16:9Revelation 16:9

The verse describes the fourth of the seven last plagues, in which the sun is given power to scorch people with burning heat so intense it torments flesh almost beyond endurance, withering the land and drying up harvests and waters around them.GC88 627.2–628.2+2 Instead of repenting to give God glory, those suffering curse and blaspheme His name, enraged and tormented yet hardened, blaming one another and their false teachers for leading them astray.EW 240.1+3 This outpouring comes after intercession ends and every case is decided, when Christ lays aside His priestly work, mercy no longer pleads for the guilty, and wrath is poured out without mixture upon the living wicked who worship the beast and receive its mark.EW 54.3+4 It falls because men have passed the bounds of forbearance by trampling God's law, making it void and exalting human law and a false rest-day above His Sabbath, while present disasters are only sprinklings and warnings of this fuller judgment to come.5MR 15.1–2+4 Only those sealed, sanctified through the truth and hid with Christ in God, will have shelter through that time with no respite, so all must now search Scripture, keep God's law and Sabbath, and receive the Holy Spirit to stand.EW 54.3+4

The sun is given power to scorch people with fire, and men suffer great heat under this plague as one of the final judgments poured out before God's people are delivered.GC88 627.2–628.2+1 The air grows so hot that it burns the flesh, the blood rushes to the head, faces feel burned, and the heat becomes almost beyond endurance.Ms 8, 1873, par. 30 The scorching comes with severe devastation of the land, withering trees, failing harvests, drying rivers, and suffering among animals.GC 627.3–628.2 The plagues are dreadful but severe rather than universal, for otherwise the inhabitants of the earth would be wholly cut off.GC88 627.2–628.2+1 Unlike the judgments before probation closes, which are mingled with mercy, this final wrath is poured out without mercy.GC88 627.2–628.2+1

The scorching plague falls after intercession for Israel in the most holy place is finished and every case is decided for salvation or destruction.WLF 1.8–2.1+2 Then the priestly attire is laid off for garments of vengeance, the Mediator steps out from between the Father and man, and God no longer keeps silence toward those who rejected truth.Ms 2, 1849, par. 1–2+1 That wrath is future judgment upon the living wicked, not yet poured while priestly work continues.WLF 1.8–2.1+1

Its outpouring is restrained by four angels holding the four winds until the work in the sanctuary is done and the High Priest stands up.LSEGW 117.1+2 It comes after the angel of mercy leaves the world, at the commencement of the time of trouble such as never was, when sin, shame, sorrow and darkness are on every side.Ms 2, 1849, par. 1–2+3 When punishment of transgressors begins there will be no period of respite until the end.Ms 24a, 1894, par. 12–13+1

The verse belongs to the vials of wrath in Revelation 16:1-21, poured one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth in solemn future events.14MR 287.1+1 They come in the last great final contest when evil angels unite with evil men, all the world stands on one side or the other, and the battle of Armageddon is fought.Lt 112, 1890, par. 12–13 Like the plagues of Egypt, these seven last plagues fall on the wicked just before and at the deliverance of God's people, before the second coming of Christ.WLF 3.3–4+1 They are judgments on the wicked alive at that time, not the final execution of judgment at the second death.WLF 24.5

Some present at the 1856 conference would live to be subjects of those plagues before the second coming, while others present would die beforehand and others would be translated without seeing death.SG2 208.2–209.1 The scenes John witnessed when the vials are opened, bringing pestilence, famine and death upon the inhabitants of the earth, are signs of Christ's coming.Ms 100, 1893, par. 12 The prophecies in Revelation 12-18 are being fulfilled as prophecy is fulfilled in the last message of warning.Ms 75, 1906, par. 16+2

When poured out the plagues enrage the wicked against the righteous, making them think the saints brought God's judgments and that ridding the earth of them would stay the plagues.LSEGW 117.1+2 That rage 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.EW 29.1–30.1 They are delivered by the voice of God, and the 144,000 triumph.EW 29.1–30.1

The scorching does not soften those under it, for they curse and blaspheme God instead of repenting to give Him glory.EW 240.1+1 By that time the invitation of mercy has ended, intercession is finished, there is no atoning blood left to cleanse the guilty, and even the saints can no longer help those seeking escape from judgment.EW 240.1 The plagues are the work of wrath and justice, and that work continues until its purposes are complete.EW 102.1

They bring fearful agony and great suffering that greatly enrages a large part of the wicked.SG1 200.2+1 Instead of repentance there is rage, bitter mutual blame, and anguish over having rejected the truth.SG1 200.2+1 Parents bitterly reproach children and children reproach parents, and brother reproaches sister and sister brother, saying you kept me from receiving the truth that would have saved me from this awful hour.SG1 200.2

That hatred turns upon their ministers for not warning them of this hour.EW 102.1+2 They had told them all the world was to be converted, had cried Peace, peace to quiet every awakened fear, and had called those who warned them fanatics and evil men who would ruin them.SG1 200.2 The false shepherds who led people to destruction do not escape, but suffer under the same wrath with suffering tenfold greater than that of their people.EW 102.1+2

This plague falls as part of the seven last plagues upon the ungodly who worship the beast and its image and receive its mark.EW 54.3 Its withering force comes upon kings and nobles as well as rich and poor, bringing down human pride.1T 140.1 Before the outpouring, honest souls are called out of the fallen churches and join the remnant, while those who remain face the plagues; therefore searching Scripture and obeying God's law, including keeping His Sabbath, is vital to escaping them.EW 54.3+1

