_THE SEVEN BOWLS._
REV. xv., xvi.
Nothing can more clearly prove that the Revelation of St. John is not
written upon chronological principles than the scenes to which we are
introduced in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters of the book. We have
already been taken to the end. We have seen in chap. xiv. the Son of man
upon the throne of judgment, the harvest of the righteous, and the
vintage of the wicked. Yet we are now met by another series of visions
setting before us judgments that must take place before the final issue.
This is not chronology; it is apocalyptic vision, which again and again
turns round the kaleidoscope of the future, and delights to behold under
different aspects the same great principles of the Almighty's
government, leading always to the same glorious results.
One other preliminary observation may be made. The third series of
judgments does not really begin till we reach chap. xvi. Chap. xv. is
introductory, and we are thus reminded that the series of the Trumpets
had a similar introduction in chap. viii. 1-6. It is the manner of St.
John, who thus in his Gospel introduces his account of our Lord's
conversation with Nicodemus in chap. iii. by the last three verses of
chap. ii., which ought to be connected with the third chapter; and
who also introduces his narrative regarding the woman of Samaria by
the first three verses of chap. iv.
To introduce chap. xvi. is the object of chap. xv.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven
angels having seven plagues, which are the last, for in them is
finished the wrath of God (xv. 1).
The plagues about to be spoken of are "the last," and in them the
final judgments of God upon evil are contained. What they are, and who
are the special objects of them, will afterwards appear. Meanwhile,
another vision is presented to our view:--
And I saw as it were a glassy sea mingled with fire; and them that
come victorious out of the beast, and out of his image, and out of
the number of his name, standing upon the glassy sea, having harps
of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and
the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are Thy works,
O Lord God the Almighty; righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou
King of the nations. Who shall not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy
name? for Thou only art holy: for all the nations shall come and
worship before Thee; for Thy righteous acts have been made
manifest (xv. 2-4).
It can hardly be doubted that the _glassy sea_ spoken of in these
words is the same as that already met with at chap. iv. 6. Yet again,
as in the case of the hundred and forty and four thousand of chap.
xiv. 1, the definite article is wanting; and, in all probability, for
the same reason. The aspect in which the object is viewed, though not
the object itself, is different. The glassy sea is here _mingled with
fire_, a point of which no mention was made in chap. iv. The
difference may be explained if we remember that the "fire" spoken of
can only be that of the judgments by which the Almighty vindicates His
cause, or of the trials by which He purifies His people. As these,
therefore, now stand upon the sea, delivered from every adversary, we
are reminded of the troubles which by Divine grace they have been
enabled to surmount. It was otherwise in chap. iv. No persons were
there connected with the sea, and it stretched away, clear as crystal,
before Him all whose dealings with His people are "right." The sea
itself is in both cases the same, but in the latter it is beheld from
the Divine point of view, in the former from the human.
The vision as a whole takes us back to the exodus of Israel from
Egypt, and hence the mention of _the song of Moses, the servant of
God_. The enemies of the Church have their type in Pharaoh and his
host as they pursue Israel across the sands which had been laid bare
for the passage of the chosen people; the waters, driven back for a
time, return to their ancient bed; the hostile force, with its
chariots and its chosen captains, "goes down into the depths like a
stone;" and Israel raises its song of victory, "I will sing unto the
Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider hath
He thrown into the sea."[418]
The song now sung, however, is not that of Moses only, the great
centre of the Old Testament Dispensation; it is also _the Song of the
Lamb_, the centre and the sum of the New Testament. Both Dispensations
are in the Seer's thoughts, and in the number of those who sing are
included the saints of each, the members of the one Universal Church.
No disciple of Jesus either before or after His first coming is
omitted. Every one is there from whose hands the bonds of the world
have fallen off, and who has cast in his lot with the followers of the
Lamb. Hence also the song is wider in its range than that by which
the thought of it appears to have been suggested. It celebrates the
_great and marvellous works_ of the Almighty in general. It speaks of
Him as the _King of the nations_, that is, as the King who subdues the
nations under Him. It rejoices in the fact that His _righteous acts
have been made manifest_. And it anticipates the time when _all the
nations shall come and worship before_ Him, shall bow themselves at
His feet, and shall acknowledge that His judgments against sin are not
only just in themselves, but are allowed to be so by the very persons
on whom they fall.
