Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #22 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are going to be reading Revelation 16:19:

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

We have been going through Revelation 16, which is a chapter in which God is specifically describing Judgment Day, the day of the wrath of the Lord and judgment upon all the unsaved people of the earth.

Now, in verse 19, He speaks of the “great city” that “was divided into three parts.” The “great city” is Babylon, as it goes on to say: “and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God.” So the city is Babylon and Babylon is also “the cities of the nations,” and we will see why this is so when we get to that phrase.

But let us start with the language that says, “And the great city was divided into three parts.” The Greek word translated as “divided” is the word “ginomai,” Strong’s #1096. If you remember, it is the same Greek word that was translated as “done” back in Revelation 16:17, where it said, “It is done.” This word normally has the meaning of something that has happened or that has come about. It is sort of an all-purpose word, if you look this word up in Strong’s Concordance. It is translated as many various English words, but here it is the idea that the great city was “divided” or that it “became” three parts. The great city Babylon “came to be” three parts, so that makes sense that they would translate it as “divided,” because Babylon is looked at by God now as “three parts.” The mention of the phrase “three parts” leads us right away to a passage in Zechariah which we have looked at in the past. Let us go back there and I will read a couple verses in Zechariah 13:8:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land…

By the way, I point this out each time we read this, but the word “land” is often translated as “earth.” Again, it says in Zechariah 13:8-9:

And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith JEHOVAH, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, JEHOVAH is my God.

We have discussed this before and we have seen how very well these verses fit with what God has done at this time of judgment on the world. God brought to pass Judgment Day beginning on May 21, 2011. He shut the door to heaven and He turned out the lights of the Gospel and He ceased to save people and, yet, time continues. Here we are over three years later, still on this earth and the world is still in operation and the true believers are still in the land or in the earth. God “cut off” the “two parts.” If you write “two thirds” as a decimal, it is “.666,” which represents unsaved mankind. They are the “two parts” and they are all unsaved and part of the kingdom of Satan, which is typified by Babylon. So God is saying, “two parts therein shall be cut off and die,” and when the Lord did shut the door to heaven on May 21, 2011, in essence He cut off all unsaved mankind from any hope or possibility of salvation for evermore. They were “cut off” and brought into the condition of “death,” because their spiritual condition cannot be changed. The righteous (those God has saved) will remain saved and the filthy (those God has not saved) will remain unsaved and, therefore, it was a “death blow” to all the wicked of the world. They were “cut off” and, for all intents and purposes, they are “dead” and that is why the world is in the condition of “hell” now, as hell and the grave are synonymous. It is as if the world is mostly populated by people that are dead. Of course, they had always been dead spiritually, but from man’s perspective there had been hope they could become saved during the “day of salvation,” but now that hope has been removed.

It goes on to say, “but the third shall be left therein.” The “third part” normally points to the true believers and, in this case, it does. It is the “third part” that God has saved and they have been “left therein,” or left on the earth in the Day of Judgment, just as it says in 1Thessalonians 4:15-17:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

It says, “We which are alive and remain,” and that is not a coincidental phrase. God speaks of leaving the “third part therein,” and in Zechariah 13:9, He said, “And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried.” It is the fire of Judgment Day that punishes the unsaved and, finally, destroys them completely, but it also serves to “test” or “try” the faith of the elect and they will come through the fire as purified “silver and gold.” There is no real harm that can come to the elect, as they go through the fire and come out the other side – they have glorified God in the process.

We read something in Proverbs, chapter 2, which relates to these statements in Zechariah 13 and to our verse in Revelation 16, verse 19. It says in Proverbs 2:21-22:

For the upright shall dwell in the land, and the perfect shall remain in it. But the wicked shall be cut off from the earth, and the transgressors shall be rooted out of it.

Notice how God speaks of the “upright” and the “perfect” as dwelling in the land and remaining in it. They are those “that are alive and remain,” and they are the ones that “shall be caught up” and “shall ever be with the Lord.” It is as if they are the ones that have endured to the end and, therefore, they are qualified through the salvation God worked in them to enter into that eternal future.

We had thought in time past that God would take the believers out of this world and then deal with the unsaved that remained in the earth. All the inhabitants of the earth would then be punished and judged by God’s wrath, but it was actually God’s plan to leave us all here together while He carried out the business of Judgment Day. He would bring the “third part” through the fire and they would pass through safely into the glorious new heaven and new earth.

Let us go back to our verse in Revelation 16:19:

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God…

It says, “the cities of the nations fell,” and, again, the context indicates that the city divided into three parts is Babylon and the “cities of the nations” that fell are also a representation of Babylon. Babylon was a ruling nation over other nations and a great kingdom in its day. Regarding Babylon, we read 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 word “lady” is often translated as “mistress.” For example, it is used of Sarai who was mistress over Hagar, a bond servant. A “mistress of kingdoms” means that Babylon ruled over the kingdoms. Satan ruled over the nations of the world or over the cities of the nations. All had been given to him by right of conquest back in the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve believed the lie rather than the truth of God’s Word. They became subject at that time to sin and to Satan and Satan has ruled over the unsaved people of the world ever since.