The plagues come upon a godless world when the swellings of unrighteousness reach a fearful pass, when men have passed the boundaries and exceeded the bounds prescribed by God.Lt 52, 1895, par. 7–11+1 They come when men have outrun the limits of His grace and exhausted His forbearance by trampling His holy law and making it void, by refusing to respect it while making human laws supreme, and by giving themselves to evil in hatred to God with hearts fully set to do evil.Lt 52, 1895, par. 7–11+1 God keeps a reckoning of the sum of guiltiness of every nation, and though slow to anger He will not acquit the wicked and will not long delay, but will interfere to vindicate His honor.Lt 52, 1895, par. 7–11+1

God permits the destructions and will not interfere to protect the property of those who transgress His law, break His covenant, and trample upon His Sabbath while accepting a spurious rest day in its place.5MR 15.1–2+1 Fire sweeps away costly structures as if by a breath of fire from heaven and consumes riches hoarded by oppression of the poor.5MR 15.1–2+1 Drops and sprinklings from the vials of wrath poured upon land and sea and air are already falling, though the full outpouring is still in the near future.5MR 15.3–16.3+1 Present calamities are only faint representations and premonitory warnings of far greater judgments to come, including disasters by sea and by land, unusually destructive fires, earthquakes burying cities and villages with their inhabitants, terrible railway accidents, tornadoes and floods destroying property and lives, affliction of the elements of the air, pestilences, cholera and unexplainable diseases, and diphtheria gathering a harvest of little children.5MR 15.1–2+3

God brings these judgments by permitting them and by not restraining the powers of darkness from carrying forward their deadly work of vitiating the air, one of the sources of life and nutrition, with a deadly miasma, so that not only vegetable life is affected but man suffers.5MR 15.3–16.3 The plagues are judgments permitted to warn the world, to bring professing Christians to their senses, that the world may take heed and sinners may be afraid and tremble before Him, proving the end of all things is at hand.5MR 15.1–2+2 They fall amid continued disobedience, including rejection of God's law and Sabbath, and those who fail to recognize the signs of the times in this wicked and adulterous generation will perish under the vials poured from God's wrath.12MR 42.3+2 The verse carries special meaning about the judgments of God, and the judgments now being sent upon the earth are connected with it.Ms 78, 1903, par. 17 Those who claim these judgments have no special meaning will soon be forced to understand what they now refuse to understand.Ms 78, 1903, par. 17

God's covering is drawn over His people during the sealing before the plagues fall, and those left without it are left without shelter from His wrath.EW 36.3+2 When He begins to punish transgressors there will be no period of respite until the end.Ms 24a, 1894, par. 12–13+1 Only those sanctified through the truth in the love of God will stand, hid with Christ in God until the desolation is overpast.Ms 24a, 1894, par. 12–13+1

Many of God's professed people are unready and without a shelter, and when the plagues begin to fall they will wring their hands in distress when it is too late to get ready.Ms 115, 1908 All must get ready now because Christ is coming, and receive the Holy Ghost as shelter before the plagues fall.Ms 115, 1908+1 His people must be wide awake as wise virgins having oil in their vessels with their lamps, which is grace and the power of the Holy Ghost.Lt 112, 1890, par. 12–13 The Captain of the Lord's host is at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle, supplying His faithful ones with motive and power of purpose, hope and courage and valor in increased activity as the time is at hand.Lt 112, 1890, par. 12–13

The Bible warns about the seven last plagues and shows how to escape, making searching Scripture and obeying God's law, including keeping His Sabbath, vital to escaping them.EW 54.3+1 Understanding the truths of Revelation helps people shape their conduct so they will not receive those plagues.Lt 16, 1900, par. 5 Neglecting God's word leaves people without excuse and exposes their lives to judgment by that word.1T 125.3 When the plagues come on the wicked who have no shelter, those who stood in the way of warning sinners and obstructed the warning will hear their bitter reproaches and their hearts will faint.SCEV 41.3+1

Even when sin, shame, sorrow and darkness are on every side, God still holds out the precious privilege of exchanging darkness for light, error for truth, and sin for righteousness, but His patience and mercy will not always wait.Ms 24a, 1894, par. 12–13+2 Sin must therefore be rebuked firmly and given no sanction, and the refuge of lies covering sin must be torn away so deluded souls do not sleep on to everlasting ruin.Ms 24, 1894, par. 16 God has made every person a steward of time, sense, opportunity, ability, His Word and His Holy Spirit to be used to His glory in soul-saving and every good and noble work, and He calls for men and means to do the work Christ came to do.Lt 109, 1899, par. 38–40 The unfaithful steward who does not use what was entrusted to him to glorify his Lord is left with those who perish under the vials of wrath, while those who consecrate themselves, deny self, take up the cross and follow Christ through the strait gate and the narrow way to eternal life are cleansed, fitted for the grand review, and proved worthy to wear a crown of immortal glory.Lt 109, 1899, par. 38–40 Believers should therefore spend less time in strife and contention and prepare for what is coming by reading Revelation from beginning to end because the last great crisis is fast approaching.Ms 78, 1903, par. 17