Revelation 16:3-7 - True and just are your judgements

16:3

The previous bowl was poured out on the land, this one is poured out on the sea. There is a completeness to the wrath described in this chapter. Also, with the trumpets it was a third that was affected, here there is no limitation. The earth is reaching the culmination of the rebellion against God. So here everything in the sea died.

16:4,5

Now it is the turn of the water on the rivers and springs.They too were turned to blood. How terrible these things are. Why is God doing them, we might ask. Many would even say that God is wrong to do these things, but that is not the case. For we now hear an angel saying “You are just in these judgements, O Holy One”. “You who are and who were”. There is no “who will be”, for these are the final and complete judgements.The earth in its present form will be gone, there will be a new earth.

16:6,7

We now learn why God’s judgements are right and holy. The people of the earth had shed blood, moreover, they had shed the blood of “your holy people and your prophets”, so they have received what they deserved, the consequence of their actions. We can expect the world to turn wholesale against God’s people. The altar gives confirmation that God’s judgements are “true and just”. We need to realise that our modern reaction against the wrath of God is utterly misguided.