Revelation 16:2, commentary and pictures

The first of the seven last plagues is a painful, loathsome and grievous sore falling upon the earth on those who bear the mark of the beast and worship his image. It is poured out after Jesus finishes His intercession in the most holy place and lays aside His priestly garments, so that wrath falls without mercy with no atoning blood to plead for the guilty. Those sealed and sheltered by God are protected from the burning wrath, while the wicked without shelter face its incurable agony unto destruction. Escape is by refusing the beast's worship and mark and holding fast the truth in keeping God's commandments and Sabbath and rejecting the false rest day. When the plagues begin there will be no Mediator and no time to change or get ready, so purification and victory over sin must be sought beforehand.

Sore and Its Sufferers

The first plague is poured out upon the earth as a painful, loathsome, noisome and grievous sore falling upon those who bear the mark of the beast and worship its image. It comes after intercession ceases and wrath is no longer mingled with mercy, just before the deliverance of God's people. Like the judgments on Egypt it is a divine judgment, but more terrible and extensive, the most awful scourge ever known to mortals, yet not universal and falling without mercy. Its warning makes it vital to know how to escape by refusing the beast's worship and mark, for it is tied to rejecting God's law and trampling the Sabbath. It brings judgment on false shepherds who lead followers to destruction, until wrath fulfills its purpose, hireling priests acknowledge that God loved the saints because they held fast the truth and kept His commandments, and the unrighteous are destroyed from the earth.

The sores are painful and incurable, part of dreadful plagues from which the ungodly have no deliverance. They fall on those who have no shelter from God as expressions of dreadful wrath and end in their destruction. Their outpouring enrages the wicked against the saints, whom they blame for bringing down God's judgments and believe that killing will stop the plagues, until a decree to kill brings the saints to cry for deliverance, God delivers them by His voice, and the 144,000 triumph.

The plague is a scene of fearful agony that greatly enrages its sufferers. In that awful hour sufferers reproach one another bitterly, parents blaming children and children parents and brothers and sisters blaming each other for keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them. The people turn on their ministers with bitter hate for not warning them, for telling them all the world was to be converted, for crying peace to quiet every aroused fear, and for calling faithful warners fanatics and evil men who would ruin them. The ministers do not escape the wrath of God, and their sufferings are tenfold greater than their people's.

Time and Sequence

The prophecies in Revelation 12–18, to which this verse belongs, are described as being fulfilled. It is the first of the seven last plagues, a future time on earth before the second coming, preceding the first resurrection and the final execution of judgment at the second death. This day is the day of God's wrath against the living wicked, shown in prophetic vision as the complete outpouring of His wrath. Some who were alive in 1856 would live to that time and be subjects for those plagues, distinct from those who would die beforehand as food for worms and distinct from those who would live through to be translated to heaven without seeing death.

The plagues fall after Jesus finishes His priestly work and intercession in the most holy place, lays aside His priestly garments, and mercy leaves the world, so that wrath is poured out without mercy and there is no atoning blood or compassionate Saviour to plead for the guilty. Then Christ is clothed with garments of vengeance to repay His adversaries and comes to execute judgment. The wrath cannot come until every case is decided for salvation or destruction, Christ has laid off priestly attire, stepped out from between the Father and man, and God no longer keeps silent. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events one following the other, coming when Michael stands up and the time of trouble commences after the four angels hold the four winds until the sanctuary work is done.

The plagues come just before and during the saints' deliverance, as the Egyptian plagues and Israel's deliverance foreshadowed. Trumpet after trumpet is sounded and vial after vial is poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in the last great final contest when the battle of Armageddon is fought. In them Christ directs every aggressive movement, vindicates His truth and causes it to triumph, supplying His faithful ones with purpose, hope, courage and valor, sustained by grace and the Holy Ghost with the Captain of the Lord's host directing the battle. They fall after God has sealed His people, after the time for those professing God's name to become ready and for preparation has passed, and after ministers and people are called out of nominal Adventist and fallen churches before the loud cry of the third angel. Before that loud cry Satan stirs religious excitement in those churches so that rejecters of truth think God is working there and honest souls may be deceived, but when light shines the honest leave and join the remnant.

