Revelation 16:1-2 Then I heard a loud voice from
the temple saying to the seven angels, "Go,
pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth." The
first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly
and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark
of the beast and worshiped his image.
Painful sores…blood stained water…scorching sun….darkness…rivers
that dry up completely…and the thunder storm to upstage all the storms to ever
happen on this Earth….complete with hail the size of a baby hippo…these seven
angels pour out suffering and calamity to anyone who took the mark of the beast
and worshiped him. Maybe it’s because I love God so much that I just can’t
fathom how anyone could curse him…could refuse to accept his judgment and
repent….but these people do just that.
The plagues of God’s ending wrath are so reminiscent of the
exodus from Egypt. Pharaoh‘s heart was just as unyielding as these folks that
had allowed themselves to be marked by the beast. Exodus 7:14 records, ….Then the Lord said
to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. Go
to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the river. Confront him on the
bank of the Nile, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a
snake. Then say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of
the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may
worship me in the wilderness.
God simply will not allow us to worship the beast and him
too. These seven bowls of pure judgment….delivered
by his holy angels are the final attempt to find anyone who has not hardened
his heart enough to repent..but sadly…none
are found. The angels themselves sing a song to God…an agreement of his judgment….an
outpouring of their disgust that anyone who ever loved God was mistreated by
Satan. Matthew Henry sums it up in his commentary, “The heart of man is so
desperately wicked, that the most severe miseries never will bring any to
repent, without the special grace of God. Hell itself is filled with
blasphemies; and those are ignorant of the history of human nature, of the
Bible, and of their own hearts, who do not know that the more men suffer, and
the more plainly they see the hand of God in their sufferings, the more
furiously they often rage against him. Let sinners now seek repentance from
Christ, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, or they will have the anguish and
horror of an unhumbled, impenitent, and desperate heart; thus adding to their
guilt and misery through all eternity. Darkness is opposed to wisdom and
knowledge, and forebodes the confusion and folly of the idolaters and followers
of the beast. It is opposed to pleasure and joy, and signifies anguish and
vexation of spirit.” http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php?com=mhc&b=66&c=16
Father…help me to love you and you alone. Guard my heart
from ever being swayed by Satan to love anything but what you give me to
love. Help me to see through the tricks
of Satan and stand firm to the end….allow your grace and mercy to cleanse me
daily from the worldly things that influence me to be less than I can be for you.
Please forgive me for the times when I have allowed the world and its fleshly
pleasures to pull me away from developing my relationship with you. Give me
strength and power today…to fight off the temptations of the world…and instead….allow
you to soften my heart even more…to hear your voice…to do your will…to love you
more fully. Amen.
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