The Mystery of Ephraim

Chapter 15 opens with seven angels holding the seven last plagues, each filled with the wrath of God ready to be poured upon the earth.

Revelation 15

¹ And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous: seven angels holding the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. — God had borne with his enemies with much longsuffering,

— but now his wrath will go forth to the uttermost; and even after these plagues the holy wrath of God against his other enemies does not cease;

— these seven angels are holding the seven last plagues, because they are sent forth, not like the trumpets to warn men to repent, but upon those who have obstinately refused to return; ready to be pour out;

² And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass and having the harps of God. — a sea of glass mingled with fire; Revelation 4:6 “and before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal,” but is now mingled with fire;

— these were those that come out of great tribulation, had mingled with fire; had answering to the baptism on earth with fire, that is, fiery trial, had victory over the beast, his image and his mark; and had washed their garments, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and were just come up from the washing, and stood upon, or rather by or “near the sea.”

³ And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints! — and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God;

— both that in Exodus 15:1 and in Deuteronomy 32:1 and the sense is, that they observed the law of Moses, which he as a servant in the Lord’s house faithfully delivered, as in the times before; that they sung a song like that of Moses.

⁴ Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before Thee, for Thy judgements are made manifest.” — for the final result of the Lord’s doing will be that all nations, all men, will acknowledge His sovereignty and to give honor to Him as the holy Judge of the nations.

⁵ And after that I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven was opened; — and the tabernacle, the tabernacle of Moses, which was before the temple, because God dwells in it;

— the testimony was the law, or the two tables of stone, because they testified what was good, and perfect, and acceptable will of God; and these being put into the ark, were a testimony of the covenant between God and the people of Israel, and were a witness against them, when they transgressed these laws.

⁶ and the seven angels, having the seven plagues, came out of the temple, clothed in pure and white linen and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. — the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in white, shining linen, and girded about their breasts with a golden girdle; the meaning is, that they were attired in a manner befitting their rank and condition.

⁷ And one of the four living beings gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who liveth for ever and ever. — another seven angels each given a golden vial full of the wrath of God; it will be the wrath of the living God;

— for this wrath will issue in the everlasting destruction of the beast and his influence: so the wrath of God is signified by a wine cup of fury, Jeremiah 25:15 and that destruction, and those plagues which God designed to bring upon Pharaoh, was a type, there are some of them a manifest allusion to the plagues of Egypt.

⁸ And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. — and the sanctuary was filled with the smoke of the glory of God and of his power, and no one is able to enter into the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels are completed.

Revelation 16

¹ And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.” — it is the voice of God which is heard, for it is he that has the avenging plagues in his hand;

— the seven angels, the seven messengers of God, were to pour out the bowls, like the ten plagues of Egypt; each containing the wrath of the Lord upon the earth.

² And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast and upon them that worshipped his image. — and there came a grievous ulcer on the men that had the mark of the beast and those that had worshipped his image?

— or, is this a plague of painful boils? this resembles the sixth of the Egyptian plagues, the plague of boils;

³ And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. — the sea, out of which the first beast rose, from which the world-power drew strength, is turned to blood;

— the second vial on the sea, turning it into blood, and killing the fish; this was like the first Egyptian plague, coagulated blood, fatal to all animal life.

⁴ And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. — the rivers and fountains, also rendering the waters blood; undrinkable as in Egypt;

— the third vial affects the same, and brings terrible wars, and great effusion of blood, where so much of the blood of the Saints have been shed: hence it follows, and they became blood; these countries will be covered with blood;

⁵ And I heard the angel of the waters say, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art, and wast, and shall be, because Thou hast judged thus; — the angel of the waters; Jewish writings says of an angel that is “the prince of the sea,” and of angels that were over the waters, and others over fire; though here is designed the “angel of the water,”

— who art, and wast, and shall be; the same as “the Eternal”; the “Everlasting”; ‘I am,’ ‘I was,’ ‘I’ll be.’ These are descriptions of the Lord, or attributes that the Lord has; not to be mistaken as a name of the Lord, whose name is Yehovah (the letter J didn’t appear in the English language until the sixteenth century the earliest).

⁶ for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy.” — much of the blood of the saints, of the preachers of the Word, or the Gospel, of the prophets and witnesses, have been martyred.

⁷ And I heard another out of the altar say, “Even so, Lord God Almighty; true and righteous are Thy judgements.” — this angel joins the other, and approves and confirms what he says; applauding the judgements of God upon the worshippers of the beast, being what they deserved.

