Revelation CHAPTER 15
Seven angels with the 7 last plagues.
Those who are victorious over the beast standing on a sea of glass singing a new song to the lamb.
The temple seen in heaven, seven angels given seven bowls of the last judgment. Temple fills with smoke, God's glory, and none can enter during the 7 bowls.
Second time, 2/25/20
Another "sign", not a vision. This is symbolic of events, not a description of events. The seven last plagues.
Those killed in the Great Tribulation so far, those who remained faithful through this terrible trial, have harps, and they alone sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. The final wrath of God begins with a song. Moses song was when? Just before he died? Just before the end? And I don't know that I have seen the Song of the Lamb referred to before this verse.
2026 - "Another sign...". This is the third, the first being the pregnant woman with the crown and the second the Great Red Dragon. The sign here I think includes vvs 1-4. It is not obvious to me what the significance of this sign might be. The Seven Angels with the plagues, and the victorious - it seems to me like these are the ones who persevered during the Trumpets, after the church was gone, these are the faithful of Israel who died in TGT rather than succumb to the mark. This makes sense in that those first two signs were about Israel and the struggle against the Dragon, and now this third sign is the "pep talk". This is how it ends for the faithful Jews in the last days, coming home, dying for the name of Christ whom they had previously denied, and now in heaven singing the song of Moses.
2026- I still wonder if the reaping of the wheat and then the grapes back in 14 are also signs, just not so labeled. They could be an overall description of the Trumpet judgements and their purpose. Oh my...the seals are to proclaim the end and offer salvation to all, and those who accept during the seals are exempt from the second death. The Trumpets are about the Jews coming home. The rapture is done so they have no hope of that. They are bitterly persecuted, and horror follows them as they try to get "home". The faithful are harvested while the tares and the Gentiles and the takers of the mark are dying in great numbers from the 4 at the Euphrates. And now, with the Jews safe in Jerusalem, the Bowl judgments commence. There are only two groups left...in fact there may only be one...but I think there must still be living Jews on earth to enter the Millennial...so strike that. There are faithful Jews who will be protected through the devastation of the planet that comes with the Bowls, and there is everybody else.
The heavenly tabernacle is opened now, and from this place come seven angels. Surely even in heaven that sanctuary represents the place where God Himself is, and these angels are perpetually in his presence. Doesn't Michael say that's where he is? Perpetually in the presence of God? So maybe these are 7 archangels, and maybe Michael himself is among them. One of the four beasts - those who go about doing God's will as they are commanded - gives each angel a bowl containing the wrath of God. And as this happens, smoke fills the temple, and it is off limits until these judgements are carried out. Seems that God Himself will oversee this.
2023 - Vs 1 let's us know that John is about to relate another sign. This is the same language he used at the beginning of Chapter 12. That vision went on, I think now, until 14:5. It doesn't have to take so long, but can. I believe, now today, that these visions are in fact icons, written in words easily visualized, and that represent something like the decrees of God over time. I think of them as "stained glass windows" depicting scenes that ought to be always on our minds. These icons in Revelation 12 and now this one, are about "history's unfolding themes".
2025 - Today, I am wondering if John's POV has shifted again, back to heaven. He makes it clear that he is no longer relating events on earth, but is looking at a scene in heaven itself. Whether he is back up there, or just describing "up there", we need to remember this POV.
2022
Fourth time, 2/17/22. I guess no new notes the third time...
Vs 1, I saw another sign. This is very much as Chapter 12 started, with "a great sign appeared in heaven". I agree with the above that says what we are about to see is symbolism.
We see that we are at the very end of God's wrath against mankind. Once these seven bowls are poured out, God's anger will be appeased. He will not be mad anymore, and justice will have prevailed. God's own justice.
