“I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues--last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened. Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.”
2 Peter 3:3-10 (NIV) tells us:
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Chapter 15
“I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues--last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb: “Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened.Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.”
Chapters 15 and 16 chronically bring to an end the ordered events leading up to the second coming of Jesus in Chapter 19. In Chapters 15 of Revelation, John gives us a prelude to the seven last plagues which God will use His seven angels to deliver. The number of completion in Scripture is seven. These seven plagues are described as acts of judgment that will complete God’s wrath against an evil and hostile world. God will not leave His work of redemption half completed and He will not leave His work of judgment half completed either. John notes that the sight of these angels was awe inspiring and marvelous. Again, Scripture states that these plagues will complete God’s wrath on earth. In view here, is the end of the temporal judgments of the tribulation period.
There will be no more judgments poured out on earth during the Great Tribulation. This final “sign” relates to the preceding great signs of the woman (Israel) in Verse 12:1 and the red dragon (Satan) in Verse 12:3. The final judgment still remains in which the remaining righteous and the wicked will be consigned to their eternal destinies. Again, the Apostle John states this as a “great and marvelous” sign in heaven.
Next John notes that he sees a sea of glass mixed with fire. A sea of glass, clear as crystal before the throne, was also mentioned in Revelation 4:6 and reflected all the brilliant colors of the entire heavenly scene. The sea is designed to reflect the glory of God. Crystal, speaks of His holiness. God also tells us to be holy because He is holy. He cares about our holiness because we carry around His treasure in our jars of clay. We see in Leviticus 11:45 (NIV):
I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
And again in 1 Peter 1:13-15 (NIV):
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
Here, in Chapter 15, the Apostle John writes the sea is mixed with fire. Fire speaks of divine judgment proceeding from God’s holiness – His just judgments now becoming a reality.
Standing beside the sea are those martyred saints who were victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. Those martyred saints had gone through the fire of the Great Tribulation period and remained faithful to death instead of caving to the blasphemous demands of the Antichrist. They held harps given them by God. The harp or lyre and the trumpet are the only musical instruments mentioned in Revelation. The harper’s privileged position before the throne is their reward for refusing to worship the beast, receive his mark, bow to his image, or be identified with his number. They belong to the saints martyred during the time of the Great Tribulation, confirming that the time schedule is near the end of that period. This would stand in contrast to believers of other ages. The fact that they are able to stand on the sea of glass reflects God’s faithfulness in keeping safe His Own. These Tribulation saints had walked through the fire – perhaps an indication of the hardships they had suffered during the great tribulation to enter into the kingdom of God. Similar to Jesus’ Words to Ananias regarding Saul turned Apostle Paul whom he was to pray over. We see in Acts 9:15-16 (NIV):
But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”
Indeed, Acts 14:21-22 (NIV) tells us:
They preached the good news in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.
So too all believers in every generation. We are not to think that we will be carried to Heaven on a bed of down when our Savior went via the cross, Amen? Lastly, our Lord Jesus told us we are to expect hardships rather than to be surprised by them in John 16:33 (NIV):
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Believers are to be courageous because Jesus has overcome death and we who are in union with Him will be victorious as well. In Romans 8:35-39 (NIV) the Apostle Paul writes:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:“For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
His love will not let us go – He will carry us through the fiercest storms on eagle’s wings if we will let Him. It is not our grip on Him, rather His on us. Jesus tells us in John 6:38-40 (NIV):
“For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Also, God’s desire is to take us from “strength to strength” – not weakness to weakness - as we walk through our valleys of Baca (tears). As Psalms 84:5-7 (NIV) tells us:
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
In Revelation 15:3-4 we discover these Tribulation saints with their harps singing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and of Jesus, the Lamb. Just as Moses sang in triumph over the deliverance from the Israelites Egyptian enemies which had been swallowed up in the Red Sea, so too, these saints of Christ from the Tribulation are singing in anticipation of Jesus’ future reign. In this song God is praised for His great deeds, justice, truth, glory, and holiness. Then a prediction is made that all the nations will worship God. This description of praise to God and prediction of universal worship is in keeping with many other Scriptures and relates, of course, to the second coming of Christ and the worship of God by the entire world in the Millennial Kingdom. Examples from Scripture include:
Psalms 66:1-4 (NIV):
“Shout with joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious! Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing praise to your name.” Selah
Psalms 72:11 (NIV):
All kings will bow down to him and all nations will serve him.
