The Song Before the Storm

Worship in Heaven Before Judgment on Earth

Photo by Ed Thomas on Unsplash

Read: Revelation 15

Revelation 15 brings us to the consummation of world history, the fourth cycle of visions, complete with seven angels holding seven plagues in seven bowls, prepared to pour out God’s wrath upon the nations one final time.

The vision begins with a familiar scene: worship in heaven. The conquering saints who have overcome “the beast and its image and the number of its name” now stand beside the “sea of glass” singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. It’s worth repeating here:

Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Immediately after this, John sees the seven brightly clothed angels emerge from God’s presence in the heavenly sanctuary, having received the seven golden bowls full of His wrath. He also sees the sanctuary filled with the smoke of God’s glory and power. Notably, the bowls full of judgment are placed into the hands of the angels by one of the four living creatures, confirming that their origin is God, and that He is fully sovereign over them.

The message of John’s vision, in which the scene of celestial worship precedes earthly judgment, is clear: despite the current and future turmoil on earth, the Lord maintains complete control of the universe and will eternally preserve His elect.

Like the seals and trumpets, the bowls represent God’s judgment against those who do evil, both in the present age and in the future. Many commentators believe there is application both to the most prominent evildoers of John’s day, namely the tyrannical Roman Empire, and to the future crises that lead up to Christ’s Second Coming.

There are clear parallels between these seven bowls and the seven trumpets we read about earlier in Revelation. For one, the first four bowls and trumpets both wrought devastation on four major areas of creation: land, sea, fresh water, and sky. Both the bowls and the trumpets are also directly connected to the Mosaic plagues that God sent upon Egypt. However, there are differences, as the bowls are more severe than the trumpets and affect the entirety of the earth, rather than just a mere third.