Standing Beside the Sea (Rev. 15-16)

There is a connection between this incident and what happened when the children of Israel were delivered from Egypt. Two obvious links are the song of Moses and the plagues. We are told the meaning of these seven plagues – they are a sign signifying that the outpouring of the wrath of God in human history is coming to a completion. This is a reminder that displays of God’s wrath are happening in different ways before the end, but they also remind us that all such displays are never out of control.

Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven by giving people up to their sinful choices (Rom. 1:18ff.). Moreover, he says that believers were once children of wrath, even as others, which is a reminder that all of us by nature are children of wrath (Eph. 2:3). The psalmist says that God is angry with the wicked every day. His wrath is his attitude towards those who sin against him.

To see the point of the seven plagues, we need to ask about the function of the plagues that were sent on Egypt. First, the plagues were expressions of divine judgement on the enemies of God’s kingdom. Second, the plagues were signs to God’s people that divine deliverance was about to happen for them, although the deliverance did not come until the final plague was sent (the death of the firstborn).

Those two features are repeated in the seven plagues. They describe different ways in which God punishes people. At the same time, they are signs to God’s people that he is active and working towards the time when he will give redemption to them. What is the final plague that will bring in the time of deliverance? It is the destruction of Babylon, described in chapters 17 and 18, and they detail the dismantling and disappearance of the city of man.

Once again in this book, when a major moment occurs in which many serious expressions of divine judgement are described, we are taken first to heaven and asked to observe what is going on there. Heaven is described as a palace of great beauty and splendour, where dignified servants of God are engaged constantly in his business, and attendants surround his throne. Its business is the will of God and in the vision different aspects of his will are mentioned. His will is concerned with blessing his people and punishing his enemies.  Standing beside the sea, as it were, is the best viewpoint.

The location described

The sea of glass surrounds the throne of God (Rev. 4:6). Two ideas are suggested in this description – transparency and peace. Transparency ideally is when one has no defects to hide. God is light and his presence reveals it. There are no hidden agendas. Glass also conveys the sense of calm. This is a reminder that there never is disturbance or agitation in heaven – it is the place of peace.

Some have suggested that the clearness is a reference to providence, that what is obscure to us and difficult to understand is straightforward and easy to grasp in heaven. Here we are getting insight into his plans, but the full unfolding of his will takes place beside the crystal sea, where all is clear.

Another feature of the sea of glass was that it was mingled with fire. Fire is often a symbol of purity. It is certainly the case that heaven is the place of perfection. In Isaiah 6, we meet the seraphim, creatures who burn with holiness. The sinful world of planet earth is the opposite, indicated by seas marked by storms and dread and disasters. In contrast, heaven is the place of calm and consecration.

The crowd

The residents of heaven are then mentioned. They are the ones who did not get involved in the activities organised by the beast and the image created by the second beast. They remained faithful whatever the cost and they reached the safety of the heavenly shore. All the dangers and problems connected to that are now behind them. We are told about them that they are prominent – I think that is the point of describing them as standing beside the sea. If we recall, earlier the dragon had stood beside the stormy sea of earth waiting to bring about the chaos that was organised by the two beasts. In contrast, the people of God are standing beside a better sea.

We should ask why people would stand beside a sea. After all, we don’t do so now. In olden times, everything came by sea. Trade, armies, politicians, and many other visitors. We could almost say that the sea brought the future to people because whatever it brought affected them for the rest of their lives. Whatever decisions were made across the sea eventually came to them. So we could say that the crowd standing by the glassy sea were waiting to see what the future would bring to them. Across the sea from them is God and he has great plans and prospects for them to experience eternally.

Because they are in heaven – the place of peace, purity and prospect, they engage in praise. What do they say in their song?

The song

The first detail to observe is that the same battle is fought during the Old and New Testaments. The battle is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Israel had the truth, Egypt was built on a system of lies. In heaven, believers from both campaigns share the victory song.

The song celebrates the sovereignty of God. His sovereignty extends to the nations and to all his actions in those nations – he is ‘King of the nations’ who exhibits almighty power. His actions are wonders because they reveal his wisdom and power and consistent adherence to truth as well as his constant ability to defeat whatever the hostile nations bring against him.