A second vision follows:--
And after these things I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of
the testimony in heaven was opened; and there came out from the
temple the seven angels that had the seven plagues, clothed with a
precious stone pure and lustrous, and girt about their breasts
with golden girdles. And one of the four living creatures gave
unto the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God,
who liveth for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God, and from His power: and none was able to
enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels
should be finished (xv. 5-8).
The _temple_ spoken of is, as upon every occasion when the word is used,
the shrine or innermost sanctuary, the Holy of holies, the peculiar
dwelling-place of the Most High; so that the seven angels with the seven
last plagues come from God's immediate presence. But this sanctuary is
now beheld in a different light from that in which it was seen in chap.
xi. 19. There it contained the ark of God's covenant, the symbol of His
grace. Here the eye is directed to the _testimony_, to the two tables of
the law which were kept in the ark, and were God's witness both to the
holiness of His character and the justice of His government. The giving
of the law then was in the Seer's mind, and that fact will explain the
allusions to the Old Testament found in his words. The description of
the seven angels, as _clothed with a precious stone pure and lustrous_
(not with "fine linen" as in the Authorised Version) may be explained,
when we attend to the second characteristic of their appearance, _girt
about their breasts with golden girdles_. These words take us back to
the vision of the Son of man in chap. i., where the same expression
occurs, and where we have already seen that it points to the priests of
Israel, when engaged in the active service of the sanctuary. The angels
now spoken of are thus priestly after the fashion of the Lord Himself,
who is not merely the Priest but also the High Priest of His people. The
high priest, however, wore a jewelled breastplate; and in correspondence
with the nobler functions of the New Testament priesthood, these jewels
are now extended to the whole clothing of the angels spoken of. A
similar figure for the clothing of the glorified Church meets us in the
prophecies of Isaiah: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall
be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of
salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness; as a
bridegroom decketh himself (the margin of the Revised Version calling
attention to the fact that the meaning of the original is "decketh
himself as a priest") with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels;"[419] while the same figure, though applied to Tyre, is
employed by Ezekiel: "Every precious stone was thy covering."[420] The
seven angels are thus about to engage in a priestly work.
This work is pointed out to them by _one of the four living
creatures_, the representatives of redeemed creation. All creation
owns the propriety of the judgments now about to be fulfilled.[421]
These judgments are contained, not in seven "vials," as in the
Authorised Version, but in _seven golden bowls_, vessels probably of a
saucer shape, of no great depth, and their circumference largest at
the rim. They are the "basins" of the Old Testament, used for carrying
into the sanctuary the incense which had been lighted by fire from the
brazen altar. They were thus much better adapted than "vials" for the
execution of a final judgment. Their contents could be poured out at
once and suddenly.
The bowls have been delivered to the angels, and nothing remains but
to pour them out. The moment is one of terror, and it is fitting that
even all outward things shall correspond. _Smoke_, therefore, filled
_the sanctuary_, and _none was able to enter into it_. Thus, when
Moses reared up the tabernacle, and the glory of the Lord filled it,
"Moses was not able to enter into the tent of meeting:"[422] thus,
when Solomon dedicated the temple and the cloud filled the house of
the Lord, "The priests could not stand to minister by reason of the
cloud."[423] Thus, when Isaiah beheld the glory of the Lord in His
temple, and heard the cry of the Seraphim, "Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord of Hosts," "the foundations of the thresholds were moved at the
voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke;"[424]
and thus, above all, when the law was given, "Mount Sinai was
altogether on smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and
the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole
mount quaked greatly."[425]
All due preparation having been made, the Seven Bowls are now poured
out in rapid and uninterrupted succession. As in the case of the Seals
and of the Trumpets, they are divided into two groups of four and
three; and those of the first group may be taken together:--
And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven
angels, Go ye, and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God
into the earth. And the first went, and poured out his bowl into
the earth; and it became a noisome and grievous sore upon the men
which had the mark of the beast, and which worshipped his image.
