Readings:
Revelation 16

Now we come to the last set of judgments being poured out, these ones aren’t to spur repentance but to dole out justice and divine wrath for persistence in sin. Five of the seven bowls mirror the plagues of Egypt during the exodus. Sores, frogs, darkness, water to blood and hailstones. Just as the Egyptians were punished for their hardness of heart, so now is the wicked city (called Babylon in these chapters).

As we read earlier in Revelation, when John speaks of Babylon he is referring to Jerusalem. The temple authorities had sworn allegiance to Caesar when they said he was their only king at the trial of Jesus. They then went on to conspire with Roman authorities to spill the blood of Christians. Until the persecutions of Nero in the 60s, all the major persecutions came from the Jerusalem authorities. This is made explicitly clear by what the angel says when the bowl that turns water to blood is poured out.

The seventh bowl contains so much calamities that it completely destroys Jerusalem and lays it to waste.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Revelation 17-18