Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #11 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are continuing to read Revelation 16:10:

And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

In our last study we saw that Satan was given the name of the beast and he was given a “seat” or “throne” over the nations of the world as well as the corporate churches of the world; it is both the churches and the nations during the time of the Great Tribulation.

If we look up the word “kingdom,” in the New Testament it most often refers to the “kingdom of heaven” or the “kingdom of God.” It is normally used to identify with God’s kingdom, but there are a couple of places where the word “kingdom” or “kingdoms” speaks of Satan and his kingdom.

When the Lord Jesus Christ is being tempted in the wilderness, it says in Luke 4:5-6:

And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

What is being said here is that Satan, the devil, is showing the Lord Jesus Christ the kingdoms of the world and he is saying, “If you bow down and serve me, I will give you all of these nations, for they have been delivered to me.” Therefore, it was within his power to give them. Of course, it is an evil thing to want Christ, who is Eternal God, to bow down to a fallen and rebellious creature. But he is correct when he said that the nations and kingdoms of the world had been given to him due to the “right of conquest” in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They believed the lie of Satan and, in doing so they served Satan through the lie, rather than serving God through the truth. Since that time, mankind has been a servant to sin and to Satan and that is why he ruled over the kingdoms of the world.

In the Old Testament, we read of Babylon and God often singles out Babylon as a type and figure of Satan’s kingdom. Satan is typified as the king and Babylon is typified as the kingdom he rules over. We read in Isaiah 47:1:

Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

Then it says in Isaiah 47:5:

Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

The Chaldeans are the Babylonians. Of course, we see the relationship between this statement, “Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness,” and what it says in Revelation 16:10: “his kingdom was full of darkness.” Here, God is speaking of Babylon as it pictures Satan’s rule over all the nations. And we can prove that because of what it says at the end of verse 5, speaking of the Chaldeans: “for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.” The Hebrew word that is translated as “lady” is translated as “lady” only two times, but it is translated as “mistress” seven times. Babylon is the “mistress of kingdoms,” and a mistress is a woman that rules over her maidens. For instance, Sarai was a mistress over Hagar, the Egyptian maid. God also uses this word in Psalm 123:2:

Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon JEHOVAH our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

As we understand “as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters,” so we can understand “as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress.” It is the very same thing, only in a feminine sense. It is speaking of the woman. Like Sarai, who was mistress over her household, she had maidens that did her service; they did what Sarai wanted them to do.

This is how it was with Babylon over the kingdoms – she was the “mistress of kingdoms.” The kingdoms looked unto Babylon for their leadership and direction and Satan, the king of Babylon, ruled over all the kingdoms of the world, just as Satan had said in Luke, chapter 4, when he said the kingdoms of this world had been delivered unto him.

In Matthew, chapter 12, we read some pertinent things regarding Satan and his kingdom. It says in Matthew 12:25-26:

And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

We know that at the time of the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ bound the strong man and plundered his house or his kingdom. That had to do with the Gospel saving individuals that had been in bondage to sin and to Satan; they had been captive in the spiritual dungeon of Satan’s kingdom and the Word of God delivered these elect souls and translated them out of the darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the work of God through salvation, as He plundered the house of Satan until the last person to become saved had become saved and this was accomplished by May 21, 2011. Then God ended His salvation program. The evangelization of the earth was complete and the completion of God’s salvation program is what finally brought to pass the judgment on Satan and his kingdom.

The final judgment of this world began on May 21, 2011, after God had saved the last of His elect. And that is not a coincidence; God worked it out that way. He completed the salvation of all of those to be saved and then God turned His attention to Satan and to the unsaved people that inhabit Satan’s kingdom of this world. God poured out the vial of the wrath on the “seat of the beast,” Satan’s throne, and his kingdom was full of darkness. May 21, 2011 was the end of the Great Tribulation period, the end of the 23 years that God was judging the churches. Then there was the transition on that date from judgment on the churches to judgment on the world and God says of that transition, in Matthew 24:29:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

This brought darkness to the kingdom of Satan. You may be asking, “Well, was not Satan’s kingdom always full of darkness?” Well, yes, Satan never had salvation and the unsaved do not have salvation, so they dwell in darkness, but God had a salvation program of sending forth the Gospel into nations that were in darkness. Remember, God first brought spiritual darkness to the churches and congregations through the rule of Satan in the churches and all the congregations in the world “went dark” during the entire period of the Great Tribulation; there was no light in them and no one was being saved. After 2,300 evening mornings into the Great Tribulation, the Lord initiated His plan to stretch forth His hand a second time to evangelize the earth; it was a second pouring out of the Holy Spirit during the Latter Rain, as God sent forth His Word to save (outside of the churches and congregations) throughout the nations of the world. He saved a great multitude from every tribe, tongue, people and nation. Tens of millions of people were saved all over the earth. The only condition was that salvation had to have taken place outside of the corporate church. Church members and those within the churches and congregations in the entire world were not being saved, but outside there was a bountiful salvation taking place as the Lord sent forth His Word to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. There was much light in the world at that time. It was not a light of Satan or of his kingdom, but it was God shining the light of His Word into the dark places of this earth and into the nations of the world. Wherever God’s Word came there was light because it was still the “day of salvation.” God was brilliantly shining the Gospel light and it would shine into the hearts of those individuals that God has predetermined to save before the foundation of the world and they were saved.

