The Seven Last Plagues
THE SEVEN LAST PLAGUES
REVELATION 15:1-8
If you say “No” often enough, God will take you at your word.
In this chapter we find ourselves at the same point in the development in God’s purposes as 7:9-17 and 19:1-10. The rapture of the church is past (14:14f.), and the grape harvest (14:17-20) is about to be reaped. We here see that the plagues are an interpretation of the treading out of the grapes. There are “seven plagues” (15:1): they are the full, perfect and final pouring out of God’s wrath. We shall be safe in assuming that they occupy very little time.
The “sea of glass” (15:2) is that of 4:6, but where it formerly merely dazzled the earth dwellers, now, once the church has gone, the signs of the imminent judgment (“fire”) are seen. The “harps of God” (15:2): better “harps given them by God” (NIV). “The song of Moses and … of the Lamb” (15:3): as has been repeatedly said, John does not draw any clear distinction between the true Israel and the conquering church; here both are represented, and so the double song. Yet Israel can sing the song of the Lamb, for all the time it had looked forward to his coming, even if it had not recognized him, and the church can sing the song of Moses, for Christ is the completion of the Old Testament and of its hope (John 8:56). “The song of Moses” refers to Exodus 15:1-18. It matters little whether we read “King of the ages” (15:3) or “of the nations.” The song of triumph recognizes that God has not merely guided and ruled his people, but has guided (Amos 9:7) and overruled the nations which did not accept him, as well as the ages to which human thinkers could give no meaning.
“The sanctuary of the tent of witness” (15:5): for the concept, see Hebrews 8:5. The angels have, like the Lord (1:13), their chests girded with golden girdles to show that they act as his representatives. The sanctuary was filled with smoke so that no one could enter (15:8), for those on whom the plagues were to fall had made their choice, and it was too late to repent.