Revelation 16:5-7 "And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord…because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments"
"This is the only place in the Revelation where the altar is said to speak, though we have heard before of a voice from the horns of the altar (Rev. 9:13). In Revelation 8:5 we find the altar connected with the prayers of the saints, and as a result of their prayers fire is taken from off the altar and cast into the earth. The fire is a symbol of purging and purification, and the voice from the horns of the altar comes also as a result of the prayers of God’s elect and releases a mighty deliverance in the lives of God’s called and chosen remnant. Here in our text the altar is emphasizing that God’s judgments in the midst of His people are true and righteous, that is, they are just and purposeful. The message is just this — God is doing what He has to do in order to correct what is wrong in His people, and what He does is just and redemptive, bringing deliverance and restoration."
"Another strange statement is that because they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, God is giving them blood to drink: for they are worthy. That last phrase simply means "for they deserve it!" We don’t like to think of God giving people what they deserve, but in this case that is exactly what He is doing. Shed blood signifies death. That is what they deserve to drink, death to themselves. The reference is to the fact that the church systems have slain, both figuratively and literally, the righteous men and prophets sent to speak the words of God to them through the ages. Thousands have been the martyrs slain by the church systems in ages past and even in recent times! They chose to drink from the human sources of this old world. Thus they wickedly rejected the living streams of water flowing out from God’s chosen vessels! So now He is causing them to drink a full dose of the death they have chosen! Let them drink blood! Oh, yes! They deserve it! It is not vindictiveness — it is correction! The Spirit is revealing to them the awful depths of the death that flows in the streams of man! And it is for their good, for their deliverance, and ultimate perfection!"
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"Commenting on this passage Ray Prinzing wrote: "Truly we can bear witness, ‘He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He’ (Deut. 32:4). Moffat’s translation reads: ‘Steadfast — He rules aright, HIS METHODS ARE IN DUE ORDER, a God trusty and wholly true, upright and honest.’ While Ferrar Fenton adds the thought, ‘ALL HIS LINES ARE STRAIGHT."
"What a declaration! His work is perfect, all His lines are straight. His methods are in due order, all that He does is RIGHT! Therefore it rightly follows, ‘All His ways are judgment.’ Everything He does is to bring about a restoration and setting right that which has been perverted, distorted, defiled, etc. HE IS OUR GOD OF SALVATION! Were He to draw a line in your life, it would be a straight line — and that means you would be brought into alignment with that uprightness. ‘I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a Father to Israel’ (Jer. 31:9). All of His methods, His workings, are in proper order, proper time, perfect sequence, as He steadily draws you to Himself."
And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with the great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues…" (Rev. 16:8-9)
"The truth of the great lights in the heavens includes many wonderful examples of that which is taking place in the realm of the spirit. The sun, moon, and stars of the heavens exist in a realm where God is absolute Sovereign and Lord, far above the sin, confusion, sorrow, strife, pain, and death of earth. Therefore, in their highest meaning, in their spiritual meaning, the sun, moon, and stars are used to represent HEAVENLY, SPIRITUAL RULE AND DOMINION. The prophet said, "The heavens do rule." That is the great truth revealed when at the moment of creation the almighty Creator proclaimed of the lights of the heavenly realm, "Let them be for light upon the earth…the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night." The primary thought is that of rulership and dominion!"
"The sun in prophecy is the most exalted ruler in any order. We find that God, the supreme Ruler, is called in the scripture a "sun." "For the Lord thy God is a sun and a shield" (Ps. 84:11). Also, our elder brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is King of kings, and Lord of lords, is called "the sun of righteousness" (Mal. 4:2). Furthermore, we find in reference to men, "He that ruleth over men…shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun ariseth" (II Sam. 23:3-4). David the king was called "the light of Israel" (II Sam. 21:17). This same meaning is found in II Kings 8:19 where we read, "Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David His servant’s sake, as He promised him to give him always a light." This is exactly the same promise we find in Jeremiah 33:17 where the Lord says, "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel." Our Father has told us, "heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool" (Isa. 66:1). Heaven is His throne, or may we say, His throne is heaven! "Heaven" bespeaks rulership and dominion, the "lights" of the heavens are the individual rulers who occupy the heavenly thrones of authority and power! The "earth" is that which is "ruled" by the heavens — that which looks to the sun, moon, and stars for its direction."