⁸ And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. — this fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and to him was given to scorch men with fire; and

— this vial refers to; when Zion’s light will be come, and the light and heat of the Sun will be seven fold, and to scorch men with fire;

— these were worshippers of both beasts, who uphold SUNday worshipping, accusing God’s Sabbath-keepers of being Judaizing, they were scorched, but they did not repent to give him glory:

— Moses’ warnings in Deuteronomy 17

And [if you] hath gone and served other gods and worshipped them, either the SUN or moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded, ⁴ and it be told thee, and thou hast heard of it and inquired diligently, and behold, it be true and the thing certain that such abomination is wrought in Israel, ⁵ then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman who has committed that wicked thing unto thy gates, even that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die. Deuteronomy 17:3-5

— the following quotation show that the first Christians understood the Sabbath but were made forbidden and gathered for worship on Sunday: “Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians” (Canon 29 AD 360);

⁹ And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory.

— every new plague seems to be more deadly than the preceding one; and after these men were scorched with great heat, they blasphemed the name of God, who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent to give Him glory.

¹⁰ And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues from pain; — the beast is the same with that in Revelation 13:1 and which again shows that to be one and the same:

— the seat or throne of the beast is Rome, which, when the empire was Pagan, was the seat of Satan, or the dragon, Revelation 2:13 and when the beast or antichrist was risen, the dragon gave this seat, as well as his authority to him.

¹¹ and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. — and blasphemed the God of heaven; who dwells in it, and from whence wrath is revealed, and comes upon the seat of the beast; but they will curse him who is their King, and their God, and look upwards to heaven, where he is, Isaiah 8:21.

¹² And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. — nor is the situation changed by the sixth plague: and the sixth poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that the way of the kings from the rising of the Sun might be prepared.

¹³ And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. — this might be the real trinity, or Trinity: (1) the dragon, (2) the beast and (3) the false prophet; they operate as a single unit and work harmoniously among themselves;

¹⁴ For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them for the battle of that great Day of God Almighty. — and of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet: again, the real trinity, or Trinity?

— three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons performing miracles, which go forth upon the kings of the whole earth to assemble them to battle of that great day of Almighty God.

¹⁵ “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” — blessed is he that watcheth; against sin, the lusts of the flesh, and the cares of this life, lest they bring a sleepiness upon him, and so the day of the Lord come upon him at an unawares; and against Satan and his temptations, who goes about seeking whom he may devour;

— and against his emissaries and false teachers, who lie in wait to deceive; and blessed is he also who is wishing and waiting for the coming of Christ, and so, being ready, will enter with him into the marriage chamber, and partake of the supper of the Lamb.

¹⁶ And he gathered them together at a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. — the Hebrew tongue Armageddon; which may be the same with Har-megiddo, the mountain of Megiddo; for the Hebrew word הר is read “Ar” by the Greeks; so the city Argarize is interpreted the mountain of the most High:

— and this refers either to the slaying of Josiah in the valley of Megiddo, which occasioned such mourning, that it became proverbial for any great sorrow; see II Chronicles 35:22 where it is called the valley of Megiddon; and Armageddon is the mountain of Megiddo.

¹⁷ And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, “It Is Done!” — the kingdom of Satan, he being the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:2 not that he has power over the air, to raise or lay winds and storms in it at pleasure;

— but he is so called because he is the prince of that posse of devils, the principalities and powers of darkness, that have their dwelling in the air; hence the air, encompassing the whole earth, stands for the kingdom of Satan all the world over.

¹⁸ And there were voices and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as has not been since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. — another great voice out of the Temple of heaven, from the Throne; this voice is said to come “out of the Temple of heaven” that is, out of the Temple which is in heaven, which will now be opened, as under the sounding of the seventh trumpet.

¹⁹ And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon came to remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. — like the city of Jerusalem, as inhabited by Christians, Jews, and Muslims?

— the wrath of God is sometimes signified in the Old Testament by a cup, a wine cup, a wine cup of fury, see Psalms 75:8.

²⁰ And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. — the islands are removed, and the mountains sink from sight, for the final Judgement has come, and the end of all things is at hand;

— this is the end result of “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again” Isaiah 24:20

²¹ And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great. — and great hail, resembling a talent in size, fell down from heaven upon men, and men blasphemed God for the plague of the hail, for the plague of it is very great;

— this is the punishment which will destroy all the enemies of the Lord, a hail of God’s wrath which falls from heaven upon the blasphemers and casts them into the lowest hell;

—.and yet the enemies, in the midst of their destruction, blaspheme the Lord, just as they will blaspheme Him throughout eternity, as they are consumed by the torments of hell.

~ by Joel Huan on January 16, 2023.

Posted in Revelation