And the second poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became
blood as of a dead man, and every living soul died, even the
things that were in the sea. And the third poured out his bowl
into the rivers and the fountains of the waters; and it became
blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous art
Thou which art and which wast, Thou holy one, because Thou didst
thus judge: for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets,
and blood hast Thou given them to drink: they are worthy. And I
heard the altar saying, Yea, O Lord, God, the Almighty, true and
righteous are Thy judgments. And the fourth poured out his bowl
upon the sun; and it was given unto it to scorch men with fire.
And men were scorched with great heat: and they blasphemed the
name of the God which hath the power over these plagues; and they
repented not to give Him glory (xvi. 1-9).
Upon the particulars of these plagues it is unnecessary to dwell. No
attempt to determine the special meaning of the objects thus visited
by the wrath of God--the land, the sea, the rivers and fountains of
the waters, and the sun--has yet been, or is ever perhaps likely to
be, successful; and the general effect alone appears to be important.
The chief point claiming attention is the singular closeness of the
parallelism between them and the Trumpet plagues, a parallelism which
extends also to the fifth, sixth, and seventh members of the series.
Close, however, as it is, there is also a marked climax in the later
plagues, corresponding to the fact that they are "the last," and that
in them "the wrath of God is finished."[426] Thus the first Trumpet
affects only the third part of the earth, and the trees, and all green
grass: the first Bowl affects _men_.[427] Under the second Trumpet the
"third part" of the sea becomes blood, and the third part of the
creatures which are in the sea die, and the third part of the ships
are destroyed: under the second Bowl, the "third part" of the sea is
exchanged for the whole; the blood assumes its most offensive form,
_blood as of a dead man_; and not the third part only, but _every
living soul died, even the things that were in the sea_."[428] Under
the third Trumpet the great star falls only upon the "third part" of
the rivers and fountains, and they become wormwood: under the third
Bowl all the waters are visited by the plague, and they become
blood.[429] Lastly, under the fourth Trumpet only the "third part" of
sun and moon and stars is smitten: under the fourth Bowl the whole sun
is affected, and it is _given unto it to scorch men with fire_.[430]
With this climactic character of the Bowls as compared with the
Trumpets may also be connected a striking addition made to the details
of the third Bowl, to which in the Trumpet series there is nothing to
correspond. _The angel of the waters_, not an angel to whom the
smiting of the waters had been entrusted, but the waters themselves
speaking through their angel, and _the altar_, that is, the brazen
altar of chap. vi. 9, respond to the judgments executed. They
recognise the true and righteous character of the Almighty, and they
welcome this manifestation of Himself to men.
Another feature of these Bowls will at once strike the reader,--their
correspondence to some of the plagues of Egypt: for in the first we
see a repetition, as it were, of that sixth plague by which Pharaoh
and his people were visited, when Moses sprinkled ashes of the furnace
towards heaven, and they became "a boil breaking forth with blains
upon man and beast,"[431] and in the second and third a repetition of
the first plague, when Moses lifted up his rod and smote the waters
that were in the river, "and all the waters that were in the river
were turned to blood."[432] The fourth Bowl reminds us of the terror
of the appearance of the Son of man in chap. i. 16, when "His
countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."
One other characteristic of these plagues ought to be noticed. It
comes to view no doubt only under the fourth, yet, as we shall
immediately see, it is not to be confined to it. The plagues had no
softening or converting power. On the contrary, as at chap. ix. 20,
21, the impiety of the worshippers of the beast was only aggravated by
their sufferings; and, instead of turning to Him who had power over
the plagues, they blasphemed His name.
From the first group of Bowls we turn to the second, embracing the
last three in the series of seven:--
And the fifth poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast; and
his kingdom was darkened; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and
their sores; and they repented not of their works (xvi. 10, 11).
The transition from the realm of nature to the spiritual world,
already marked at the introduction of the fifth Seal and of the fifth
Trumpet, is here again observable; but, as in the case of the sixth
Trumpet, the spiritual world alluded to is that of the prince of
darkness. With darkness he is smitten. That there is a reference to
the darkness which, at the word of Moses, fell upon the land of Egypt
when visited by its plagues can hardly be doubted, for the darkness of
that plague was not ordinary darkness; it was "a darkness that might
be felt."[433] More than darkness, however, is alluded to. We are told
of _their pains and of their sores_. But pains and sores are not an
effect produced by darkness. They can, therefore, be only those of the
first Bowl, a conclusion confirmed by the use of the word "plagues"
instead of plague. The inference to be drawn from this is important,
for we thus learn that the effects of any earlier Bowl are not
exhausted before the contents of one following are discharged. Each
Bowl rather adds fresh punishment to that of its predecessors, and all
of them go on accumulating their terrors to the end. Nothing could
more clearly show how impossible it is to interpret such plagues
literally, and how mistaken is any effort to apply them to the
particular events of history.
