Troublesome Topic: The Seven Bowls Have a Common Theme

Before we get into reading about the seven bowls, allow me to preface this section with a few guiding thoughts. At first, I struggled to discern how to interpret its imagery because there are various possibilities for each one and it was tough to figure out which direction to go with each image. However, when I started looking at the passage as a whole, I began to see a pattern emerging. I am confident the original audience would have detected the pattern much more quickly than I did.

Here is what I see when I look at these images as a team working together to communicate a single theme: There is a deceptiveness about wealth and comfort which leads to an unwillingness to repent before God. We need to be very careful about the role we allow wealth and material things to play in our lives.

A secondary theme is this: Satan uses lies because that is who he is, but when his lies are exposed, he does not stop acting, rather he shifts gears to more blatant and vile forms of evil and rebellion.

In ancient times the word picture of a “bowl” pointed to the gathering of evidence that confirmed something, often it was the need for punishment, which is the case here. However, it would seem strange if evidence were gathered against the land, the sea, the rivers and springs, the sun, the river Euphrates, and the air, for these have done nothing wrong. It is obviously a reference to mankind and these things represent man in various aspects of his sinful activities.

We see here a great irony; what man thinks he wants most becomes his greatest source of suffering.

When I saw that pattern expressed consistently in the imagery of this passage, I knew I was finally on the right track.

This picture of the intoxicating and deceitful nature of wealth is true of every society today and has been true throughout all of human history; it will also be true in the future. The original audience probably saw multiple layers of meaning (the local and the universal, the present and the future) but chose to focus on the layer that applied to them directly because of the hardships they were facing. That would have been the local and present realities. There is also much in this passage that points to universal realities about the struggle between good and evil.

You will notice that all these bowls are directed at abundance, comfort and wealth. Here is my summary of what the bowls were directed against:

Bowl 1, the earth, against livelihood and wealth,

Bowl 2, the sea, against abundance,

Bowl 3, rivers and springs, against happy living,

Bowl 4, the sun, against life and comfort,

Bowl 5, the throne of the beast, against comforting lies, the imitation of strength and stolen authority,

Bowl 6, the great Euphrates, against life and confidence,

Bowl 7, the air, against life, breath, strength.

Having money and stuff is not a sin. God gives some people an abundance so they can bring glory to Him through their generosity and their wise use of those resources. I challenge everyone to give above 10%, but some can go way beyond that and thus bring glory to God through their generous use of finances.

While many Americans do not think of themselves as being wealthy, we have far more wealth than many people around the world. One reason we do not think of ourselves as wealthy is because we have so little available money, money that is not already committed. That is due more to our debts, our spending habits and our lifestyle than to our income. Whatever level of income one has, he will usually spend right up to his “ceiling,” leaving no margin for savings or generous giving. This is true of people in all cultures around the world. It is that lack of margin that makes us think we are not rich. The reality is that we have much more stuff than most people do; we are not in doubt about where the next meal will come from as many people around the world are.

However, there is also the issue of cost of living. In 2020, America is # 21 from the highest regarding cost of living, and second from the highest when it comes to purchasing power. So it takes more money just to live in the US. But despite the cost of living, we usually have more stuff than others around the world.

On the other hand, it can be said that we do not own as much as we think we own. The common use of debt or credit in America means that the banks own a large portion of everything in our country. When people come and visit from other countries, they may look at the house, the car, and the stuff that most Americans seem to have, and they say, “Wow, I would like to have all that stuff too.” They don’t realize that it is the banks that own the majority of everything they see. Banks own many of the businesses, houses, cars, and farm equipment that we see.

I bring this up simply to state that the perception of wealth is a slippery thing in which perception and reality are often far apart. A person who has a small, simple house and old cars but has zero debt, is more wealthy in a material sense than someone who has an impressive house and new cars which all technically belong to the bank until paid off in full. America started out as a nation with an economic system built on wealth acquired through hard work. Now we have a system built on debt. Credit companies have built a system which encourages people to use debt to finance their lifestyles; I am referring to the credit scores which look only at your use of debt in giving you a score; living debt free and never using credit is considered a negative thing according to that scoring system. How crazy is that? I believe we should reject that system and not be concerned at all about our credit score which is really a debt score.

When times are good, debt does not seem to be a big problem, but when hard times come, debt will bury you and destroy most of your opportunities, options, and flexibility. Having no debt is freedom, being in debt is servitude. Don’t let the desire to be perceived as financially stable lure you into a financially unstable situation, i.e. being in debt.  We should live by the principles taught in God’s word, not by the schemes promoted by this world. Consider your own reliance on debt and your attitudes about wealth as you read through this next passage.

Ease and comfort tend to make us “soft,” and the love of money is the root of all evil. As you read the following passage, I trust you will be struck, as I have been, by the close resemblance to America.

Down through history, many wealthy people have attained and maintained their wealth and comfort at the expense of others. God detests such exploitation. He also knows that the apathy and self-centeredness that often come with abundance are poisons to the soul.

The next lesson is: The Significance of a 1000 Year Reign