Seven
Last Plagues Begin to Fall
And
I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your
ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Rev. 16:1.
When Christ ceases His intercession in the sanctuary, the unmingled wrath
threatened against those who worship the beast and his image and receive his
mark (Revelation 14:9, 10), will be poured out. The plagues upon Egypt when
God was about to deliver Israel were similar in character to those more terrible
and extensive judgments which are to fall upon the world just before the final
deliverance of God's people. Says the revelator, in describing those terrific
scourges: "There fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which
had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image."
The sea "became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died
in the sea." And "the rivers and fountains of waters . . .became
blood." Terrible as these inflictions are, God's justice stands fully
vindicated. The angel of God declares: "Thou art righteous, O Lord, .
. . because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints
and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy."
Revelation 16:2-6. By condemning the people of God to death, they have as
truly incurred the guilt of their blood as if it had been shed by their hands.
. . . In the plague that follows, power is given to the sun "to scorch
men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat." Verse 8, 9. .
. .
These plagues
are not universal, or the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off.
Yet they will be the most awful scourges that have ever been known to mortals.
All the judgments upon men, prior to the close of probation, have been mingled
with mercy. The pleading blood of Christ has shielded the sinner from receiving
the full measure of his guilt; but in the final judgment, wrath is poured
out unmixed with mercy.
The bolts
of God's wrath are soon to fall, and when He shall begin to punish the transgressors,
there will be no period of respite until the end. The storm of God's wrath
is gathering, and those only will stand who are sanctified through the truth
in the love of God. They shall be hid with Christ in God till the desolation
shall be over past.
From Maranatha - Page 268
