"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."
(Revelation 15:1)
In Revelation, there’s continuing prophetic layering as the Apostle gives us new snapshots in the massive tapestry of the world between the first and second advents of Christ. His concern is not to give us a chart or a chronological timeline; rather, John wants us to consider from various angles and multiplied experiences of the people of God, that the sovereign Lord is moving every detail of human history toward the grand culmination of the eternal reign of His Son. In that reign, the redeemed will find eternal rest and worship while the unbelieving will face eternal wrath.
God’s wrath unfolds at various stages throughout humanity until the final assize when His judgments are complete. That’s what John aims for in the prophetic language of the seven bowls. This great sign pictures “seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.” We’ve already noted how the end of the seven seals (6:12-17; 8:1) and seven trumpets (11:15-19) bring us to the culmination of judgment shown by the great harvest in 14:14-20. The bowls of wrath do the same with language borrowed from Exodus 7-15. He intends to help us grasp the finality of judgment by what the Lord did to Egypt plague by plague until the last plague. The plagues in Egypt, then, are the type of which the last plagues are the antitype. Since the disciples viewed the “last days” as that period from Christ’s ascension to His return, therefore, the bowl plagues would extend throughout the course of the latter-day period, from Christ’s first to second coming. The full portrait of God’s wrath will be finished when all the bowl visions have been painted on the heavenly canvas. Then “the wrath of God is finished,” brought to the grand conclusion planned before the foundation of the world.
(Phil A. Newton)
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