Summary
Even imminent plagues cannot stop the singing of the saints.
Analysis
Revelation continually juxtaposes scenes of praise with scenes of violence and destruction. The praise and singing that John describes often breaks into his descriptions of violence, short-circuiting them, and redirecting them. This is especially true of the cycles of plagues that he describes (see Revelation 6:1-17; 8:1 – The Seven Seals; Revelation 8:6-9:21; 11:15-19 – The Seven Trumpets). In this last cycle, John’s vision of seven angels with seven bowls is immediately interrupted by a vision of the saints standing beside the sea (15:1-2). They sing the song of MosesProphet who led Israel out of Egypt to the Promised Land and received the law at Sinai., the only time that he is mentioned in Revelation, though as noted, the plagues that John describes have much in common with the plagues that God struck Egypt with (15:3). Their song points to Revelation’s pan-ethnic appeal; the saints maintain that “All nations will come and worship” before the Lord (15:4). The vision of praise proceeds to the templeThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... of the tent of witness, another veiled reference to Moses (Exodus 40). At the temple, John shifts from Mosaic references to IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time.. Just as in Isaiah’s vision in the year of the death of King Uzziah, bright angels come out of the temple and the temple is filled with smoke (15:6-8; Isaiah 6:1-4).
