Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

16:10-11
the heat of the sun by the Glory-Cloud, the Shadow of
the Almighty (Ex. 13:21-22; cf. Ps. 91:1-6). This
promise is repeated again and again throughout the
prophets:
The LORD is your keeper;
The LORD is your shade on your right hand.
The sun will not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.
The LORD will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul. (Ps. 121:5-7)
They will not hunger or thirst,
Neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down;
For He who has compassion on them will lead them,
And will guide them to springs of water. (Isa. 49:10)
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose trust is the LORD.
For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit. (Jer. 17:7-8)
And He who sits on the Throne shall spread His
Tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst anymore; neither shall the sun beat down on them,
nor any heat; for the Lamb in the center of the Throne shall
be their Shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the
waters of life; and God shall wipe away every tear from their
eyes. (Rev. 7:15-17)
We have noticed several times already that St. John
uses the passive voice to indicate divine control. He
again stresses God’s sovereignty by telling us that it was
given to the sun to scorch the men; and, in the very
next line, he is even more explicit: God . . . has the
power over these plagues. St. John knows nothing of a
“God” who sits helplessly on the sidelines, watching
the world go by; nor does he acknowledge a “God” who
is too nice to send judgments on the wicked. He knows
that the plagues falling upon Israel are “the works of the
LORD, who has wrought desolations in the earth” (Ps.
46:8).
In his book on the Trinity, St. Augustine emphasizes
the same point: “The whole creation is governed by its
Creator, from whom and by whom and in whom it was
founded and established. And thus the will of God is
the first and supreme cause of all corporal appearances
and motions. For nothing happens in the visible and
sensible sphere which is not ordered, or permitted, from
the inner, invisible, and intelligible court of the most
high Emperor, in this vast and illimitable commonwealth
of the whole creation, according to the
inexpressible justice of His rewards and punishments,
graces and retributions.” 14
But the apostates refuse to submit to God’s lordship
over them. Like the Beast, whose head is crowned with
“names of blasphemy” (13:1) and whose image they
worship, the men blasphemed the name of God who
has the power over these plagues. And, like the
impenitent Pharaoh (cf. Ex. 7:13, 23; 8:15, 19, 32; 9:7,
12, 34-35; 10:20, 27; 11:10; 14:8), they did not repent
so as to give Him glory. Israel has become an Egypt,
hardening its heart; and, like Egypt, it will be destroyed.
The Last Three Chalices:
It Is Finished! (16:10-21)
10 And the fifth angel poured out his Chalice upon the
throne of the Beast; and his kingdom became darkened;
and they gnawed their tongues because of pain,
11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their
pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their
deeds.
12 And the sixth angel poured out his Chalice upon the
great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, that
the way might be prepared for the kings from the rising of
the sun.
13 And I saw coming out of the mouth of the Dragon and
out of the mouth of the Beast and out of the mouth of the
False Prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;
14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go
out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them
together for the War of that great Day of God, the
Almighty.
15 Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who
stays awake and keeps his garments, lest he walk about
naked and they see his shame.
16 And they gathered them together to the place which in
Hebrew is called Armageddon.
17 And the seventh angel poured out his Chalice upon the
air; and a loud Voice came from the Temple of heaven,
from the throne, saying: It is done.
18 And there were flashes of lightning and peals of thunder
and voices; and there was a great earthquake, such as
there had not been since the men came to be upon the
Land, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.
19 And the Great City was split into three parts, and the
cities of the Gentiles fell. And Babylon the Great was
remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine
of His fierce wrath.
20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not
found.
21 And great hail, about the weight of a talent, comes down
from heaven upon the men; and the men blasphemed
God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague
is exceedingly great.
The symbolic targets of the first four Chalices were the
elements of the physical creation: Land, sea, waters,
and the sun. With the last three plagues, the
consequences of the angelic attack are more “political”
in nature: the disruption of the Beast’s kingdom; the
War of the great Day of God; and the Fall of “Babylon.”
10-11 Although most of the judgments throughout
Revelation are aimed specifically at apostate Israel, the
heathen who join Israel against the Church come
under condemnation as well. Indeed, the Great
Tribulation itself would prove to be “the hour of
testing, that hour which is to come upon the whole
world, to test those who dwell upon the Land” (3:10).
The fifth angel therefore pours out his Chalice upon
the throne of the Beast; and, even as the sun’s heat is
scorching those who worship the Beast, the lights are
turned out on his kingdom, and it becomes darkened –
a familiar Biblical symbol for political turmoil and the
14. St. Augustine, On the Trinity, iii.9; Henry Bettenson, ed. and trans., The Later Christian Fathers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, [1972] 1977), p. 191.
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