The sixth Bowl follows:--
And the sixth poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river
Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way might
be made ready for the kings that come from the sun-rising. And I
saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of
the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three
unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of devils,
working signs, which go forth unto the kings of the whole
inhabited earth, to gather them together unto the war of the great
day of God, the Almighty. (Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is
he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked,
and they see his shame.) And they gathered them together into the
place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon (xvi. 12-16).
Probably no part of the Apocalypse has received more varied
interpretation than the first statement of this Bowl. Who are these
_kings that come from the sun-rising_ is the point to be determined;
and the answer usually given is, that they are part of the
anti-christian host, part of those afterwards spoken of as _the kings
of the whole inhabited earth_, before whom God dries up the Euphrates
in order that they may pursue an uninterrupted march to the spot on
which they are to be overwhelmed with a final and complete
destruction. Something may certainly be said on behalf of such a view;
yet it is exposed to serious objections.
1. We have already at chap. ix. 14, at the sounding of the sixth
Trumpet, been made acquainted with the river Euphrates; and, so far
from being a hindrance to the progress of Christ's enemies, it is
rather the symbol of their overflowing and destructive might. 2. We
have also met at chap. vii. 2 with the expression "from the
sun-rising," and it is there applied to the quarter from which the
angel comes by whom the people of God are sealed. In a book so
carefully written as the Apocalypse, it is not easy to think of
anti-christian foes coming from a quarter described in the same terms.
3. These kings "from the sun-rising" are not said to be a part of "the
kings of the whole inhabited earth" immediately afterwards referred
to. They are rather distinguished from them. 4. The "preparing of the
way" connects itself with the thought of Him whose way was prepared by
the coming of the Baptist. 5. The type of drying up the waters of a
river takes us back, alike in the historical and prophetic writings of
the Old Testament, to the means by which the Almighty secures the
deliverance of His people, not the destruction of His enemies. Thus
the waters of the Red Sea were dried up, not for the overthrow of the
Egyptians, but for the safety of Israel, and the bed of the river
Jordan was dried up for a similar purpose. Thus, too, the prophet
Isaiah speaks: "And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the
Egyptian sea, and with His scorching wind shall He shake His hand over
the river, and shall smite it into seven streams, and cause men to
march over dryshod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of
His people, which shall return, from Assyria; like as there was for
Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."[434]
Again the same prophet celebrates the great deeds of the arm of the
Lord in the following words: "Art thou not it which dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?"[435] And, once more, to a similar
effect the prophet Zechariah: "I will bring them again also out of the
land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria.... And He shall pass
through the sea of affliction, and shall smite the waves of the sea,
and all the depths of the Nile shall dry up.... And I will strengthen
them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His name, saith
the Lord."[436] It is unnecessary to say more. In these "kings from
the sun-rising" we have an emblem of the remnant of the Israel of God
as they return from all the places whither they have been led captive,
and as God makes their way plain before them.
Nor is this all. In the fate of these foes a striking incident of Old
Testament history is repeated, in order that they may be led to the
destruction which awaits them. When Micaiah warned Ahab of his
approaching fate, and told him of the lying spirit by which his own
prophets were urging him to the battle, he said, "I saw the Lord
sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by Him on
His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice
Ahab that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this
manner; and another said on that manner. And there came forth a
spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And
the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and
be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou
shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also; go forth and do so."[437] In
that incident of Ahab's reign is found the type of the three lying
spirits or demons which, like frogs, unclean, noisy, and loquacious,
go forth from the three great enemies of the Church, the dragon, the
first beast, and the second beast, now first called _the false
prophet_, that they may entice the "kings of the whole inhabited
earth" to their overthrow. And they succeed. All unknowing of what is
before them, proud of their strength, and flushed with hope of
victory, these kings listen to the demons and gather themselves
together _unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty_. It is a
supreme moment in the history of the Church and of the world; and,
before he names the battlefield which shall, in its very name, be
prophetic of the fate of the wicked, the Seer pauses to behold the
assembled armies. Upon the one side is a little flock, but they are
all "kings," and before them is He by whom, like David before the host
of Israel and over against the Philistines, the battle shall be fought
and the victory won. On the other side are the hosts of earth in all
their multitudes, gathered together by the deceitful promise of
success. The Seer hears the voice of the Captain of salvation, _Behold
I come as a thief_, to break up and to destroy. He hears further the
promise of blessing to all who are faithful to the Redeemer's cause:
and then, with mind at rest as to the result, he names the place where
the final battle is to be fought, _Har-Magedon_.
