Revelation Day 42 - The Ugliness of Evil

DAY 42
The Ugliness of Evil
Revelation 16:1-9

“Go, pour out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

Why does John talk about God’s justice in such ugly ways? 

Pastor John, inspired author of Revelation, talks about justice by talking about God’s wrath. Angels have seven containers, or bowls, of stored-up anger. When we look carefully at Rev. 15 and 16, we see that Pastor John’s visions graphically show us three things about God’s guarantee of justice. These three things give us clues about how to live until God’s guaranteed justice is paid in full. We’ll look at the first of these three today.

First, these bowls of anger graphically show us the ugliness of evil. These plague-judgments are ugly! Rev. 16:2 even says people broke out in “ugly, festering sores.” Why on earth are these scenes so ugly?

The ugliness of these plague-judgments mirrors the ugliness of evil. Evil is ugly. Sin is ugly. The devastation and suffering they cause is ugly. Maybe we think, “Exactly! So why are we looking at it?” 

Maybe God is wise to make us look a little longer at what sin really is and what it really does. Don’t we often look away from things that look too big and too bad to fix? Or how often are we fascinated by ugly, evil things? Don’t we often minimize how bad our own actions are? Is it possible we’re unaware of how awful and ugly sin really is?

When we sin, we voluntarily do something selfish and wrong. When we do that, we’re stepping away from God. God is good. God is life. We’re walking away, step by step, from life. We’re separating ourselves from God. We’re walking closer to death. And death is ugly. 

We gain nothing in our spiritual growth by minimizing the ugliness of sin and evil. The world doesn’t improve by pretending evil things are better than they are. We need to see just how ugly evil is.

REFLECT
What’s your gut-level response to these pictures of God’s wrath? How might these plague-judgments reflect the ugliness of evil?

PRAY
Lord, I don’t always understand the world - not all the evil and sin, not your way of judging it. But I’m learning, and I trust you. By faith I say, “Just and true are your judgments, O Lord God Almighty.” Amen.