"And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. {2} And I saw as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. {3} And they sing the 'Song of Moses' the servant of God, and the 'Song of the Lamb'."

This is the 15th chapter of the book of Revelation. We have made our way through chapters 12, 13 and 14, in which we got the background, and it was all laid out for us, the persecution of the saints, that is of the people of God, by the devil, by the old Dragon himself, and then by the agency called the beast and the beast power in Revelation 13 and how the whole thing is designed to destroy God's people, to destroy His work, to destroy everything God has had to do with and then the 14th chapter where we have it shown to us that God is going to set aside the whole number of His people, that He intends to set aside and protect, that when the seventh trumpet is blown, when the resurrection takes place, and the saints are caught up to meet Jesus in the air, and they come back to this earth, where they see the seven last plagues poured out upon those people who have opposed God.

At this moment in time, before the wrath of God is poured out, two songs are sung. The first is the 'Song of the Lamb', it says {3}"Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways, you King of saints, {4} Who shall not fear You, O God, and glorify your name? For you only, are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments are made manifest."

This is the 'Song of the Lamb'. I don't know if someone's actually set that to music, but I dare say they have. In all of my church music experience I have never run across that particular one.

But there's another song here mentioned, which is really quite relevant to this and one that I don't think that many people pay much attention to, it’s the 'Song of Moses'. Now what could that be? Now, it's possible there is some 'Song of Moses' that none of us know that is going to be revealed to us. But I would say that if you were a first century Christian sitting in the church in Ephesus, and somebody reads this to you, and you know about Judaism, you know about the Old Testament, you have read parts of it. You have heard it read in synagogue, because you have attended there, and certainly if you are a Jewish Christian, you will know immediately that this is a reference to the 'Song of Moses' that's found in Deuteronomy and in the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy.

When you go back and read it, right at the end of chapter 31 and verse 30, it tells us this, "And Moses spoke in the ears of all the congregation of Israel, the words of this song until they were ended."

Now what I want to read to you is not the whole 'Song of Moses'. It's rather lengthy and quite poetic, and a lot of imagery to be found in it. I want to read excerpts of it, because portions of it seem to be very relevant to what we have been reading about and will be reading about in the book of Revelation.

In Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse one, the song begins, "Give ear, O you heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth, {2} Because I will publish the name of the LORD, ascribe you greatness unto our God."

There is the comparable theme in this to this 'Song of the Lamb', where we ascribe greatness to God and speak of His greatness.

"He is the rock", verse four of Deuteronomy 32, "His work is perfect for all his ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, right and just is He. {5} They have corrupted themselves though."

This is a really a prophetic statement that Moses makes although by the time Moses sang this song, Israel had corrupted themselves, they had started out well, but they had not hung on to the truth. They had not stayed with their God. They had not remained faithful.

And He says, in verse 5 of Deuteronomy 32, "They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children. They are a perverse and crooked generation."

Well now, this is kind of a strange expression, "Their spot." The Hebrew word is a word similar to a splotch, defect, blemish or something of that nature. It kind of calls to mind, the mark made by the writers ink horn or the mark or the sign of God in contrast with the mark of the beast, because it says their spot is not the spot of His children as though His children might have a spot, not a blemish spot, but a spot upon them which marks or designates them as His children,

Continuing in verse 6 of Deuteronomy 32, "Do you thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise? Is he not your father that has bought you? Has he not made you, and established you?"

The expression that he has bought you is a reference to being redeemed, as we explained earlier, when you committed a crime in the Old Testament, you either paid it back and you paid it back in multiples, or you were sold on the auction block as a slave and you worked it out. It was paid off in that way, but your near kinsman could redeem you. That is, he could buy you back.

So God speaks to Israel and says, "I have bought you. I have redeemed you."

In verse 12 of Deuteronomy 32, "So the Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him. {13} He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, He made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock."

This is talking about Israel and all the wonderful things that God had done for Israel.

But then, he, that is, "Israel, forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation."

{16} "They provoked Him to jealously with strange gods, with abominations they provoked Him with anger."

