Revelation 16:10, commentary and pictures

The fifth plague is poured from God's wrath upon the seat of the beast, filling his whole kingdom with darkness and bringing sin, shame, sorrow and pain on every side so that its subjects gnaw their tongues for pain with no deliverance and no respite until the end. It is the fifth of the seven last plagues containing all the wrath to be poured on the living wicked, falling in order after Jesus finishes His interceding work in the most holy place, lays off His priestly attire for garments of vengeance, and stands up when every case is decided, mercy leaves the world, and the wicked face judgment without atoning blood or mediator. It falls on the shelterless living wicked who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark, reject truth, make void and trample God's law and Sabbath for human laws and a spurious rest-day, and fill up the measure of unrighteousness beyond the bounds of grace. Its torment enrages the wicked against the righteous whom they blame for bringing the judgments, leading to a decree to slay the saints and the time of Jacob's trouble in which the saints cry for deliverance until God delivers them by His voice and the wicked turn upon one another. God's word warns how to escape and must be studied closely to shape conduct and avoid receiving the plagues, for while mercy still waits He holds out light for darkness and righteousness for sin, but many professed people are unready and will find it too late to get ready, so only those sanctified through truth and hid with Christ in God will stand until the desolation is overpast.

Place in Final Judgments

This is the fifth of the seven last plagues, poured from the vials of God's wrath one after another in order upon the inhabitants of the earth after trumpet after trumpet has sounded. These seven contain all the wrath to be poured on the living wicked, which is not the final execution at the second death. They come in the future, after Jesus finishes His priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary and takes up His kingly role to execute judgment, before the resurrection and second advent.

They fall after Jesus finishes His interceding work for Israel in the most holy place, when every case is decided for salvation or destruction. Then He lays off His priestly attire and clothes Himself with garments of vengeance, steps out from between the Father and man and stands up. Mercy leaves the world, intercession and the invitation of mercy end, and the wicked face judgment without atoning blood or a mediator, realizing too late that they rejected salvation. The angel of mercy leaves the world, God no longer keeps silent, and the anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead follow as separate events, with the plagues bringing the time of trouble such as never was.

The sealing is completed before they fall, while Satan is permitted to work and God prepares protection for His people who have His covering and shelter. The four angels hold the four winds until the sanctuary work is done and Michael stands up, and then the plagues come. They belong to the prophecies of Revelation 12-18 that are being fulfilled. They are opened as a terrible scene bringing pestilence, famine and death, and as sure indications of Christ's presence and coming, who has directed every aggressive movement and accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, who will vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, and who will supply His faithful ones with motives and power of purpose, hope and courage and valor for increased activity and stand with them in all their conflicts to the end of the world. They come when every form of evil springs into intense activity and evil angels unite with evil men for a desperate final struggle with all the world on one side or the other in the battle of Armageddon, with the Captain of the Lord's host at the head of the angels of heaven directing the battle.

The plagues of Egypt before and at Israel's deliverance foreshadow these final plagues, which fall just before and during the saints' deliverance. This suffering occurs before the saints are delivered by God's voice and the wicked turn their rage against one another. Drops and sprinklings of its vial are already falling as a faint, limited representation and premonitory warning of the full outpouring to come in the near future. The disasters affecting land and sea in 1889, and those expected in 1890, are such early drops. They are seen in awful calamities by sea with vessels hurled into eternity without warning, and by land with fire consuming hoarded riches much of it accumulated by oppression of the poor and gained at starvation prices from those in their employ, unusually destructive fires sweeping away the most costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven, earthquakes burying cities and villages with their inhabitants, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods such as the Johnstown and Williamsport floods that destroyed more than two thousand lives, vitiated air with deadly miasma because the powers of darkness are not restrained, afflicted vegetable life, pestilence, cholera and unexplainable diseases and almost uncontrollable diphtheria gathering its harvest of precious little ones, lordly palaces erected at great expense becoming heaps of ruins, whole cities becoming nearly extinct with thousands buried, and the religious world terribly shaken, for the end of all things is at hand. The Lord will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath while accepting in its place a spurious rest-day, and God permits these limited disturbances to come that professing Christians may be brought to their senses, that the world may take heed, and that sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him.

