Revelation 15:5-8

5After this I looked and in heaven the temple, that is, the tabernacle of the Testimony, was opened. 6Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. 7Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God, who lives for ever and ever. 8And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.



15:5 - The scene changes as John sees the tabernacle of the Testimony which is in heaven. This may seem a bit confusing at first but actually makes a great deal of sense. The Bible tells us in several places that the Tabernacle and Temple on earth were but shadows, patterned after the real item (Heb. 8:2, 5; 9:11-12, 23-24; 10:1; Ex. 25:9, 40; 26:30; Num. 8:4; Acts 7:44). John also takes care to use the correct technical language, calling the document of the Covenant, the Testimony, emphasizing its legal character (Ex. 16:34; 25:16, 21-22; 31:18; 32:15; cf. Ps. 19:7; Isa. 8:16, 20). The Tabernacle where the Testimony was kept was called the Tabernacle of the Testimony (Ex. 38:21; Num. 1:50, 53; 9:15; 10:11; acts 7:44).

One of the primary themes of Revelation is the coming of the New Covenant and the passing of the Old. In John’s theology, the Church is the new Temple. The Mosaic Tabernacle was a copy of the original heavenly version and a foreshadowing of the Church in the New Covenant (Heb. 8:5; 10:1). John shows that these two, the heavenly pattern and the Church overlap in the New Covenant age. The Church tabernacles in heaven. If the Temple is the Church, then the Testimony is the New Covenant, the Testimony of Jesus (Rev. 1:2, 9: 6:9; 12:11, 17; 19:10; 20:4).

15:6-7 - Out of the Temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They have come to apply the curses announced by the trumpets. As priests of the New Covenant, they were dressed in clean, shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. John then tells us that one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls. We can, perhaps, assume that this is the creature with the man’s face (Rev. 4:7), since the other three have already taken action in the Revelation. The bowls are filled with the wrath of God. The imagery of the bowls is a bit difficult. In one sense, the substance in the bowls is "burning sulfur" (Rev. 14:10) so it seems to be fire, which would make them incense bowls, yet in another sense, the wicked will drink of it, which brings forth the imagery of a wine cup. In The Revelation of St. John the Divine, Austin Farrer says, "The ‘bowls,’ phialae, are libation-bowls. Now the libation, or drink-offering, was poured at the daily sacrifice just after the trumpets had begun to sound, so that by placing bowls in sequence to trumpets St. John maintains the sequence of ritual action that began with the slaughtered Lamb, continued in the incense-offering and passed into the trumpet-blasts. Because the drink-offering had such a position, it was the last ritual act, completing the service of the altar and was proverbial in that connection (Phil. 2:17). The drink-offering, as St. Paul implies, was poured upon the slaughtered victim, burning in the fire. Because there is no bloody sacrifice in heaven, the angels pour their libations upon the terrible holocaust of vengeance which divine justice makes on earth." John’s point is that blood and fire are about to be poured from the bowls onto the land of Israel. This has all been approved by God, as the angels have received their bowls from one of the creatures that carried God’s Throne (Rev. 4:6).

15:8 - The Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter. This imagery clearly comes from the dedication of both the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon (Ex. 40:34-35; 1 Ki. 8:10-11; 2 Chron. 5:11-14; 7:1-3). This is the phenomenon that happened as the heavenly fire appeared and consumed the sacrifices (Lev. 9:23-24; 2 Chron. 7:1-3)). Thus the filling of the Temple in this manner was both a sign of God’s glorious presence as well as an awesome revelation of His wrath against sinners.

In the New Covenant, the Church was the Temple of God, filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. On that day, however, Peter declared that the final end of the Old Covenant age would be accompanied by "blood and fire, and billows of smoke" (Acts 2:19). For the Church to take full possession of the inheritors of the New Covenant, the corrupt scaffolding of the Old Covenant had to be torn down. This is demonstrated in theological terms, as John says that no one could enter the Temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed in the destruction of the Temple and Old Covenant Israel.