Revelation 15The Song of Moses and the Lamb

“God’s wrath” was anticipated in Revelation 6:16–17, “For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it?”, and then echoed in 11:16. Now it has arrived.

“Is completed”: there are no more such sets of seven coming. Now we’re just going to see how the wrath will play out. Some things are set in the prophetic, and now it’s just a matter of preparing yourself for them and following how they will play out. That’s the nature of much of the prophecy in Revelation, besides the letters to the churches.

John’s very clear: this is the last. No more plagues. There comes a time when it needs to end. The problem is that when it ends, the time for possible repentance also ends. That’s why God’s mercy runs all through these bowls of wrath. But the suffering cannot last forever.

There is no escaping the prophecy of Revelation; there is no easy path here. If you’re around for this part, which hopefully we will not be because of the rapture, this is going to be bad. (He added that it’s hard to tell exactly where the rapture happens in Revelation’s timeline. We know the rapture is coming from Matthew, 1 and 2 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians, but it’s hard to place in Revelation.)

But remember: believers will not be subjects of God’s wrath. Wrath is only for the enemies of God, for those who are not right with Jesus. Believers will go through tribulation, punishment from Satan and his minions and the other people on earth, but they will not experience God’s wrath. God’s wrath is selective. That’s one of the ways you know it’s Him: it won’t affect Christians. These events are inevitable, so we might as well prepare ourselves for them.

He sealed all of those who are His, and the wrath does not hit them.

“I saw” (verses 1 and 2): this is again the language of visual communication from God, the second most primary way God speaks in Scripture, close behind words and speaking. See in the Spirit: ask God for pictures.

God’s words are number one; He speaks often. But God’s pictures are a close second, and all the other ways God communicates aren’t really all that close to pictures and words.

It’s a tool they use in Sozo ministry for past memories, and it’s awesome for that, but doing it for something that hasn’t happened yet is just as fun. You can have the assurance of God’s presence with you. After a minute of quiet, a lot of hands went up: people who felt they saw, or knew, where Jesus was going to be. “Isn’t that reassuring? Isn’t that fun?” The tables shared what they saw.

“Sea of glass” (also in 4:6) alludes to the Sea in Solomon’s temple: “He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it” (1 Kings 7:23). This thing is huge: 15 feet in diameter, 7½ feet high and 45 feet all the way around. And “the Sea was to be used by the priests for washing” (2 Chronicles 4:6).

So the Sea in Solomon’s temple is a large wash basin, used for the purity of the priests who ministered to God and to the people. The sea of glass here would be for the purity of the humans and angels who minister before God and others.

Also, seas often represent chaos in Scripture. John could have called it a wash basin, a body of water or a river, but he uses the word sea specifically, because in ancient literature and in Scripture seas were seen as out of control, chaotic, out of any human’s control. Here the sea is glass: completely in control. The sea of glass represents great power, completely harnessed and controlled by God. God is Lord over chaos and disorder. God brings order from chaos.

“Glowing with fire” echoes Daniel 7:9–10: “His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him.” The fire anticipates the wrath and judgment that is coming. This sea with fire represents wrath and holiness, but it’s glass, meaning that God is in complete control. This is not a wildfire!

This imagery comes together to carry this spiritual significance: the fire of God is a controlled burn meant to purify and empower us. When you ask for the fire of God, you’re asking for His power, but His power always comes with purity and refining. If you want the power, it only comes through the fire of purity and refining. Know what you’re asking for. Are you ready for the fire of God? Ask for it, just know what you’re asking for: power, purity, refining!

Jeremiah described God’s words in him like “a fire shut up in my bones” (Jeremiah 20:9). He was weary of holding them in; he needed to let them out. In the same way, this wrath and purifying is shut up, but it cannot be shut up forever. It is about to be released.

“Those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name” are the new exodus, the people of God. We had the old exodus in the book of Exodus, Israel coming out of Egypt; this is the new one, and the next verses show it even more. Some see these only as the martyrs; he sees them as the entirety of the people of God in heaven at this point. “There’s some good scholars that see it the other way. I think it’s okay to see it either way, honestly.”

So the sea of glass and fire in the last verse also alludes to the sea that swallowed up the Egyptian army in Exodus 14. Moses’ song followed that occasion, in Exodus 15 (see also Moses’ song in Deuteronomy 32).

