Revelation 14 - 16

Revelation — Steve Gregg

Next in this series

Revelation 17 - 18

00:00

Revelation 14 - 16

RevelationSteve Gregg

In this segment of his discussion on Revelation, Steve Gregg delves into the symbolism of chapter 14, which follows the previously discussed period of 42 months or 1260 days. He notes that the group referred to as the "ones not defiled" are likely Christian Jews who have remained faithful to God. Gregg also references Hebrews 12, which mentions Mount Zion, and explains that the 144,000 are the "firstfruits" of believers in Christ. Ultimately, Gregg's analysis focuses on the idea that through faith and a righteous spirit, believers can be spared from the plagues and destruction mentioned in Revelation.

Transcript

We're picking up our study in Revelation at chapter 14, and that means we've just come through a segment, chapters 10 through 13, which is that segment that discusses a period of time that is called 42 months or 1260 days, or time, times, and half a time. We've spent a considerable time, and half a time, looking at these passages and looking at the things that are said to be associated with that period of time. I believe that those chapters are not talking about AD 70.

I don't believe those chapters are describing Jerusalem's fall. I believe that they are talking about the whole period of the church age ending up with the ultimate eschatological return of Christ. We have seen, for example, in chapter 11, what I believe is the return of Christ.

In fact, we've seen it more than once there because the two witnesses were caught up into heaven to the throne of God. I take that to be at the rapture, at the second coming of Christ. Likewise, in chapter 11, we saw the sounding of the seventh trumpet, also, I believe, a reference to the second coming of Christ.

So, this is what's behind us. We come to chapter 14 now, and I have said that I believe chapters 10 through 13 are like a parenthesis, which means we come back to the main subject. Once we exit the parenthesis, we come back to the main subject of the book, and I believe John has called our attention to that, or the Holy Spirit has done so in revealing these things, by reintroducing the 144,000.

Now, they are only mentioned twice in the Bible, once in Revelation 7 and once here. We read of them, Then I looked, and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder.

And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. And they sang, as it were, a new song before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.

These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God.

Now, we encountered these people in chapter 7. There was not much told us about them there. Although much more verses than this were given to them, most of those verses were occupied by saying 12,000 from the tribe of Asher, 12,000 from the tribe of Gad, 12,000 from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 from the tribe of Ephraim, and so forth. Twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes, that's what took up most of the verses in the first half of chapter 7. But we are told in chapter 7 that they were sealed on the forehead.

They received the seal of God on their foreheads so that when the trials were about to come, when the judgment was poured out, they would be preserved. And we found that when the locusts were released with the fifth trumpet, that they were told they could afflict all men except those who had the seal of God on their forehead, that is, except the 144,000. So the 144,000, like Israel in Egypt, when the plagues were poured out in the days of Moses, they were spared those plagues.

They were in the world, but they were not subject to the plagues because they were God's people. And therefore, the seal of God is the emblem of them belonging to God. Like a slave had his master's brand on his forehead in the Roman world, this would communicate that they are slaves or servants of God.

It also, of course, harked back to Ezekiel 9, as we showed at that time when we were in chapter 7, that Ezekiel 9 is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., when the Babylonians destroyed the city, as the Romans would do shortly after the time of Christ and the apostles. And in Ezekiel 9, in anticipation of the Babylonian invasion, he says that he saw six angels or six men in a vision with battle axes in their hands and a seventh one who had an ink horn. And he was told to go and put a mark on the forehead of everyone in Jerusalem who sighed and cried over the abominations done in that city.

So these were the faithful remnant. These were the remnant in Jerusalem who were sympathetic with God's cause. They hated the sin of the city.

They were like Lot in Sodom who vexed his righteous spirit day after day with their unlawful deeds. So there were in Jerusalem in Ezekiel's day some faithful remnant. And God, in this vision, put a mark on the foreheads of all of the ones who were of his sentiments.

And then he sent out the six men with slaughter weapons in their hands to kill everyone else in the city, but to spare the ones with the mark on their heads. So this idea of marking the remnant in Jerusalem before the destruction of Jerusalem comes from Ezekiel 9. And it is picked up in Revelation chapter 7. So we have the 144,000 marked before the judgment fell. And I pointed out at the time that the Christian Jews, the Jews in Jerusalem in the first century, fled Jerusalem.

This Eusebius, the church historian, has assured us. They were warned in advance that the Romans were coming. And so every Christian in Jerusalem fled before the city was locked down, before the siege.

And when the Romans besieged the city, not one Christian was left in the city. They were all spared this horrible judgment. Just as in Ezekiel's day, the remnant were spared when God destroyed Jerusalem by the Babylonians.

So in John's day, the remnant were spared when God destroyed Jerusalem. And that's what the 144,000 signified. Now here they are seen again.

So we're back to that timeframe again. And now they're seen on Mount Zion. And many people say they're in heaven.

Well, maybe they are in heaven. It doesn't necessarily say so. Mount Zion is not heaven.

Remember that in Hebrews chapter 12, it says that we have come to Mount Zion. We have come to the Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem, which the writer of Hebrews refers to as the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are written in heaven. So our names are written in heaven, but we're not in heaven.

We're not physically in heaven. We're physically on earth. We are the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which the writer of Hebrews calls Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church.

And he says, we have come to this Zion. So these 144,000 have come just like the readers of the book of Hebrews had come. Of course, the readers of the book of Hebrews were Jewish Christians in the first century before the destruction of Jerusalem.

And therefore Hebrews was written to these very people. And we see them on Mount Zion as the writer of Hebrews says they were. And they're singing a new song.

Now it doesn't tell us anything about the content of the song must be rather complex because no one can learn it except them. And I, I suppose what this means is that no one in Jerusalem could sing this song except them because these were uniquely saved out of the city and their song was no doubt a song of salvation because it is said no one knew the song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth. The fact that they were redeemed is mentioned no doubt because that has something to do with the content of their song.

They're singing about redemption. Now the really interesting parts of this passage are verses four and five where we are given more information about these 144,000 in two verses than in all the rest of the Bible combined. We're told in verse four, these are the ones who were not defiled with women for their virgins.

Now we have to remember in Revelation we're using symbolism. These are not necessarily literal virgins. To make virginity a qualification to be among the redeemed would be essentially to teach what Paul called doctrines of demons.

Paul said to Timothy in first Timothy four that some in the last days would teach doctrines of demons forbidding people to marry. Well if to be part of this company, if you had to be a virgin, you'd have to be forbidden to marry obviously. And certainly the Bible does not place a value on virginity over marriage.

And this is symbolic because the city is referred to as Babylon the harlot. And by contrast to the promiscuous immorality of the city and its spiritual adultery, these people have kept themselves pure. They are not defiled with the harlotry of the city.

And that's I think what is meant by virginity. They're pure. The language of course is that of physical virginity but as in most cases in Revelation these things are an emblem of something spiritual or something other than the exact thing they mention.

These are the ones who follow the lamb wherever he goes. This is an example of not saying things exactly as they are. Jesus isn't really a lamb.

Jesus is a man. He's God. He's the son of God.

He's not a lamb. But throughout the book of Revelation he's a lamb. It's symbolic.

He's depicted as a lamb and they're following the lamb. An interesting reversal of normal situations is usually lambs follow shepherds but these people are following the lamb wherever he goes. And this is simply a book of Revelation way of saying they're Christians.

They're followers of Jesus. We know they're Jewish from chapter 7 because they're from all the 12 tribes of Israel. Now we learn they're Christians.

So they're Christian Jews. And they are undefiled Christian Jews. And what more do we learn of them? They were redeemed from among men.

