REVELATION 16 – The seven bowls of God’s wrath
Please read the whole chapter before answering the questions.

1.    Suggest why it is important to view these plagues as concurrent rather than consecutive.

2.    Describe the first three plagues [verses 2 to 4].

3.    Against whom is God’s wrath poured out in these plagues [verse 2].

4.    What further identification of the recipients is provided in verses 5 to 7?

5.    What key characteristic does the angel mention about these judgments? [verse 5]

6.    Why is this the key characteristic? [verse 6]

7.    Suggest the connection between these final outpourings of wrath and the prayers and persecution of the saints. [Check 5:8; 6:9,10; 8:3-5; 18:20; 19:2].

8.    Suggest why it is ‘the altar’ that affirms the justice of these judgments [verse 7]. [Read 6:9,10.]

9.    Describe the anti-God hardness of the inhabitants of the earth [verses 8-11,21].

10.    Suggest what the sixth plague teaches us about the godless deception and darkness that characterizes the earth immediately prior to the final end [verses12-14].

11.    In verse 15 Jesus interrupts the vision. In the vision it is obviously too late for the godless to repent and thus escape these judgments. Why then does Jesus interrupt the vision with this stern warning?

12.    Read verses 17 to 21. What three word statement indicates the utter completion of the final outpouring of God’s wrath?

13.    What common symbols of judgment are used in these verses?

14.    Even as they are being thus judged by God, these people curse him. How does this truth affect you?