Revelation 15

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Robert Mounce
The Book of Revelation Part VII: The Seven Last Plagues (15:1—16:21)

Chapter 15 serves to introduce seven angels who in the following chapter will pour out on the entire heathen world the seven bowls of divine wrath. The seven bowls are the third series of seven in the interrelated sequence of seals, trumpets, and bowls. The divine retribution revealed by the seals and announced by the trumpets is now fully executed by the bowls. While the three series cover the same period leading up to the end, each presenting God’s judgment under a different set of images, from a literary standpoint the bowls are an unfolding of the seventh trumpet, just as the trumpets were an expansion of the seventh seal. In understanding Revelation, however, it is important that one does not project this literary device onto the one-dimensional plane of historical sequence. The visions are intended to confront readers with vivid portrayals of eschatological truth rather than to supply them with data for a precise chronology of the consummation.

As we read our passage we must read it in light of the unholy Trinity and the war they wage upon the saints described in the previous chapters. Now those who have conquered this unholy Trinity are beside or on the sea praising the Lord for his deliverance. This allusion to the Exodus is made explicit with the reference to Moses.
Notice the words of Exodus 14-15.
Exodus 14:29–15:18 ESV
29 But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. 30 Thus the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. 31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. 1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. 2 The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. 4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. 7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. 8 At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ 10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. 11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. 13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. 14 The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. 18 The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
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