Avoiding the Wrath of God

This is a short chapter of just eight verses. In these, we see that the number seven is used seven times. Seven is God’s number for completion. What is to take place is the total completion of God’s wrath on the earth. The word used here for “wrath” in Greek is a powerful word. It is (θυμός – thymos/thumos). You can recognize it in the word “thermos,” which means “heat.” It is something beyond mere anger. It is unusual. It speaks of a passionate, overwhelming “flash point”, an explosive kind of anger. It is a seething, boiling, burning kind of anger. The text tells us that in these plagues, the wrath of God is “complete”. Interestingly, the word “complete” is related to tetelestai [God’s work of redemption is done], the last word Jesus uttered from the cross. The word used here is ἐτελέσθη (etelesthe), meaning that in these judgments God’s wrath will be perfected, finished, and completed. God’s judgment will be over. God will vindicate His people.

John looks into heaven and sees all the saints of God as victorious. That’s all the believers in Jesus throughout history, standing on a sea of what looks like water mixed with fire. He sees the saints of God standing victoriously above all of humanity. They are on something “like” a sea of glass and fire, and they are holding harps. I think the description of “fire” describes what these saints have been through. They are standing victoriously, having passed the test. The mention of harps is interesting to me. I guess this is where the idea of people sitting around in heaven playing harps comes from. And they are having a great big huge praise and worship service. Two or three songs of Moses are recorded in the Torah and the Ketuvim. We find a song of Moses in Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 32, and Moses also wrote Psalms 90. One song of Moses is recorded as being sung after the children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea. The song begins, “I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously, the horse and rider thrown into the sea.” Moses sings of God’s faithfulness in triumphing over the enemies of God and His people. (see Exodus 15:11).

God will indeed avenge the blood of His servants. He will avenge the blood of righteous Gentiles along with His own righteous people. This revenge is part of what is happening during the time of these bowls of wrath. John sees seven angels clothed in bright linen coming out of the temple's inner shrine. This is the place where the Ark of the Covenant is housed. Each of these seven angels is given a bowl of wrath. The presence of God saturates the temple in smoke and glory and will remain so until the end of the wrath is completed. I have to admit, when I read this, all I could think about was that scene from Indiana Jones: “In Search of the Lost Ark”. The Nazis have tried to use the Ark to somehow harness the power of God in their quest for evil. When they get out in the desert and open the Ark, holy angels come out of it, clothed in linen robes, and they annihilate the Nazi goons. These plagues, these bowls of wrath, are God pulling out all the stops. These seven angels came out of the area where not only the Ark of the Covenant was placed, but where the Menorah, the Showbread Table, and the Altar of Incense rested (Exodus 35-40). Reader, the only normative instruction to be found in this passage is that we don’t want to experience anything of the wrath of God. In Scripture, you and I are given repeated opportunities to avoid the wrath of God. It is in accepting Jesus and His work on the cross that the wrath of God passes over us. He that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21 paraphrased).