4. True repentance glorifies the sovereignty of God in His mercy, saying, “Let Him do as He wills, for His will is holy love.”
5. Further, the man has repented to the glory of God when he spies out that there is a way by which God can be just and yet the Justifier of the ungodly--when he sees the Lord Jesus Christ, the adorable Son of God, coming in our human nature and becoming the substitute for sinners, and the sacrifice for sin.
6. For, mark you, it glorifies God in one other way--by setting the sinner ever afterwards craving after holiness. “The burnt child dreads the fire”; and the sinner dreads sin when he has been delivered from the flame of it by the Lord Jesus.
III. The judgments of God, apart from Divine grace, may, through our hardness of heart, involve us in greater sin.
1. If God has chastened you very much, until He is saying, “O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?” then all this chastening which you have despised involves you in deeper sin, because you now sin with a clearer knowledge of what sin really is.
2. To many lives judgments also introduce the element of falsehood. The man vowed that if he recovered from sickness he would fear God. He was sick, and a saint he would be. But when he got well, ah I how much of a saint was he?
3. There are some whose conduct has in it the element of deliberate hatred of God; for these have had time now to see which way evil goes, and yet they follow it. They love sin as sin.
4. This introduces the element of presumption, deliberation, resolve; and when men sin so, there is a talent of lead in the measure of their iniquity, and it weighs exceedingly heavy.
IV. The judgments of God are to be viewed with great discretion. He who studies them must do it with solemn care.
1. Judgments tend to good. Do not forget that. They ought to tend to good to you who are exercised by them. How many are aroused to think of better things by sickness in their own persons, or sudden death in others! National judgments are frequently a ministry of grace.
2. Judgments do impress some men. Many will come to hear a sermon just after a dear baby has died, or a brother or father has been taken away. Death whips the careless into thought.
3. Some, no doubt, are sweetly subdued by judgments, when these are qualified with grace. The grace of God working with their afflictions, they bow themselves beneath the chastening hand; and when they do this, it is good for them that they are afflicted.
4. But then, next, still let it be recollected that these things will not work good of themselves. I wantyou to remember this, because I have known people say, “Well, if I were afflicted I might be converted. If I lay sick I might be saved.” Oh, do not think so. Sickness and sorrow of themselves are no helps to salvation. Pain and poverty are not evangelists; disease and despair are not apostles. Look at the lost in hell. Suffering has effected no good in them.
5. Oh, that God would lead you to repent now, before any of His judgments fall upon you! Why should we not repent at once? Surely we ought to repent of doing wrong when we perceive that we are wronging so good a God. Permit me also to say to you how much nobler and sweeter a thing it is to be drawn than to be driven. Must you be beaten to Christ? And then, again, recollect, you can repent now so much more clearly than in the hour of sickness. God helping you, this is a very good hour for repenting. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