As witnesses to what is about to happen, we have a sea of glass with fire. We previously saw something similar here:
"and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:" [Rev 4:6 ESV]
We are back at the throne of God, with the Lamb standing by, and the four creatures. But now, we also have those who conquered the beast - that is those who survived t/gt. They have harps - as did the 144,000 when they sang. Now, in addition to their song, we have the song of Moses. Perhaps these are the ones killed during Great Trib, perhaps mostly Jews and that is why it is the song of Moses that they sing. An Old Testament song to introduce Old Testament wrath. It is the Father that is seated on this throne.
2023 - SUMMARY of 1-4, This sign is an icon of God's final judgment. We saw the history of creation and God's dealing with man in the sign that started at 12:1. That ended with Satan thrown down and furious that his time was short. This sign, which truly does appear to be just four verses long, is of a scene in heaven, with the final wrath, the final punishment of God, about to be poured out on the earth. We do not see the earth. We see a scene in heaven. A scene of ending. A scene where God's dealing with man on earth, according to the way the earth was created, is about to end. Time itself is about to end...isn't it? Need to confirm that, but maybe that is the big thing. You have the end of all things in an iconic picture of wrath delivered by angels, while those who endured stand and sing accompanied by harps around a sea of glass. This is a sign and we have no obligation to "fit" this scene into the timeline. I think this is corroborated in vs 5 when the 7 angels come out of the sanctuary and receive...those same seven angels that we saw in vs 1, but this time they are actually "doing" the wrath of God. These in 5 are not symbols, these are in the chronology. With this in mind, I will need to revisit the sign in 12, and see if I still agree with myself that it is LONG sign, or if it in fact concludes after vs 6 and we resume chronology there. Oh my...Michael's war could commence right after the seventh trumpet. In heaven, the kingdoms of the world have been taken FROM Satan and given TO Christ. Of course there would be war! Got to go back and redo that!
2024 -The icon in Chapter 12 of the woman and the dragon ends at vs 6. Then the chronology resumes. Here in 15, we are not looking at an icon. This is the continuing chronology. Note John's language. I saw a sign - in heaven. John is still on earth, looking up. He started in heaven in Chapter 4:1, when he was told to "come up here. We know somewhere in 10 he returned to earth. And now in 15 he is still on earth, and looking up into heaven. It is possible that when John first got to earth, he was recounting the same events from that POV that he told us about in heaven. As in what do the actions of the four angels riding horses in Chapter 6 look like on earth? The two witnesses begin their work. Perhaps - and I would need to study it in much more detail, the first six trumpets are events from the POV of the earth, as the six seals were from the POV of heaven? The seven thunders...we just don't know, but based on where John was standing, I'd say the thunders are seen from earth in Chapter 10.
2024 - As Chapter 15 begins, John seems to be ON EARTH, but seeing events in heaven. Hmm. Different from the previous two circumstances. But the language starting 15 is the same as we saw to start 12. John is seeing a sign. In 12 it was iconic. Is this also? John sees those "who had conquered the beast". So this is still future. This is a vision of a future scene. No..."I saw..." is aorist. Makes it a lot tougher to fix in time. I think the way to look at it here is that it is some future time, and the vision is somehow in sequence with what John has been seeing. This is introductory to the seven last plagues. Perhaps now John will give us both the scene in heaven AND the results on earth of these actions in heaven. The chapter ends with John describing a sequence in heaven. This is not an icon like the woman in 12. This is not "the history of the world" nor is it a stained glass window. This is a vision of events as they unfold in heaven. In the next chapter, the results of the bowls unfold as did the results of the trumpets. A trumpet sounded, or a bowl is poured out, and we see what happens on earth as a result. These could overlap...but I don't think so. The trumpets began the wrath, with that one last chance for people to believe, and the bowls are filled with the "the wrath of God who lives forever and ever". So either the trumpets began wrath and the bowls complete it, or this is John redescribing the trumpets from a different POV. I think John was still in heaven, looking down on earth during the trumpets. We know that now, he is on earth, looking up into heaven.
It's Sunday morning, and I have to stop here....