O, they believed that God exists, but there's no particular reason to follow Him, and there's no reason to take Him terribly seriously. We will lightly esteem the Rock of our salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations, they provoked Him to anger and here the echoes of Revelation, the echoes of the beast, and the powers that lead God to judge Israel of old, and once again at the very end time.

{17} "They sacrificed unto devils and not to God, to god's whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up from your fathers never feared not, {18} Of the rock that begot you, you are unmindful and you have forgotten the God that formed you. {19} And when the Lord saw it, He abhorred them."

Yeah, I guess He would, but when you consider all of the things that God had done for Israel, and how He had brought them out of slavery, how He had given them a new life and given them new hope and fed them in the wilderness and how they still rebelled and provoked him, how he would come to almost hate them, and the suggestion though is, we are now singing the 'Song of Moses' in a new context, in the context of the book of Revelation and of an Israel approaching the end time, who has once again forsaken God, has once again turned their back upon Him, and then when God sees it, He will abhor them, because of the provoking of His sons and of His daughters.

Deuteronomy 32 verse 20, "And God said, "I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be."

You know, there are times when a person in his life forgets God one time too many. Ah yeah, we pray, we consult God. We pray and we ask God to intervene in our lives. We ask for his guidance in the hard decisions we make and it is so hard sometimes to maintain the prayer habit. It is so hard to stay constant in prayer and there comes a time, I believe, in the life of every Christian when God says, "Well, he's not paying any attention to me, I'll just hide my face from him and I'll see how well he can do without me." Yeah, it happens from time to time, it is like a child who, when you're helping them walk is frustrated and angry with you or tells you by his body language, "Take your hands off me," and he falls down.

Okay, fine, you want to see how you can do without me. Let's see how you can do without me and like children, we have turned our back on God and God hides his face and says, "Fine, if you want to do it without me, go right ahead. Let's see what your end shall be!"

{20} "For they are a very perverse generation, children in whom is no faith. {21} They have moved me to jealousy, with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with those that are not a people, I will provoke them to anger with the foolish nation. {22} For a fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn under the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."

That's enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. I wonder where you and I are going to be when the mountains are set on fire?

Let's turn to Deuteronomy 32 verse 22, "For a fire is kindled in my anger," says God, "and shall burn under the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains."

No this is not Revelation. This is out of the 'Song of Moses' in Deuteronomy 32, it's Old Testament, but it's a prophecy and here we have the saints at the very end, standing on the sea of glass before the throne of God singing the 'Song of Moses' because it is so relevant to what is about to take place, right on the face of this planet, right around our ears, if we are those still living when Christ is ready to return.

God said of his people at that time who had rebelled against him and were disobedient, {23} "I will heap mischief upon them. I'll spend my arrows upon them, {24} They shall be burned with hunger and devoured with burning heat and with bitter destruction, I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them and the poisons of serpents of the dust."

All these things has been talked about all the way through Revelation as we come to this point. All kinds of things like this have been taking place, in the visions of John of the time of the end.

Moses' Song says, {25} "It will be the sword without, and terror within, and it shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling child and the man with gray hair."

Now why should this happen? Now remember, all these things is in imagery, it's sort of painted in impressionistic terms on a canvas that we look at and try to understand what it might mean. He uses this poetic language.

He says {32} "For their vine is the vine of Sodom and of the fields of Gomorrah, their grapes are the grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter,{33} Their wine is the poison of dragons and the cruel venom of asps."

The imagery here is of a vineyard, of grapes and of vines. He says, their wine, the vintage of the wine that they produce is the fruit of Sodom and Gomorrah. These are the two cities of total corruption, the one that gave its name to sodomy and He says "What you have become to me is like the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah." In more than one place in the Old Testament prophecies, Israel is compared to Sodom and Gomorrah and Jesus actually suggests that Sodom and Gomorrah might have more toleration in the day of judgment, than some cities in Israel of his day. He basically says that if Sodom and Gomorrah had heard what you have heard and seen what you have seen, they would've repented and you haven't repented. It is strange how often Jerusalem and Israel are compared to Sodom and Gomorrah.

"Is not this laid up in store with me," verse 34 of Deuteronomy 32, "is not this laid up in store with me and sealed among my treasures? {35} To me belongs vengeance, and recompense, their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come will rush upon them."

