1. Revelation 16:17 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why is the air the target of the seventh bowl?

Revelation 16:17 (ESV)

17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”

This seventh bowl is the climax of God’s wrath-pouring activity. As Genesis 3:1–5 illustrated, Satan is the mastermind behind human sinfulness and life’s sorrows, and the default god that fallen man worships (John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Man was created to be responsible for his decisions and so the first six bowls were poured out on aspects of man’s habitat and civilization. But with this climax to his wrath-pouring plagues, the Lord God has his seventh angel pour this final bowl upon the instigator of all sin and misery: the devil and his demons as they hover over mankind with evil enticements (Revelation 12:13, Revelation 12:17).