Targets and Sufferings

The fifth vial falls on the living wicked who have no shelter or covering from divine wrath, the godless world that worships the beast and its image and receives its mark. They are those who rejected truth, showed contempt for holy law by making it void, trampling it underfoot and making human laws supreme, transgressing law, breaking covenant and trampling the Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest-day in its place. Their unrighteousness reaches its full limit and exceeds the bounds of grace, and God keeps a reckoning of the guilt of every nation to vindicate His honor, refusing to protect the property of transgressors or long delay punishment for accumulated transgression, bringing down human pride among people of every rank.

Poured upon the seat of the beast, it fills his kingdom with darkness, with sin, shame, sorrow, pain and darkness on every side as the bolts of wrath fall. In that fast-approaching last great crisis this outpouring carries special meaning and calls for preparation rather than strife and contention. It brings dreadful suffering with no deliverance, so that the wicked gnaw their tongues for pain and curse God. When punishment begins there is no period of respite until the end.

False shepherds who lead their flocks to destruction are singled out as objects of wrath, with eyes and tongues consumed. One or two plagues will not suffice until they acknowledge that God loved those who held fast to truth and kept His commandments, and until all the unrighteous are destroyed. Those who stood in the way of warning sinners then hear bitter reproaches and their hearts faint within them. In fearful agony the wicked reproach one another, and family members and ministers for keeping them from truth and failing to warn them, while ministers suffer even greater punishment.

The suffering enrages the wicked against the righteous, whom they blame as having brought the judgments down and whose death they believe would stay the plagues. This leads to a decree to slay the saints and to the time of Jacob's trouble, in which the saints cry day and night for deliverance. God then delivers them by His voice, the 144,000 triumph, and the wicked turn their rage against one another.

Warning and Preparation

The vials of wrath are to be poured out because the earth has been defiled and the law of God transgressed, and that prophecy is rapidly fulfilling with the plagues soon to fall. Some who were alive in 1856 would live to be subjects of these seven last plagues falling on the living before the second coming, while others of that same company would die beforehand and others would live to be translated to heaven without seeing death.

God’s word warns how to escape the seven last plagues, and those who neglect that word will be left accountable when it judges their lives at the last day. The plagues portrayed in Revelation must be studied closely and prayerfully so their symbols are not misinterpreted, for understanding these truths is necessary to shape conduct and avoid receiving the plagues coming upon the world. Those who fail to recognize the signs of the times in this wicked and adulterous generation will be found among those who perish under the vials poured from God’s wrath.

Before the plagues are poured out, ministers and people are called out of nominal Adventist and fallen churches to join the remnant. Before that calling, Satan will stir religious excitement in those churches to make those who rejected truth think God is working there, but the honest will recognize the light and leave the fallen churches.

While patience and mercy still wait, God still holds out to souls the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, but His patience and mercy will not always wait and when He begins to punish there will be no period of respite until the end. Many of God’s professed people are unready for the soon-coming seven last plagues and without shelter, and when the plagues begin to fall the unready will wring their hands in anguish when the hour to get ready is then too late. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast, with sin, shame, sorrow, pain and darkness on every side as the bolts of wrath fall and mercy leaves the world, so the call now is He is coming, get ready, get ready, and receive the Holy Ghost.

The vials are yet to transpire and right upon us, to be poured out one after another in order upon the inhabitants of the earth after trumpet after trumpet has sounded. These solemn scenes of stupendous interest will be sure indications of the presence of Christ, who has directed every aggressive movement and accompanied His cause through the ages, who will vindicate His truth and cause it to triumph, and who will supply His faithful with motive and power of purpose, hope, courage and valor for increased activity and stand with them in every conflict to the end. They come when every form of evil springs into intense activity and evil angels unite with evil men for a desperate final struggle with all the world on one side or the other in the battle of Armageddon, so that day must find none sleeping but wide awake as wise virgins with oil, sustained by the power of God and grace and the power of the Holy Spirit with the Captain of the Lord’s host at the head of the angels directing the battle. The vial poured upon the seat of the beast carries special meaning for the fast-approaching last great crisis before Christ comes, calling believers to spend less time in strife and contention and to prepare for what is coming. Those who claim these judgments have no special meaning will soon be forced to understand what they now choose not to understand.