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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadWilliam Burkitt Notes and Observations - Revelation 16:10 - 16:10
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Observe here, 1. The gradual approaches which Almighty God makes by his plagues and judgments towards the antichristian beast; he began farther off at first, and then came nearer and nearer to him; the first vial was poured out upon the earth, the second upon the sea, the third upon the rivers, the fourth upon the sun, now the fifth upon the seat of the beast; that is, probably, the seat of his empire, the chief place where he appeareth in the highest majesty and glory. This should teach us all at the first alarm of judgments to draw near to God by a true and timely repentance, before he comes nearer to us by a succession of plagues and punishments.
Observe, 2. The effect and consequent which did ensue and follow upon the pouring out of this vial upon the throne or seat of the beast.
1. His kingdom was full of darkness; this vial did not destroy, but distress him; it filled his kingdom with the darkness of misery and trouble, of calamity and confusion; not but that the kingdom of the beast was a kingdom of darkness before, but that darkness was a darkness of ignorance and error: this is a darkness of calamity and horror; by the loss of that lustre, respect, and reverence, which the throne of the beast had before, but was wanting now.
2. As an evidence of this distress, it is here said, that they gnawed their tongues for pain, that is, they were almost distracted at the declining of their grandeur.
Where note, 1. From the gnawing of their tongues, which was an indication of the horror of their consciences, that as Almighty God makes the guilty consciences of the wicked to be their own accusers, so he can make them, whenever he pleases to be their own tormentors.
Note, How Almighty God so suits his judgments sometimes to a people's sins, as that if they do not wink hard, or willfully shut their eyes, they may and must see and read their sin in their punishment. These worshippers of the beast seduced others by their false doctrine, and sinners with their tongues, and now God makes their tongues like so many scorpions' tails, the instruments of their torment: They gnawed their tongues for pain; it is added, That they blasphemed the God of heaven, and repented not of their deeds.
Where note, That as the plagues he inflicted resembled the plagues of Egypt, so the worshippers of the beast, whom they were inflicted upon, resembled Pharaoh king of Egypt, who hardened his heart yet more and more against the Lord, and repented not.