So far in the Revelation, John and the seven churches have seen that God knows their faith, their challenges, and their sins; and he wants them to know that he has them in his hands. He is with us and he has not forgotten us. In the end, it will be the Lamb of God who will set into motion the events that will end the world and open the gates of heaven for the bodies and souls of all believers. The whole New Testament time, from Pentecost to the Last Day, has been represented by visions of seven seals (chapters 4-7), seven trumpets announcing seven plagues (chapters 8-11), and seven visions of the enemies of the church (chapters 12-15).

Now in the fifth vision, seven bowls of God's wrath are poured out over the world. Once again, the whole New Testament era is shown. These bowls of wrath are much more devastating than the plagues announced by the seven trumpets but both address the same problem: unrepentant sin, false teaching, and falling away from faith.

16.1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath on the earth.”
2 The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. 5 Then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say:
“You are just in these judgments,
you who are and who were, the Holy One,
because you have so judged;
6 for they have shed the blood of your saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink as they deserve.” (NIV)

Painful sores. The saltwater seas turn to blood. The freshwater rivers and lakes turn to blood as well. So run the first three plagues. They recall the plagues sent out on the Egyptians before God rescued his people out of bondage and brought them into the Promised Land, and that is once again what is happening here. God is sending increasing punishments on the earth, the place of the bondage of his people in their slavery to sin, death and the devil, and he is about to rescue them -- us -- and bring us home to him in the Promised Heaven.

Some people have guessed that the first bowl (the “ugly and painful sores”) might be the French Revolution with its resulting and lasting effect of the deterioration of Western culture, and that the second bowl (blood on the saltwater seas) might be the great naval wars of the 1700 and 1800’s (up through the World Wars in the 1900’s?), and that the third bowl (blood in the freshwater rivers) might be the disintegration of the nations themselves from within, in governments, ecologies, and families. But these interpretations might be too limiting.

What we do know is that God punishes sin. When a person rejects God, he curses himself and calls down God’s wrath. As we see in these verses, the more severe the curse, the more severe the wrath.

It’s more than anyone could ever stand. And yet God’s full and complete wrath fell on one man at one moment in history: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).