Well all Christians are redeemed from among men. So they are Christians and they share that in common with all Christians but it says they are the first fruits to God and to the lamb. Now this is where I said this gives away the secret who they are.

They're the first ones harvested into the church. We know from church history that the first people to be saved were Jews in Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost. And for some time afterward all the converts were Jewish.

All of them were in Jerusalem. The only church for many years was in Jerusalem. It was a while before persecution and the death of Stephen drove Christians out of there to start churches elsewhere.

But the church in Jerusalem was the original first fruits of God in the first century. And James in his epistle is writing to Jews of the first century who are Christians. In fact in James 1.1 he says, James a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ to the twelve tribes.

So he's writing to people from the twelve tribes. Well the 144,000 are from the twelve tribes too. We are laboriously told that by giving the numbers of each tribe.

So James is writing to believers in Christ who are of the twelve tribes. And he says to them in chapter 1 and verse 18, James 1.18 says, Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So the Jewish Christians in the first century including James who was a first century Jewish Christian were the first fruits of God's creatures.

The harvest of course eventually involved many Gentiles. Many Gentiles were brought in too but the Jewish believers were the first fruits and that's who the 144,000 are said to be. They escaped the holocaust of AD 70.

They're Christian Jews of the first century, first fruits. And in Revelation 14.5 it says, In their mouth was found no guile, which is what Jesus said about Nathanael, part of the faithful Jewish remnant. In John chapter 1 when Nathanael was coming to Jesus he said, There's a true Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.

A true Israelite was one who is one inwardly, honest at heart. As Paul said in Romans 2.28, He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, he is a Jew who is one inwardly. And so Nathanael was an example of that faithful remnant in Israel at that time of whom Jesus said there's no guile, no duplicity, no hypocrisy in him.

You know how Jesus was put off by the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of his day and often called them hypocrites. Here was a Jew who was no hypocrite at all. He had no guile in him at all.

Well that's what made up the remnant. The apostate were the hypocrites. The remnant were the sincere, the unpretentious, the ones who had no guile.

And so this 144,000 like Nathanael who no doubt was one of them, in them was no guile. And it says for they are without fault before the throne of God. So here we have been reintroduced to them and then we'll hear no more about them in Revelation or elsewhere.

But in bringing them up again as I said has brought us full circle back to the original subject matter of the book. Namely a judgment is coming on Jerusalem though God has selected his remnant and spared them. And here they are.

They're on the true Mount Zion. The physical Mount Zion is about to be disrupted and the city sitting on it burned down and destroyed. But there's a true Mount Zion, a heavenly Jerusalem and these are part of that community.

Now, the next vision and by the way this chapter is made up of a series of visions. I might just add that many have tried to find seven of something in this section because there's seven of something in most of the sections of Revelation. There's seven letters, there's seven churches, there's seven seals that are individually broken, there's seven trumpets that are individually sounded, there's going to be in chapter 16 seven bowls of wrath that are poured out individually.

What seven would we find here in this chapter? Unlike those other cases there's not a countdown. There's not a first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth named. The first one did this and the second one did that like there are in these other sections.

However, many have felt that this section is a section of seven angels and that's the first thing we see in verse 6, they saw another angel. And then in verse 8, and another angel. And verse 9, and a third angel.

That's the only one that's given a number but by giving it a number maybe we're tipped off that the number of angels is something we're supposed to pay attention to here. He doesn't say the first, second, third and fourth angel and so forth as he does with the other things but he's got one angel after another. And then you've got in verse 15 another angel.

And then 17, then another angel. And verse 18, another angel. It's starting to look good for this theory that there are seven angels.

The only problem is once you finish with the angels there are only six. There aren't seven, there's only six. Now there's another mention of an angel which is, was it 19? Right, but it's one of the others.

It says the angel, not another angel but the angel thrust in his sickle. He was mentioned earlier. And so he's the angel who's got his sickle in verse 17.

So he's the fifth angel repeated, mentioned again. But there's only six angels. But, consider this.

When there were seven seals, six of them, there were six of them were broken. And then when the seventh one was broken there was just silence. There was nothing.

And then the seven angels with the seven trumpets appeared out of the, as it were, out of the seventh seal. And then when the seventh trumpet sounded of course he, that was the end of the world and we started the cycle over again. Here it may be that just as the seventh seal was essentially the seven trumpets.

They were contained within the seventh seal. So the seven angels that have the seven last plagues to whom we will be introduced in verse one of chapter 15, maybe they are essentially the seventh angel. There's seven of them.

But it's possible that the seventh angel is divisible into seven angels just as the seventh seal was divisible into seven trumpets. Who are they? Well, verse six. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven having this everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue and people, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

That's the first angel. And what's he doing? He's flying through heaven preaching what's called the everlasting gospel. Now when you read what he preaches, we don't recognize that as the gospel.

There's nothing about the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. There's nothing about repentance, whether it's believe or give glory and fear God. But the contents of this message are not what we would recognize as the gospel, but rather just an exhortation to fear God because his judgment has come.

But we're told that he preaches the everlasting gospel. So I guess this is a stylized kind of statement of the Christian church's message, which is the gospel. But is this the church? The futurist camp believes that there will be a time in the tribulation period when an angel or angels fly through the heavens and preach the gospel out loud, like with a loud speaker.

And when one argues that the church cannot be raptured before the tribulation because Jesus said this gospel must be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations and then shall the end come, the dispensational answer is, well, that's not a problem. The church can be raptured and the gospel can still be preached to all nations because Revelation 14.6 tells us there's an angel flying through heaven preaching the gospel during the tribulation period. Well, first of all, there's no reference to this being in a tribulation period.

I want to point that out. There's nothing in Revelation that says that we're reading about a tribulation period here. That's an assumption imported by dispensationalism.

But whether it is or not, it's not clear that we should understand this to be a literal angel either. Throughout the book of Revelation, angels represent concepts just like other things in the symbolism do. And I'm inclined to the view that this angel preaching the gospel throughout the world simply represents the preaching of the gospel throughout the world, which in fact is carried on by the church.

The church is an angel. The church is a messenger. The word angelos means a messenger.

The church is God's messenger and the church does preach the gospel throughout the world. And to mention this at this point after the 144,000 is our scene is very much to follow the same pattern as Revelation 7, which after we saw Revelation 7, the first 14 verses where it talks about the 144,000, the next thing we saw was an innumerable company of people saved out of every nation, people and kindred in tongue who had been saved Gentiles. So we read in Revelation 7, first of the saved Jews, the first fruits of the harvest, and then of an innumerable company of Gentiles who are the result of the gospel mission to the world.

The gospel was preached first in Jerusalem and to Judea and Samaria and the outermost parts of the earth eventually. And so we have reference to the gospel being preached throughout the world as a, as something to focus on here before we look at the disasters that are going to be described. Verse eight and another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Now Babylon is not mentioned previous to this in Revelation. Babylon will be described in great detail in chapter 17 and the fall of Babylon will be declared in Revelation 18. This is something of a preview, but one of the things that makes this difficult for a teacher is when we want to make sense of this statement, Babylon has fallen, we have to identify Babylon.

And for that, we need to kind of look ahead at things and kind of steal thunder from later lectures because we don't have any identification of Babylon here, just the announcement Babylon has fallen. He does say she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, but that's not much of a dead giveaway either. Babylon will be mentioned by name again a second time in chapter 16 and that's still before we really get the formal introduction.

In chapter 16 verse 19, it says, now the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the patron of the nations fell and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. So we have the first mention in Revelation of Babylon is here when another angel is flying around saying Babylon has fallen. Then when the seventh bowl is poured out of wrath, then we read that Babylon gets her due.

