Revelation 16: 17 Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" 18And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. 19Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. 20Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. 21And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.”
The seventh bowl is the final outpouring of God’s wrath on sinners in this present age. After this Jesus will come and establish His millennial kingdom reign. At the end of the thousand year period, there will be one final act of rebellion, which will then be quickly crushed (20:7-10). Yet that judgment then will not take place as we know it, for the earth will be changed dramatically before the kingdom arrives. Following the seventh trumpet loud voices in heaven proclaimed the realization of the kingdom of God (11:15), the twenty four elders announced the arrival of the time of judgment (11:18), the temple of God in heaven was opened (11:19), and there were flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and a great hailstorm (11:19-21). Likewise here the seventh bowl is followed by a loud voice from the heavenly temple declaring God’s purpose accomplished (16:17), judgment falls upon the entire earth (16:19-20), and there are flashes of lightening, rumblings, and peals of thunder, along with the greatest of all the earthquakes and tremendous hailstones (16:18,21).
This will be then the final judgment in the present age upon the earth when “the mystery of God is finished (1:7). It is the last of the “seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished” (15:1). The seventh bowl will be the worst calamity in the world’s history, the most complete of them all. Its effects are to carry it all the way to the establishment of the earthly kingdom of Christ. That the angel poured out his bowl into the air is important, for its effects were on the earth’s atmosphere, as if God were then cleansing the former domain of Satan and his demon hosts (12:9). The earth (v2), the sea (v.3), the waters (v.4), the sun (v.8), and finally the air are the targets of judgment.
And a mighty shout came from the throne of the Temple in heaven, saying, "It is finished!" would could only possibly refer to God the Father the Most High, the creator of all heaven and earth. That He then says that “It is finished” announces the climax of the Day of the Lord that will spread doom over the entire globe. The perfect tense verb gegonen (it is finished) describes completed action with ongoing results. It is similar to Jesus’ final words from the cross where He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). God the Father is then declaring that it is finished which Jesus-God the Son declared on the Cross after His death on the Cross, which then leads us here to see that salvation provided for repentant sinners; judgment of the seventh bowl would then lead us to see that judgment of the seventh bowl brings doom to unrepentant sinners.
Revelation 16: 18Then the thunder crashed and rolled, and lightning flashed. And there was an earthquake greater than ever before in human history.”
As with the seventh seal (8:5) and the seventh trumpet (11:19), the seventh bowl is introduced with the imagery of a violent thunderstorm. Yet these earlier storms are only mere previews of the mighty wrath that now bursts upon the earth. The seventh bowl then revealed the devastating effects upon the earth that God will then punctuate His judgment against sinners with an earthquake (Isaiah 24:19-20; Hag 2:6), just as He His judgment of sin at Calvary (Matthew 27:51-54). This earthquake will then be the most powerful to strike the earth as an earthquake greater than ever before in human history. Mounce points out, “The severity of the earthquake is emphasized by the statement, “No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth or human history. This would have a vivid impact upon people living in a century that had experienced a great number of severe quakes.”
There always will be local earthquakes (Matthew 24:7) but this earthquake will be unique in that God will shake the globe, as prophesied in Haggai 2:6 and Hebrews 12:26-27. This shaking then will reconfigure the earth in preparation for the millennial kingdom, restoring it to something like its Pre-Flood condition (v.20).
Revelation 16: 19The great city of Babylon split into three pieces, and cities around the world fell into heaps of rubble. And so God remembered all of Babylon’s sins, and he made her drink the cup that was filled with the wine of his fierce wrath.”
The NKJV is much better than the New Living translation here used above. Revelation 16:19 NKJV reads, “19Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” It is improper to see the great city as Babylon because Babylon the great is used in conjunction with one another. The literal Greek to English would read, “The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath” (Nestle-Aland’s Greek-English New Testament). It is then impossible to see this any other way in that the great city is distinct from the cities of the nations which further gives evidence to the fact that Jerusalem is in view. The massive earthquake will split Jerusalem into three parts beginning with a series of geophysical alterations to this city and its surrounding region that will conclude when the Lord Jesus returns.