My, you would've thought that this was transposed, right from the book of Revelation, right where we have been reading. It is, as these saints sing this song before God. It is the day of vengeance and recompense, the day of their calamity is at hand. The seven last plagues are about to be poured out. There is no surprise at all, I guess, that the 'Song of Moses' would be sung here, for it is a prophecy as much as any other seems to point to the very end time into the final judgment of God.

In Deuteronomy 32, where we are, and in verse 36, it continues to say this, "For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants, when He sees that their power is gone, that there is none shut up, or left. {37}And he shall say, "Where are their gods, where's the rock that they trusted in? {38} Where is their defense? {39} "See now," says God, "that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me, I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand."

Oh, you can save up all the money you want, you can do all the works you want, when all is said and done, there is not a thing in the world you can do, to deliver yourself out of God's hand. He is God, He is sovereign. He does what He wants. He kills whom he wishes, He makes alive whom he wishes, He wounds whom He wants, and heals whom He wants. So who are you and who am I to argue with Him.

Verse 40, "For I lift up my hand to heaven," says God, "And I say, I live forever, {41} If I sharpen my glittering sword, and my hand takes hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies and I will reward those that hate me."

Well, I don't hate God and neither do you, but it is bone chilling to consider that there will come a time, when God will render judgment finally. Keep it in mind!

Verse 42, "I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword will devour flesh, and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the beginning of revenges upon the enemy. {43} Rejoice, all you nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be merciful to his land and to his people."

What a story, and what a song! What a song to be sung and then to understand that here are all the Saints redeemed from the earth, the ones just resurrected, the ones just caught up to meet Christ in the air, and they're all gathered before God on the throne and they sing this song! Why this song? Because this song is about this time. The 'Song of Moses', belongs right here in Revelation, because it is the theme of what God is doing. He is punishing Israel, but He will save them, and He will wreak vengeance upon those who fought against Him. That vengeance will be described in terrible terms, with the pouring out of the seven last plagues in the very next chapter of Revelation.

"After that I looked, and behold, the Temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened." This is verve 5 of Revelation 15.

Now a little aside here, when the Tabernacle was originally created, Moses was told to make it after the pattern he had been shown, and the pattern he had been shown was of another Tabernacle, the real Tabernacle according to the writer of Hebrews, who also tells us that when Moses was told to make this Tabernacle, He was told to make it after a heavenly pattern, that is of the real Tabernacle which is in heaven in the presence of God, not the one that's down here on the earth.

Now the centerpiece of the Tabernacle that Moses made, was a box, a little box, that had a cover on it and the box is called the 'Ark of the Testimony'.

I know you probably think of it as the 'Ark of the Covenant', but it's a later custom to refer to it that way. All the time in the earliest times, it is referred to again and again is the 'Ark of the Testimony'.

Why the 'Ark of the Testimony'? That's not too difficult, it is because it contained the Testimony of God. What's the Testimony of God?

Well, let me give you a few scriptural references to fill in a little background for you here. In the 25th chapter of Exodus verse 16, there is the short statement. Moses is told by God, Quote: "And you shall put into the 'Ark' the testimony which I shall give you." End Quote. Well, what's that? In Exodus 25 and verse 21, God says this, "And you shall put the mercy seat." Actually the Hebrew word is cover. "You shall put the cover above upon the ark, and in the ark, you shall put the testimony that I shall give you."

Again, what is this Testimony that God gave to him? Well, later in Exodus 31 verse 18, "And He gave to Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of Testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God."

Now, of all the things that God might testify to Israel, of all the testimony that He might give them, what is the one thing that is called the Testimony of God? Well, it's the Ten Commandments.

Everybody knows, if you watched the movie, the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, you know, that the two tables of testimony written with the finger of God are the Ten Commandments.

There is another passage just a little later, Exodus 32 verse 15, "And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the 'two tables of the Testimony' were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. {16} And the tables were the work of God and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables."

Well, was there anything else that might be involved in this? Well, there is another passage of Scripture, first Kings 8 verse nine, "There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone, which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt."

Okay, it's the 'ark of the testimony.' It's also called, in Revelation, the 'Tabernacle of the Testimony'.