Isaiah 2:2-4 (NIV)
In the last days the mountain of the LORD’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
Lastly, Zechariah 14:9 (NIV) tells us:
The LORD will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one LORD, and his name the only name.
And this is just to name of few of the Scripture citations regarding the reign of Christ on this earth.
Again, these victorious saints sang with harps the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. Both ascribe praise to God. Moses sang in triumph after Israel’s Egyptian enemies having been swallowed up by the Red Sea. And the followers of Jesus Christ from the tribulation will sing at the prospect of Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet being overwhelmed with judgment. This song will be even more glorious than that of Moses. The awful “hour” of wickedness and blasphemy against God, which will characterize the period leading up to the Second Coming during the Great Tribulation, will be followed by a full vindication of God’s judgment and holiness in the next period. To be sure, God will right every wrong.
The hymn begins with the words “great and marvelous” as the works of God arouse both wonder and astonishment. They can apply to the works of the past or anticipate the great works just ahead. God is described as “just and true” in His ways – a perfectly righteous and good God Who keeps His promises. Moses dittos this in Deuteronomy 32:3-4 (NIV):
I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He.
God is the Rock. Psalms 18:1-3 (NIV) states:
I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies.
This means that God is stable and permanent. The only true stability in life is in clinging to Him, the great Rock. His works are perfect and He is fair and just in all His dealings with mankind. Unlike the gods of the ancient Near East whose followers believed they were often immoral and capricious, the Lord can always be counted on. He is faithful and always does what is morally right - He does no wrong.
As King David wrote in 2 Samuel 7:18-19 (NIV) overwhelmed when God acted on his behalf:
Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said: “Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in your sight, O Sovereign LORD, you have also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with man, O Sovereign LORD?”
Indeed, God’s actions took David’s breath away as they should ours as well, Amen? I think that is why God calls King David a man after His own heart. Psalms 66:5 (NIV) also tells us:
Come and see what God has done, how awesome his works in man’s behalf!
In Revelation 15:5-7 (NIV) John is given a later vision as the verse begins with the phrase “I looked,” which introduces something new. Here the new element introduced are the seven bowl judgments. John sees the procession of the seven angels coming out of the heavenly temple. This indicates that the judgments they are to bring forth come directly from God’s presence because in the Old Testament God’s presence dwelt within the Temple. They also indicate that the judgments to be poured out stem from the holiness of God and are properly required of God Who does all things right. These seven angels coming out of the tabernacle are dressed to highlight their moral purity and glory. They are holy and majestic creatures and are donned with clean shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests muck akin to Jesus’ dress in Revelation 1:12-13 (NIV):
"I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest."
One of the four living creatures before the throne of God gives each of the seven angels one of the seven golden bowls containing the seven plagues filled with the wrath of God. Each angel is given a bowl to carry one of the plagues. The appearance of these same elements in Revelation Chapter Four and again here bookends the judgments of the Tribulation. As a worship service in heaven included the four living creatures inaugurated the tribulation, here a worship service featuring these creatures will culminate it. While God’s wrath against the earth will be for a season, He lives forever and ever.
In Verse Eight of Revelation 15 we see the Temple filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His great power. This is a pointed reminder of God’s unapproachable holiness. No one could enter the temple until the seven plagues were completed. This scene can be compared to the Old
Testament scene when the cloud filled the Tabernacle in Exodus 40:34-35 (NIV):
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
And again in 1 Kings 8:10-11 (NIV):
When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the LORD. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled his temple.
Access to the sanctuary is made impossible by the smoke until the judgments contained in the seven plagues are fulfilled. It serves as an ominous sign of impending doom for those who continue to persist in their blasphemous disregard of the sovereignty and holiness of God. God wants us to recognize that He is the source of these fierce judgments ensuing. It is His to avenge, He will repay as Romans 12:19 (NIV) clearly states:
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.
Next we will read Chapter 16.
Prayer: Continue to open our eyes Lord so that we may see the wonderful Truth’s in your Law and apply them to our lives both for Your glory and our good.