Principles of Interpretation: There are patterns to Revelation which should be considered when trying to understand it. One pattern is that each new section is introduced by a scene from the temple. There is significance to these introductions. Do not ignore them. They are a key to understanding the section. Another pattern is that the book is written in symbolic language. The King James Version translates verse 1 as “he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:” To signify is to show in signs, i.e., symbols. Those symbols are based in the rest of the Bible, both Old and New Testament. As such, look to the rest of the Bible to interpret Revelation rather than using Revelation to interpret the rest of the Bible. This also means that you need to let the Bible interpret itself rather than attempting to have it fit into today’s headlines. In short, do not treat Revelation as separate from the rest of the Bible. Instead, expect that the events described in Revelation have been presented in other parts of the Bible. A third pattern in Revelation is the idea of judgement. There are courtroom scenes and wrath and complaints about God not bringing justice. In fact, humans are not the only ones under judgment. God Himself is on trial, and the repeated verdict is that God is just, holy, and worthy. From the beginning claim that this is the Revelation of Jesus to the promise in the last chapter that we shall see God’s face, Revelation is an examination of who our Creator is and whether He is worthy of our loyalty.

Disclaimer: There are four basic methodologies used to interpret the book of Revelation in modern society: futurism, historicism, idealism, and preterism. Many modern churches have embraced the idea of the secret rapture, which is a form of futurism. On the other hand, some churches say that Revelation deals solely with events that were happening in the apostolic era. This is called preterism. Other churches teach that Revelation does not describe any specific time period. Instead, the symbols are philosophical and/or spiritual ideas. The series of studies that I am posting is based on historicism, which says that the Bible teaches that Revelation begins with the time of John and describes the interactions of the church with a hostile world throughout history culminating in the final future eradication of sin from the universe. This view denies a secret rapture. I do not want you to be in confusion about the basic premises of this series of lessons. If you disagree with the historicist viewpoint, please study for yourself to be certain that the interpretations that you have been told by others and simply accepted make sense with the whole Bible. As you study, first ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit; then study the verses, and let the Bible interpret itself. Even if you disagree with my comments, you may find the verses and background information that I provide useful. Finally, I want to emphasize that I myself am still studying Revelation and my understanding is deepening each time I open the book and read. Revelation is a distillation of the whole Bible; as such, the limited space of this blog and my limited understanding means that these lessons are not nearly as in-depth as they could (and maybe should) be.

References: See the end of this post for sources and references.

Revelation 15:1

(1)  Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished.

• “The wrath of God is finished.”  The scriptures demonstrate that God’s wrath is the logical consequence of evil. The beautiful part of this prophecy is that after this final need for humans to reap what they sow, there will be no more wrath.  As Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.”
  • Galatians 6:7-8  (7)  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.  (8)  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
  • Romans 1:18-24  (18)  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.  (19)  For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.  (20)  For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.  (21)  For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.  (22)  Claiming to be wise, they became fools, (23)  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.  (24)  Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves,
  • Romans 2:3-11  (3)  Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?  (4)  Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?  (5)  But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.  (6)  He will render to each one according to his works:  (7)  to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; (8)  but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.  (9)  There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, (10)  but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. (11)  For God shows no partiality.
  • “If we persist in a course of sin, God will honor our choice. He will not, cannot, force us to be saved. The true Source of all life, God will finally give us up to the consequences of our own stubborn decision. Yet today He still pleads, ‘repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye’ (Ezekiel 18:30, 32)” (Unlocking Revelation #17 The Seven Last Plagues and Armageddan).
  • Revelation 11:18  (18)  The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”
    • Revelation 11:18 is the wrath of God diluted with mercy, but the wrath revealed in the plagues is not to bring repentance.  However, that does not change God’s character, so these plagues are God giving up the unrighteous to their own choices.  He stops interceding between them and their choices and gives them up to the results of their actions.