2025 - Since the POV has changed, I think we can conclude that this is back to narrative. The timeline of the end is progressing again here in Chapter 15. Note in vs 2 that we see IN HEAVEN "...those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name..." This gives us information about where we are in the timeline. We know that the mark was required beginning at 13:16. We believe this mark is given after the rapture, after the MoL has made his true loyalty apparent, and after Israel realizes they have been duped. The mark is to make them easier to find and kill. What we cannot say, at least not yet, is whether the persecution of the Jews is sort of "put down" by the bowls, or whether persecution continues even through this.
2026 - I still agree with the 2025 note just above. The "sign" had the angels with the 7 last plagues standing in plain sight. But now, in vs 5, the Temple in heaven opens, and they exit from that place. This is the resumption of the narrative.
2025 - ALL of Chapter 15 is set in heaven. We even see the heavenly Temple fill with smoke, telling us that what happens now is God. He is starting this chain of events - the bowl judgments - and there will be no pause until he is done.
This is interesting. I don't think we've seen this before:
"After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened," [Rev 15:5 ESV]
This is a tent. This goes all the way back to Moses - perhaps again, the reason for his song, and the idea of OT justice about to be poured out. God's wrath was forestalled a long time by the Law. It was forestalled still longer by the New Covenant. But all that is over with now, and all those remaining who have rejected God's every attempt to save them are about to receive justice. That's why we see the tent. This is the wrath promised to Israel when the Law was put in place.
These 7 angels come from the tent. Remember in the last chapter we had the second reaper come out of the Temple, where the altar was. So both Temple and Tent are in heaven...or the names are interchangeable in heaven. I would think they were different places.
I note again, in 15:1, that the first word is "Then...". The implication is that John sees this new sign, this second(?) sign, AFTER all the harvesting and death dealing done by the two angels at the end of 14. So a LOT of people died at their hands, and now, still, there are the seven bowls. The angels that come out of the tent are clothed in white, and have golden sashes around their chests. We saw that here:
"and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest." [Rev 1:13 ESV]
So these seven are dressed much as Jesus was when the book opened. These angels are associated with the Tent, and with Christ...but not the Temple? Because the Temple was always about God...but so was the Tent...so that's not it.
Having some trouble here, so checked MSB. This statement labeled 15:1-8, The bowls are the last plagues that issue from the blast of the seventh trumpet, and will conclude the seventh seal. So MSB places the seals as sort of overlapping also. With all the sevens playing out at the same time. I don't think my overlap quite works like that, but it does seem to make BTN seem like MacArthur needs to do some updating...or it's been a long time since I read it. Other than the little aside here, MSB was no help in understanding why we had the Temple in 14 and the tent in 15.
2023 - If God is in the Tent/Temple, then these last 7 angels were in the presence of God. I would say that Michael is one of these, and doesn't Gabriel get a little cross with Joseph over the message about Mary's child and say that he is in the presence of God? So I would say two of the seen are Michael and Gabriel. I would think the seven are the seven spirits of God. We know Michael is over one dominion, now by implication we know that Gabriel is over another, and the other five, as I see it now comprise the angelic "captains" over the remaining five dominions of God's administration of the earth.
One of the four living creatures hands out the golden bowls with the seven last plagues to the seven angels who came from the Tabernacle. Remember, that as the four horses arrived back at the first four seals, each of these four creatures told John to "Come". This seems to be the first time any of those original four creatures has said anything since the fourth seal, though they have been present.
Once the angels have the bowls, the smoke signifying the presence of God fills the sanctuary (the sanctuary of the tent of witness, per vs 5) - NOT the Temple. Back in 11:19, we saw the ark in the temple. So...the Holy of Holies is where the ark resides, and this was so in both Tabernacle and Temple. If the ark is in the Temple, why does the smoke fill the Tabernacle? In the OT, when smoke filled the tent and the Temple, the Ark was where the smoke was. So what am I still missing?
