Developments in history are not random. The Lord laid down the ground rule in Genesis 2:17, and gave that rule its first application in Genesis 3:16–19. He subsequently worked out that rule further for Israel in passages as Leviticus 26:1–46 and Deuteronomy 28:1–68. That same pattern receives further elucidation in Revelation in its cycles of seven seals, seven trumpets, and now seven bowls. The plagues of the seven bowls penetrate the most deeply into how this ground rule works, since these seven bowls are God’s follow up to mankind’s reaction to the proclamation of the angels in Revelation 14:6–11. People have received so much in hearing the gospel and so their responsibility as a result of rejecting it is the greater, as Jesus also said in Luke 12:47–48. The writer to the Hebrews also drew out the same principle when he said that on hardened rejection there is no longer place for sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 6:4–6).

The sins of God’s people were transferred to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. As a result, Christ experienced the plagues of God in drastic fashion. Through the whipping and scourging he received from the soldiers, his body was broken into such sores that he could no longer function; Simon of Cyrene had to carry his cross. By the time he was crucified, his body was covered with coagulated blood, rendering him unsightly (Isaiah 53:3) and to all appearances a living deadman. As the hours on the cross passed, his eyes undoubtedly become more bloodshot, his spittle red with blood, his wounds bleeding afresh. Truly, the scene spelled death.

The above picture of the crucified Jesus is offensive to human sensitivities. This supplies, though, a sense of how offensive our sins are to God (Habakkuk 1:13). The entire picture, then, drives the child of God to a deep sense of humility (for my sin brought this about; it is what I deserve) and gratitude (for Christ bore what I ought to bear).

So the passage also drives the reader to a choice. The wages of sin is death, be that Christ’s death or my own. The bowls of God’s wrath on my sin must be poured out, whether on Christ in my place or on me.

As Revelation 16 is connected to Revelation 15 as one uninterrupted vision, see further the applications for Revelation 15.