• “Seven angels”—Seven is a message of completeness.  Angels are messengers of God.  Thus, these messengers are giving a complete, finished message.  There is nothing more to add to the message after they have finished.
• “Seven plagues” These are the final acts. If the plagues are not to bring repentance, what is their purpose?  The plagues are sent to deliver God’s people from the ones who want to destroy them, to answer the prayers of the saints under the altar for justice (Revelation 6:9-11), to let people see the consequences of their own actions and let the universe see that the enemies of God still refuse to repent.

Revelation 15:2-4

(2)  And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. (3)  And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! (4)  Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

• “Sea of glass mingled with fire”  Descriptions of God’s throne room feature some kind of area where people gather.  In Exodus 24:10 it is described as clear sapphire (lapis lazuli).  Ezekiel 1:22 describes it as awe-inspiring crystal or fearful ice depending on the translation. 
  • Revelation 4:6  (6)  and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind:
    • In Revelation 4, there is a heavenly court before the throne, but in Revelation 15 there are the victorious people who have come out of the last conflict
  • Ephesians 2:4-7  (Paul says that we are even now seated in heavenly places)  (4)  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, (5)  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—(6)  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7)  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
  • The location of the saints on the sea of glass does not mean that the saints are in heaven during the pouring out of the seven last plagues.  Instead, this is to show that they are protected by God as the plagues fall down onto the earth (SDA Commentary).  Just as Paul states that we are seated with Jesus while still on this sinful earth in Ephesians, so Revelation is showing that while the people of God may seem to be surrounded by their enemies on earth, they are also standing on the sea of glass singing of their deliverance by God. 
  • I am reminded of the story that I have heard preachers tell before about Enoch.  “There was a little girl who came home from Sunday School one day and her mother asked her what she had learned about. The little girl said, “We talked about Enoch.”  “Oh, you did?”, her mother asked. “What did you learn about him?”  “Well, apparently”, the little girl began, “Enoch was a man who used to walk with God. God would come by Enoch’s house every morning and say to him, ‘Enoch, would you like to go for a walk with me today?’ and Enoch would go with Him.  Well, I guess this went on and on for a really long time, and every day they would walk a little farther. One day, they walked so far and it got so late in the day that God told Enoch, ‘Enoch, we really walked a long way today, and it’s getting really late. We are a lot closer to my house than we are yours. Why don’t you come home with me.’ So, Enoch went home with God to His house.”  My point is that those who live in the time of trouble will have developed a communion with God that puts them right by the sea of glass next to the throne of God.
• “Those who conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name”—This is the Third Angel’s Message.  These are the ones who do not worship the beast and have the seal of God.  Notice that they also conquer the number of its name.  This means that they obey God rather than man.  They do not put themselves above God.
• “Sing the song of Moses”
  • Exodus 15:1-19  (1)  Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying, “I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. (2)  The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.  (3)  The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.  (4)  “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.  (5)  The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone.  (6)  Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy.  (7)  In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.  (8)  At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea.  (9)  The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’  (10)  You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.  (11)  “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?  (12)  You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them.  (13)  “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.  (14)  The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.  (15)  Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.  (16)  Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone, till your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased.  (17)  You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established.  (18)  The LORD will reign forever and ever.”  (19)  For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea.
    • In what way will the saints be singing the song of Moses?  An overwhelming force is surrounding them, but then God will miraculously delivered them.  This is a people who trust God when there is no hope.  Focus especially on verses 2, 13, and 17 of the passage above.
• “Sing the song of. . . the Lamb”—The saints sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  Can you sing the song of the Lamb?  Think about what the song of the Lamb looks like in your life.
• “Amazing Deeds”—God Almighty/Just and True/King of the nations—this is an acknowledgement of the Father and the Son’s worthiness.
• Worship—Righteous Acts Revealed
  • Revelation 14:6-7  (These people do not just tell others the first angel’s message.  They believe it with all of their heart.)  (6)  Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.  (7)  And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

Revelation 14 was about the two harvests—one of wheat and one of grapes.  Revelation 15: 1-4 describes those who are the wheat harvest.  Revelation 15:5 to chapter 16 describe the grape harvest.  The people of the wheat harvest praise God and worship Him even though they have undergone the time of Jacob’s trouble.  When they go through hardships and persecution, they turn to their Savior.  The grape harvest will reveal a people who do not repent or give God glory during their times of trouble.

