Revelation — Chapter 15

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: This is the shortest chapter in Revelation, and it works like the overture before the last movement. Chapters 12–14 have just shown the war behind history: the dragon, the beast from the sea, the beast from the land with its mark, and then the Lamb on Mount Zion and two harvests of the earth. Now John sees the last of the book's three numbered series of judgments, the seven bowls (seals in chapters 6–8, trumpets in chapters 8–11). Before a single bowl is poured out in chapter 16, the chapter shows two things: the people who overcame the beast, safe and singing, and the heavenly sanctuary from which the judgments come. The whole chapter is soaked in the story of the Exodus: plagues, a sea, a victory song by Moses, and the tent of meeting filled with God's glory.

The four main readings of Revelation agree that these are God's final judgments, but differ on what and when:

• Futurists (Guzik) see the bowls as still future, poured out quickly near the end of the great tribulation, and the singers as believers martyred in that time.
• Historicists like Henry read the bowls as stages in the fall of "antichrist," which he identifies with the papal power, spread across church history.
• Preterists usually connect the bowls with judgment on first-century Jerusalem or on pagan Rome.
• Idealists see the bowls as God's judgments on a rebellious world through the whole age, shown here at full and final strength.

Readers also differ on how the series relate. Some read seals, trumpets and bowls as one sequence in time. Many others see each series retelling the same period from a new angle, each more intense than the last, ending at the same final judgment. Guzik, though a futurist, notes this kind of looping back (recapitulation) here, since chapter 14 has already pictured the end.

The Seven Last Plagues (vv1–8)

• "Another sign in heaven, great and amazing" (v1). This is the third "great sign" in heaven. The first two were the woman clothed with the sun (12:1) and the red dragon (12:3). The story of chapters 12–14 began with signs, and it closes with one. "Great and amazing" is picked up in the song in v3 ("great and amazing are your deeds"), so the plagues themselves are counted among God's wonders.
• "Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last" (v1). "Plagues" points straight back to Egypt. God warned Israel that if they kept defying him he would strike "sevenfold" for their sins (Lev 26:21, 24), and here the number is seven again. Several of the bowls in chapter 16 mirror the Egyptian plagues: sores, water turned to blood, darkness, frogs, hail.
• "For with them the wrath of God is finished" (v1). The verb (etelesthē) means brought to its goal or completed. It is the same root as Jesus' cry "It is finished" (tetelestai, John 19:30). The point is not that God loses his temper and then cools down. His holy opposition to evil reaches its full and appointed end. The Greek is past tense, spoken as though already done. JFB calls this a prophetic past, sure enough to speak of as complete. "Wrath" here is thymos, passionate, burning anger. It is used 18 times in the New Testament and 10 of those are in Revelation.
• "A sea of glass mingled with fire" (v2). The sea of glass first appeared before God's throne, "like crystal" (4:6). Now it is shot through with fire. Readings vary: - many see the Red Sea behind it, the waters God's people passed through while their enemies drowned, which fits the song of Moses that follows; - the Tyndale notes read it as victory through testing, believers who came through the fire of persecution (Isa 43:2; Dan 3); - others see the fire as judgment about to fall from God's presence; - some link it with the great bronze basin ("sea") in Solomon's temple (1 Kings 7:23), a picture of cleansing.
• "Those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name" (v2). These are the people chapter 13 seemed to show losing. The beast was allowed "to make war on the saints and to conquer them" (13:7), and those without its mark could not buy or sell (13:17). From earth's view they lost. From heaven's view they won. They conquered the way the Lamb did and the way the believers in 12:11 did, "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death." The Greek is unusual, literally "conquered out of the beast," as if they came out of the fight victorious. Futurists usually see these as martyrs of the last tribulation. Others see all faithful believers who refused to give way to the beast in any age.
• "Standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God" (v2). The preposition (epi) can mean "on" (KJV) or "beside" (ESV). "Beside" fits the Exodus picture: Israel stood on the shore of the Red Sea and sang (Exod 14:30–15:1). The harps are "of God," given by him for his worship, like the harps of the elders (5:8) and the 144,000 (14:2).

