As we have studied Revelation’s visions of the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls, we have noted that these generally refer to God’s judgments taking place throughout the church age. The sixth bowl in these series, however, refers to events shortly before the end of the age, and the seventh bowl brings us to the return of Christ. In considering the fourth and fifth bowls of wrath, and therefore, we should see them as characterizing the world’s ungodly response throughout the age as it leads up to the climatic final events.

The fourth bowl of wrath was poured out “on the sun,” to make it “scorch people with fire” (v. 8). The key to this bowl is to note it as the opposite of what the Bible promises to God’s faithful people. Psalm 121:5-6 says, “The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” Similarly, Revelation 7:16 promised that the redeemed “shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor any scorching heat.” Here, the Lord is doing exactly the opposite in judging the sinful world.

As a judgment for sin, the fourth bowl addresses the situation of Western society today. Our secularist world has deliberately rejected God and tried to bar His influence. As Revelation envisions, we have replaced God with the beast of all-pervasive government, the false prophet of secular humanism, and the seductions of the harlot Babylon. The fourth bowl depicts judgment by scorching the world with “fierce heat” from a divinely cursed sun. In sin, the world becomes harsh and painful.

What is the response of the sin-corrupted secularist to the misery that results from God’s judgment of sin? We hear the answer all the time today, as media figures unceasingly blaspheme against God. John writes: “They cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory” (v. 9). On this same basis, “religion” and Christianity are publicly maligned today. Angry atheists point to widespread poverty, ignorance, disease, lawlessness, and relationship breakdowns – all of which are rooted in sin – and then curse God for them. “Where is this kind and loving God that you Christians speak of?” the secularists revile. The answer is that man’s own idolatry and sin have turned God’s face away in anger.

God not only places His curse of judgment on a faithless world, but also targets the leaders of spiritual opposition (v. 10). This judgment is based on the fourth plague on Egypt in the exodus, when God brought darkness on the realm of Pharaoh. The plague of darkness in the exodus showed God’s sovereignty over Egypt, and God likewise shows His sovereignty over Satan’s rule by sowing confusion among his earthly servants.

Although sinful people would not “repent of their deeds,” they still “gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed” God (vv. 10-11). Having their sources of security toppled – whether financial, political, or ideological – they are portrayed by John as gnawing on their tongues, seeking to maintain self-control. “There is no peace,” the Bible says, “for the wicked” (Isa. 57:21). The anxiety of sin is especially intense when God’s shadow brings dismay to the dominion of Satan, afflicting the spirits of those who will not forsake their sin or give God the glory He deserves.

While the first five bowls show God’s judgment in striking satanic powers throughout the church age, the sixth bowl, like the sixth seal and the sixth trumpet, moves us forward to the climatic events preceding Christ’s return. The vivid picture of this penultimate vision begins with the angel’s pouring “out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east” (v. 12).

The Euphrates River was the border between the lands that God gave to Israel and her enemies beyond it. Similarly, in John’s time, the Euphrates was the border between Rome and the dreaded Parthian Empire. The city of Babylon was located on the Euphrates, and in Revelation Babylon symbolizes the idolatrous world system. In the Old Testament, the parting or drying up of waters was an act of God’s intervention in order to advance the cause of His people. Here, He dries up the Euphrates “to prepare the way for the kings from the east.”

We need to be reminded again that Revelation presents visionary symbols, not a straightforward narrative of historical events. This becomes clear when we see Satan’s response to this assault from the worldly powers in verse 13.By means of his unholy counterfeit trinity – the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, signifying Satan, the Antichrist, and false teachers in society and within the organized church – Satan unleashes a spiritual assault. Demons, called “unclean spirits,” go forth “like frogs.” This points to the exodus, when God sent a plague of frogs on Egypt (Exod. 8:2-14). The frogs penetrated every household, spreading defilement and making a mind-numbing sound. It is for both the corruption and the deception of their slick and slippery speech that the demons are compared to frogs.

Added to their success in misrepresenting truth, the spirits are “performing signs,” going “abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty” (v. 14). In this way we see both Satan’s and God’s purposes in these events. In response to assault from worldly powers, Satan deceives all the nations into gathering for the climactic battle against God. It was for this purpose that God dried up the river, which symbolizes the removal of His restraint that kept earthly forces from uniting against His church.

The name given to this final battle symbolizes the cataclysmic end of the world is “Armageddon” (v. 16). This place is commonly known as Mount Megiddo. Megiddo was a fortress city overlooking the plain to the north-west of Jerusalem that hosted great battles in antiquity and as recently as Napoleon and the British army of World War 1. Some scholars envision a literal battle taking place in the future at Megiddo, in which the armies of the entire earth will be gathered to assault a future Jewish state.

This approach does not fit the symbolic nature of Revelation’s visions. Moreover, large as the plain around Megiddo was for ancient warfare, it could not hold even a single large military formation today, much less the combined armies of the world. Moreover, Revelation specifies the symbolism at work in this passage. Chapter 17 states that the reference to the Euphrates River was a symbol for “peoples and multitudes and nations and languages” (Rev. 17:15). Even the name Armageddon, or Mount Megiddo, is symbolic, since Megiddo is not a mountain but was a city on a small mound.

While Mount Megiddo is a symbol, it depicts a very real future event. The Bible gives abundant witness to a final conflict in which the forces of the world unite under a satanically inspires Antichrist to wage war on God’s people. It is, verse 14 proclaims, “the great day of God the Almighty,” to which the Scriptures so often looked, when Christ returns to destroy Satan and his evil powers, to rescue His church, and through the final resurrection and judgment to establish His eternal reign over a rescued and renewed creation that will fully display His glory.

Revelation 16:8-16 Study Questions:

What is the target of the fifth plague?

Why are the kings of the earth drawn into such a foolish confrontation (vv. 13-14)?

Why does John suddenly issue an encouragement to his readers to “stay awake” (v. 15)?

How do we also need to “wake up” to what is happening around us in the world?