The Seven Bowls : Seven Whammies and the Fall of a Wicked City

John saw another great and astounding sign in Heaven: seven angels with seven final whammies (these are final whammies because after them God’s anger will be all gone).

John saw all the people who had overcome the beast. They were standing by something that looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and they were holding harps that God had given to them. They sang:

“Great and amazing are Your deeds, Lord God, the All-Powerful! Just and true are Your ways, King over all of time and all of the nations!

“Who will not fear You and glorify Your name, because You alone are Holy? Other, Other, Other, You Alone Are! All nations will come and worship before You for Your righteous acts have been made known.”

After these things John saw the seven angels who had the seven whammies come out of the temple. They were dressed in clean, bright linen, wearing golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with God’s anger and the temple was filled with smoke from God’s glory and from His power.

John heard a loud voice saying to the seven angels: “God’s anger is in the seven bowls. Pour them out onto the earth.”

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth. When he did, painful sores appeared on the people who had the beast’s mark.

The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it turned into blood and the creatures in the sea died.

The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of fresh water, and they turned into blood too.

The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and people got super duper hot from the scorching heat. But those people still spoke to God in a mouthy, disrespectful way. They wouldn’t repent and give God glory.

The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast so that darkness covered his kingdom. Those in that dark kingdom bad-mouthed God because of their sufferings and sores, and they refused to change.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river and that dried up its water.

Finally the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying: “It is done!” Then there were flashes of lightning, roaring, and crashes of thunder, and there was a tremendous earthquake.

Oh, that earthquake was sooooo big. The cities of the nations collapsed and the “great” city was split into three parts. So that wicked, worldly, immoral, sensual and seductive city with great power was given the cup filled with God’s furious anger.

Every island fled away and no mountain could be found. And gigantic hailstones, weighing about a 100 pounds each, fell from heaven. But the people still spoke out against God in a mouthy way.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke to John. “Come with me,” he said. “I will show you the punishment of the sinful city. That wicked city is birthing bad babies, and is the mother of sinners and of despicable things. That sinful city caused people to drink down immorality, guzzling up wickedness.”

Similar to how God often referred to His Family with different picture words (like a Bride, a City, a House, a Body, a Church), God also referred to satan’s evil areas of power with different picture words as well, calling them a wicked city and an immoral woman.

After these things John saw another angel with great authority coming down out of heaven, and the earth was lit up by his radiance. He shouted with a powerful voice:

“Fallen, fallen, is ‘the great city’! That wicked, worldly, immoral, sensual and seductive city with ‘great power’ has fallen, fallen, Fallen.”

Then John heard another voice from heaven saying, “My people, come out of this wicked city so that you will not take part in her sins, and so you will not receive her whammies. God has remembered her crimes.

“Things are about to get very bad for the wicked city. The amount she exalted herself and lived in sensual luxury, that’s how much pain and grief she gets. In fact, she’s going to get double the trouble she caused because she said to herself, ‘I rule; I will never experience sadness!’ For this reason, all the whammies will hit her in one day: disease, mourning, famine, and she’ll be burned down with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is the All-Powerful One!”

Then the kings of the earth, the ones who joined in the evil right along with her, will tremble and stand faaaaar away, weeping and crying for her when they see her smoke.

Then the sellers of the earth, the ones who got rich from the city, will tremble and also stand far away, weeping and sad because no one buys their nice and fancy stuff anymore.

They’ll cry, “Oh, poor city, The good things you wanted so badly for yourself are all gone. All your luxury and splendor gone, gone, gone and never coming back. Poor lady, in your beautiful clothes, made up all pretty with gold and jewels — in one hour all your beautiful stuff has been destroyed!”

But do you want to know what God had to say to His Family about the destruction of that city? He told them: “Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice about it, O Heaven, and saints and apostles and prophets, This is God’s judgment against her for you!”

Then one super powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said, “Like this the wicked, great city will be thrown down and it will never be found again! No craft-makers, no farmers, no music, no lights, no happy voices of brides and grooms will ever be in you again. For your sellers were the big businessmen of the world, because all the nations were tricked by your poisonous charm! The blood of the saints and prophets and so many were found in you.”

Does this kind of remind you of what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah back during the time of Lot? We have to be careful what direction we “face our tent,” huh?

Be careful who your friends are and what you and they value. Because we must not value the things of the world by oohing and ahhing over her shiny trinkets and earth-loving pleasures.

And not just that, but we also must not think the way the world thinks with its shallow, earthly-minded, self-centered ways and wants.

We wanna set our minds on things above. And God and His City should be the only ones who Light up our hearts.