Hmm...kind of backing up to 14 but...Vs 6, another angel, vs 8 another angel (2), vs 9, another angel (3), vs 14, one like the son of man seated on a cloud (4), vs 15, and another angel came out of the temple (5), vs 17 Then another angel, (6), vs 18, And another angel came out (7). So we saw 7 angels in Chapter 14, three flying overhead, one on a cloud, and three from inside the temple. Now, Chapter 15 opens how? Seven angels - as a sign great and amazing - with the seven last plagues. Are the seven in 15 different than the seven in 14? Or does the vision merely supply additional information about what we just saw, and perhaps are about to see?
The vision is in 15:1-4. It is a scene of the assembly in heaven. First we see these 7 angels with the 7 plagues. We just see them, there is no movement. Then, the throne sitting on crystal, the conquerors from t/gt - which means the dead - and they are singing. This is the whole "sign". It ends after the quotation from the song of Moses.
Then in vs 5, we take up from 14:20. The sanctuary of the tabernacle is opened in heaven. This reads remarkably like 11:19, where God's temple in heaven was opened and the ark revealed. In 11, the opening was followed in Chapter 12 by the sign of the woman . In 15 it is followed by the exit from the sanctuary of the 7 angels with the 7 plagues. So I am thinking these 7 are different angels than the 7 from Chapter 14. It is possible that the 7 angels in 14 did come out of the Temple when it opened. The events of chapters 12-13 include beasts, but no angels are mentioned in these two chapters. Then we get - possibly - 7 angels in the latter part of Chapter 14 that "could" come from that Tabernacle. Let's say these are the angels in the presence of God from the time of Solomon's Temple onwards. Now in 15, we go back further, to the angels in God's presence - the angels over the seven dominions - during the Mosaic Covenant. So...if the tent represents the Mosaic, doesn't Solomon's Temple also represent that? Or does the tent represent that whole period, and the Temple is Ezekiel's Temple. This might work...and this is the last attempt I will make at this time to decipher the tent/temple difference. Perhaps the tabernacle represents God's covenant with Israel BEFORE Messiah came, the covenant that was abrogated, and the Temple is indeed somehow Ezekiel's temple, which is missing all the furnishings that "looked forward to" Christ, and represents the Covenant that God will have with Israel in the Millennial reign. Or maybe - one more try - it is the Covenant with Israel historically, and then the Covenant with Abraham's seed in the Millennial. So that makes it also the conditional covenant with Israel and the unconditional covenant with Abraham. As the final wrath plays out, all God's promises, all his covenants are in view. He has angels overseeing each of them. And that is about all I can come up with on that.
Next day, as I review before starting 16, this occurs:
In 15:5 we see "the seven angels with the seven plagues" come out of the sanctuary. As this reads, the angels ALREADY HAVE the seven plagues. But then, one of the cherubim gives each of them a bowl "full of the wrath of God". Those bowls do not contain the 7 plagues, but the wrath that will accompany them, intensify them. Either that, or John is combining the sign in the first four verses with the actual events that begin in vs 5.
Why can no one go in during the last seven plagues? These plagues reflect the full power of God in action, implementing justice on a scale never before seen, and such power in operation prohibits approach. It is too much for ANY creature to be near, to observe, even to the greatest angels of the ages.
2026 - ALSO, no one can enter the Temple because no one can intercede for mankind at this point. In the OT - think of Jeremiah - when God finally unleashes judgment, he tells the prophets not to bother praying for the "condemned". At some point, there is no longer any avenue of appeal, and the wrath must play out to its end. This ought to also correspond in some way to the smoke filling the Temple in Solomon's time, and later. In all of these, God, in his Temple, is unapproachable by man. I don't quite know...
2023 - God has decreed and will not go back, will not repent, will not entertain prayers on behalf of the planet. The 7 bowls WILL BE POURED out, and there is no approaching God to plead for mercy this time. This time, it goes all the way to the end.
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