But then in chapter 17, which follows these two references, we are introduced to Babylon as if we've never seen or heard of her before. John has taken out to a wilderness where he sees the beast and the beast is described as if we've never heard of it before either. And then this woman, this harlot who is said to be mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots is seen.

And then chapter 18 is all about how Babylon has fallen and who moans and who rejoices over that. So we will have more information about who Babylon is in chapter 17 and 18, but suffice it to say it isn't literal Babylon, just as so many of the things named in Revelation are symbolic names. So Babylon is a symbolic name.

In fact, we're told that of course, clearly in chapter 17, verse five, where it says on her forehead, a name was written mystery Babylon, not just Babylon, but mystery. It's a mystery. Who is this Babylon? This isn't historic Babylon.

And we find certain things about her that point us to certain directions. It is some city because it is called in verse eight, that great city. And in chapter 16, verse 19, it's that great city was divided the great city.

Now we have encountered the great city before in chapter 11. In chapter 11, in verse eight, we read about the great city for the first time, though Babylon was not given as the name of the great city in revelation 11, eight, it said their dead bodies. The two witnesses will lie in the street of the great city, which is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

So the great city is spiritually called Sodom. It is spiritually called Egypt. It is mysteriously called Babylon.

It is the great city that bears all the names of these pagan enemies of Israel and objects of God's wrath in old Testament times. But what city is it? Well, we're told in verse eight there of chapter 11, it's the city where our Lord was crucified. Oh, that narrows it down.

There's only one city where our Lord was crucified. That's Jerusalem. So the great city is Jerusalem.

It's spiritually called Sodom. It's spiritually called Egypt. It's also called Babylon.

And by the way, we are told later on, of course, that Babylon was guilty of all the blood of the prophets. Babylon was, she was drunk with the blood of the saints and the prophets. And Jesus said Jerusalem was the one who slays the prophets and those who were sent to her.

So Babylon, it sounds like is Jerusalem. Now, of course, it's more common for commentators to say it's Rome. Some of the description of Jerusalem or Babylon, excuse me, in chapter 17 has led people to believe it's Rome.

However, there's a problem because the woman who is Babylon in chapter 17 is seen riding on a beast who is often identified with Rome. The beast and the woman are not the same entity. The beast could arguably be identified with Rome.

The woman, however, is not the beast. In fact, the beast hates the woman and eventually destroys her. That's if you read chapter 17.

We won't go into it right now. We will later. Well, we can look at chapter 17, verse, um, 15, 17, 15 says, he said to me, the waters, which you saw where the harlot sits are people's multitudes, nations, and tongues.

Now she's sitting on the beast. The beast represents nations, multitudes, and tongues, and so forth. And the 10 horns, which were also part of the beast, which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked and eat her flesh and burn her with fire.

Now the 10 horns and the beast arguably have identifying features that would point us to Rome, but not the, not the harlot. She's riding on the beast, but the beast hates her. The 10 horns hater, they turn on her, they kill her and they burn her with fire.

So Rome burned the harlot with fire. Now the giveaway of who she is, is in revelation 17, 18, the last verse in chapter 17 says, and the woman whom you saw is that great city. Well, there's that term again, but tells us this, which reigns over the Kings of the earth.

Now this statement probably more than any other has directed people to think it's Rome. Notice John is using the present tense to his readers. You want to know who the woman is? We've got this mystery, but I can tell you who it is.

She is that great city that is reigning present tense in John's day over the Kings of the earth. Babylon represented a city in John's day and his reader's day. He's speaking in the present tense.

This is who she is, but what city rules over the Kings of the earth? Well, one would argue in John's day, Rome ruled over the Kings of the earth. Therefore, the woman Babylon must be Rome, but we've already seen that doesn't work well because Rome kills her. Could she be Jerusalem? Rome did destroy Jerusalem and burned her down.

That fits. In fact, everything fits Jerusalem with the one difficulty that Jerusalem did not reign over the Kings of the earth. But I've pointed this out before to you, the term, the Kings of the earth, which occurs many times in revelation also occurs in the book of Acts, the same Greek expression.

And it's in the prayer of the disciples in Acts chapter four. In Acts chapter four, the disciples are quoting from Psalm two in their prayer. And in Acts 425, the disciples say, who God by the mouth of your servant, David have said, and this is where they quote Psalm two.

Why did the nation's rage and the people plot vain things? The Kings of the earth. That's our same phrase from revelation. The Kings of the earth took their stand and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

Now that's the quote. Now they give the interpretation for truly against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, that's the Christ anointed one, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done. In other words, Lord, you, you spoke about this in Psalm chapter two, you said the Kings of the earth and the rulers would stand against you and against your Messiah.

And surely they say, that's what has happened. Pontius Pilate, Herod, the Gentiles, the rulers of Israel, they've all come against Christ. Just like Psalm two said, but you see what they're doing.

They're taking the expression, the Kings of the earth and naming them as Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, the people who crucified Jesus, the rulers of Israel, the remember the word earth in Greek can mean land. So the Kings of the earth are taken to mean the rulers of the land of Israel. That's whose name Pilate was not a King.

Herod wasn't a King. The Sanhedrin weren't Kings, but they were the rulers of the land. And so the disciples understand this phrase, the Kings of the earth, as it's translated in our Bible to really belong.

The definition is the rulers of the land. Now what city rules over the rulers of the land? Jerusalem certainly was the capital of the land and all the rulers of the land answered to the capital city. And therefore there really remains nothing to prevent us from recognizing Babylon as the same great city that is spiritually called Sodom in Egypt.

It's also spiritually called Babylon. It is, as it says in revelation 11, eight, the city where our Lord was crucified and its fall is announced in revelation chapter 14, verse eight, it has fallen. Then verse nine, then a third angel followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast in his image and receives his Mark on his forehead or on his hand, remember the Mark on the forehead.

Well, the 144,000 had their father's name on their forehead. It's an, it's a symbol of being a slave, a slave with a brand, your owner's brand on your head or on your hand. This is where they put them, where they were easily spotted.

They couldn't cover hands and foreheads with clothing as easily as they could other parts of the body. So the brand was put on a slave on those parts. Now you either have the Mark of God, or you've got the Mark of the devil system.

And those who have the Mark of the devil system, who are the servants of the devil system is dev servants of God. That person himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.

And they have no rest day or night who worship the beast and his image. And whoever receives the Mark of his name here is the patience of the saints. Here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Now, I have to admit this, this passage almost all my whole life, I felt to be the very best passage in the Bible for the proof of the doctrine of eternal torment in hell, because it talks about the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and they have rest, no rest day or night. Sounds like eternal torment to me. But when I came to put it in context, I realized there are some problems with that identification.

For one thing, the torment and the torture is taking place in the presence of the lamb and the holy angels. Now, one of the other famous verses in favor of eternal torment is 2 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9. In 2 Thessalonians 1, 9, it says, these shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Now, although that's how it reads in the Greek, most modern translations add a word and they have it like this.

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. In other words, the argument from this verse is usually this, whatever hell may be, it's away from God. It's away from his presence.

It's in outer darkness. God is light and God is blessing and good. And to be totally removed from that forever is hell.

And that these will be experiencing everlasting destruction away from the presence of the Lord is the way that many people understand this. This, uh, most people understand this particular verse, second Thessalonians 1, 9. But if hell, in fact, is by definition away from the presence of the Lord, but this torment we're reading about is in the presence of the lamb and in the presence of the holy angels, this is not often some far dark corner of space. This is like in the arena where Jesus is present.

What is this talking about? Now, one of the things that of course, directs our ideas toward hell are this, the language of smoke growing up forever and ever, but we have to realize this is not the only place that speaks of smoke going up forever and ever. In fact, the first place that occurs is in Isaiah 34. And it's from there that the imagery of revelation is being borrowed.

