H. The Seventh Bowl (16:17-21)
H. THE SEVENTH BOWL (16:17-21)
The climax comes with the seventh bowl. This speaks of utter destruction. It does not say that all people will be killed; they must still face Almighty God for judgment. But this bowl does mean the complete fragmentation of earthly life.
17. The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, which was held to be uniquely the abode of demons (see note on 9:2). The evil spirits are being attacked in their own element. John heard another loud voice, unidentified as commonly in this book. But he tells us that it came out of the temple and from the throne, so that it has the fullest divine sanction. It signals the moment of climax by saying It is done (one word in the Greek, as also in 21:6).
18. The announcement of the climax caused great excitement. Similar phenomena followed the blowing of the seventh trumpet (11:19). For peals of thunder, etc. see note on 4:5. All this heightens the solemnity of the moment. Special stress is placed on a severe earthquake; it surpasses all other earthquakes. This is first put negatively, none like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth; and then twice positively, so tremendous (t
likoutos) and ‘so great’ (NIV omits; the word is megas; which is used seven times in connection with the seventh bowl; it brings out the greatness of the final act).
likoutos) and ‘so great’ (NIV omits; the word is megas; which is used seven times in connection with the seventh bowl; it brings out the greatness of the final act).19. The great city is a motif we have seen before (see note on 11:8). It stands for civilized man, man in organized community but man ordering his affairs apart from God. It symbolizes the pride of human achievement, the godlessness of those who put their trust in man. This great city is now shattered. It divides into three parts, which means complete break-up. And in the break-up of the great city the cities of the nations collapsed. The one implies the other. With Babylon the Great we return to the theme of the great city. John tells us that this city ‘was remembered before God’ (where the passive ’avoids anthropomorphism’, Sweet). He visits his wrath on her (see note on 14:10). Nowhere in this book is there an expression as emphatic as that rendered the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. John leaves us in no doubt that Babylon is to receive the most whole-hearted opposition conceivable from an all-powerful and all-holy God.
20. John reverts to the physical effects of the cataclysm. Every island fled away. No mountain was to be found. For the linking of mountain and island cf. 6:14, and for the disappearance of the mountains Zechariah 14:10 (which looks for the whole land to be turned into a plain).
21. Now comes a great hailstorm. Each hailstone weighed ‘about a talent’. This is variously estimated at from 45 lb to 100 lb or even more. We cannot be sure of the exact weight, but John’s point that the hail was of enormous size is clear. And for the third time in this chapter we read that the effect of the disaster was that people blasphemed (cursed) God. To bring out his point that this plague was unusually severe John uses a word which he uses nowhere else in the book (sphodra; NIV, so). The disaster must be seen for the decisive event it is.