“Great and marvelous are your deeds” echoes Psalm 111:2, 139:14 and 145:17. “Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them” (Psalm 111:2).

“Lord God Almighty” echoes Amos 3:13 and 4:13, and is used seven times in Revelation (1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 19:6; 21:22). This is literally “Lord God all-powerful, omnipotent, all-ruling,” or “Lord God who holds all the power”: pantokratōr (παντοκράτωρ) in the Greek. God is being called this directly before His power is about to be displayed.

It’s only used a couple of times in the Old Testament, he said, but John picks up on it: “No, He’s Lord God Almighty.” He receives that title, and then His power goes out.

You can know that God is all-powerful, but it’s another level to experience all His power! This points to a question he loves to ask: Who is God going to be for me now that He’s never been for me before? It’s one thing to know the names of God (Provider, Protector, Healer, All-Sufficient One, All-Powerful, All-Knowing, Comforter, Guide, Friend, Lord, King, Ruler) and another thing for Him to be that for you right now.

The tables prayed for each other in those areas of need or desire, that God would become that in their lives, declaring His name over the need or desire.

“It might not be need, it might just be desire: I want God to be this for me now. That’s fine too.”

“Just and true are your ways” echoes Deuteronomy 32:4: “all his ways are just.” God’s way of doing things is the only true way. God’s way of doing things is actual justice. All other justice is imperfect, and at its best is trying to mimic God’s actual justice. God is just, as opposed to the oppression of the dragon, beast and prophet; He is true, as opposed to their deceit.

Did you know that God has ways? “Pathologies”? Ways in which He tends to operate? He certainly does. Throughout Scripture God’s ways are described: Exodus 33:13; Deuteronomy 32:4; 2 Samuel 14:14; 22:22; 2 Chronicles 17:6; Job 27:11; 36:23; 37:5; Psalm 18:21; 25:4, 8, 10; 51:13; 67:2; 77:13; 81:13; 95:10; 103:7; 119:3, 15; 138:5; 145:17; Isaiah 2:3; 42:24; 55:8–9; 58:2; 63:17; 64:5; Hosea 14:9; Micah 4:2; Malachi 2:8; Acts 13:10; Hebrews 3:10; and here in Revelation 15:3. Some of God’s ways are justice and truth, two things Christians always want to grow in. That’s how we can become more like God in His ways!

It’s a beautiful study, that list of scriptures. Take it and study it, and it’ll add so much value to your life, because you’ll understand more how God goes about doing things.

“King of the nations” echoes Jeremiah 10:7: “Who should not fear you, King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.” In most Old Testament Scriptures, Yahweh is the King of Israel, or even the King of Kings. But in Jeremiah that’s further defined as King of all the nations, and John picks up on that and sees in Revelation the fullness of God’s kingship over all nations.

And you’ll see that “who should not fear you” line again in the next verse.

“Bring glory to your name” echoes Psalm 86:9: “All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name.” This heavenly song now adds reasons for the nations to come and bring glory.

Those are good reasons for us to fear God and worship God too. What are some other good reasons to worship God and fear God?

He opened it up to the room. The answers: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; His word is spirit and truth; He’s much bigger than I am, and stronger; He’s full of love; He likes us; He can fight my battles for me. “That’s a good reason to fear God and give Him glory.”

“For you alone are holy” echoes Psalm 99:9, “for the Lord our God is holy”; the heavenly song adds the word “alone.” Holy means set apart (for God). To say that God alone is holy is to say that all other holiness is derived from God. It’s not to say that no one else can be holy. We are called “holy ones” or “saints”; we have to be holy: “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14). But God sits alone in holiness, in that no one is as set apart as He is, and everyone else who is set apart is set apart to Him! And there’s the idea that Israel is supposed to be holy because God is: “be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45), repeated in 1 Peter 1:16.

“All nations”: people from all nations will be represented in heaven. Heaven is going to be a party of all different cultures and peoples!

“Your righteous acts have been revealed” echoes Psalm 98:2: “The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.” This is in the past perfect tense, even though it’s prophetically declaring things that have not yet happened. It’s stating them as if they already have! God’s words are so certain that they can be stated as if they’ve already happened.

In prophecy that happens a lot, actually: things are declared as if they’ve already happened, even though they’re future.

One more echo: “The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name” (Zechariah 14:9). That’s in Zechariah’s end-of-time vision too.

