The Seven Last Plagues of Revelation Chap. 16 (The last book in the Bible). Pt. 1     

        In this article, I would like us to study the seven last plagues that God tells humanity will fall upon only those who have rejected His loving invitation to come to Him.  God earnestly calls people to repent of their rebellion against Him and allow Him to cleanse them from their wickedness.  God desires to transform humans once more into the divine image so that they may live with the heavenly, sinless beings forever. 

        These plagues will only come on earth after the close of human probation, hence they will be the wrath of God upon those who have rejected Him as their Creator, God and Restorer.  These plagues will culminate in the destruction of the polluted, contaminated earth and wicked humanity.  In Revelation 11:18 we read this dire warning, “And the nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you shouldest give reward unto your servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear your name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.”  You see, folks, if God does not intervene mankind will destroy this earth over which God made them overseers.

        Before we look at these plagues in the Revelation of John, let us review the one other time when God sent major plagues on perhaps the greatest nation at the time, the nation of Egypt. This account is found in Exodus 12:1-14:31. This report is fast-moving and very sad on one part but exciting on the other.  Why did God plague the nation of Egypt[1] with these devastating plagues?   In the great controversy between good and evil going on in our world, we pick up an important ingredient of the Egyptian plague’s story in Genesis 15:13-16. There we read that God tells Abraham that Abraham’s descendants, the Jews, will leave Canaan, the land bequeathed by God to Abraham and his descendants and that they shall live in Egypt, a land that is not theirs.  In that land, they shall be enslaved for four hundred years but in the fourth generation, God will bring them back to the land of Canaan with great wealth.  God clarifies to Abraham that this exodus from Egypt will take place after He has judged the Egyptians.  This judgement was the ten plagues that near destroyed Egypt; we read in Exo. 10:7  “And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let — the men go, that they may serve — the LORD their God: Do you not know that Egypt is already destroyed?”

        We gather from the earnestness of the servants of Pharoah that the plagues were regarded by the King of Egypt as only miracles of Moses and Aaron and not from the God of the Hebrews even though Moses and Aaron specifically told him that God demanded the release of his people Israel, whom He called His “firstborn.’  In Genesis 4:22, 23 we read the following account: “And you shalt say unto Pharaoh, ‘Listen to the word of the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: And I say unto you, Let — my son go, that he may serve me: and if you refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay — your son, even your firstborn.”  In other words, God sent these devastating plagues on Egypt so that He might force the king to recognize His power and superiority and release His people.  But there is more to the plagues than meets the eye.  Each plague that fell on Egypt was a judgement upon the false gods of Egypt, the gods that they depended on for protection from other nations and to supply their daily needs.  In ten strokes God will settle that score with this stubborn king.

        So in extricating His people from Egypt God at the same time was demonstrating to Egypt and the world that He alone was God and that the gods of wood, stone, animals and celestial bodies offer no remedy from evil and wretchedness in society.  For example, the Egyptians worshipped the Nile as a source of national prosperity so when God turns the water into blood and kills everything in it, and itself became unfit to provide health and sustenance it was seen that Moses’ God was superior to the Nile god they worshipped.  This first plague would begin an erosion of trust in false gods and develop fear and respect for the supreme God of Moses and the Hebrews.[2]  Since the Egyptians held the Hebrews captive and enslaved them they felt that they and their gods were superior to the Jews and their God, God, therefore, had to destroy their trust in their false gods.  And God intended to accomplish this in every plague He sent upon Egypt-if the Egyptians would acknowledge this.  God provided the evidence of His superiority but the Egyptians must themselves acknowledge this.

        These signs and wonders in Egypt constituted the ‘voice’ of God to the Egyptians and all humanity that He alone is God and that there is none other.  The heavens and the earth cry out in a loud voice that God alone is God and man’s only Saviour, Isa. 45:22.  In Ps. 19:1-3 we read that the heavens and earth declare the glory of God, and there is no speech nor language on earth where their voice is not heard!  Job 11:7, 8 tell us, humans, to ask the beasts and they shall teach us; and the fowls of the air and they will tell us or speak to the earth and it shall teach us, and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto us that God’s hand has made us all that we may love and worship Him.  In Hebrews 2:11 we are assured that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren because He became like one of us.  Even the stones would cry out the glory of Jesus if humans remained silent! Luke 19:40.