Why Har-Magedon? There was, we have every reason to believe, no such
place. The name is symbolical. It is a compound word derived from the
Hebrew, and signifying the mountain of Megiddo. We are thus again
taken back to Old Testament history, in which the great plain of
Megiddo, the most extensive in Palestine, plays on more than one
occasion a notable part. In particular, that plain was famous for two
great slaughters, that of the Canaanitish host by Barak, celebrated in
the song of Deborah,[438] and that in which King Josiah fell.[439] The
former is probably alluded to, for the enemies of Israel were there
completely routed. For a similar though still more terrible
destruction the hosts of evil are assembled at Har-Magedon. The Seer
thinks it enough to assemble them, and to name the place. He does not
need to go further or to describe the victory.
The seventh Bowl now follows:--
And the seventh poured out his bowl upon the air; and there came
forth a great voice out of the temple, from the throne, saying, It
is done; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunders; and
there was a great earthquake, such as was not since there were men
upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty. And the great
city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations
fell: and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to
give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And
great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent, cometh down
out of heaven upon men: and men blasphemed God because of the plague
of the hail; for the plague thereof is exceeding great (xvi. 17-21).
The seventh or last Bowl is poured out into the air, here thought of
as the realm of that prince of this world who is also "the prince of
the power of the air."[440] All else, land and sea and waters and sun
and the throne of the beast, has now been smitten so that evil has
only to suffer its final blow. It has been searched out everywhere;
and therefore the end may come. That end comes, and is spoken of in
figures more strongly coloured than those of either the sixth Seal or
the seventh Trumpet. First of all _a great voice is heard out of the_
(sanctuary of the) _temple, from the throne, saying, It is done_,
God's plan is executed. His last manifestation of Himself in judgment
has been made. This voice is then accompanied by a more terrible
shaking of the heavens and the earth than we have as yet been called
to witness, the earthquake in particular being _such as was not since
there were men upon the earth, so great an earthquake, so mighty_.
Some of the effects of the earthquake are next spoken of. More
especially, _The great city was divided into three parts, and the
cities of the nations fell_. As to the meaning of "the cities of the
nations" there can be no doubt. They are the strongholds of the
world's sin, the places from which ungodliness and impiety have
ruled. Under the shaking of the earthquake they fall in ruins. The
first words as to "the great city" must be considered in connexion
with the words which follow regarding Babylon, and they are more
difficult to interpret. By some it is contended that the "great city"
is Jerusalem, by others that it is Babylon. The expression is one
which the Apocalypse must itself explain, and in seeking the
explanation we must proceed upon the principle that in this book, as
much as in any other of the New Testament, the rules of all good
writing are followed, and that the meaning of the same words is not
arbitrarily changed. When this rule, accordingly, is observed, we find
that the epithet is, in chap. xi. 8, distinctly applied to Jerusalem,
the words "the great city, where also their Lord was crucified"
leaving no doubt upon the point. But, in chap. xviii. 10, 16, 18, 19,
21, the same epithet is not less distinctly applied to Babylon. The
only legitimate conclusion is, that there is a sense in which
Jerusalem and Babylon are one. This corresponds exactly to what we
otherwise learn of the light in which the metropolis of Israel
appeared to St. John. To him as an Apostle of the Lord, and during the
time that he followed Jesus in the flesh, Jerusalem presented itself
in a twofold aspect. It was the city of God's solemnities, the centre
of the old Divine theocracy, the "holy city," the "beloved city."[441]
But it was also the city of "the Jews," the city which scorned and
rejected and crucified its rightful King. When in later life he
beheld, in the picture once exhibited around him and graven upon his
memory, the type of the future history and fortunes of the Church, the
two Jerusalems again rose before his view, the one the emblem of all
that was most precious, the other of all that was most repulsive, in
the eyes both of God and of spiritually enlightened men. The first of
these Jerusalems is the true Church of Christ, the faithful remnant,
the little flock that knew the Good Shepherd's voice and followed Him.
