“And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God”. —Rev 15:1

The following excerpt was taken from a discourse by Brother Carl Hagensick entitled, “The Seven Lasts Plagues”, which we believe will prove beneficial as we prepare for our study on Revelation Chapter 16 and the seven last plagues.

“The most fearful symbology in Revelation is that of the “seven last plagues” which mark the consummation of the age. As ancient Egypt was decimated by ten plagues which fulfilled Moses’ repetitive request to “Let my people go,” these seven last plagues destroy symbolic Babylon and permit all mankind to go forth from the prison house of sin and death into the glories of Christ’s kingdom.

The term “seven last plagues” suggests that they are part of a larger group and thus suggests a natural connection with the ten plagues of Egypt. This connection is further strengthened by the fact that the plagues of Egypt were separated into two portions: the first three came upon all the people including the Israelites while the seven last came upon the Egyptians only. The first three were also duplicated by Pharaoh’s magicians while the last seven were not.

Trumpets and Plagues

Revelation is built upon a series of sevens: seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven plagues. The churches, seals, and trumpets are different viewpoints of the same seven time periods while the seven plagues apparently, all occur during the last of these time periods, the Laodicean period.

There does appear, however, to be a unique relationship between the seven trumpets and the seven plagues. Each of these successively affects the same area of society (described in symbolic terms).

That each plague is thus related to the trumpet of the same number suggests the fact that the plagues are retributive in nature—each plague being specific against a given sin of Babylon through the Christian age. In an article entitled “The Ten Plagues of Egypt” Pastor Russell makes this suggestion:

“And as Pharaoh and his people received a severe retributive punishment for every evil they had inflicted upon the Israelite’s, and as their first-born became retributive representatives of the Israelitish babes they had caused to be drowned in the Nile, so their flocks and herds, and the crops that were destroyed by the locusts and insects, etc., and all the troubles upon them were retributive punishments, for the unjust exactions made of the Israelite’s. So, we may suppose that the great troubles and losses which will come upon “the powers that be” of the present time, in the approaching trouble, will, in some sense or degree, be a retributive requirement, an offset for a not sufficiently benevolent and just treatment of many under their control in the present time, when the blessings and inventions of our day should be accruing more generally to the benefit of the masses.” (R2910)

This is confirmed by the sentence pronounced in Rev 19:2, “For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.”

Two Old Testament Parallels

Detailed judgments of the Lord against Babylon are found both in Isaiah (Chapter 13) and in Jeremiah (Chapters 50 and 51). In the latter condemnation, a series of seven successive judgments are predicted which parallel those in Revelation.

“A sword is against the Chaldeans,” says the Lord, “Against the inhabitants of Babylon, And against her princes and her wise men. A sword is against the soothsayers (liars), and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. A sword is against their horses, against their chariots, and against all the mixed peoples who are in her midst; And they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed. A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols. Therefore, the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, And the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighbors,” says the Lord, “So no one shall reside there, Nor son of man dwell in it.” (Jer 50:35-40)

The value of this text is not so much to identify what the plagues are, but upon whom they are poured. However, the last two—the plague of drought and the utter desolation of the final condemnation—do support the contents of the sixth and seventh vials.

Continued with our next post.