Isaiah 34 says it's a prophecy about the destruction of Edom. That's what it says. Isaiah 34 five says for my sword shall be bathed in heaven.

Indeed, it shall come down on Edom. And on the people of my curse for judgment, Isaiah 34 five, Edom, it has been extinct now for 2000 years. There are no Edomites.

They've been gone. They were, they essentially became extinct in the time of Christ. Herod's family was the last known Edomite family on earth.

So this judgment of Edom must be in the past, certainly. But as it describes it in the apocalyptic imagery it uses, it says in verse nine, let's see Isaiah 34 nine, its stream shall be turned into pitch. Now pitch is like burning tar, its dust into brimstone, its land shall become burning pitch.

It shall not be quenched night or day. Its smoke shall ascend forever from generation to generation. It shall lie waste.

No one shall pass through it forever and ever. This isn't talking about hell. This is about Edom devastated by the judgment of God.

And the judgment of God is symbolically referred to as fire that burns in it forever and ever, which of course, that's also how Jeremiah and Isaiah spoke about what God's judgment on Israel and God's judgment on Judah were his, the wrath, his fire that was not quenched. So we have here fire that's not quenched day or night. Its smoke ascends forever and ever.

Now smoke ascending and brimstone and fire. These are images, not literal, certainly Edom didn't perish in fire and brimstone and eternal smoke, but these are images borrowed from Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone.

And the next day, Abraham looked in the direction and it says the smoke of the city ascended like the smoke of a furnace and darkened the sky. So the, the pillar of smoke, the fire and the brimstone, these are images from the destruction of that pagan city, Sodom and Gomorrah. The imagery is then applied to Edom, which was destroyed 2000 years ago, but not in the same manner.

Certainly it was destroyed by Arabian tribes coming in and wiping them out. And then the Nabataeans taking over their land, the Edomites just simply disappeared. It wasn't fire and brimstone literally, but their judgment is likened to the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah in principle, not in method.

Likewise, in revelation, we have the same imagery borrowed indeed from Edom's judgment in Isaiah 34, but even prior to that from Sodom and Gomorrah. And remember who's Sodom, who is spiritually called Sodom. The city where our Lord was crucified in revelation is spiritually called Sodom.

Therefore the apocalyptic imagery, which resembles that of the destruction of Edom also resembles that of Sodom. And if this is the judgment of Jerusalem, then this would be saying that the city would be destroyed and would be perpetually destroyed. Now it says the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever.

It doesn't say their torment, but the smoke of their torment ascends. Their torment no doubt happened when they were burned. People usually are tormented in fire, not in smoke.

If they're in a lot of smoke, they usually inhale it and die. Like in a burning house, they're more likely to die of smoke inhalation than of the fire itself. Their torment is in the fire.

The smoke is what ascends when the fire is essentially done. Like in Sodom and Gomorrah, it was the next day after Sodom and Gomorrah were burned up. That's when Abram went out and looked towards Sodom and saw the smoke of it rising like a great furnace.

There was no more fire, no more torment. But the smoke was the memorial of the torment that had happened the day before. The continuing smoke tells us there was a fire there.

Where there's smoke, there was fire. And there was, in this case, the fire of torment. The ascending smoke forever and ever is not necessarily to be taken as a reference to eternal torment in hell because this is not in hell.

This is in the presence of God. This is not in the absence of God. This is language that is taken from the historical destruction of the land that perished 2,000 years ago and borrowed directly from the passages that describe that and not used any more literally here than in that earlier passage.

It's used, in fact, the same way as it was used in Isaiah. Now, at least that's what I think. Now it says in verse 13, Now, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.

Well, what about previous to this? Didn't people who die in the Lord, weren't they blessed before now? Is this some like turning point in history where now people who die in the Lord will be blessed but not before? Many commentators have said, well, from now on means from the point of their death on. Not from this point in history on. It'll be more blessed to die in the Lord from this point on in history than it was before that point in history.

But rather, from now on means from the point that they've died. When they die in the Lord from that time on, they're blessed. And I think that would be a sensible thing, a sensible interpretation.

Now, by the way, this verse 13 has a voice from heaven. It does not say if it was an angel. If it was, we have seven angels in this chapter, but it doesn't say it was an angel.

There are many other voices in this chapter that are almost always a loud voice. This one's not said to be loud, but most of them are the voices of angels, but we have a loud voice in verse seven. We've got a loud voice in verse nine.

We've got a loud voice in verse 15. We've got a loud voice in verse 18, and we've got a voice from heaven here speaking. I'm not sure how that numbering works with the other things.

It doesn't say it was an angel, so we can't really make a total of seven angels from that one reference. We are missing one. Tab seven.

And I looked and behold a white cloud, and on the cloud sat one like the son of man, having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth or the land, because earth can be translated land, and the land was reaped.

I'm going to favor the word land for reasons I'll give you once I make my comments here. Verse 17. Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also having a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out from the altar who had power over fire, and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle saying, thrust in your sickle and gather the clusters of the vines of the vine of the land, for her grapes are fully ripe. So the angel thrust his sickle into the land and gathered the vine of the land and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city.

The city is not named. Presumably we've heard of it before. And blood came out from the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs.

Now I read this whole section because although there's two parts to it, we need to see them in juxtaposition with each other. There is first of all what appears to be the harvest of the grain in verses 14 through 16. And then there's the vintage, the bringing in of the grapes in verses 17 through 20.

And this corresponds with the two seasons in Israel where the produce was brought in. Early in the summer at Pentecost, they would harvest the grain. The first fruits of the grain were brought in at Pentecost of the wheat.

Later in the summer, in fact after the summer around September, the fruit had had a chance to ripen all summer and they would bring in the fruit later in the year. So we have both of these actions going on here. First the grain is brought in and then the grapes.

Now when the grapes are brought in here, it's clearly an act of judgment because the grapes are thrown into a winepress and trampled upon and their grape juice is called blood. Notice that in verse 20, the winepress was trampled outside the city and the blood came out, not grape juice, blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs. Now by the way, every commentator usually mentions that 1,600 furlongs, which is approximately 184 miles, is the exact length of the land of Israel from the northern to the southern border.

So the whole land of Israel is here suggested from Dan to Beersheba. From the north to the south, the distance, 184 miles is 1,600 stadia or 1,600 furlongs, which is also stadia in the Greek. That's basically the length of the country of Israel.

So the whole nation is said to be covered with blood, deep in blood, to the horse's bridles in blood. Now by the way, enough people to die and provide that much blood would be probably more people than you could fit in the Middle East altogether. So this is no doubt impressionistic.

This is a bloody massacre. It's a bloodbath is what it is. And it is the result of bringing the grapes in and trampling them.

So the trampling of the grapes is a judgment scene. But the gathering of the grain, probably not. In fact, I believe that these two actions, which do correspond to the two harvest seasons in Israel, represent first the gathering in of the remnant to safety.

That was 144,000 who were rescued before the judgment on the land. And then came the judgment on the land so that the whole land was filled with blood. Now, let me try to justify that from scripture, if I could.

If you look at Matthew chapter three, in the preaching of John the Baptist, Matthew three and verse 12, John the Baptist says of Christ, his winnowing fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his threshing floor. Now, a threshing floor, we're not familiar with that unless we're farmers, probably, or have read about it. A threshing floor is where the grain was brought in when it was harvested.

It was crushed up not into flour, but it was broken up so that the wheat kernels were separated from the chaff. And the chaff was all intermixed in the pile of or something like a shovel, almost like a snow shovel. And they'd take big lots of this and throw it up in the air on the threshing floor.