Now less we overlook the connection we have already seen earlier in this series that the 'Ark of the Testimony' was seen in the Temple in Heaven in one of these visions. The whole thing was opened up and John is allowed to look straight into it, and he sees on the inside of it, the 'Ark of the Testimony'.

What do you suppose is in the 'Ark' that's in heaven? Well, if we can believe this, it is the 'Testimony of God' and what is that? It's the Ten Commandments of God. All Ten of them. No exceptions. I don't think that they carved out or erased one of those commandments somewhere down through time and so that whenever Revelation opens up and you see the Temple in heaven, and you see inside of it, The Ark of the Testimony. I don't think there are nine Commandments in it, I think there are Ten!

All this is in the book of Revelation, pointing to the last days, and the Ten Commandments are still, at that late date, the standard of conduct and judgment, it's that thing by which God will judge mankind. That's why it's so important, that there is a judgment about to be performed on mankind, the ten last plagues that are poured out are not just arbitrary, it is not just because God got personally angry, and is going to stomp all kinds of people down here, it is because they have been judged and found to be sinners and the standard by which they have been judged is the Ten Commandments!

In Revelation 11 verse 19, it says, "And the Temple of God was opened in heaven, there was seen in his Temple 'the Ark of his Testament', and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, an earthquake, and great hail."

Now there is something else you might want to know about this Tabernacle. It is called in Hebrew, 'the tent of meeting.' It is the place where God came to meet with Moses and to meet with the children of Israel.

There are also in the Old Testament certain festivals which are called 'appointed times'. In other words, they are appointments with God. Now you make an appointment with your dentist and if you don't show up, they are going to give you a call, because you did not keep your appointment. It is sobering to think that we have appointments with God. I'm very bad about appointments. I have to have someone remind me of them. I put little stickers on the wall and on my desk in different places to remind myself. I have to remind myself many times about a dental appointment. I have to be sure because it's easier to forget an appointment with the dentist than an appointment for lunch, shall we say.

But to have an appointment with God, there is a time when we meet God and I presume that being the case, He's going to be there to meet us and if we don't show up? Well, the tent of meeting, or the Tabernacle of meeting of God in heaven has within it, a set of standards, the 10 Commandments, that we are supposed to live by, all 10 of them, including the fourth commandment.

The fourth commandment is the commandment that says,

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy".

John says in Revelation 15 verse 6, "And the seven angels, came out of the temple having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. {7} And one of the four creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever, {8}And the Temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power, and no man was able to enter the Temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Now what to make of that last statement is not altogether clear, but entering into the Temple may suggest fleeing there for refuge, in other words, you have your time now when you can approach God, you have your time that you can go to Him, that you can meet Him, that you can approach Him, but the time may come, and the prophets tell us this over and over again, and when that door is closed, you can't do it anymore.

The time to seek refuge is before the seven angels start pouring out the wrath of God. Once this has started, those left on earth will have to drink the whole cup and it's a bitter cup indeed.

The 16th chapter of the book of Revelation is the record written in advance of what the wrath of God is going to consist of. what God is going to do, how it's going to affect men, how they are going to respond to it, and it is terrifying. Totally terrifying.

The operative question, the important question is why? Because God is not evil. God is not wicked. God does not enjoy hurting. God does not take any pleasure in the death of the wicked, or in the affliction of the wicked, but you know, in order to be just, in order to be seen as just, God cannot allow corruption to go unrecognized. God cannot allow violence to go un avenged. He must step in, in world affairs, and do something about the corruption that is here. Violence has to be answered with violence. Otherwise to call Him a just and a fair God, has no meaning.

And so we come to the 16th. chapter of the book of Revelation and verse one, "And I heard a great voice out of the Temple saying to the seven angels, "Go your way, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth." {2} And the first one went, and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sores upon the men, who had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshiped his image."

But the rest will have to wait till next time. Until then, remember, You were Born to Win!

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This article was transcribed with

minor editing from a Born to Win Radio Program by: Ronald L. Dart

Titled: The Book of Revelation -Program #21

Transcribed by: bb 12-16-24

You can contact Ronald L. Dart Ministries at P.O. Box 560

Whitehouse, TX 75791

1-888-Bible- 44