The Terrible Justice of Thirst: The Third Bowl
Introduction: The Unblinking Eye of Justice
We live in a sentimental age, an age that has tried to domesticate God. Our culture wants a God who is a celestial grandfather, endlessly indulgent, who winks at our sins and assures us that everything will be just fine. We want a Jesus who is little more than a first-century Mister Rogers, patting everyone on the head. But the God of Scripture, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a consuming fire. His love is a holy love, which means His justice is an unblinking, terrible justice. And nowhere is this justice more vividly displayed than in the book of Revelation.
As we come to the third bowl of God's wrath, we are confronted with a scene that makes our modern sensibilities recoil. The rivers and springs, the very sources of fresh water, are turned to blood. This is not arbitrary cruelty. This is not a tantrum from an omnipotent deity. This is the calculated, precise, and meticulously appropriate judgment of a holy God. This is the law of the harvest, the principle of reciprocity, what the old theologians called the lex talionis, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. God fits the punishment to the crime, and He does so with an unnerving, poetic exactitude.
The world screams that this is unjust. The scoffers and the skeptics point to passages like this and declare that the God of the Bible is a moral monster. But they do so because their dictionary has been vandalized by sin. They have no category for true holiness, and therefore they have no category for true justice. They measure God by the crooked ruler of their own fallen hearts. But here, in the heart of this apocalyptic vision, heaven itself erupts in praise, celebrating this very act of judgment. Two voices, the angel of the waters and the altar itself, testify in unison that God is righteous. This is our task today: to align our thinking with heaven's thinking, to see this terrifying judgment not as a problem to be explained away, but as a glorious revelation of the character of God, which we are called to worship.
The Text
Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who is and who was, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
(Revelation 16:4-7 LSB)
A Just Thirst (v. 4)
The third angel now steps forward to execute his assigned judgment.
"Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters, and they became blood." (Revelation 16:4)
This plague is a direct and potent echo of the first plague in Egypt. When Moses confronted Pharaoh, the lifeblood of Egypt, the Nile, was turned to blood (Exodus 7:17-21). That judgment was a direct assault on the gods of Egypt, particularly Hapi, the god of the Nile. Here, the judgment is broader. It is not just one great river, but all the "rivers and the springs of waters." This is a judgment on the very sources of life and refreshment for the wicked.
The first bowl afflicted the land, causing sores on the worshippers of the beast. The second afflicted the sea, killing all marine life. Now, the third bowl moves inland, poisoning the fresh water. There is a systematic dismantling of the world of the ungodly. The message is clear: there is no escape. There is no corner of creation where a man can flee from the presence of a holy God whom he has offended. The creation itself, which they worshipped and served rather than the Creator, is now turned against them.
Water is a symbol of life, purity, and refreshment. Jesus is the fountain of living water. But for those who reject Him, the very sources of life become instruments of death. They thirsted for the blood of God's people, and so God, in a terrifying display of irony, gives them blood to quench their thirst. He is saying, "You have shown what you truly desire, what you truly worship. Here, have it in abundance."
Heaven's Court Reporter (v. 5-6)
Immediately following this horrific judgment, a voice from heaven explains the rationale. This is crucial. God never acts without a reason, and He is not ashamed to have His reasons declared before all creation.
"And I heard the angel of the waters saying, 'Righteous are You, who is and who was, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.'" (Revelation 16:5-6)
Notice who speaks. It is "the angel of the waters." This is a fascinating detail. In Jewish thought, it was often believed that specific angels were tasked with overseeing different aspects of creation. Whether this is a literal angelic office or symbolic, the point is the same: the very entity responsible for the now-corrupted waters is the one who leads the praise. The custodian of the rivers agrees with the judgment. He is not complaining about his charge being ruined; he is worshipping God because of it. He understands that the purity of God's justice is infinitely more important than the purity of earthly water.