Once God found that last lost sheep of the house of Israel (the last one whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life) and saved that person, then God ended His glorious salvation program; the rain stopped falling; the light of the sun stopped shining; the light of the moon (the Law of God, the Bible) stopped giving her light; and the light of the stars (the true believers that carried the Gospel into the world) stopped shining the light as well, because their lights were dependent upon God. All the light of the Gospel that had come forth from God’s holy Word ceased to shine and the light went out. In numerous places in the Bible, God emphasizes this truth. It is a tragic truth, but it is the truth. It says in Revelation 6:12-14:

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

God said “the heavens departed as a scroll” because the scroll is the Bible and it was the “unfolding” of the Bible, the written Word of God, that established the lights within the spiritual heaven in a figurative way. And when God rolls up that scroll, the lights go out.

In Revelation 9, a chapter dealing with Judgment Day, God says in Revelation 9:2:

And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

Again, it is a picture of Judgment Day and a darkened sun. The smoke of the pit (a picture of hell and death) rose to the earth so that the earth took upon itself the condition that had been previously contained in the pit, which means the earth has entered into the condition of “hell.” That is a condition of “darkness” and “smoke,” because smoke relates to the wrath of God and the world is under the wrath of God.

I am going to read a few verses in Isaiah, chapter 13, but there are many more verses that could be added. It says in Isaiah 13:9-11:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

It says in Joel, chapter 2, we read similar language. It says in Joel 2:9-10:

They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:

It says in Joel 3:12-15:

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of JEHOVAH is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

We are also not surprised that God says a similar thing in Zephaniah 1:14-15:

The great day of JEHOVAH is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of JEHOVAH: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness,

Judgment Day is a time of “darkness” and, yet, God tells us a couple of other significant and important things about this darkness in the Gospel accounts. For instance, it says in Mark 13:24-25:

But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, And the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken.

The significant statement is that it speaks of days (plural) in which the sun is dark, the moon is not giving her light, and so forth. And that means that “time” continues after the Tribulation, despite all the Scriptures we just read about the sun being dark, the moon not giving her light and the stars falling and, yet, the Bible insists that time continues for a period of “days” after the Tribulation. Here, it is not specific concerning the number of days it will continue and in Ecclesiastes, chapter 12, it speaks of “evil years” in which the sun is dark, so that also gives us some evidence to go on. And we have learned that the very likely duration of Judgment Day and the spiritual darkness that has overtaken the world after the Tribulation (which ended on May 21, 2011) is 1,600 days. This works out to four years, four months and 16 days.

By the way, notice all the “fours” that are contained in the number “1,600,” as well as the fact that the number “1,600” is “40 x 40,” or doubled to be “4 x 10 x 4 x 10.” It is the number of testing, with the number “4” representing universality and the number “10” representing completeness; then it can be “doubled” to “4 x 10 x 4 x 10.” Regarding the four years, four months and 16 days, the “four years” points to the furthest extent of the judgment; the “four months” re-emphasize this fact; and 16 days is “4 x 4.” This is about as strong an emphasis as you could place upon a number, with “four” being the furthest extent of the judgment of the wrath of God. The blood flows out of the winepress by the space of 1,600 furlongs and then it ceases to flow. It flows for as far and as long as it could to the furthest extent of the “life” that is extended to the wicked during the time of God’s wrath upon them. So this would be the period of time after that Tribulation and it is a time of “darkness.”

The other verse that speaks of “darkness” is in Luke, chapter 21. In Matthew 24:29 and Mark 13:24, God just speaks of the sun being darkened, but in Luke, chapter 21, God tells us something else. It says in Luke 21:25:

And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

The additional and helpful information God gives us is the word “signs.” It is not an actual, literal destruction of the sun, moon or stars. After all, if the sun was literally darkened and the stars fell to the earth (as it says in Revelation 6), then the earth could not continue for even an hour, let alone continue for days; life could not continue to exist if these things were to happen literally. But the Bible says there will be “days” in which these things are happening and this is how these things can be: it is because they are “signs” in the sun, moon and stars. It is the “scroll” of the Bible that unveils and lays out the spiritual heavens, as represented by these celestial bodies, that enlightened the world in the day of salvation; and it is when the Bible is rolled up as a scroll that darkens them. The “signs” are found in the Word of God, the Bible, and that is the only legitimate and acceptable place to look for a sign, according to the Lord Jesus Christ. The “sign of the prophet Jonas” can only de discerned in the Bible. That is where you can read about Jonah. It is not by looking out into the physical heavens and, therefore, God is indicating it is a “spiritual judgment.”

It is “spiritual darkness” that will overtake the world and that is the “darkness” that has now been brought to pass upon the kingdom of the beast – it is full of darkness. God has removed the light of His Word, the light of the Gospel. There is no more salvation. Therefore, there is darkness in all the earth during the Day of Judgment, in this time period after that Tribulation.