The second is the degenerate Church, the mass of those who
misinterpreted the aim and spirit of their calling, and who by their
worldliness and sin "crucified their Lord afresh, and put Him to an
open shame." In the latter aspect Jerusalem _becomes_ Babylon. As in
chap. xi. 8 it became "spiritually," that is mystically, "Sodom and
Egypt," so it becomes also the mystical Babylon, partaker of that
city's sins, and doomed to its fate. This thought we shall find fully
expanded in the following chapter. The question may indeed be asked,
how it comes to pass that, if this representation be correct, we
should read, immediately after the words now under consideration, that
_Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God, to give unto
her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath_. But the
answer is substantially contained in what has been said. When
Jerusalem is first thought of as "the great city," it is as the city
of "the Jews," as the centre and essence of those principles by which
spiritual is transformed into formal religion, and all sins are
permitted to hide and multiply under the cloak of a merely outward
piety. When it is next thought of as Babylon, the conception is
extended so as to embrace, not a false Judaism only, but a similar
falseness in the bosom of the universal Church. Just as "the great
city where also our Lord was crucified" widened in chap. xi. 8 to the
thought of Sodom and Egypt, so here it widens to the thought of
Babylon. May it not be added that we have thus in the mention of
Jerusalem and Babylon a counterpart to the mention in chap. xv. 3 of
"the song of Moses and the Lamb"? These two expressions, as we have
seen, comprehend a song of _universal_ victory. Thus also the two
expressions, "the great city" and "Babylon," having one and the same
idea at their root, comprehend all who in the professing Church of the
whole world are faithless to Christian truth.
Further effects of the last judgment follow. _Every island fled away,
and the mountains were not found._ Effects similar, though not so
terrible, had been connected with the sixth Seal. Mountains and
islands had then been simply "moved out of their places."[442] Now
they "flee away." Similar effects will again meet us, but in an
enhanced degree.[443] As yet, while mountains and islands flee away,
the earth and the heavens remain. In the last description of the
judgment of the wicked the heavens and the earth themselves flee away
from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and no place is
found for them. The climax in the different accounts of what is
substantially the same event cannot be mistaken.
The same climax appears in the statement of the next effect, _the
great hail, every stone about the weight of a talent_, that is, fully
more than fifty pounds. No such weight had been spoken of at the close
of the seventh Trumpet in chap. xi. 19.
Again, however, there is no repentance and no conversion. Those who
suffer are the deliberate and determined followers of the beast. As
under the fourth Bowl, therefore, so under the seventh they rather
blaspheme God amidst their sufferings, _because of the plague of the
hail, for the plague thereof is exceeding great_.
FOOTNOTES:
[418] Exod. xv. 1.
[419] Isa. lxi. 10.
[420] Ezek. xxviii. 13.
[421] Comp. chap. vi.
[422] Exod. xl. 35.
[423] 1 Kings viii. 11.
[424] Isa. vi. 4.
[425] Exod. xix. 18; Heb. xii. 18.
[426] Chap. xv. 1.
[427] Comp. chap. viii. 7 and xvi. 2.
[428] Comp. chap. viii. 8, 9 and xvi. 3.
[429] Comp. chap. viii. 10, 11 and xvi. 4.
[430] Comp. chap. viii. 12 and xvi. 8.
[431] Exod. ix. 10.
[432] Exod. vii. 20.
[433] Exod. x. 21.
[434] Isa. xi. 15, 16.
[435] Isa. li. 10.
[436] Zech. x. 10-12.
[437] 1 Kings xxii. 19-22.
[438] Judges v.
[439] 2 Chron. xxxv. 22.
[440] Ephes. ii. 2.
[441] Chap. xi. 2; xx. 9.
[442] Chap. vi. 14.
[443] Chap. xx. 11.