Sermon Tone Analysis

0.       The Fourth Bowl

a.        *The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.

Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.

*(16:8–9)

b.

In contrast to the first three angels, who poured out their bowls on the earth, the *fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun.*

As a result the sun, which has since the fourth day of creation (Gen.

1:14–19) given the world light, warmth, and energy, becomes a deadly killer.

c.        Searing heat exceeding anything in human experience will *scorch men* so severely that it will seem that the atmosphere is on *fire.*

Those who will be* scorched with* the sun’s *fierce heat* are the same “people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image” (v.

2).

d.

This fiery judgment is reminiscent of Isaiah 24:4–6: /“The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away.

The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.

Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty.

Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.”/

e.        Another serious consequence of the sun’s intense heat will be the melting of the polar ice caps.

The resulting rise in the oceans’ water level will inundate coastal regions, flooding areas miles inland with the noxious waters of the dead oceans.

f.         Widespread damage and loss of life will accompany that flooding, adding further to the unspeakable misery of the devastated planet.

Transportation by sea will become impossible.

g.

One would think that the unparalleled disasters of the first four bowl judgments would cause people to repent.

God’s judgment is designed to call sinners to repentance (Rom.

2:4), or, like Pharaoh, to harden their hearts.

h.

Instead of blaming their sin, in the most shocking example of hardness of heart in history, *they blasphemed the name of God,* whom they know to be directly responsible for all their misery.

i.         Amazingly, they know that it is *God who has the power over* the *plagues* that were afflicting them.

Yet, they will love their sin so much, and be so deceived by Antichrist, that *they* will *not repent so as to give* God *glory.*

j.

Until this point, only the Antichrist has been described as blaspheming (13:1, 5–6); here the world adopts his evil character.

Neither grace nor wrath will move their wicked hearts to repentance (cf.

9:20–21; 16:11).

k.

In 11:13 the earthquake brought some to repentance, but not in this judgment series.

Such blind, blasphemous hardness of heart is incredible in the face of the devastating judgments they will be undergoing.

l.

But like their evil leader, Antichrist, they will continue to hate God and refuse to* repent,* which would give *glory* to God as a just and righteous Judge of sin (cf.

Josh.

7:19–25).

1.

The Fifth Bowl

a.        *Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.

*(16:10–11)

b.

As He did long ago in Egypt (Ex.

10:21–29), God will turn up the intense suffering of the sinful world by turning out the lights.

c.

After *the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, his kingdom became darkened* (cf.

9:2; Ex. 10:21–23).

Commentators disagree over where specifically this *bowl* will be dumped.

Some think it will be on the actual *throne* that *the beast* sits on; others on his capital city of Babylon; still others on his entire kingdom.

d.

It is best to see the *throne* as a reference to his kingdom, since the bowl poured out on the *throne* darkens the whole kingdom.

Regardless of the exact location of where the bowl is dumped, the result is that darkness engulfs the whole earth, which is Antichrist’s worldwide *kingdom.*

The *beast* will be as helpless before the power of God as anyone else.

e.        Joel described this time of judgment as “/a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.…

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

The sun and moon grow dark and the stars lose their brightness/” (Joel 2:2; 3:14–15).

f.         Zephaniah described the Day of the Lord as “a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness” (Zeph.

1:15).

Jesus declared in His Olivet discourse that “in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light” (Mark 13:24; cf.

Isa.

13:10; 24:23; Luke 21:25; Acts 2:20).

g.

The cumulative effect of the painful sores, fouled oceans, lack of drinking water, intense heat, all engulfed in thick blackness, will bring unbearable misery.

h.

Yet, incredibly, the wicked, unbelieving people of the world will still refuse to repent.

i.         John notes that they *gnawed their tongues* (lit.

“kept on chewing”) *because of* the most intense and excruciating *pain,* yet with those same tongues *they blasphemed the God of heaven* (a frequent Old Testament title for God; cf.

11:13; Gen. 24:3; Ezra 5:11–12; Neh.

1:4–5; Ps. 136:26; Dan.

2:18, 19, 37, 44; Jonah 1:9) *because of their pains and their sores* (perhaps related to the lack of sunlight, as well as the effect of previous plagues) *and they did not repent of their deeds*—the ultimate act of defiance by those hopelessly engulfed in Antichrist’s satanic system.

j.

This is the last reference to their unwillingness to repent.

k.

The first five plagues were God’s final call to repentance.

Sinners ignored that call, and are now confirmed in their unbelief.

l.

The final two bowls, containing the severest of all the judgments, will be poured out on hardened, implacable impenitents.

2.       The Sixth Bowl

a.        *The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.

*

b.       *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 like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.

*

c.        *(“Behold, I am coming like a thief.

Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”)

And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.

*(16:12–16)

d.

Unlike the previous five bowls, the sixth, like the fifth seal (6:9–11), has no specific assault on humanity but prepares for what is to come.

e.

When his turn came, *the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates.*

The *Euphrates* appeared earlier in Revelation in connection with the sixth trumpet judgment (9:14), when 200 million demons who were bound near it were released.

f.

As the longest and most significant river in the Middle East, the *Euphrates* deserves to be called the *great river* (cf.

9:14; Gen. 15:18; Deut.

1:7; Josh.

1:4).

Its source is in the snowfields and ice cap high on the slopes of Mount Ararat (located in modern Turkey), from which it flows some eighteen hundred miles before emptying into the Persian Gulf.

g.

In ancient times the Garden of Eden was located in the vicinity of the *Euphrates* (Gen.

2:10–14).

The *Euphrates* also formed the eastern boundary of the land God gave to Israel (Gen.

15:18; Deut.

1:7; 11:24; Josh.

1:4).

Along with the nearby Tigris, the *Euphrates* is still the lifeblood of the Fertile Crescent

h.

By the time the sixth bowl is poured out, the *Euphrates* will be very different than it is today or has ever been.

The blazing heat from the sun associated with the fourth bowl will melt the snow and the ice cap on Mount Ararat.

i.

That will vastly increase the volume of water in the *Euphrates**,* causing massive damage and flooding along its course.