Revelation 16:4-7

4             Then the third angel poured out his bowls into the rivers and the springs of the waters; and they became blood.

5             And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, the One who is and who was, O Holy One, because You judged these things;

6             for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.”

7             And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”

We learned in the 2^nd bowl of judgment that the blood tainted the vastness of the waters and killed all the ocean life, signifying a reversal of humanity and his creation. This time, the water leading to land creatures and air creatures is contaminated with the life blood of creation. This signifies the punishment to the rest of God’s living creatures for the unnecessary evil that was committed in the world.

The angel praises God for his justice (starting in verse 5) in dealing with those who killed the martyrs. Martyrs are those who were willing activists in spreading the Gospel and the teachings of Christ in spite of the risk of death. It’s aggressive. It’s scary. We often don’t hear of, like to teach, about the punishments that God will deal. However, punishments are a part of life. Each decision we make has a reward and a punishment. Something good will come from it or something bad will come from it. Because God is good and righteous, he must, therefore, working towards vanquishing all evil and corruptness in the world. God creates a balanced universe, with everything having the necessary ebbs and flows, but evil has gotten out of control. God wants to restore everything to the Genesis 2 balance but will need to work towards defeating the source of evil at it’s foundation to do so. Those who follow in the evil paths against God’s plan are unfortunately overcome in this plan.

We must avoid the misconception that God has to fit within our concepts of what’s right and just based on humanity today. It’s actually the opposite. We must fit into God’s idea of what is right and just. The idea of taking these things into our own hands was precisely what the downfall of Adam and Eve showed us. This view of justice projects the idea that all belief systems, personal values, and lifestyles are equally valid acceptable. The struggle that I see with Christians today is that we keep this very narrow. The thing is that this is more expansive than we realize. Everyone has a unique way of doing things, and everyone has a unique relationship with our Almighty Creator. We must not tear someone down because of the different but work to understand why we do what we do. To learn, at the core, the meaning behind our thoughts, actions, and morals. At the very basic level, if we dig deeper enough, we will find out that we are operating on the same (or very similar) ways of living that do intentionally align with the teachings of the Gospel.

God created everything, own everything, and sets the true standard of justice. When we allow God’s timing to work in every situation, we will see that his justice will prevail. We will find that our interference would have actually made things worse for ourselves and those around us. A prayer I’ve used a lot over the past few years, “God, let your justice prevail.” This prayer releases the weight off of my shoulders and allows God to do his job. I trust that God will take care of things. Maybe not as fast as I want, but God’s timing is greater than any timing I have.

God uses his power according to his own moral perfection. Whatever God chooses or commands will be fair, even if we don’t understand or like it. Those who still make the intentional decision to rebel and reject God’s teachings and commands are rejecting a divine force of truth and justice. Now, other people will believe in different religions and different deities. Are they wrong? Truthfully, none of us knows. We’ll know more after our earthly lives are over, but until then. We must respect each other’s view, because it’s just a different flavor what we’re currently doing. Christians, we believe that God is supreme being above all other gods (meaning that deities like Buddha answer to God), but we don’t want to deny the positive work that is done and found in the followings of them. God commands us to love him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength (which Christians should prioritize), but we are universally bonded with the idea to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Next Part: The End is Poured Out – Part 4

Associated Scripture

Revelation 16:4          Exodus 7:17-21; Psalms 78:44

Revelation 16:5          Revelation 1:4, 8, 4:8, 11:17

Revelation 16:6          Psalm 79:3; Isaiah 49:26

Revelation 16:7          Revelation 1:8, 6:9, 14:18, 15:3, 19:2