“The tabernacle of the covenant law”: this was the first temple, the dimensions and details of which were given to Moses. It was a tent that moved with Israel around the desert. “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Exodus 40:34–35). The Levites were appointed “to be in charge of the tabernacle of the covenant law”; “they are to carry the tabernacle and all its furnishings; they are to take care of it and encamp around it” (Numbers 1:50).

God’s throne room is seen throughout Revelation in temple terms (4:6; 6:9; 11:19; 14:2; 15:2–8; 21:16), just as it is in Psalm 11:4: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne. He observes everyone on earth; his eyes examine them.” See also Hebrews 8:1–5. The tabernacle, temple and throne room all come together in one magnificent heavenly image here.

When Israel was a nation with a king, they had a throne room and they had a temple: two different places. But with God it comes together. The throne room is the temple; the temple is the throne room.

“In heaven the temple … was opened.” In order for the wrath to be poured out, heaven must be opened up. An open heaven reveals God’s glory in Scripture (Isaiah 45:8; Ezekiel 1:1; Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21; Acts 7:56; 10:11; Revelation 4:1; 19:11). An open heaven often means God’s blessing (Genesis 28:12, Jacob’s ladder; Malachi 3:10; John 1:51). It even means God’s favor at times (Jesus’ baptism: Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21). But here it means the action of heaven is being fully poured out on earth, as in Genesis 7:11 and Revelation 11:19.

Do yourself a favor and do a study on open heavens with these Scriptures. It will bless your life, and it’ll give you imagery you can take into your sanctified imagination and your time with the Lord. And pray for an open heaven.

The room discussed: When we pray for an open heaven, what can we expect?

The answers: everything poured out; God’s favor and God’s blessing; God’s perfect will; the kingdom of heaven come to earth. “You guys are nailing it.” One person saw a different image: the temple as us, finally opened up and seen as the temple of God, with the testimony written on each of our lives revealed. “Because we’re described as a temple of the Holy Spirit, right? Absolutely.”

They’re dressed up for the wrathing, dressed in their absolute best: clean, shining, golden. This wrath may not be good for some people, but at least we’re going to look good doing it.

The “living creatures” (with all the eyes and wings) commission judgments here and in chapter 6 (6:1). Apparently that’s one of their roles in heaven. The angels are then always the ones carrying out the judgments.

These creatures are wild! Heaven is going to be wild! There are going to be surprises in heaven. There’s not going to be sin, not those kinds of surprises, but so many awe and wonder and adventure and blow-your-mind surprises. Heaven will be awesome! What is something you’re looking forward to about heaven?

Earlier in the evening someone in the room was amazed that, with as much sin as there is in the world and has been through the centuries, God’s wrath isn’t full yet; everything we’ve done is filling up that bowl. “It hasn’t tipped yet. It’s going to tip. It’s like those water park things that keep filling up, and you’re like, ‘Oh no, should I be standing here?’ Don’t stand there. Move!”

“God, who lives for ever and ever” means life in the fullest sense: life beyond the reach of all that now threatens and contradicts life, life which is eternal because it is joined to God, who is the source of life.

“Filled with smoke from the glory of God” echoes the same at the dedication of the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34–35), of Solomon’s temple (1 Kings 8:10–11: “the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple”), and then again in the heavenly temple (Ezekiel 10:3–4, “The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord”; Isaiah 6:4, “the temple was filled with smoke”).

He added that Solomon’s dedication is also told in 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 5:13–14). This happens multiple times throughout Scripture: the glory of the Lord represented by smoke filling the holy space, the temple or the tabernacle or the throne room of God.

He has seen many times in the Spirit the glory of God manifest in the room like a cloud. In fact, he saw it two Sundays ago during the 9 AM Gathering, as he started the message and they were praying all over the room for healing! This is one of God’s ways.

“The glory of God” here, showing up from an open heaven, will be destructive of all evil on earth. Only when all evil has been destroyed will God’s kingdom fully come and God’s throne be on earth: “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city” (Revelation 22:3). What does it mean to pray for the glory of God to come? What are we praying for?

“No one could enter”: that means that all prayers to stop this will no longer be heard. This is the final judgment.

One more from the room: we’re not made for God’s wrath, and if the temple is us, then the smoke is what’s protecting us; the glory is what stands between us and the wrath. He has sensed it too: the glory of God filling him up, until he feels full and overwhelmed. “That’s a good place to be.”