Drops and sprinklings from the vials are already falling upon land and sea and air as faint representations and preliminary drops of the full outpouring to come in the near future, in pestilence, famine and death as signs of Christ's coming. God permits this present sprinkling by not restraining the powers of darkness from vitiating the air with deadly miasma, so that vegetable life is affected and men suffer pestilence, cholera, unexplainable diseases and diphtheria among children. The same sprinkling appears in unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages, railway accidents, tornadoes and floods destroying property and more than two thousand lives, with whole cities nearly extinct, the earth's crust rent, costly palaces ruined, oppressive treasures swept away, great mortality, unprecedented crimes, and weeping and woe as warnings of greater shocks. These judgments already falling sweep away costly structures as by fire from heaven upon those who transgress God's law, break His covenant, and trample His Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day, and the Lord will not interfere to protect their property. God permits them to bring professing Christians to their senses, that the world may take heed and sinners may fear and tremble before Him. The sore upon the worshipers of the beast has special meaning as one of the judgments the Lord is now sending upon the earth in the fast-approaching last great crisis.

Character of the Judgments

The first plague belongs to judgments poured out after intercession ceases and just before the deliverance of God's people, when wrath is no longer mingled with mercy. They resemble the judgments on Egypt but are more terrible and extensive. They are not universal, though they are the most awful scourges ever known to mortals.

They are the complete outpouring of God's wrath in the day of His wrath against the living wicked. That day was shown to John in prophetic vision. It is future, coming after Christ finishes His priestly work in the heavenly sanctuary and is clothed with garments of vengeance to repay His adversaries and execute judgment, and it precedes the first resurrection and the second advent. The earth is defiled, and the vials of God's wrath are poured out upon it and upon the world.

They come upon a godless world when human rebellion and contempt for God's law have exceeded the bounds of His grace. Men place more than common contempt upon His holy law and make it void while making human laws supreme, after centuries ripening the harvest of the world for the sickle and when the swellings of unrighteousness come to a fearful pass. Then God will interfere to vindicate His honor and will not long delay. They fall upon kings and nobles as well as the rich and the poor. Those in a wicked and adulterous generation who fail to discern the signs of the times are counted among those who perish under them.

They bring judgment on false shepherds who lead their followers to destruction. God's wrath continues until its purposes are fulfilled, the hireling priests acknowledge that God loved the saints because they held fast the truth and kept His commandments, and the unrighteous are destroyed from the earth. The people turn on their ministers with bitter hate for not warning them, for telling them all the world was to be converted, for crying peace to quiet every aroused fear, and for calling faithful warners fanatics and evil men who would ruin them, while sufferers reproach one another bitterly with parents blaming children and children parents and brothers and sisters blaming each other for keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them. The ministers do not escape the wrath of God, and their sufferings are tenfold greater than their people's.

Shelter and Escape

Those sheltered and sealed by God are protected from the burning wrath poured out in the seven last plagues, while the wicked who have no shelter face them. The first plague falls on those without that shelter from God, after He has sealed His people and after the time for those professing His name to become ready has passed. It belongs to the sequence of the seven last plagues that fall upon the wicked who have no shelter.

The word of God tells how to escape the plagues, and understanding their prophetic symbols and putting the truth into practice shapes the course of action so as not to receive them. Escape requires refusing the worship of the beast and its image and refusing its mark, upon which bearers the first plague falls. The warning is tied to rejecting God's law and trampling on the Sabbath, so holding fast the truth and keeping His commandments and Sabbath, and rejecting the false rest day in place of His covenant, is vital to avoid the dreadful plagues from which the ungodly have no deliverance and by which they are destroyed. The hireling priests will at last acknowledge that God loved the saints because they held fast the truth and kept His commandments, while the unrighteous are destroyed from the earth when His wrath continues until its purposes are fulfilled.

Many of God's professed people are unready for the plagues soon to fall, and those who come up to their falling without a shelter have no protection because they have not received the Holy Ghost. When the plagues begin to fall they will wring their hands in distress, and then the hour to get ready will be too late, so the call before they fall is to get ready because Christ is coming. Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast, when mercy leaves the world and punishment begins with no period of respite until the end amid gathering storm and bolts of wrath with sin, shame, sorrow and darkness on every side. God still holds out the privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness before that patience ends.

