What goes around comes around

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, "Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God." So the first angel went and poured his bowl on the earth, and foul and evil sores came upon the men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The second angel poured his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured his bowl into the rivers and the fountains of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of water say, "Just art thou in these thy judgments, thou who art and wast, O Holy One. For men have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink. It is their due!" And I heard the altar cry, "Yea, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are thy judgments!"

- Revelation 16:1-7

We step into chapter 16 and now enter what are God’s last judgments (Rev 15:1). By now, the destructions have become a clear picture, since they resemble those of the seven trumpets, and thus, the plagues that hit Egypt. I mentioned the resemblance in a previous entry. We are reminded once again of how Jerusalem has been acting like Egypt, refusing to repent and turn to God. Egypt enslaved God’s first born son, Israel, but Jerusalem killed God’s True First Born Son, Jesus. And now they suffer the same fate as Egypt.

The first bowl is poured out and “foul and evil sores came upon the men who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image” (v 2). This is the result of trusting in the devil’s empty promises. In our lives, we’d have experienced people who would do anything to gain power or money – absolutely anything. These are the one who have placed their trust in the wrong source. These are the ones who turn ugly in order to  get their way. Already they suffer from this plague, as their greed make them ugly. Power and money will all come to an end. The mark of the beast results in ugly and painful sores. Those who entrust themselves with the evil one will be empowered in this lifetime. Those who entrust themselves to God, may suffer now, but will share in His power when (not if, but when) the eternal life comes.

The second and third bowls turn the sea, as well as the rivers and fountains, into blood. With these two bowls, the basic element of life is taken away, and blood is all there is left to drink. The angel proclaim that this is just, “for men have shed the blood of saints and prophets” (v 6). The people who shed the blood of the prophets, who had come with messages to repent (they ended up killing the biggest of all prophets, God’s own son). Now, for all the blood they have taken, blood is all they will drink. One gets a picture of “what goes around comes around”.

Now we see how each of us will be repaid eventually. If we are to want comfort, let us go out there and comfort much. If we want happiness, go out there and make the world a happy place. If you want to be welcomed in to the Kingdom of God when eternity comes, welcome it now, on earth. For if you go around spewing vulgarities, you will be marked with vulgarity. If you turn a blind eye to God, a blind eye will be turned to you. We make our own beds. We make our own judgments. God shows us the way and pleads with us to follow it. But the choice remains with us. At the end of life, God merely takes the decisions we have made in our own lives, and confirms it.