Revelation 15:5-8

(5)  After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, (6)  and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. (7)  And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, (8)  and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

• This is the introduction to the treading the winepress of the wrath of God.  While this is connected to previous verses, it is a major break that introduces a new section of Revelation.  How do we know?  The sanctuary imagery.  In Revelation, new sections are introduced with sanctuary images.
• The English word sanctuary could refer to various parts of the temple.  However, the Greek word used in verse 6 for sanctuary is /naos/, which refers to the Most Holy Place.  The Most Holy Place had two functions.  It was a place of mercy and a place of judgment.
•  What is special about this sanctuary?  It is open
• The Angels have bright linen and gold sashes.  They are carrying out righteous actions.
  • Compare Revelation 15:6 to Revelation 1:13  (13)  and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.
• In Revelation 15:7, compare the golden bowls with the cup of wine of the wrath of God in Revelation 14:10  (10)  he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
• Compare Revelation 15:8 to Exodus 40 and 1 Kings 8
  • Exodus 40:34-35  (34)  Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.  35)  And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
  • 1 Kings 8:10-11  (10)  And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD,  (11)  so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.
• No intercession is going on with the temple filled with smoke from the glory of God.  No one can enter the sanctuary.  There is no need for intercession now.  The wheat harvest (God’s people) has been sealed to God and follow the Lamb wherever He goes.  The people of the grape harvest will not choose God no matter how He intercedes with them.  All have chosen and will not change their decision no matter what troubles come their way.
• In Revelation 11 the most holy place was open.  In Revelation 15 the most holy place is closed.  Revelation 11 is about the beginning of the Day of Atonement.  Revelation 15 is about the closing of the Day of Atonement.  Those who have not been exonerated by the process are cut off.
  • Revelation 22:11-12  (11)  Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.”  (12)  “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done
  • 2 Peter 3:8-9  (8)  But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.  (9)  The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
• 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12  (9)  The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, (10)  and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  (11)  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, (12)  in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

SUMMARY:  The seven last plagues have been viewed with dread by many of God’s people, but Revelation 15 paints a different picture.  While events have been grim on earth since the fall of Adam and Eve, this is the final act in the drama.  Satan’s power over God’s people is about to be terminated.  The time of the plagues is fearsome for those who have chosen to follow Satan, but for God’s people, it is a time of deliverance.  Just as Pharaoh and his army were crushed under the power of the waves resulting in the joy that produced Moses’ song, so the end time enemies of God’s people will be stopped by the plagues.  This is the reason why the people sing the song of Moses and the Lamb.  They are delivered.

References:

• Andrews Study Bible–In some lessons, I refer to study comments from this Bible.
• God Cares: The Message of Revelation for You and Your Family-A book by C. Mervyn Maxwell that examines how the prophecies of Revelation relate to an individual’s life.
• Plain Revelation–A book by Ranko Stefanovic that summarizes the meaning of various sections of Revelation
• Revelation of Jesus Christ–A book by Ranko Stefonovic that comments on each verse of Revelation.
• Salvation in Signs and Symbols–a series of shows where two pastors and two others study through the books of Revelation and Daniel. These programs can be accessed at 3abnplus.tv . Scroll down to 3ABN Dare to Dream Network and choose Salvation in Signs and Symbols from the list there.
• Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary (Volume 7) (Copywrite 1957)–This is the old green set of commentaries, not the new commentary series that is in the process of being published and should be released after 2022. (Boy, I would love to get my hands on that set when it comes out!)
• Table Talk–A series of shows where four pastors discuss various topics. These programs can be accessed at tabletalk.online . Season 4 focuses on Revelation.
• Unlocking Revelation–A series of pamphlets that can be downloaded for free from lightbearers.org and clicking on Resources