The wind would blow the chaff away because it was like feathery, hairy, lightweight. The wheat was heavier, so it falls right down. And they'd keep doing this until the chaff had all blown away and you have nothing but wheat left.

This was threshing. Now, John the Baptist said that Jesus was coming, and he was immediately, and then he had a fan in his hand to thresh his floor. And there was an immediate threshing in Israel going to happen.

There's going to be a separation of wheat and chaff in Israel. In Israel at that time, there was a faithful remnant who became the disciples of Jesus, and there was an apostate majority who eventually succumbed to the Romans a generation or within that generation. Now, John said, his winnowing fan is in his hand.

He will thoroughly purge his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn or to a safe place, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Now, this is not something that's talking about hell someday.

This is talking about what was about to happen. John is warning the Jews of his time that Jesus was coming immediately and was going to make this division between the wheat and the chaff. The wheat would be saved.

They were the remnant that followed Jesus. The chaff, they're going to experience a fiery judgment. But notice also verse 10, John speaking also similarly says, even now the axe is at the root of the trees.

Therefore, every tree, which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So we've got the fruit and we've got the grain and God is the harvester and the winner. And he's, John said, it's happening now.

The axe is already poised at the root of the tree. This is not something in the distant future. This is now about to take place, John said, and the fruitless trees will be thrown into the fire.

The chaff will be burning the fire, but the grain, that's a different story. The grain is going to be into a greenery. It's going to be brought into a barn where it's kept safe and secure before the judgment on the wicked takes place.

And this was of course, the remnant of Israel saved in Christ, escaping from Jerusalem and not being there. So you see the gathering of the wheat comes first in this image in revelation. The righteous are gathered out of Israel before the Romans come and trample them.

Now we have this vine of the land thrown into the wine press. Now there's no question what the vine is because throughout the old Testament, Israel is the vine and the vineyard. In fact, it says in Isaiah 5, 7, the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel.

And the men of Judah are his pleasant plant, meaning his vine in the vineyard. The vine of the land is the people of Israel. And that vine is thrown into the wine press and trampled and blood comes out, not grape juice.

Now this idea of trampling a wine press as a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem comes from Lamentations chapter one, just after the book of Jeremiah is the book of Lamentations. And it is written after Jerusalem is destroyed in 586 BC, it is a lamentation over the fall of Jerusalem, something very similar to what happened in 70 AD, only with different attackers. And in Lamentations 1, 15, Jeremiah laments this way, he says, the Lord has trampled underfoot all my mighty men in my midst.

That is Jerusalem speaking more or less. The mighty men of Jerusalem in the midst of Jerusalem were trampled down. He has called an assembly against me to crush my young men.

The Lord trampled as in a wine press, the virgin daughter of Judah. Notice the destruction of Jerusalem is likened in Lamentations to trampling in a wine press, the people. And of course, the book of Revelation borrows heavily from these Old Testament images.

The destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was also like trampling in a wine press, exactly like what happened in 586 BC. So all the way through this chapter, we have got the destruction of Jerusalem in view. And then we have a really short chapter, 15.

It says, and by the way, it may be that this short chapter could be seen as the interlude between the sixth and the seventh angel. We have had six angels in chapter 14. And as I said, the seventh angel could be identified with the combination of all seven of the last angels who bring the last plagues.

And this interlude is in between as there is always an interlude between the sixth and the seventh item in a series, except as we shall see in this last series, this is the last judgments. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues for in them, the wrath of God is complete. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.

Now that was seen in heaven previously before the throne. So this must be a scene in heaven. And those who have the victory over the beast, probably because they died, that was their victory.

Remember they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of the testimony and did not love their lives. Even to the death, dying faithful is victory in revelation. They had victory over the beast, over his image and over the mark and over the number of his name standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

And they sing a song of Moses, the servant of God and the song of the lamb saying, great and marvelous are your works, Lord God, almighty, just and true are your ways. Oh, King of the saints, who shall not fear you a Lord and glorify your name for you alone are holy for all nations shall come and worship before you for your judgments have been manifested. Judgment against Jerusalem was manifested.

And the result is all nations. Now here, the gospel, the gospel goes out beyond the Jewish mission to all the nations. And as a result of his judgments, we may manifest all nations as a result will come and worship before him.

After these things, I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was open. That's a long connection, a string of phrases. The temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen, having their chests girded with golden bands.

Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls full of wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, just as it was when Solomon built the temple. And when, and when Moses built the tabernacle in Exodus 40 verses 34 and 35, it says, when Moses erected the tabernacle, the glory of God filled it like a cloud and the priest, Moses couldn't go in.

It says now when Solomon built the temple in first Kings chapter eight, verses 10 and 11, it says that smoke filled the temple there to the glory of the Lord in a cloud filled the temple. And it says the priests could not go into minister. Here we read the temple was filled with a smoke from the glory of God and from his power.

And no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. God is about to be glorified in his new temple because the old one is defunct. Remember Jesus, when he left the temple, the last time he walked out, he said to the Jews, your house is left to you.

Desolate now earlier in his ministry, he said, my father's house, do not make my father's house, a house of merchandise or a den of thieves. But that was early on at the end of his ministry. It's not his father's house anymore.

His father's moved out. He said, your house is left to you. Desolate.

You will not see me anymore until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The house in Jerusalem was abandoned by God. He moved into a new house made of living stones, the church of the living God, which is the house of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And so God's temple, as it were in heaven, the real temple is now got his glory. The old temple has been abandoned, but that no one was able to enter the temple might even suggest that there's no more any intercession being made. You go to the temple to pray that Jerusalem's going down and it's too late to pray.

Just like in Jeremiah's day, God repeatedly said, Jeremiah, don't pray for these people. Don't pray for these people. Why? Because they've gone too far.

They're doomed. Now you talk about Jerusalem being destroyed by the Babylonians as Jerusalem was about ready to be destroyed by the Romans. It may be that this is the message that is given in here.

People can't go in the temple until the judgment has come down because it's too late to pray for these people. Now, real quickly, chapter 16, you might say, what quickly? 16. Yes, because I won't make as many comments about 16, but it says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth or on the land.

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the land or earth and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Now, if, if the beast is, let's say the Roman empire here, worshiping the beast, you think, well, the Jews didn't do that. They hated Rome.

They're not worshipers of the beast. How could this be Jerusalem that's plagued like this? If it's them who worship the beast. Do you remember that when Pilate said, shall I crucify your King? The Jews said, we have no King, but Caesar, they were given the choice.

Do you want Jesus or Caesar? We'll take Caesar. They put Caesar in the place of their Messiah. That's worshiping the beast.

That's taking the beast side against God. That is what they did. And what comes on them is a loathsome sore.

Now, no doubt in the siege of Jerusalem with all the infection and so forth that Josephus described, I'm sure people had sores all over them. We get sores on us from just a little bit of contamination from things. And we live in a very sterile world compared to the horrible conditions that were in Jerusalem during the five months siege that Josephus describes as horrendous.

They may have had sores all over their bodies, but more important than the literal is the symbolic because sores or boils was one of the plagues of Egypt and revelation sees a recurrence of the plagues of Egypt. You've got plagues of water turning to blood. You've got plagues of boils.

You've got plague plagues of darkness. You've got plagues of frogs. You got plagues of locusts.

You've got in revelation, a recurrence of the plagues of Egypt. Now, not literally revelation is apocalyptic. The descriptions convey ideas more than pictures of what you'd really see if you were there necessarily.

In fact, we've been told that Jerusalem is spiritually called Egypt. Egypt was judged by plagues such as these, and therefore it's appropriate for the symbolic description of the judgment of the spiritual Egypt to have corresponding plagues. And so the first bowl of wrath corresponds with the sixth plague of Egypt, which was boils.

