Mary Fairchild
The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
2 Peter 3: 7-10, “But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.”
The time has been scheduled for this earth and its present judgment. The course of this world, called the cosmos, has been set. Verses three and four show us the attitude of the world when Peter says, “First of all, you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation.” They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God heavens existed long ago, and an earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.”
The scoffers give us the scientific principle of uniformitarianism (all existing forces have operated uniformly from the origin of the earth to this present time). Evolution is built on uniformitarianism. They say that He won’t come because we have never seen Him in history. Peter says it escapes their notice that the word of God said that the world was created by God and it was flooded by God. It hasn’t always been the same. Their theory is that they are not going to die in the future because I have never seen myself die in the past. It doesn’t make sense, they scoff. But that day is going to come. If God is holy and righteous then He must fulfill this promise and He will. He is coming to judge the earth.
The Revelation of John is a detailed account of that coming judgment. The seven bowls of wrath is the conclusion of a period of time called the tribulation.; the seven year period of time where God is beginning to judge the earth in earnest. At the conclusion of these seven bowls, in fact, the seventh bowl itself is the return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom. By the conclusion of these bowls, the ecology of the earth is going to be totally destroyed. There will be no trees left. There will be nothing but wasteland. Carcasses will be everywhere and Jesus said that if He did not come back, at that particular time there would be no life left on earth. Jesus Christ will return at that period of time for the sake of the remnant of God (those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior) He returns and to fulfill His promises to Israel.
The judgments are enjoined in Revelation 16:1. These are the closing days or weeks of this seven year period of time. The antichrist has forged this one world government. There is a dictatorship, a one world religion and those who will be part of it must take the mark upon their forehead or their hand. Anyone else is an outcast, an outlaw, and will be hunted down and killed. The historical precursor, back thirty-five hundred years, to the book of Exodus.
The Bible is filled with historical events that foreshadow later events of a greater nature. We see that very clearly in the Old Testament sacrificial system where animals where sacrificed foreshadows the later greater sacrifice of Jesus Christ. All through the centuries that was God’s object lesson about what was going to happen when the Messiah came, the Savior, that He would give Himself a sacrifice for the sins of the world. The feasts of Israel, also foreshadow great events in God’s redemptive history. Pentecost, the feast of Pentecost foreshadowed the day of the beginning of the Church on the day of Pentecost. In the Bible we have historical figures and historical events that foreshadow later ones. These final worldwide judgments have been foreshadowed in Exodus. It was the time when God brought plagues upon Egypt in order to cause pharaoh to release Israel (His people) that they might go to the promised land of Canaan.
The background is found in Acts 7. Jacob the grandson of Abraham had twelve sons and they became the patriarchs of Israel; the twelve tribes. But he had another son names Joseph who was his favorite and because of that, and the favoritism that Jacob showed him, he was the object of great jealousy by the other twelve brothers and so they conspired against him and they threw him into a pit and considered that they might murder him because they were so angry.
Finally, they sold him to some Midianites who were where headed on a caravan to Egypt. Joseph, the youngest brother, went into Egypt as a slave but through God’s providence he rose to the position of great power, second to pharaoh, in all of Egypt. In God’s providence he had brought him there to protect his family for some years later famine broke out and the rest of the family went down to Egypt to get food and they discovered that Joseph had lived there and they settled there. In Acts 7 Stephen is recounting this time in verse 17-19 as he says, “But as the time of the promise drew near (that God would give them this promised land), which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt till there arose over Egypt another king who had not known Joseph. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, that they might not be kept alive.” They were enslaved and deliverance was to come through the miraculous works of God through a man named Moses. By a series of ten plagues in nine months period of time God caused pharaoh to release his grip on his people and let them go. At that time there were around two million people that had grown from that family; two million people that were God’s children. Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued him with his whole army and that was were the Red Sea parted, Israel went through to the other side and the Red Sea closed on pharaoh’s army and destroyed them forever.
Egypt was a kingdom of idolatry and hostility to God. It was a persecutor of the people of God and that corresponds to our present age and especially the kingdom that will be reigning at the time of Christ’s return. For our present world, the Scriptures tell us, is wicked and evil. It is hostile to God and it persecutes the children of God. Israel, the people of God in the world at that time, corresponds to the people of God that will be in the world in the tribulation. Both Jew and gentile that will have trusted in Christ for their salvation and will be persecuted. Canaan, the promised land, the land of rest and abundance corresponds to the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth.
The millennial kingdom, that He will establish when He returns for His people. The ten plagues were a series of judgments that destroyed Egypt’s power and freed Israel from their slavery and that is what the judgments that we are looking at is doing. It is the destruction of this present kingdom of darkness and the release of the people of God. Finally, the Red Sea opening was the final act of God in destroying the armies of pharaoh and Israel left Egypt never to be there again or to see them again. This corresponds to the war of Armageddon and the second coming of Christ. The passing of the people of God out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light. When the plagues are finished the world will be broken and the kingdom of Satan will be flattened-shattered-done. All that we see around us is not going to last. Invest in things of heavenly nature instead of this world.
Verse 2 speaks of a plague of malignant sores. The word that is used for “sore” is also used in Exodus 9:8 for “boil.” This is like an abscess and it was the sixth plague that God brought upon Egypt. It may be like a massive epidemic that breaks out or maybe cancerous tumors. But it is worldwide and found on every person who is part of this kingdom and has demonstrated that by taking the mark. This also tells us that it is not on the children of God. Even in the plagues of Egypt, for example, when the cattle died, the fifth plague, it says that the Lord made a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt so that nothing will die of that which belongs to Israel. Even though these will come upon the whole world, yet those who will be spared will be those believers that are probably hiding and trying to survive until the return of Christ. Perhaps the mark of the beast will turn into the festering boil. The antichrist causes all to be given the mark on their right hand or their forehead and he provides that no one should be able to buy or sell except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. A great majority will be martyred.
