Seven churches—seven seals—seven trumpets—seven thunders—what’s next? Seven swans a-swimming?
Would you believe chapter 15, verse 6, reads, “Out of the temple came seven angels with seven plagues”? And what were they given? The answer is “seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God.” That’s found in verse seven!
To get our bearings in the midst of all these sevens, let’s do a quick review.
Opening the seven seals on the edge of the scroll brought us to the threshold of the end-times.
Between the seven seals and the seven trumpets there was an interlude, or insertion, or interruption that broke the flow of what was happening. It focused first on the Jewish martyrs and then on the much-larger multitude of Gentile ones.
When the final or seventh seal was broken, there was absolute silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then the wrath of God began to be displayed against the evil of the world.
Between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls there was once again an insertion. This interruption informed us first about the two Jewish witnesses. Then we learned about the two beasts that will also temporarily rule over the Gentile world.
The seven golden bowls of God’s wrath are a continuation of the seven trumpets. So we can expect both overlap and also some new material. The bowls, therefore, are an intensification of the trumpet plagues, plus the revealing of additional information regarding the future.
In many ways the trumpets and bowls remind us of the plagues of Egypt during the time of Moses.
The purpose of God showing His power like this is to bring men and women to their knees in a last opportunity for repentance. For the most part, however, they stubbornly refuse to do so (16:9, 11, 21).
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