Verse three, then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became blood as of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died. Now, when the second trumpet was sounded back in chapter eight, a third of the sea turned into blood and a third of the things in the sea died. A third of the ships were destroyed and so forth.

Now it's the whole thing. Remember the turning of water into blood is also an Egyptian plague. And so we see, remember I read to you when we were talking about the second trumpet, Josephus described a battle on the sea of Galilee where the Romans just butchered the Galileans out in boats.

And even he said when the Galileans tried to swim to the Romans for help, they cut off their heads or cut off their hands when they came to their boats. And he said that the next day, he said, if you looked at the sea of Galilee, he said it looked all blood. Josephus said it looked all bloody and you'd see the abundance of swollen dead bodies on the shore and shipwrecks.

He said the very kinds of things that revelation seems to be describing. In any case, these are impressionistic judgments, not necessarily literal, but in some measure they correspond to things that really did happen literally. But the more important thing is their likeness to the plagues of Egypt.

Verse four, then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood. Now when the third trumpet sounded, the rivers and springs water became wormwood and people died from drinking the bitter waters. This time it's blood.

And I heard the angel of the water saying, you are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things for they, the ones who are being judged, they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink for it is their just due. Now, this is a dead giveaway of who we're talking about here. They have shed the blood of saints and prophets.

Look at Luke chapter 13 real quick. Luke chapter 13, none less than Jesus makes this comment. Luke 13, 33 through 35.

Jesus said, nevertheless, I must journey today, tomorrow and the day following for it cannot be. It cannot be that a prophet should perish outside Jerusalem. Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing. See, your house has left you desolate. And assuredly I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Your house has been abandoned by God. You are the one who kills the prophets, Jerusalem. It can hardly be imagined that a prophet would perish anywhere else.

Jesus says it can't be that a prophet perish outside Jerusalem. Now look at Matthew 23. Again, Jesus is the speaker here.

Matthew 23, 35 and 36. Jesus said that on you, he's speaking to Jerusalem. In case you wonder, you can go up a few verses earlier.

And he says that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakai, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come on this generation. So who, who's paying the price for the blood of the martyrs, the prophets and all that.

Jesus said, all their blood is going to come on your head. And it's going to be in this generation, the destruction of Jerusalem in 70, 80, Jesus interpreted it as the just do for all the prophets that Jerusalem had killed. And that generation was going to pay the price.

What does revelation 15 say? These people are drinking blood. It's their just do because they've shed the blood of the saints and the prophets. This is not similarity.

This is identity. You can't have all the blood of the prophets being punished on the generation of Jews. Jesus is speaking to and also have it.

Someone else punished to some other time for it. This is the punishment for those who killed the prophets. We're reading about here.

This is the destruction of Jerusalem. Now, revelation 16, seven, I heard another from the altar saying, even so, Lord God, almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. Then verse eight, then the fourth angel poured up his bowl on the sun and the power was given to him to scorch men with fire.

And men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues. And they did not repent and give him glory. Now, the sun scorching people, this is symbolic.

Although people who are future sometimes say, well, this is going to be like when the ozone layer is depleted and, you know, where we get too much radiation and so forth and we'll die from that. Well, that may happen in the future, but that's not what this is talking about. I don't That's the wrong time frame.

The sun scorching is symbolic, just as the sun not scorching is symbolic in other passages where promises are made to Israel and to others. For example, earlier in chapter seven and verse 16, chapter seven, verse 16, it was talking about the multitude that came out of the great tribulation. It says they shall neither hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.

The sun shall not strike them nor any heat for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is the consolation given to God's people.

Among other things, the sun shall not smite them. But that even comes from earlier passages like Isaiah chapter 49 and Isaiah chapter 49, a promise to Israel that is to the remnant of Israel. We have to understand there's a difference between Israel, the nation and the remnant.

He says to them in Isaiah 49, 10, they shall neither hunger nor thirst, neither heat nor sun shall strike them. For he who has mercy on them will lead them even by springs of water. He will guide them.

So this is obviously the verse that revelation seven is alluding to. But in Psalm 121 and verse five and six, it says the Lord is your keeper. The Psalm 121 verses five and six, the Lord is your keeper.

The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.

He shall preserve your soul. Now this this is a poetic way of talking about being protected from all evil. The sun won't strike you today and the moon won't strike you by night.

I never heard of anyone getting moon stroke, sun stroke, maybe. Moon stroke. Do people get moon stroke? Does the moon strike people at night? No, this is poetry.

The idea is that nothing in the universe will hurt you when God is protecting you. You see, the imagery of God protecting you from the sun and from scorching and moon even is this is the opposite. Now God is not protecting them.

Everything hurts. Everything is against them. The whole world, the whole universe is, as it were, against them.

They're scorched by the sun and they don't repent. It's, I believe, symbolic. Now, Revelation 16, 10.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became full of darkness and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of the pains and their sores and did not repent of their deeds. Now, the throne of the beast, we're encountering here characters that we've been introduced to previously. The beast first appeared in chapter 11, coming out of the bottomless pit to make war with the two witnesses.

Then the beast came out of the sea when we had our first actual description of him in chapter 13. Later, we'll see the woman riding on the beast. Clearly, these chapters are not chronological, but the beast is a known entity already in Revelation.

Then later in verse 19, we see the city of Babylon. That's a known entity too. We know from chapter 17 that the beast hates the whore, Babylon, and destroys her with fire.

The beast, most would say in the time of John, was Rome. And Babylon, no doubt, and certainly not all would say this, but there's lots of opinions about Babylon. But I've told you, I believe Babylon is another name for Jerusalem, just as Sodom and Egypt are other names for Jerusalem in Revelation.

Something happens to Rome and something happens to Jerusalem around the same time. The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the beast, that would presumably be Rome, and his kingdom became full of darkness and people were agonizing in it. What happened in Rome around the time that Jerusalem was being judged? Well, a number of things.

Jerusalem, of course, was at war from 66 to 70 AD. During part of that time, 64 to 68, the church in Rome was being persecuted. But in 68 AD, Nero, the persecutor, committed suicide.

And when Nero committed suicide, there was not a natural successor. So for 18 months, Rome was torn by civil war. Generals and pretenders made themselves Caesar for a few months at a time, and then they were killed by the next guy who wanted to be the Caesar.

And so you had after Nero, there was Galba, then Otho, then Vitellus. These three rose and fell within a single year and a half. One of them ruled for, I think, one month, if I'm not mistaken, another for three months.

This was a time of turmoil in Rome. Historians like Gibbon, who's the most famous historian of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, suggest that it's almost a miracle that the Roman Empire survived it because of the tremendous turmoil. There was starvation.

There was civil war. There was killing in the streets. And this was going on in Rome, the capital city, for a year and a half up until 70 AD, actually, so that the Jewish war corresponded in time with what was going on in Rome when Nero was dead.

It was called the year of the five emperors because Nero was the first, then there were three, and then, of course, Vespasian became emperor. He had been besieging Jerusalem before he went back to Rome to become the emperor and stop all this. Then he sent his son Titus back to besiege and destroy Jerusalem.

So Jerusalem was coming under this at the same time Rome was coming under something. The throne of the beast was under judgment as well because of the persecution Nero had brought against the church. And so we have the fifth angel representing this judgment that came upon Rome at the same time that Jerusalem was under judgment.

Then the sixth, verse 12, then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. Now, I've mentioned before that the kings of the east are sometimes thought to be China by modern dispensational prophecy interpreters. And the drying up of the Euphrates, for example, Hal Lindsay and other interpreters like them have suggested that the river Euphrates will be dried up so that the Chinese armies can march on Israel for the battle of Armageddon.