        Therefore, my dear friends, when God acts in defence of His people who are persecuted and killed it is not only to deliver His people but to show to the persecutors that their acts of evil will eventually destroy them, and from this destruction, there will be no recovery.  He therefore by these signs pleads with all humanity who reject Him to make an about turn and accept them into their lives.  There are other times in the Bible when God intervened to protect and save His people.  We read of the incident when Israel was attacked by 145, 000 troops from Assyria.  A huge army gathered against Jerusalem, but God assured Hezekiah that He would defend the city for His own sake, Isa. 37:35, 36.  In this case, God sent a plague that killed off 145, 000 Assyrian troops so that He might protect His people.

        Understand, friends, it is not that God has pleasure in destroying people, but when humanity passes the ‘redlines’ that God has established for their good and for the protection of the earth and of His faithful ones, God has to intervene.  We find this story played out so many times in the Bible.  In Ezekiel 33:11 we read, “Say unto them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel? Likewise today, God has warned humanity that He will return to this earth to redeem His people who have been patiently waiting for Him. 

        Through millions of voices throughout the length and breadth of the earth, the masses of humanity have heard and are still hearing the warnings of dedicated men, women and children calling them back to godliness and away from their deliberate rebellion against God and His standards for holy, moral living.  Today men are seeking to reform or remake humans into anything but the image of God.  We call it post-humanism or trans-humanism or the merging of machines and humans and let’s not forget the combining of AI (artificial intelligence) and human intelligence within the human brain.  No longer must the image of God be reflected in humans seems to be the underlying mantra of ‘woke’ scientists today.  Satan has pretty much taken over humanity. 

        The good news is that God has a remnant that is reflecting and will continue to reflect the image of God until the day the Lord comes to rescue them from this self-destructive species that was made to reflect the image and likeness, the character, of the Creator God.  And remember this, this remnant is and will continue to be the persecuted ones of the earth, the pariahs of society only because they firmly refuse to unite with the God-forsaking, satan-driven majority of humanity.  It will be Covid-19 all over again and worse.  Just as governments and individuals persecuted those who refused to be vaccinated (and thank God this is now demonstrated to have been the right decision to have made), and just as millions have been hurt, maimed, and killed by these injections erroneously called Vaccines, so will billions perish for rejecting the great, reformative love of their Creator whom they deemed irrelevant! 

        Back to the seven last plagues of Revelation 16 as we conclude this article.  Again we ask, why is God sending these plagues upon humanity?  Why did God send the plagues on the Egyptians?  Was it not, as we saw, that the government of Egypt challenged, yes, defied, the Creator God when He told them through Moses and Aaron to ‘Let my people go so they may worship me’?  Did not the Egyptians hide behind the fake gods that made them refuse to listen to the voice of the True God?  Similarly, God will send the seven last plagues on mankind because they refuse to listen to the voice of His people as they proclaim the message of Revelation 14:9, 10, and of which Covid-19 was His warning to humanity of the greater crisis ahead that will end-up with the seven last devastating plagues. We read in Revelation 14:9, 10 “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,¹⁰ The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb”

        May we all be ready for the glorious appearing of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ as He comes at long last for His people.  See, I have told you!

[1] According to the SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, these plagues took place in the reign of Amenhotep II, (1450-1450-1425 BC); the historian Josephus in his Life and Works, book 11, chaps. 7-16, gives a moving description of this entire episode.  In Ussher’s Annals of the world, pages 35-39; 1577- 1497BC; Master Books pub. 2003, 8^th printing in 2008, one can find a historical outlay of the plagues.

[2] SDA Bible commentary, vol. 1, chap. 4.

If you have any comments or questions please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.

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