But now it is Judgment Day and that great city has been divided into three parts. The world is now “divvied up,” as the expression goes. There is the great multitude still living on the earth, the “third part” that represents all God has saved and there are the “two thirds” that are designated as unsaved.

During the time of salvation, God was still saving, so He could take someone from the kingdom of darkness and translate them into the kingdom of light. They could be taken from the “two thirds” and added to the “one third,” and that was going on with regularity during the last part of the Great Tribulation period. But now there are no more people being translated out of that kingdom. No one is becoming saved now, so everyone has “returned unto their own land,” as it says in the Book of Jeremiah and the righteous will remain righteous and the filthy will remain filthy, so the “two parts” are established and the “one part” is established. The cities of the nations, or Babylon, fell on May 21, 2011, Judgment Day. Remember what God said in Revelation 18:2-5:

And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Babylon is fallen and it goes on to say in our verse in Revelation 16:19:

…and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

Why? It was because Babylon had caused the nations to drink of the wine of her fornications. God used Babylon to bring judgment upon the churches and, in that sense, the churches and congregations of the world were given the cup through the mediation of Babylon, as Satan was loosed and entered into the churches to rule as the man of sin taking his seat in the temple, showing himself that he was God. He ruled over all the churches and congregations of the world and, surely, that was the ministration of the cup of the wrath of God – God had permitted this and fostered this as His will. Satan became God’s servant to accomplish that task. The Lord also increased the glory and greatness of Babylon’s kingdom among the nations of the world by lessening the Holy Spirit’s restraint in the hearts of men and, as a result, men served sin and Satan more and more. This was all preparation for the final judgment of mankind.

We also read in Jeremiah 25:11:

And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

We have also discussed this many times. God raised up Babylon and the king of Babylon and they became a great and mighty nation for seventy years and during that time Judah was oppressed and went into captivity. It was a picture of God’s judgment on the New Testament corporate church at the end of time and the beginning of the Great Tribulation when judgment began at the house of God on May 21, 1988 and lasted for 23 years until May 21, 2011. That seventy-year period of Babylon’s reign pictured the actual 23 years of the Great Tribulation and during that time God does not touch the king of Babylon; He calls the king of Babylon His servant because he was doing the will of the Lord. But then we read in Jeremiah 25:12:

And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

God said He would punish Babylon and the king of Babylon at the end of seventy years. Notice how He ties it in with the prophecy of Jeremiah against “all the nations,” and that is because Babylon represents all the nations of this world. The punishment of Babylon occurs at the end of seventy years, when the Medes and Persians took the kingdom of Babylon in a night. It very much parallels how Christ comes as a thief in the night. As we read in Daniel 5, the Medes and the Persians surprised the king of Babylon and his lords, who were having a party and in that very night the king was slain and the kingdom was taken. It pictures Judgment Day beginning on May 21, 2011. So, in our verse in Revelation 16:19, it says:

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God…

God now remembered her sins. Babylon had been useful. It had served God’s purpose. Satan is excellent at destruction and since it was God’s purpose to destroy the churches and who better to carry that out than Satan? Yet, it was only to serve God’s purpose and God never sanctions Satan’s sins or the sins of men. God simply loosed Satan, knowing what Satan would do once he was loosed. It was like Pharaoh, king of Egypt, when the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart – God just let him be and man naturally has a “hard heart” and if God does not operate in a man’s heart to restrain sin, then man will do terrible things. It is not God who did it, but man. It is just that God did not prevent it. Satan and his emissaries and the unsaved people of the earth were accomplishing the will of God in bringing judgment upon the churches and increasing the wickedness in the world during the 23-year Great Tribulation period, but now God is going to bring their sins to mind, as it says in Revelation 18:5-6:

For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

God brings Babylon’s sins into remembrance. He speaks to His people and He says, “Now you are the ministers of the cup of my wrath. I used Satan and his emissaries to administer the cup of my wrath to the churches, but now you, my people, are the ones that will administer the cup of my wrath to Satan and his forces. Not only that, but you are to give Babylon ‘double’ for her sins.” That is why it says, “in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”

We wonder what that could mean, but then we realize that God brought judgment through Satan (Babylon) and Babylon was in a sense in control of the cup of His wrath. The judgment was on the “third part” only, as the churches had taken on that identification with the “third part” because the believers had been part of the churches through the many centuries and, therefore, God assigned that figure to the corporate body, as we found in Revelation 8 when the “third part was judged. This was the judgment that began at the house of God and the cup of the wrath of God was first given to the “third part.” But now God is giving His people, the true believers, the task of administering that cup to the world. Remember that God sent the “seven messengers” to pour out the vials of His wrath upon the earth. God is saying in Revelation 18:6, “in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.” Reward her as she rewarded you. The “doubling” is because it is the “two parts therein” that are cut off and die. It is not just judgment on the “third part,” but it is the “two parts” that represent all the unsaved people (inside and outside the churches) and the cup of the wrath of God is “doubled” because “two thirds” is double of “one third.”

We will look a little bit more at this language in Revelation 16:19 in our next Bible study.