“Behold, I come like a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his clothes, so that he doesn’t walk naked, and they see his shame.” He gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew, Megiddo..(Armageddon)”

Revelation 16:15-16

The seven angels that appear in this vision has seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, given to them by the four living creatures. They are instructed to pour them out on the earth, which is the empire of the Antichrist and the Beast, the those who worship in their ways will suffer from these terrible woes. It effects all the aspects of the earth and causes great distress. 

The first angel pours out malignant growths that appear on people who worships the Beast. The sores are loathsome to look at and experience. This could be actual physical sores, or the loathsome manifestations of a bad conscience and bad character, built up over years of sinning and not repenting. It is the ugliness and revulsion of religion that leads people astray and is in itself corrupt. It creates a stench that contaminates many, including those who propagate it.

The second angel pours of the bowl into the sea and it turns to blood. Every living thing in the sea is polluted and brings death to them all. The sea cannot function because it has become so polluted that it cannot support life any more and this effects a huge swathe of humanity. The effect of paganism, popishness and false doctrine have polluted the whole body of religion and there is nothing left untouched by falsehood. 

The wrath of God is carried out, as on the Egyptians, who refused God and kept His people as slaves. These woes are reminiscent of the ten Egyptian plagues, which were the ruination of Egypt and the destruction of their power in the depths of the Red Sea. Pharaoh lost everything because of the hardness of his heart towards the Lord, until the Lord sent him a delusion and hardened his heart without any more chances to change. 

“The LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he didn’t listen to them, as the LORD had spoken to Moses.”

Exodus 9:12

The freshwater is also cursed with the water turning to blood. There is nothing to drink. These particular curses against humankind are the result of the blood of the Christians spilt over time and who call out for recompense. These angels of the waters give honour to God for righteousness and the justice that these judgements represent. People are given blood to drink because they have spilt blood, specifically the blood of the many martyrs. 

“I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Isaiah 49:26

The forth angel had power over the sun and the sun become so hot it scorches the people with an intense heat so that they call out curses against God for doing his to them. The unbelieving people will not turn to the Lord. They refuse to acknowledge who God is or give Him the glory and they will never repent. They know the message of Christ and recognise its good effect but continue in sin, which hurts them and sears their consciences.

“Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons, influenced by the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences are seared with a hot iron.”

1 Timothy 4;1-2

The fifth angel pours out his bowl of wrath on the “throne of the Beast.” This is the power-house of the world and everything is plunged into darkness, the darkness of idolatry and falsehood. 

“They will pass through it, very distressed and hungry; and it will happen that when they are hungry, they will worry, and curse by their king and by their God. They will turn their faces upward, and look to the earth, and see distress, darkness, and the gloom of anguish. They will be driven into thick darkness.”

Isaiah 8:21-22

The sixth angel dries up the great river Euphrates which stands for the provision of water to those who live near it. It will dry up and the provision of God will cease, but it also prepares the way for the taking over of the world by people from the East. It prepares the last great battleground for the enemies of the LORD. 

There are unclean spirits that come out of the mouths of the Dragon, the Beast and the false prophet. The lies of these three deceivers with the power of hell behind them, grow and the deceit from the words of their mouths become more and more corrupt. These demonic spirits deceive and corrupt the kings of the earth and all are drawn to the lies of the falsehoods that are prevailing. They all assemble for the last great battle, which will take place on the day of God Almighty. 

CHRIST will return and we must be ready. He will come like a thief comes to steal, and we will not be expecting Him. He will return in great power and glory and the people of the world will quake because of Him. We must be awake and watching for Him and have our coats on and ready to leave! Just like the Israelites were instructed at the Passover, to be ready to leave from their state of slavery and be ready to be free. The end has come. All the assembled armies of the kings are in the place called Armageddon…

“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 5:8-9