Moreover, the song stresses the singularity of God. There is none like him and it is impossible for anyone to opt out of glorifying him in the end. For many, their glorification will not be saving, because they will acknowledge his uniqueness reluctantly. The biblical way of saying that God is unique is to refer to his holiness. Holiness is a comprehensive word because it combines everything that makes up perfection. Adam was holy when he was first created. Because the holiness here is divine perfection, it is inevitably elevated above everything else, as we see in the vision described in Isaiah 6. This is a reason why we should not sin because every sin is the opposite of the holiness of God.

The fourth feature of the song is that it rejoices in success. Worshippers of God will come from all the nations after they hear about his righteous acts. Although not specified here, the righteous acts are the ones we include in the gospel. So John, and us, are prepared for looking at the seven plagues by being reminded of the redeemed in heaven. They will have been gathered in during the days of the plagues.  

The plagues

The origin of the plagues is shown to be connected to the worship of God in heaven. A heavenly order of process is observed, designed to impress the dignity and the solemnity of the event on those who hear about it. We are reminded here that the source of divine judgement is the holy place where God dwells.

Of course, no real set of bowls can hold the infinite wrath of the eternal God. The number ‘seven’ points to perfection. It may that John wants us to think of the bowls mentioned in 5:8, which are said to be the prayers of the saints. Several times in this book he has connected divine judgement and the prayers of God’s people. The psalms are full of prayers by believers who longed for divine vindication. And Jesus taught his church to pray, ‘Deliver us from evil.’

To add to the seriousness of what is signified by the bowls, entrance into this sanctuary is not permitted until the plagues have passed, which is probably a way of saying that access to the fullness of glory in the presence of God takes place after the Day of Judgement.

The plagues are not all sequential because in verse 11 the boils of the first plague are still affecting those who suffer the fifth plague. So we can assume that some of them are parallel in the experience of those who are receiving the punishment.

Most of the seven plagues bear a similarity to the ten plagues of the Exodus. The obvious difference is that while the ones at the Exodus were literal, the ones in the vision are symbolic. At the Exodus, each plague happened once within the land of Egypt whereas the seven plagues are global. The seven are also similar to some of the judgements connected to the seals in Revelation 6. In the plagues, we see pestilences, death, changes in nature, fierce heat, darkness and demonic attack.

John is also told why the plagues were sent. Two reasons are mentioned. One is that they are forms of punishment connected to the cruel way those persons and societies persecuted God’s people. The other reason is that the plagues are a reminder that people should repent of their sins, yet they did not. Punishment by itself will not bring sinners to repentance.

The final seal describes the judgement of God on Babylon. Its destruction is a global affair and causes the collapse of everything else. It is a moment of great significance because the next two chapters are explanations of what happened. The city of man comes to its end and it will disappear. It began with Cain and has been expanding ever since. Its residents, who are everybody apart from those who follow Jesus, don’t want to repent even while the city is disappearing before their eyes.

What is Armageddon? Some people think it is a literal battle in Palestine. Others think it describes an end-time conflict. John says it is a battlefield. On one side are those who followed the beasts, and they have been brought to this location through demonic temptation. On the other side is God, whose Day it is. It looks to me that Armageddon is another name for the Day of Judgement, the great day of the Lord God Almighty. We might say the biggest numerically, but also the shortest timewise, battle in the history of earth.

The Beatitude

Jesus announces this beatitude. As we can see, it is connected to his second coming, which will come suddenly (the picture of a thief breaking into a building is used frequently in the New Testament connection to the second coming of Jesus). The beatitude is a warning to his disciples and he uses the picture of clothes to make his point.

A thief is successful because the owner of the house falls asleep. When the owner wakens, he discovers his clothes placed elsewhere have been taken and he has nothing to wear. If he had not gone to sleep, his loss would not have occurred. The lesson is that Christians should not succumb to spiritual sleep. Instead they should always have on their spiritual attire.

The church in Laodicea, which had fallen asleep in a spiritual sense even although it imagined that it was wide awake, was exhorted by Jesus to buy from him ‘white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen’ (Rev. 3:18). I doubt if this is a reference to the garments of justification because possession of them does not fluctuate. Instead it refers to sanctification or to Christlikeness, which does have degrees, and which can at times be less than at other times. Times of difficulty can be difficult times for making progress in sanctification. When they come along, we should remember this beatitude and put on our best clothes. 

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