• "They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (v3). Moses sang after the Red Sea (Exod 15:1–18), and again at the end of his life (Deut 32). This is probably one song with two names, not two songs. The deliverance at the Exodus was a preview, and the Lamb's victory is the real thing it pointed to. "Moses, the servant of God" is how Scripture honors him (Num 12:7; Josh 1:2; Heb 3:5). The singers stand where Israel stood on the far shore, rescued by a greater Passover Lamb.
• The words of the song. Strikingly, the song does not repeat Exodus 15. It is woven almost entirely from other Old Testament lines: - "Great and amazing are your deeds" (Ps 111:2; 139:14); - "Just and true are your ways" (Deut 32:4; Ps 145:17); - "Who will not fear, O Lord… O King of the nations" (Jer 10:7); - "All nations will come and worship you" (Ps 86:9; Isa 66:23). The singers never mention themselves or what they endured. Every line is about God: his deeds, his ways, his name, his holiness.
• "O Lord God the Almighty" (v3). "Almighty" (pantokratōr, ruler of all) appears again (1:8; 4:8; 11:17). For people the beast had pushed out of the marketplace, this was the title that mattered.
• "O King of the nations!" (v3). This is the reading of the oldest manuscripts. Some manuscripts read "King of the ages" (the ESV footnote), and the King James has "King of saints," which JFB notes has no Greek manuscript support. "Nations" fits the next verse and fits Jeremiah 10:7. God is not a local god of one people, and the beast is not the world's true king.
• "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?" (v4). This answers the beast's worshipers, who asked, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?" (13:4). The real question is who can refuse to fear God. It also echoes the angel's call in 14:7, "Fear God and give him glory."
• "For you alone are holy" (v4). The word is hosios, which stresses God's purity and rightness rather than his separateness. It is rare as a title for God (16:5 is the other example in Revelation). Holiness is the reason for the worship, and the reason for the judgment that follows.
• "All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed" (v4). "Righteous acts" (dikaiōmata) are God's just decisions and deeds, now made plain. Christians read this line differently. Many see a great turning of the nations to God, as the prophets promised (Ps 86:9; Zech 14:16). Others stress that every knee will bow in the end, some in worship and some in forced acknowledgment (Phil 2:10–11). The Tyndale notes take this second line, with all nations at least recognizing that God's judgments are right.