Zechariah 14:4-10 describes these changes in detail for us. The Mount of Olives will be split in two, and a new valley running east and west will be created (Zech 14:4). A spring of water will flow year-round from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and Dead Seas (Zech 14:8), causing the desert to blossom like a rose (Isa 35:1). Jerusalem will be elevated, and the surrounding region flattened into a plain (Zech 14:10). What we then see is that the purpose of the earthquakes is simple to enhance the city not to judge it. Besides, Jerusalem was judged previously in the Tribulation by an earthquake, but it lead to the salvation of those who were not killed by its effects (11:13). There is then no need for judgment against Jerusalem. These physical changes will then prepare Jerusalem for the central role that it shall play during the millennial kingdom it’s the Messiah will reign there as King (Psalm 110:2; Isa 2:3; 24:23; Mich 4:7).
What shall happen then is that is that And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Babylon will be covered at length in chapters 17 and 18.
Revelation 16:20-21, “20Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.” . 21And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.”
Islands are undersea mountains will disappear and the mountains on land will be flattened (Isaiah 40:4), completing the process that began during the seal seal (6:12-14). “The gentle rolling topography of the world as originally created will be restored. No more will there be great inaccessible, uninhabitable mountain ranges or deserts or ice caps. The physical environment of the millennium will be, in large measure, a restoration of the antediluvian [pre-Flood] environment” (Henry M. Morris, The Revelation Record, 321. This will leave Jerusalem as the highest point on earth making it then a fitting throne for the Great King the Messiah who will rule there during the Millennial Kingdom.
Those who escape the judgments will then great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.” Unlike the first trumpet (8:7) and the seventh plague (Exodus 9:23-24), the force of these hailstones is unimaginable. The Greek term translated about weight of a talent can also be about one hundred described the most weight a normal weight a normal man could carry, anywhere from 90 to 135 pounds. The heaviest hailstones ever recorded weighed about 2 pounds; these gigantic chunks of ice will be fifty times heavier. This will then add to the devastation caused by the earthquake and crush humanity, who because of the earthquake’s power, have no adequate shelter.
Yet in spite of this Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. Tortured humanity definitely remains hardened against God-a truth that should make us pause to think that signs and wonders will merely convince people to believe in the Gospel. Those who willfully and purposefully reject the Gospel the wonder, glory and majesty of the Son of God, and spurn this free gift of salvation will not be convinced by any mere miracles or signs (Luke 16:31). The time has come and go for these sinners who loved their sin, for they have sold their souls to Satan; and are totally committed to Antichrist’s blasphemy, idolatrous, anti-God system. What is only left for them simply is that they are Satan’s agents destined to be catapulted into hell.
God’s end time judgment and wrath are inevitable and no one can prevent it or hinder it from coming (Isa 43:13). There is a way to escape this judgment however, because as believers in Messiah covered by the blood atonement of the Cross, “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Those who trust in Christ’s provision and receive His gift of pardon will escape His end time judgment (3:10) and His eternal wrath (1 Thess 1:10). These will not have to face judgment on account of their sins were judged when Jesus died in their place on the Cross (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). In light of this inevitable judgment to come, the warning to all unrepentant sinners is “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).
By now your probably thinking that you wish Revelation was done, but we still have not seen the destruction of Antichrist’s government nor the destruction of Babylon as seen in Revelation 17 and 18, where we will see the luxurious prostitute meeting her gruesome death at the hands of the scarlet beast she commands, and the demise of the great city Babylon in chapter 18 as the great funeral dirge complete with the mourning of kings, merchants, and all seafaring people who livelihood depends upon the Babylon’s insatiable appetite for extravagance. Both chapters spell out in detail what is involved in the final bowl judgment, which we will then be examining over the course of the next two weeks.
Pastor Jenkins