Some professed Sabbath-keepers will be subjects of the seven last plagues that fall upon living men in the last days. They will neither die beforehand nor remain faithful to be alive and translated at the coming of Jesus, because earth attracts them and its treasures seem of worth to them. Earthly things engross the mind and leave no time to prepare for heaven, so that when too late they have grasped at shadows and lost eternal life.

Response of the Wicked

The first plague belongs to the seven last plagues poured out after intercession in the most holy place is finished, priestly garments are laid aside, every case is decided for salvation or destruction, and wrath is poured out without mercy on those who rejected truth, and its falling enrages the wicked against the righteous. The anger of the nations, the wrath of God, and the time to judge the dead are separate events following one after another, coming when Michael stands up and the time of trouble commences after the four angels have held the four winds until the sanctuary work is done. The wicked blame the saints for bringing down the judgments upon them, and believe that if they can rid the earth of the righteous the plagues will be stayed.

In their fearful agony the sufferers reproach one another bitterly, with parents blaming children and children blaming parents and brothers and sisters blaming each other for keeping them from receiving the truth that would have saved them from that awful hour. They turn upon their ministers with bitter hatred for failing to warn them, for telling them that all the world was to be converted, for crying peace to quiet every aroused fear, and for calling those who faithfully warned of that hour fanatics and evil men who would ruin them. Those ministers do not escape, but suffer under the wrath tenfold more greatly than their people.

The outpouring brings judgment upon false shepherds who lead their followers to destruction, and the wrath continues until its purposes are fulfilled. The hireling priests will then acknowledge that God loved the saints because they held fast the truth and kept His commandments, while the unrighteous are destroyed from the earth. The decree to kill the saints drives them to cry for deliverance, but God delivers them by His voice, and the 144,000 triumph.

Call to Readiness

The first plague falls after priestly work has ended and mercy's invitation has ceased, when there is no atoning blood to cleanse the guilty and no compassionate Saviour to plead for them, so that those who rejected salvation face judgments they did not prepare to escape. After the time for preparation has ended, those who neglected it will realize their need to be purified and made ready in holiness and victory over sin, but there will be no time to change and no Mediator to plead for them. Many of God's professed people are unready, and those who come up to the falling of the plagues without a shelter have no protection because they have not received the Holy Ghost. When the plagues begin to fall they will wring their hands in distress, and then the hour to get ready will be too late, which is why the call before they fall is to get ready because Christ is coming.

The seven last plagues are soon to be poured out when the angel of mercy leaves the world and God's patience and mercy end. Sin, shame, sorrow and darkness are on every side, the storm is gathering and the bolts of God's wrath are about to fall. While patience still waits, God still holds out to souls the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, but that patience will not always wait. When He begins to punish transgressors there will be no period of respite until the end, and only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.

Before the loud cry of the third angel, ministers and people are called out of the nominal Adventist and fallen churches, and before that Satan stirs religious excitement in those churches so that those who rejected the truth will think God is working there and honest souls may be deceived. When the light shines, the honest leave the fallen churches and join the remnant. Then trumpet after trumpet is sounded and vial after vial is poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in scenes of stupendous interest. These outpourings are sure indications of the presence of Christ, who has directed every aggressive movement, accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, pledged to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world, vindicates His truth and causes it to triumph, and supplies His faithful ones with motives and power of purpose, hope and courage and valor in increased activity as the time is at hand. They come in the last great final contest when evil angels unite with evil men for a desperate struggle, all the world is on one side or the other, and the battle of Armageddon is fought, sustained by the power of God with grace and the power of the Holy Ghost upon them while the Captain of the Lord's host stands at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle, so that day must find none sleeping but wide awake as wise virgins having oil in vessels with lamps.

The sore upon the worshipers of the beast is part of the judgments of Revelation 16:1-21 falling upon the earth in the fast-approaching last great crisis, and it has special meaning as one of the judgments the Lord is now sending upon the earth. Its nearness calls for less time in strife and contention and more thought about how fast the crisis is coming. Those who claim these judgments carry no special meaning will soon be forced to understand what they now choose not to understand.