The second bowl, the dead seas, is found in verse three. This is like the first plague in Egypt when the Nile turned to blood in Exodus 7:20-21. The second bowl results in all the sea and marine life dying. The sea which teams with life will be turned into a grave. The cool breezes become an almost unbearable stench as it blows over the bodies of literally trillions of sea animals. The shorelines will be clogged with heaping piles of dead carcasses. And the source of disease will paralyze commerce and people will be thrown into confusion and panic. Throughout the Revelation God has taken measured steps in His management. In chapter 8:8 one of the trumpet judgments was the same thing only not so severe. One third of the
sea became blood. God measures out His judgments in order to put pressure on man to repent. He does that in our personal lives too. Sometimes He brings problems into our life in order to get us to repent and change our thinking and to come to Him. Sometimes He gradually increases the pressure. It is the grace of God.
The third bowl is the rivers and springs become dead in verses four through seven. In Egypt there was some hope left in Exodus 7:24 as God permitted them to be able to dig down into springs to get some water, but now even that is taken away. There is no source of fresh water. This is progressive over the final weeks of the tribulation and the angels say it is punishment that fits the crime.
The fourth bowl is scorching heat in verses eight and nine. Isaiah foresaw this day and he said therefore a cursed is the earth and those who live in it are held guilty therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men are left. Malachi also tells us, “for behold the day is coming when burning like a furnace all the arrogant and every evil doer will be burned up and the day is coming will set them ablaze.” The Greek word for scorched is something like to be grilled. In spite of all of this, instead of turning to God for mercy, God is blasphemed. The human heart is incurably wicked. Jeremiah says that the heart is more deceitful and is desperately sick, who can understand it.
Today there is an almost universal belief of the innate goodness of man, that we are ultimately really good inside, but things in our circumstances and our environments cause us to turn bad. How do you explain the Hitlers, and Joseph Stalins if you don’t believe that man is innately evil? The Scriptures tell us that we are evil at the core. In Mark 7:20 Jesus says that which proceeds out of the man is what defiles the man. For from within the heart of man proceed the evil thoughts, the fornication, the thefts, murders, adultery, deeds of coveting, wickedness… All of these evil things proceed from within and defilethe man. No amount of punishment is ever going to purify the human heart. If purgatory existed, which it doesn’t, it could never change the heart. Only the transforming grace of God can change the human heart. Our self-help generation is pathetic. People write hundreds of thousands of books about how we can change ourselves, we can’t.
Only the transforming grace of God can change us. Paul says in Ephesians 2 that we were dead in our trespasses and sins. Before becoming a believer we are spiritually dead. By nature we are children of wrath.
The fifth bowl is darkness. When it says the throne of the beast or kingdom of the beast it is talking about the antichrist, Satan’s man, and it’s talking about the whole world and it’s inhabitants; that is his kingdom at this point, all those who have the mark on the earth. This darkness was also predicted by the prophets; Joel 2:1,2, “…the day of the Lord is coming, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds, thick darkness.” Zephaniah also prophesied, “…. Near is the great day of the Lord…A day of darkness and gloom…a day of clouds and thick darkness.” The ninth plague in Egypt was darkness that came upon pharaoh’s kingdom in Exodus 10:21-23 “… that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may be felt… there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.” It is a literal darkness because of the Egyptian foreshadowing and because the Lord himself told us that when the Lord came that there would be signs in the heavens and that the sun would lose its power.
Zachariah shares a picture of the coming of Jesus Christ “… it will come about in that day that there will be no light… the luminaries will dwindle.” In Matthew 24:29,30 Jesus talks about His second coming “… but immediately after the tribulation days the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give it’s light and the stars will fall from the sky… and then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky… then all the tribes in the earth will mourn…” We, as believers are going to be coming with Him. In Genesis 1 before the sun and moon were created there was light. There was a morning and an evening the first day.
The light of Jesus glory, the preincarnate Son of God lit the whole world. When all of the lights go out on earth in its final hour, the lights will go on in heaven and all its glory. Then the whole world, when they see that light will know what has happened when Christ has returned.
TWO GRAPHIC REMINDERS:
1. THESE FIVE BOWLS, IN FACT, PICTURE THE CONDITIONS OF HELL—people smitten with pain, in great thirst, intense burning, and complete darkness.
Matthew 25:30 “And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash there teeth.”
Matthew 25:41 “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels…”
Matthew 25:46 “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteousness into eternal life.”
It is so sad to hear jokes about meeting your friends in hell. You won’t see one of them—outer darkness, isolation, eternal punishment, a horrible place.
2. REPTENTANCE IS A WORK OF GOD’S GRACE. The righteous judgment of God does not cause repentance. Hebrews 4: 7 “… today is the acceptable day.” The voice of God comes to us and we need to respond that day, don’t wait for another day. You may not have the chance.
References
- “THE SEVEN BOWLS OF GOD’S WRATH,” Revelation 16:1-11, #JMREVREV29; The Faithful Word. Pastor Jim Mooberry
- Old Testament Study
- Receiving Jesus
- Heartland Baptist, Bellevue, Nebraska
- Broken Bow Berean Church, Broken Bow, Nebraska