We will read about the battle of Armageddon in verse 16. So we're in that time frame. So we've got what futurists say are the Chinese armies.

The armies mentioned under the sixth trumpet had 200 million men, and Hal thinks those are the same armies so that they believe that China will have 200 million men marching. Mao Zedong once said that they could field an army of 200 million men, and Hal Lindsay believed that was a confirmation of his theory. So he believed, Hal Lindsay said that up in Russia or somewhere, the Russians have built, not in Russia, but somewhere north on the river Euphrates, the Russians have built a dam.

And he believes that they'll dam up the river and dry up the river so the Chinese armies can march through it. And they think that's what's talked about here. The river Euphrates is dried up to make way for the kings of the east.

Now, I don't know if those who suggest this have given much thought to how unlikely that scenario is. First of all, armies do not need to dry up rivers to cross over them now. In the old days, they did.

In John's day, they did. In Old Testament, they did. But armies are not obstructed by rivers.

You don't have to dry up a river. We use airplanes, helicopters, amphibious troop carriers, amphibious tanks. Rivers are not a problem.

You don't have to dry up a river to make the way for an army, a modern army to invade an area. In fact, why would the Chinese even send 200 million men to the Middle East when they could just send a missile? It's very expensive sending the troops. And what, are they marching from China to the Middle East? That's expensive and slow.

Or are they going to fly in to someplace nearby and then march in across the Euphrates? What is it that is being pictured here? Someone really believes there's 200 million Chinese going to be marching through the desert from China to invade Israel? Why? The only reason the Chinese would send troops is if they want to If they just want to destroy, they can send missiles. They can stay home. This idea of the drying up of the river Euphrates to let Chinese armies march through, to me, it's not realistic.

And there's a much more realistic understanding of this to me. We're reading about the fall of Babylon, right? Mystery Babylon. Babylon falls in verse 19.

The imagery is of the destruction of the spiritual Egypt and the spiritual Babylon, the two cities who in history enslaved Israel and who were judged by God so that Israel would be saved. And in the salvation of the new Israel, there is the destruction of the new Egypt and of the new Babylon. And the plagues of Revelation recall the destruction of Egypt and the drying of the river Euphrates and the king's knees recall the destruction of Babylon.

You remember how Babylon fell, don't you? Cyrus, the king of the East, Persian, brought his armies from the East and they dried up the river Euphrates and marched under the walls to Babylon and defeated it. This imagery is simply talking about God bringing armies, which in the event turned out to be Roman armies, and removing what are obstacles that allow them to break through the walls and get at Jerusalem, which is the new Babylon. The imagery is, of course, symbolic.

And people might get tired of me saying it's symbolic, it's symbolic, it's symbolic. But hey, Revelation is symbolic. Deal with it.

It's not literal. Not very often. Even Jesus is a lamb 27 times in the book, but he's not literally a lamb.

Satan is a dragon with seven heads and horns. He's not literally a reptile with seven heads, ten horns. That's symbolism.

Everything in Revelation is symbolism. And that doesn't mean there's nothing literal going on that the symbols refer to, but it means that we can't just, I mean, just because the river Euphrates dries up for the king's knees, we need to say, what is the idea this is trying to convey from Old Testament history and the fall of Babylon? And we're talking about Babylon falling here. So this is about the invasion against the new Babylon, which came, of course, from, by the way, the 10th Legion, I think it was, of Rome played a major role in the siege of Jerusalem.

And they were stationed at the river Euphrates until they were called in. The river Euphrates was the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. And so it was a border to be defended.

And there was a legion of Roman soldiers there, or I don't know if they're called, if it was a legion, some kind of unit of soldiers that were brought in from the river Euphrates to against Jerusalem. But that may or may not be significant because I don't know that we have to make the river Euphrates be literal. But if we want it to be, the Romans came from there, from the east.

Now he says in verse 13, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs, like a plague of frogs, only three this time. These are said to be demons coming out of the mouth of the dragon, who is Satan, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. Remember I said that I don't believe these are references to individuals.

The beasts in Daniel were not individuals. They were kingdoms. The beast in Revelation is kingdom, not individual.

And these frogs are not really frogs, but it's like, recalls the plague of frogs from Egypt. And these are false. These are evil spirits.

For they are the spirits of demons, it says in verse 14, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God almighty. Behold, I'm coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walked naked and they see his shame.

And they gathered them together to the called in Hebrew Armageddon, which means the mountain of Megiddo arm arm is mountain, mountain of Megiddo. Now, um, okay. These, the demons from the devil and the beast, the false prophet are drawing the nations.

This would be the Roman troops, which are made up of all the nations that Rome had conquered to this place, this battle. Where is it? It's in Israel. Of course, Armageddon is a reference to a location up in Northern Israel.

It's actually the, the Valley of Megiddo Armageddon is a strange word. That means mountain of Megiddo. And there really isn't a mountain called Megiddo Mount Carmel is there.

Mount Carmel is probably the closest mountain to the Valley of Megiddo. And it may be a reference to Carmel, but, uh, if it is, it may be a reference to Elijah's showdown with the prophets there, a bail. I don't know, but, but mountain of Megiddo is a strange phrase because there isn't such a mountain by that name, but there's a Valley of Megiddo.

And that is a place where lots of battles were fought in Israel's history. The most significant of which was when Josiah went out to resist Pharaoh, Nico Pharaoh, Nico was going up to Carthage to face Nebuchadnezzar, who is rising in 605 BC. And, uh, at Carthage, uh, of course, Pharaoh Nico was defeated, but Josiah tried to prevent Pharaoh Nico from going, went to intercept him and got himself killed.

Josiah died in the Valley of Megiddo. It was a place of mourning. It was a place of destruction.

It was a place of defeat for Israel. And it is no doubt why it is mentioned here as the place where this battle is going to be fought, as it were, is it literally going to be at the Valley of Megiddo? Not necessarily. The whole land of Israel was full of blood.

Remember the Romans came into Galilee first and made their way to Jerusalem for three and a half years. The whole land was at war. Certainly the Valley of Megiddo saw its share, but the point here is that it's like the loss that Israel's suffered at Megiddo before.

This is, this is destruction. This is defeat for Israel. And it's the great day of God almighty.

Now we've experienced, we've, we've seen in the old Testament references to the great day of the Lord. Uh, Joel called it the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Malachi called it the great and terrible day of the Lord.

Both of the contexts of Joel and Malachi place it in the first century. Joel places it right after Pentecost. Joel said that the spirit of the Lord would be poured out and then there'll be fire and blood and vapor of smoke in that, before that great and terrible day of the Lord.

Peter quoted that passage on the day of Pentecost and said it was being fulfilled at that time. The outpouring of the spirit and by implication, the soon blood fire and vapor of smoke in the terrible day of the Lord. Malachi said that Elijah would be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

And Jesus said, if you can receive it, John the Baptist is Elijah who is to come. So Malachi is talking about John the Baptist coming before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Joel talks about the point of the Holy spirit on Pentecost before the great dreadful day of the Lord.

What's the great and dreadful day of the Lord? Well, John the Baptist came and warned them that he, that God was about to throw the chaff into the fire and the fruitless trees in the fire. This is the judgment that Jesus said would come on that generation. It's the battle of the great day of God almighty.

It's God's judgment upon those who crucified his son and remained unrepentant. Of course, not all the Jews remained unrepentant. There were the church in Jerusalem.

There were Christian Jews, but they escaped this. This was God's battle avenging the death of his son and of the prophets whose blood had been shed. Jesus said, all their blood is going to come on this generation.