The angel's declaration is a courtroom verdict. He addresses God with titles of eternal sovereignty ("who is and who was") and perfect moral purity ("O Holy One"). The basis for the praise is the judgment itself. God is righteous because He did this. And why is this act righteous? The reason is given plainly: "for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets."
This is the principle of measure for measure. The persecutors of the church, the beast and his followers, were drunk on the blood of the martyrs (Rev. 17:6). They had a lust for violence against God's people. They silenced the prophets and killed the saints. They made the earth run with the blood of the faithful. And now, God makes their rivers run with blood. He is holding a cup to their lips and forcing them to drink the very thing they so eagerly shed. The punishment is not just punitive; it is illustrative. It demonstrates the nature of their own sin back to them.
And lest there be any confusion, any sentimental waffling, the angel adds the stark, unblinking conclusion: "They deserve it." The Greek word is axios. It means they are worthy of it; it is their due. This is not a tragedy; it is justice. This is what they have earned. Modern man hates this kind of language. We want to talk about victims and societal causes. God talks about sin and just deserts. And heaven agrees with God.
The Altar's Amen (v. 7)
As if the testimony of the angel of the waters were not enough, a second voice joins the chorus, confirming the verdict from the very center of heaven's worship.
"And I heard the altar saying, 'Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.'" (Revelation 16:7)
Why does the altar speak? We must remember what is under the altar. In the fifth seal, John saw "under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne" (Rev. 6:9). These martyrs were crying out, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:10).
This third bowl is, in part, the answer to that prayer. The altar speaks because it is the symbolic place of the martyrs. Their blood, metaphorically speaking, cried out from the ground like Abel's, and their souls cried out from under the altar. Now, as vengeance is being executed, the altar itself gives a solemn "Amen." The voice from the altar is the voice of the vindicated saints. They are not in heaven wringing their hands, saying, "Oh, dear, perhaps that's a bit much." No, they are agreeing with the judgment. They are saying, "Yes, Lord God Almighty. This is what we were waiting for. This is true. This is righteous."
The two witnesses, the angel of the waters and the altar of the martyrs, establish the truth of the matter. The judgment is not only just, it is celebrated. It is a cause for worship. The titles for God here are piled high: "Lord God, the Almighty." This emphasizes His sovereign power to execute the judgment. And the qualities of His judgments are declared: they are "true and righteous." They are true because they correspond to the reality of the sin committed. They are righteous because they are in perfect conformity with His holy character.
Conclusion: Learning to Love Justice
So what do we do with a passage like this? First, we must repent of our sentimentalism. We must ask God to give us a heart that loves what He loves and hates what He hates. This includes learning to love His perfect justice. We must stop trying to fit God into our tidy, modern, therapeutic categories and allow the Scriptures to shape our understanding of who He is. He is not safe, but He is good.
Second, this is a profound comfort to the persecuted church. The prayers of the saints are not forgotten. The blood of the martyrs is not shed in vain. God keeps meticulous records. Every drop of innocent blood shed by the wicked is accounted for, and it will be repaid in full. God will vindicate His people. He will settle all accounts. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice because the Lord God Almighty is seated on the throne.
Finally, this is a terrifying warning to all who stand in opposition to Christ and His church. To persecute the saints is to declare war on the Almighty. To shed their blood is to sign your own death warrant. The justice of God may seem slow by our impatient calendars, but it is absolutely certain. The cup of wrath is filling, and when it is poured out, it will be discovered to be the very same vintage as the cup of sin that the wicked so eagerly drank.
The only escape from this terrible justice is to flee to the cross. For at the cross, another cup was drunk. Jesus Christ, on our behalf, drank the full cup of God's righteous wrath against our sin. He drank the judgment so that we who believe might drink from the river of the water of life freely. He had blood poured out of Him so that we might have living water poured into us. Therefore, let us worship Him for His mercy, and let us stand in awe of His terrible, beautiful, and perfect justice.