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| Photo of Jon Tracy, by Jim Tracy |
These angels are ministers of God; in this case angelic beings given a specific task.
2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image.
The Roman Empire (the beast) was constantly plagued with the Black Plague, as well as other diseases. Jerusalem (the image of the beast) was especially disease ridden during the siege.
3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea.
The Romans butchered many men on the Sea of Galilee in one battle, totaling killing everyone.
4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.
They killed people all over the country. Rivers so full of dead bodies they couldn’t be crossed.
5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.
6 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
The Jews deserved this punishment because of their rejection of God and crucifixion of Christ, followed by the murdering of Christians.
7 And I heard another out of the altar say, “Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”
The earliest martyrs from under the alter.
8 And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
The sun was darkened in Revelation 8:12. The sun, moon, stars are Israel (Josephs dream). The destruction of the Jews hurt everyone in the Empire , especially since judea was a major trade crossroad. They had all kind of winked at the Jews compromise with Rome, and now their punishment hurt everyone.
9 And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give Him glory.
Even with all this, the Jews and the Roman Empire did not turn to God.
10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
They gnawed their tongues BECAUSE OF the pain.
“Seat of the beast” would be Rome. They went through 5 emperors in 2 years and had massive Civil war.
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
This punishment only made everyone rebel harder.
12 And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
A couple of kings from the Euphrates region sent horse troops to help Titus in the siege. We tend to think all of Rome’s armies were from Italy, but, in fact, their army was made up of mercenaries from all over the empire. Four of the horse troops (the majority of horses) at Jerusalem were from the Euphrates.
Symbolically, the Euphrates fed Babylon. False religion fed Judah, but that all dried up with her destruction.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon (Satan) , and out of the mouth of the beast (Nero and Rome), and out of the mouth of the false prophet (Judah).
God promised Israel that He would bring the same punishments on them if they broke their covenant with Him as He had brought on Egypt, only multiplied by seven. The plagues He brought on Egypt were:
1. The Nile turned to blood.
2. Frogs
3. Lice
4. Flies (some early translations said wild animals)
5. Disease
6. Boils
7. Hail
8. Locusts
9. Darkness
10. Death
So far, John tells us God is going to:
1. Turn Israel’s waters to blood, which happened when the Romans slaughtered people on the lakes and rivers. (Revelation 16:3-4)
2. Bring frogs (false prophets. Josephus records many, many false preachers during the mid-first century.)
3. Lice
4. Flies /wild animals
5. Disease, which invaded Jerusalem during the siege. (Revelation 6:8)
6. Bring boils (Revelation 16:1-2)
7. Bring Hail, which is what the 100lb stones the Romans flung at the city looked like. (Revelation 16:21)
8. Bring locusts, which is what the Romans resembled when they marched on Jerusalem.(Revelation 9:1-11)
9. Bring darkness. Israel was permanently darkened by the Romans. (Revelation 16:10)
10. Bring death. The Romans killed a good third of the people, a larger percentage than was killed in Egypt. (The whole book of Revelation, really)
Where do these frogs fit in?
These three, frog-like, unclean spirits came out of the mouth of Satan, Rome, and rebellious Israel.14 For they (frogs) are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
God allowed these slimy demons to convince the leaders of the Roman Empire to attack His unfaithful wife and execute her for her adultery.
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
A thief doesn’t announce the date he will rob you ahead of time. God, though warning Israel that they will be punished, doesn’t give the exact date.
Blessed is the one who stays clean in Jesus blood because he won’t be shamed by being inside the city when it falls.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
The Hebrew words are, Har-Magedon/Megiddo. The H is silent in this Hebrew word, so the Greek rendering would have been Ar. Har means mountain.
Megiddo was both the name of a valley to the north of Jerusalem where many slaughters throughout history had happened, and a synonym for Mount Zion or Jerusalem itself.
The prefix Har tells us God is talking about the city, not the valley.
So “He (God) gathered them (the kings of the earth or empire) together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue [Mount Megiddo] (Jerusalem).” This describes AD70 to a T.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done.”
The divorce is final.
Josephus records eyewitnesses saying;
1. There was a comet in the shape of a sword that was visible over the city for a year sometime in the mid 60’s AD,
2. A light shining over the alter for half an hour,
3. A cow giving birth to a lamb on the way to the alter to be sacrificed,
4. The massively heavy gate to the Temple (that took twelve men to open or close and was fastened shut with iron sunk into the ground) opened all by itself,
5. An entire army, including chariots, was seen running around in the clouds over the city, surrounding it,
6. There was a big earthquake followed by the priests hearing what sounded like a large group of people saying "Let us remove hence."
7. A prophet yelled “Woe to Jerusalem!” for seven years, despite severe punishment from the city authorities, until his own death by a boulder from the Roman catapults.
18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
There was a tremendous storm and earthquake just before Romans arrived at Jerusalem.
19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
There were three warring factions in Jerusalem who murdered anyone not belonging to their own factions. (Josephus Book V, Chapter 1, Section )
God is mad.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
The Romans literally flattened mountains that were in their way when marching to battle.
21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
A talent is about 100 pounds. The Romans bombarded the city with 100 pound, white boulders as part of their siege, killing many. (Josephus Book V, Chapter VI, Section 3) They evidently looked just like hail stones.
The penalty for adultery in the Old Testament was stoning. God is using the Roman army to carry out this sentence on His adulterous wife, Israel.