We are presently involved in the study of the seven bowls of wrath, sometimes referred to as the Seven Last Plagues. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon a heavenly body, the sun. The text goes on to say that, in doing so, men were scorched (G2739) with fire. The Greek word used in Revelation 16:8 for scorched is used in only two other places in the New Covenant text. It is used in the next verse (Revelation 16:9) and once more in Mark 4:6 in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower. There, Jesus describes the seed of the Gospel falling upon stony ground (Mark 4:5-6), which describes a hard heart wherein the word of God couldn’t take a deep root (Mark 4:17). The seed sown in ‘stony ground’ or into a hard heart never matures properly. The word of God may be well received at first, but it has no depth in that one’s heart. So, when they are scorched (G2739), i.e. afflicted or persecuted because of the word of God, they become offended and abandon Christ and the Gospel (Mark 4:16-17).
I believe the text is telling us that, in the context of the angel pouring out the wrath of God upon the sun, those who have persecuted the saints of God (Revelation 16:6) are, themselves, afflicted in the judgment of the fourth angel. Scorching with fire, according to the Parable of the Sower, concerns affliction or persecution, according to how Jesus metaphorically interpreted the Greek word. So, in the context of the first century AD, it pertained to the cruel governing of the Jews by the Roman governors, especially the final two governors, headquartered at Caesarea, before the war that broke out between the Jews and Rome. Violence and injustice in the land was unimaginable and not even hidden. Josephus records many atrocities committed by the Roman governors against the Jewish people, the common people, so that they had no place to go for peace and protection.
John tells us the men blasphemed God (Revelation 16:9; cp. Romans 2:24; 1Timothy 6:1; James 2:7) because of his judgment upon them. The plagues were brought upon the Jewish state, because of how they had treated Christ and those he had sent to them to preach the Gospel (cp. Matthew 16:24-28; 23:29-36). No doubt, when the Roman governors afflicted the nation, Jesus’ disciples were blamed. Religious people, who do not see their own error, often blame the innocent for the troubles they find themselves in. Things like destructive storms of nature are blamed upon the perceived sins of others. Yet, few ever consider their own unrighteousness. Not that I believe such things as natural disasters are sent by God to punish evil men, I don’t. Things like natural disasters occur by chance and come periodically upon both the righteous and the unrighteous (cp. Ecclesiastes 9:2). The only difference between the two is how each faces those problematic events.
One’s reaction to troublesome times is what separates the righteous from the wicked. The righteous look to God and repent, asking for forgiveness and help (cp. Revelation 11:13), while the wicked don’t recognize their own sins, so repentance is for them a foreign idea (cp. Revelation 9:20; Joshua 7:19; Amos 6:6). Rather, they look for others to blame for the hard times or difficult events they must endure, thus often blaspheming God (Romans 2:24; 1Timothy 6:1; James 2:7).
Speaking of the great multitude, which no man could number (Revelation 7:9), the text says: “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat” (Revelation 7:16). However, by the time we get to Revelation 16:9, we are told “men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God…” and this “great heat” was from the sun (Revelation 16:8). Truly, the text is speaking of different folks in Revelation 16 than what we find in Revelation 7:9 and following. The writer of Hebrews wrote of land that bore thorns and briars and claimed it was fit only to be burned (Hebrews 6:7-8), but he spoke of people (Hebrews 6:9-10) and wanted his readers to exercise their faith, so that they would inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:11-12). Certainly, this is the difference between the great multitude of Revelation 7:9 and those who were made to endure the fourth bowl of wrath in Revelation 16:8-9.
We need to keep in mind that the folks in Revelation 16:8-9 are they who worship the beast (Revelation 16:2). It is because they had no faith in Christ and worshiped the beast that they were burnt with hunger, the sword and terror (Deuteronomy 32:24-25) in their latter days (Deuteronomy 31:27-29). “Few are left” according to Isaiah 24:6, and they don’t consider it (Isaiah 42:25). The Day of the Lord (Revelation 1:10) came upon the Jews in the first century AD, and it was a day that burnt like an oven, and the Lord left them neither root nor branch (Malachi 4:1), because they set themselves in a position that proved them to be the enemies of God, and they refused to repent (2Timothy 2:25), because they didn’t consider it (Isaiah 42:25), then or even today.
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