The prophecies of God never fail
It is not until this fourth bowl that John notes the people’s reactions. This really is a death match, but one in which the people are hopelessly outmatched. Before these bowls of wrath had gone out upon the earth many warnings had come. Recall the three missionary angels seen in the middle of Revelation 14. The third angel of that bunch warned people not to take the mark of the Beast. The angel said that to identify with the Beast was to set oneself up for the wrath of God. In this 16th chapter the wrath is being felt.
Some have said that wrath does not lead to repentance. I do not think that this chapter expresses that as much as it expresses the outcome of God-rejection.
In some manner it is like those who stay in the Florida Keys or elsewhere in the face of things like Irma. Some old salts will shake their fists at such storms. A lot of times they get washed out to sea. Sometimes they don’t, but they face a new normal. Some humans will simply never, ever bend.
Why do people shake their fists at God?
Before putting my final touches on this lesson I was thinking about this whole situation of man. I had gotten up and was just a bit stymied by why people get all defiant or may just ignore God. My coffee was brewing and I was sitting in the dark putting on my tennis shoes sort of shaking my mental head and wrinkling my nose over it all. I wanted an analogy to wrap around one word. The word that came to my mind for what humanity does in the face of God is: preposterous.
How to find an analogy though? Well the one God seemed to give me centered upon a fish tank. It would be preposterous for a fish to swim around in its tank making hateful comments to the one who put him there. The water that the fish swims in was not put there by the fish. The aerator that bubbles in the oxygen for its gills is a life giving provision. The regular food that wafts its way down through the currents does so by the direction of a person. The fish has NOTHING to do with it.
People can be like defiant fish. I don’t get it. To bite the hand that feeds you, to shout at the one who made you and provides the air to breath, the water to drink and food to come up out of the ground is preposterous.
It happens, though. What is so important for us is to realize that the day of salvation is still before us and before those around us. That third missionary angel gave warnings and lessons. We are not to the level of the angels…yet. We can and should be missionary angels to those around us.
Do you (Christian) shake your fist at God?
I bet I know the reflex answer to this. “No! Of course not.” Well that is the simple answer. Maybe in the grand scheme of things you have submitted to the Lord, accepted that you have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. Maybe you have repented from your sins and accepted the salvation offered by Jesus Christ when he died on the cross to take your penalty. Maybe you go to church and tithe, are faithful to your spouse, honest in your dealings.
Those things are all part of the process and for them we should give glory to God, BUT that does not mean one is without sin, without things that need addressed. I know that I have struggled with anger at God over a set of things. Could it be that some of these things held on to so tightly are the shaking of a fist? A “baby-defiance” and area of “I will not” or something else?
It is so crucial that you stay connected to God. We must read our Bibles, pray, maintain a connection with the body of Christ, strive to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of us. By doing this these little defiances will be exposed. When they are get out the mallet of God’s grace and with his power (not your own) whack them into shape.
lulrich says
In class we use the NIV version and in that version verse 9 says “…but they refused to repent and glorify him.” One class member raised a question about this phrase. If these people are all those who have taken the mark of the beast defying God and discarding the warning of the missionary angel that went about the earth in chapter 14 then why does this verse say they refused to repent. That implies that the choice was still available to them. The Bibles that have Strong’s numbers attached to the words (NASB, KJV, and Holman Christian Standard Bible) do not include a word for refused. The original languages did not imply a choice was available. The phrase before what I mentioned here says that the people cursed or blasphemed God. The lack of repentance and lack of God glorifying is not meant to speak of an optional response for these people, but to emphasize the thorough rejection of God on the part of these people.