• "The sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened" (v5). The "tent of witness" (or "tabernacle of testimony") was the Old Testament name for the tabernacle in the wilderness (Num 17:7; Acts 7:44). It was called that because it held the "testimony," the tablets of the law, inside the ark. The earthly tent was a copy of the heavenly reality (Exod 25:9, 40; Heb 8:5). So the judgments come from the very place where God's covenant law is kept. They are not random disasters. They are his law upheld. The ark itself appeared when the temple was opened in 11:19.
• "Out of the sanctuary came the seven angels" (v6). They come from God's own presence, sent by him, not acting on their own.
• "Clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests" (v6). This is priestly dress (Lev 16:4), and it echoes the glorified Christ's golden sash in 1:13. The angels carry out God's judgment as a holy, priestly service. There is nothing dirty or vindictive in it. A textual note: some important manuscripts read "clothed in pure, bright stone" (lithon instead of linon, one letter apart in Greek). The ESV and most translations follow "linen" as the more natural reading. JFB leans toward "stone," as the harder reading, perhaps meaning gems like those in Ezekiel 28:13. Nothing in the meaning of the chapter hangs on it.
• "One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls" (v7). The living creatures surround God's throne (4:6–8). One of them called out "Come!" for the first horseman (6:1), and now one of them hands over the bowls. A bowl (phialē) is a broad, shallow dish used in worship for pouring offerings. The King James "vials" suggests narrow bottles, but a shallow bowl empties all at once. These are golden bowls, the same vessels that in 5:8 were "full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." The saints prayed "How long?" (6:10), and their prayers rose to God from golden bowls. Now golden bowls come back down, full of his answer.
• "Full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever" (v7). The beast had a mortal wound and a borrowed life (13:3). The God who judges lives forever.
• "The sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power" (v8). Smoke and cloud mark God's presence: at Sinai (Exod 19:18), at the tabernacle's completion (Exod 40:34–35), at the dedication of Solomon's temple (1 Kings 8:10–11), and in Isaiah's vision (Isa 6:4).
• "No one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues… were finished" (v8). At the tabernacle and the temple, Moses and the priests could not enter because the glory filled the house. Here the closed sanctuary means the time for these judgments has come, and nothing will interrupt them until they are done. Many read it as the time for intercession having passed. The door that had been open to repentance through the earlier, partial judgments (9:20–21) now stands shut until God's work is complete.
• Commentators: Henry reads the sea of glass two ways, either as "this world," "a brittle thing, that shall be broken to pieces," or as the Red Sea. He says the victors "extol the greatness of God's works, and the justice and truth of his ways," rejoicing in hope before the victory was complete. JFB calls the Lamb's song "the antitype" of the Red Sea song and adds that where Moses was the servant, the Lamb "is more," "the SON." He links the fire with the fiery trials that purify believers. Guzik sees the double name as old and new covenant joined in one song, and notices the singers say nothing about their own triumph. He sorts the song's praise under God's works, ways, worthiness and worship. Guzik also says thymos appears 11 times in the New Testament. The lexicon counts 18, ten of them in Revelation. His contrast between thymos (hot outburst) and orgē (settled anger) has some lexical support, but the two words overlap, and Revelation pairs them in "the wine of the fury of his wrath" (16:19; 19:15). On vv5–8, Henry calls the chapter "an awful introduction or preparation for the pouring out of the vials." He sees the angels' dress as "the habit of the high priests when they went in to enquire of God," and calls the living creature who hands over the bowls "one of the ministers of the true church." He says the smoke came "from the glorious and powerful presence of God," and that the opened temple meant God was "opening a wider door of liberty for his people to worship him." JFB stresses that the "tabernacle of the testimony" fittingly appears now, when God shows his faithfulness in judgment, and that broad shallow bowls show how suddenly the last woes fall. He contrasts these bowls full of wrath with the bowls of the saints' prayers. Guzik agrees on the shape of the bowls, sees the pure linen as proof that God's judgment is clean and righteous, not the act of a vigilante who sinks to his enemies' level, and reads the closed sanctuary as a sign that judgment can no longer be turned back.

Pointing to Christ

Before the worst judgments in the book fall, Revelation shows the people of God already safe on the far shore, and singing. They overcame the beast the same way the Lamb did, by faithful witness even to death. And the song they sing is not about themselves. It is the song of Moses and of the Lamb, because Jesus is the greater Moses who leads his people out of slavery, and the Passover Lamb whose blood shelters them. The bowls of wrath come out of a sanctuary built around God's holy law, but those singing beside the sea have no wrath left to fear. It was poured out on the Lamb at the cross, where "It is finished" was first spoken.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers the last plagues, the overcomers' song, the Song of Moses and the Lamb, and the temple filled with glory.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Revelation -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• Wrath With a Limit (v.1) — The seven angels carry the last plagues, the point where God's wrath is finally completed. Even judgment has an end — how does that shape the way you see God's character?
• Standing With the Overcomers (v.2) — Those who refused to bow to the beast now stand triumphant beside a sea of glass, harps in hand. What would you refuse to compromise on, even if it cost you everything?
• Worship Before Judgment Falls (v.3) — Before the final plagues are poured out, heaven responds with song, not fear. Is worship the framework you return to when hard things are coming?
• Reverence for a Holy God (v.4) — All nations will one day worship because His judgments have been revealed as right. Do you approach God with real awe, or has familiarity worn it down?