Revelation 15-16 narrates a vision of seven plagues. These bear a striking resemblance to the plagues found in the book of Exodus, which God uses to force Pharaoh to liberate the Israelites. Painful sores, water turned to blood, frogs, and darkness are all among the calamities shown in this vision. It is pretty grisly.
Also a parallel to the story of Exodus is the "song of Moses" sung by the heavenly creatures, proclaiming God's liberation, much like the song of Miriam in Exodus Ch. 15, after God leads the Israelites through the Red Sea.
I don't want to simply excuse violent language in the Bible, much less rejoice in it. It's honestly hard to fathom the same God who came in Jesus of Nazareth, who peacefully healed the sick, fed the hungry, and gave his life for the world on a cross, visiting this kind of pain and suffering on the world.
It's passages like these that unfortunately bring out the worst in people of faith, as they fantasize about God's vengeance on those who reject their message. That makes it hard for the rest of us, who really just want to share the love, healing and salvation of Jesus with our neighbors as best we can, to work through Revelation, or even to find value in it at all.
All that said, there actually are a couple of things to point out here that might at least give some dimension to what is going on in this violent vision.
1) God's intent is STILL to persuade. Just as with Pharaoh, each plague is meant to attack different sources of imperial prosperity and wellbeing--the water, the sun, predictable weather, even physical health--in order to produce repentance. Yet people still "curse God" and do not "repent of their deeds." This is not vengeance. This is the hope that if it gets difficult enough to continue in injustice, the world will take another path.
2) The signs are symbolic. The blood in the rivers and sea is the blood already shed by saints and prophets. Just as with Chapter 14, the plague is simply making visible something that already exists in the world, which we would rather not see.
3) Without becoming too literal in my interpretation, it is interesting to me as humankind comes to grips with its role in climate change, that so many of these plagues are related to the weather. The scorching sun, the polluted water, and the falling hailstones remind us that it is not just humans, but our fellow creatures, whom we have harmed by out unjust ways. To creation, as much as to God and our neighbor, we owe our repentance.
Ever since Revelation was written, readers have seen its signs in their own times. But again, I read Revelation as a cyclical book: most if its visions tell not just about the end of time, but about the harm we cause ourselves time after time, by clinging to the way of empire--of Babylon--instead of the nonviolent way of the Lamb.
15. Now, seven plagues and seven angels more,
The sea of glass now welcomes new musicians,
Who sing with Miriam on the Red Sea’s shore,
For they resisted that dread beast’s perdition.
“Great and mighty Lord, all nations’ king,
To you will those in ev’ry nation come,
For who can fail to glorify and sing
To God alone, who is the Holy One?”
Now, heaven opens wide the witness tent
God’s glory, pouring out, with billowed smoke
The seven angels out the door are sent
With bowls of wrath, which none can now revoke.
God’s worship claims all nationalities;
Sing praise in ev’ry language, and be free.
16. “Pour out the bowls on stubborn Pharaoh’s land.”
The first is painful sores for all the marked;
What plagues the unrepentant heart withstands!
The second and the third, in blood embark
On seas and fresh streams, on which all rely,
The angel of the rivers, speaking just:
“In blood you reigned; in blood the sea will die.”
The fourth, in scorching sun, turns land to dust.
Yet still no dust nor sackcloth do they bear
In fifth bowl’s darkness, nor in sixth bowl’s war,
On cold Megiddo’s ruins, ‘tis declared;
The seventh: hailstones, like none seen before.
Leave Babylon! Protect the earth and sea!
The ally of creation shall be free.
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