"The divine pattern in all these things becomes clear once we understand the great truth that there are revealed in the wonderful book of Revelation two heavens and two earths! The blessed Seer of Patmos beheld these in rapt vision and recorded what he saw in these inspired words, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea" (Rev. 21:1). There is an old heaven and there is a new heaven! There is an old earth and there is a new earth! The old heaven and earth pass away, but we look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness (II Pet. 3:13). It should be clear to any thinking mind that the old heaven with its sun, moon, and stars, is not our natural solar system or the star-studded universe we behold in the night sky. That is not the old heaven John is writing about! Rather, it is the old order that men have lived under, the old world of human consciousness, worldly society, and man-made religion with all its luminaries — the "lights" or personalities and institutions that govern, control, dictate, constrain, inspire, and direct men’s thinking, understanding, ways, will, desires, ambitions, and conduct in the world of humanity."
"Ah, God knows exactly what DARK CAVERN to place men in, with no outside energy which they can draw from to help maintain their state and standing. It is the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke, outer darkness being the region of spiritual darkness that leads away from the true spiritual light which Christ is. Ray Prinzing pointed out, “It is significant that wherever you find reference to ‘outer darkness’ you also read of ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth,’ as if to indicate the shivering in the cold until the teeth chatter. All this brings more meaning to the word, ‘If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.’ We weep for them, yet we thank God for this understanding of how He uses the COLD, THE DARKNESS to draw out this thermo energy of self-resistance, and the hour of final victory will come, with a full restoration into God. While the wrath of God is love’s severity, yet it remains purest love, seeking the ultimate good for creation, and so it continues to apply the strokes of chastisement. Repentance will come in due time, but how great is the need for the inworking of His judgments, until that submission comes.”
"For long centuries men have loved the shades and shadows of the darkness of religion rather than the light of Life, supposing that the little light they possessed was all the light there is, and the true light. But when God leaves men in darkness long enough, they come to hate the darkness, for it draws out of them all the beauty, warmth, strength, and life of light, and they are brought to the end of themselves. Without light we all operate in the dark. In the dark there is no sight, no vision, no comprehension of the realities about us. It was fitting, therefore, that the first thing God created was light. Darkness is not sin, although sin does darken the world by obscuring the light like a cloud. Can we not see by this that darkness is ignorance, error, and unbelief. The light of God is the light of Life. Ignorance — the lack of understanding — error, and unbelief are anti-light and anti-life."
"It should be obvious to every believing heart that the darkness that fills the beast’s kingdom is not a literal darkness like that in Egypt in the day of Moses, but truly spiritual darkness. Hear it! “Understanding is a WELLSPRING OF LIFE unto him that hath it.” Certainly one reason so many millions of Christians are living in carnality and immaturity, far beneath their privileges in Christ today, is because they neither know who, where, or why they are. Truly a great and dreadful darkness is upon the kingdom of Babylon! This condition is explained by Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart” (Eph. 4:17-18). In this passage we learn, among other things, this one simple truth: Darkness IS IGNORANCE. In its spiritual meaning, to be in darkness is to be in ignorance! Ignorance is a condition of the mind, in which the mind lacks understanding. The inspired apostle tells us that men have their “understanding darkened” because of the “ignorance” that is in them! It means that either they don’t know much, or the information they have been given is incorrect! And it is this condition of spiritual ignorance that causes the whole world of men, and vast numbers of the Lord’s precious people, to walk in darkness, alienated from the abundant life that is in Christ! Oh! How many of the Lord’s people walk in spiritual darkness, or spiritual ignorance, because the teaching they have been fed by those who are supposedly the messengers of God is not the truth at all! Men are in darkness because the blindness of their hearts has kept them from the glorious Light of Christ penetrating into their lives!"