This was the generation that happened to last bowl quickly. Then the seventh angel poured out the bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple in heaven saying, uh, from the throne saying, it is done. This is the final downfall.

And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings. And there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts and the city of the nations fell in the Greek.

It says the city of the nations, not the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every Island fled away and every mountain, the mountains were not found.

And great hail from heaven fell upon men. Every hailstone about the weight of a talent, that's a hundred pounds. And men blaspheme God because of the plague and the hail, uh, since that plague was exceeding great.

Now, when it's all done, a voice in heaven says it is done. And then there's what noises and thunderings and lightnings. These have been mentioned several times.

And each time they're mentioned, something more is added to them. A few chapters back, they added an earthquake. Then the next time there was an earthquake and hail this time, they don't add more things.

They just add intensity to both the earthquake and the hail. The earthquake is the worst ever. The hail, incredible hundred pound hailstones, the terrible judgment.

This is of course, apocalyptic imagery. When it says at the end of verse 18, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. I mean, there could be such an earthquake.

That's that way. But Jesus spoke that way about the destruction of Jerusalem. He said it'd be like nothing before nothing after.

In fact, Ezekiel spoke that way about the destruction of Israel in his day. In Ezekiel five, one, uh, yeah, Ezekiel five, I think it was verse nine. He said that what God was about to do in Jerusalem was like nothing he'd done before would ever do again.

It's hyperbole of course. But the idea is it's almost unique. It's extremely, uh, rare to have something this terrible happen.

And the city was divided into three parts. What's that mean? Well, Josephus tells us that during the siege of Jerusalem, the population inside that were besieged divided into three warring camps, the city divided into three parts that way. And some people think that's what is meant here, but I think not.

I think Ezekiel five gives the answer because in Ezekiel chapter five, it says in verse one, and you son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber's razor and pass it over your head and your beard and take the balances and weigh and divide the hair, cut off all your hair and weigh it out into portions. You shall burn with fire one third in the midst of the city. When the days of the siege are finished, then you should take one third and strike around it with a sword and one third you shall scatter in the wind and I will draw out a sword after it.

Now in verse five, Ezekiel five, five, God explains what this is about. He said, this, thus says the Lord God, this is Jerusalem. I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries around about her.

She has rebelled against my judgment, et cetera, et cetera. He's saying basically she'll be divided into three fates. So a third of die by the sword, a third will be burned in fire and a third will be scattered to the wind that is just dispersed around the world.

He said, you divide your hair into thirds and that's what I'm gonna do to Jerusalem. The city's divided into thirds. This imagery comes from Ezekiel.

It's about Jerusalem and it says he gives her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Now the earthquake is so bad that figuratively it says every island fled away and the mountains were not found. This was also said when the sixth, uh, and the sixth seal was broken in chapter six, verse 14, but all the mountains and islands moved around then to, or, or, or disappeared or something.

It's a course apocalyptic imagery. It's an earthquake. Everything's shaking.

You can find this in the old Testament, plenty. For example, even in Zechariah four, it says, who are you? Oh, mountain before is a rubble belt. You become a plane.

The mountain in front of the rubble is going to be removed or a mountain splits in two and makes a Valley in, in Zechariah chapter 14 or in some of the other prophets, the mountains melt or tremble or skip mountains, do those kinds of things in apocalyptic imagery. They don't do it in real life. And that's not what we're not supposed to be seeing this as a literal situation.

This is a disaster movie. This is basically trying to give us an impression of how great this disaster is, but there are literal things about it. Certainly the city did fall and great hail fell in verse 21.

It says great hail from heaven fell upon men, every hailstone about the weight of a talent and men blaspheme God because of the hail, et cetera. Now that's how this ends. What about these hailstones? Well, much of it, as I say, is symbolic and some of it is, has literal correspondency with reference to the talent weight hailstones.

There's an interesting passage that Josephus wrote. He was there. Josephus was a participant in that war.

He was there and he wrote the history of it afterwards. And when he was describing how the Romans were attacking Jerusalem with catapults, he referred to the catapult as engines. They're war engines.

This is a paragraph from Josephus. It's very interesting. He's talking about the Romans attacking Jerusalem.

He says the engines that the Roman legions had ready prepared for them were admirably contrived, but still more extraordinary ones belong to the 10th legion. That's the ones I mentioned who came from the river Euphrates. Those that threw darts, meaning arrows, and those that threw stones were more forcible and larger than the rest by which they not only repelled the excursions of the Jews, but drove away those that were upon the walls also.

So these stones and arrows are being thrust by catapults over the walls and driving away people from defending the walls. Now, the stones that were cast were the weight of a talent. Isn't that interesting? Jerusalem pelted with stones the weight of a talent and were carried two furlongs and farther.

The blow that they gave was no way to be sustained, not only by those that stood first in the way, but by those that were beyond them by a great distance. As for the Jews, they at first watched for the coming of the stone, for it was of a white color. Josephus did not read the book of Revelation, but he describes Jerusalem being pelted with white stones about a talent weight.

It sounds more like a hailstone's a talent weight than almost anything else could be imagined. He says, they could therefore not only be perceived by the great noise it made, but could be seen also before it came by its brightness. Apparently in the night sky, they probably pelted the city at night, so the white color of the stone was easy to spot against the dark sky.

Accordingly, the watchman that sat upon the towers gave them notice when the engine was let go and the stone came from it, and they cried out aloud in their own country language, the sun cometh, S-O-N, by the way. We'll comment on that in a moment. So those that were in its way stood off and threw themselves down upon the ground, by which means, and by their thus guarding themselves, the stone fell down and did them no harm.

But the Romans contrived how to prevent that by blackening the stones, who then could aim at them with success when the stone was not discerned beforehand. Of course, it was nighttime, so the black stones could not be seen then. And it says, and so they destroyed many of them at a blow, it says.

And that's the end of that paragraph. That's in Wars of the Jews, Book 5, Chapter 6, Paragraph 3. But he says that there were these white stones about a talent weight falling on Jerusalem. In apocalyptic language, that could be talked about as a hailstorm of white stones, a talent weight.

But what's interesting is that Josephus says that when the watchman saw the stone coming, initially they were warning the people and they said, the sun cometh, S-O-N cometh. Scholars have puzzled over what in the world is that. Some scholars have speculated that it's a misprint or a miscopy, and that it originally said the stone cometh.

That would make sense. The stone's coming. That makes sense.

However, that works better in English than in Greek. So it's not likely that it was the stone cometh. And so there's been speculation.

Many have speculated that the Jews, having heard from the Christians that Jesus was going to come and judge the city, when these stones came, they were mocking, saying, oh, here comes the sun that they said is coming. The son of man's coming to destroy our city. The sun's coming.

You see, Stephen was stoned to death because they accused him of saying that Jesus of Nazareth would come and destroy the temple. And he was stoned for that report. He was right, of course.

Jesus did destroy the temple through the Romans. But the Jews despised the Christians for this message and may very well have been mocking them when they said, oh, the sun is coming. But that's not the most important thing.

It's just an interesting side note. The interesting thing is that Josephus, who had no knowledge of what the book of Revelation said, because he was not a Christian and probably was not even living where the book of Revelation was in circulation. He was later in Rome, not in Asia Minor, that he talks about these stones, these white stones falling, and he mentions their weight.

And it corresponds exactly with what Revelation says. This was the fall of Jerusalem. And so chapters 14 through 16, I believe, give us the final plagues.

So what's left of those are the last plagues. There's still the fall of Babylon looked at as a separate subject in chapter 17 and 18 and 19. Then we've got the millennium in chapter 20.

That's going to be interesting. And then we have the new heaven, the new earth. And that's all that is left of Revelation for us.

And we'll be covering that in the remaining sessions.