Transcript
Segment 33 - 15.01 - Seven angels with seven plagues
All right, then we go back now, and without getting too much in detail, what we really do here with Chapter 15 is resume our story, from Chapter 13, with the coming of the Antichrist. We’re through with this little interlude in Chapter 14, and we go back to Chapter 15 now, which takes, picks us right up from where we left off in Chapter 13. And here now, there is another vision, “another portent in Heaven” it’s also described as, so there’s really four here. But he sees seven angels with seven plagues. Chapter 15: “Then I saw another potent in Heaven, great and wonderful, seven angels, with seven plagues, which are the last.”
Oh, boy, maybe we’re really getting close to it now. And I’ll tell you something. We are. We’re almost through with all the destruction. We’re getting close to that big final battle, the battle of Armageddon. He says, “These are the last,” and he talks about these seven plagues, okay? But, first of all, he has kind of a preparatory vision here. He sees the martyred faithful standing on the store, and singing a song. Let’s pick it up from Verse 2: “And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass, mingled with fire, and those who had conquered the Beast, and its image, and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass, with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.”
All right, we’re just about ready to deal with some plagues. Go back to Jewish history. Go back to the book of Exodus. Okay? Do you remember, when Moses was leading the children of Israel out of Egypt, what happened? There were a number of plagues. By Jewish reckoning, there were seven. In our Old Testament, they count to 10. Okay? And the last one, the tenth one, was the greatest and most terrible plague of all. That’s when the Lord came through and smote all the firstborn of the Egyptians. And then, old Pharaoh got the message. Then he said, “Okay, you can let, you can take your people out of here now, Moses.”
Before, every time Moses kept going to Pharaoh to allow him to leave, let his people leave Egypt, and in a sense, Pharaoh would say yes. And then, when Moses was about ready to lead them out, then Pharaoh would renege, and then, God would bring a plague, and then, Moses would relent, once ... Not Moses, but Pharaoh, would relent once again, let them go. And this went back and forth, back and forth, till, finally, the last plague comes: the killing of the firstborn.
And with that last plague, then people who knew their history knew that, with the last plague, the killing of the firstborn, it meant that deliverance was right at hand. Because their history said that right after that, Pharaoh did leave them go. Although he chased them for awhile, but the Israelites got through the Red Sea, and then, Pharaoh’s army was not able to. So, you see, he’s identifying this with the time of Moses, and the people would understand this. The plagues of Egypt, in a sense, represented the darkest hour before the dawn, and especially that tenth one.
So the plagues in Egypt were the darkest hour before the dawn. So, now, he picks up on seven plagues, which is the same theme. We’re almost there. This is our darkest hour before the dawn, before the great and final battle takes place, and then God reveals himself, and all the rest. Okay? So they’re singing this song here in Verse 3, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Because, if you’ll look at Exodus, you’ll see that right after Moses led the people through the Red Sea, then there’s a song that Moses sings. And his sister Miriam begins singing and dancing with a timbrel, tambourine in her hand.
So the identification is made with deliverance. In the time of Moses, the people would be able to understand that, okay? And so, this great song of praise here is sung, and then, it goes on down from there. Prayers are offered to God, just as it was before the trumpets blow, and that sort of thing. Then seven angels with the plagues come out from the Temple of the Tent of Witness, in Verse 6, Five and Six: “After this, I looked, and the Temple of the Tent of Witness in Heaven was opened.” In Heaven. Where was the Tent of Witness in the old days? That was the Tent, or the Tabernacle, the early temple that Moses and his people would set up in the wilderness. It was a movable structure, and not until the time of Solomon did they build their first permanent structure, in Jerusalem.
So this is, once again, an identification with Moses, and the whole idea of deliverance. Only this Tent of Witness is where? Not on Earth, as it was in Moses’ time. Up in Heaven. See, he’s given us the idea that everything is all set in Heaven. Everything is all set in consciousness. Once we establish the consciousness for it. Can you see that running throughout here? Everything is taken care of in consciousness. The battle between Satan and Michael was won up in Heaven. It’s established first in consciousness, and now, being made manifest on Earth.
So the same idea is brought out here, where he sees this Temple, of the Tent of Witness, up in Heaven. And out of the Temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues.
