IT IS DONE!
IT IS DONE!
REVELATION 16:17-21
How far is this concept of the end a decisive part of your Christian worldview?
We have again reached the same point as 8:1; 11:15-19; 14:17-20. Though there is no connection, the fear shown by so many of nuclear disaster will show what the pouring of the last bowl “into the air” (16:17) means. Everywhere, with no nook or cranny left for safety, the wrath of God floats down on humanity, leaving nothing more to be awaited. With 16:18, read 8:5; if the divisions of the book suggested are correct, it is an intensification we are now dealing with, but it is one of the signs which justify us in thinking that God constantly causes humanity to experience foreshadowings of what is to be.
The meaning of the great city (16:19) see 11:8; 17:9,18. Though there is no reason why Jerusalem should not be included, it is most doubtful whether any exclusive reference to it is intended. The first two cities recorded in the Bible are Enoch (Genesis 4:17) and Babel (Genesis 11:4), and both were expressions of lack of trust in God (see also Hebrews 11:10). What is here being proclaimed is the complete destruction of humanity’s last line of defense against both God and chaos.
“Great Babylon” (16:19): though Babylon is not mentioned in Scripture between Genesis 11:9 (Babel is the Hebrew name for Bab-ili, which we render Babylon) and the days of Hezekiah, it had its own position in Hebrew thought. Though it had little political importance between its capture by the Kassites in 1530 BC and its being made the capital of a Chaldean empire in 626 BC, it was the virtually undisputed commercial and religious capital of the Fertile Crescent. So it is the personification, so to speak, for the Bible, of humanity organized for financial profit, and of manmade religion in all its attractive sophistry. These are the two aspects which are dealt with in chapters 17 (religion) and 18 (commerce). If we compare Nahum and Habakkuk, we shall learn something of the different impression created by the pride and cruelty of Assyria and the corruption of human nature which the prophet saw in Babylon.
“Hailstones” (16:21): see Job 38:22f. For the inhabitants of the eastern Mediterranean lands, it was a supreme sign that something was wrong with the world, when the rain which was the supreme blessing could become a threat to life and property as it was turned to ice. So hail was looked on supremely as a sign of divine intervention and anger; here it can be anything that carries that message.