Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #24 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are going to be reading Revelation 16:19-21:

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. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

It is interesting that as we read the Bible in the Book of Revelation and we come across passages that clearly identify with Judgment Day God continually associates “Babylon” with Judgment Day. We saw this back in Revelation 14:8:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

Then in that context, it went on to say in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation…

It is, without any question, language that speaks of the final judgment of this world and, again, it begins with the statement, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”

And, here, in Revelation 16, we see the seven last vials of the wrath of God and the language consistently identifies with the judgment on the world, not the judgment on the churches. In concluding the description of the world’s judgment, God said, “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.”

So, we are reminded of “Babylon” in the context of Judgment Day and, here, in Revelation 16, we are again reminded of “Babylon” in the context of Judgment Day.

Remember what we saw in the Book of Isaiah in chapter 13. It said in Isaiah 13:1, “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.” Then in the context of Babylon, as we continue to read about the “burden of Babylon,” we read in Isaiah 13:9-10:

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…

This is the burden of Babylon and there is just overwhelming evidence that the judgment upon Babylon is the judgment upon this world. Even the “type and figure” of the historical seventy year judgment upon Judah (as God used Babylon to oppress her) typified the Great Tribulation and upon completion of that seventy years (pointing to the completion of the Great Tribulation) Babylon fell, historically. It was Judgment Day upon them.

We saw that our verse said, “Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.” As we looked at Biblical examples, we saw that “cup” pointed to a spiritual judgment, just as Christ drank of the cup of the wrath of God in the Garden of Gethsemane and just as the churches drank of cup of the wrath of God when judgment began at the house of God at the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

Then the day of transition came at the end of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 2011 and a similar judgment, a spiritual judgment, came upon the world when the same “cup of wrath” came upon them.

Then it goes on to say in Revelation 16:20:

And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

And we wonder what this could mean. To help us understand that is a spiritual statement and not a literal statement, let us turn to Job 9:5:

Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.

Now, how could God remove mountains and “they know it not,” unless it is spiritual in nature? Mountains in the Bible can represent kingdoms, like the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan. For every island to flee away and for the mountains not to be found, it means that judgment is upon the kingdoms of this world. This is saying the same thing that we saw back in Revelation 6:14-17:

And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Here, we see in this passage that the “heaven departed as a scroll,” and the scroll points to the Word of God which was written upon scrolls originally. To “roll up” the scroll means to close it up so it cannot be read. Then the Bible was “unrolled” and in that sense God placed the spiritual lights of the Gospel through the declaration of His Word, the Bible, into the spiritual heavens. But when the time came for the end of His salvation program, it was as if He “rolled up” the scroll and the lights go out – the “sun” is darkened, the “moon” does not give her light and the “stars” fall. The Bible is no longer shining forth brilliantly with the light of the Gospel of salvation and that is the picture here. When that happened, every “mountain” and “island” is moved out of their place.

The “island” or “isles” in the Bible represent the continents. We have seven continents and they are all islands. They are very large islands and, yet, they are islands, so God speaks of every island to represent all the land masses or continents in the world, which would, in turn, represent all of mankind, because people live on all these continents or islands. This is why it says this in Psalm 97:1:

JEHOVAH reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.

Of course, the physical ground, the earth or the isles, cannot rejoice. But people that live on the earth on these islands can rejoice and it is the people that live upon the earth that are commanded to rejoice and be glad. We also read in Psalm 46:1-2:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

We can see the spiritual meaning of this when we go down to Psalm 46:6:

The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

The word “heathen” can be translated as “nations.” The mountains were carried into the midst of the sea or the “kingdoms were moved.” It is indicating that it is the kingdom of Satan and all the nations of this world that are unsaved. They are moved in the sense that the “mountain” is carried into the sea and that is a figure of speech to represent them coming under the wrath of God. God is actively judging all the unsaved people within Satan’s kingdom of darkness. This is why “every island fled away and the mountains were not found.” It is speaking of the same thing. It is the unsaved people of the world that are in darkness. They are part of these kingdoms, as the entire kingdom of Satan is being judged in Judgment Day. This is the figure God uses.

Then God says in Revelation 16:21:

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

This continues the theme. It is almost relentless in its concentration and focus upon God’s wrath and furious anger and the act of punishing the unsaved. It just keeps piling up in this Book of Revelation. It has been this way throughout these chapters, but, especially, once we reached Revelation 14, 15 and 16. There is just one verse after another, where God is telling us the same thing – mankind has offended Him and transgressed His Law and the day of reckoning has come. The day of God’s vengeance has come and it is time for the Law of God to demand satisfaction for the violation against it. God has determined to punish every unsaved individual.

“Hail” is one of the expressions of God’s anger in the Bible. Of course, we are familiar with “hail” from the historical account in the Book of Exodus when God brought judgment upon Egypt. We read in Exodus 9:22-26:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and JEHOVAH sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and JEHOVAH rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

The hail was a very destructive force that the Lord sent to further destroy Egypt and further destroy the kingdom of Pharaoh because Pharaoh would not let the people go. The hail served to destroy the herbs of the field and the trees of the field and their fruit. That is the picture, of course, with many of these judgments, like the darkening of the sun or the turning of the waters to blood. It relates to the judgment of the removal of God’s Holy Spirit and the removal of the possibility of salvation from the world. So, too, the “hail” accomplishes the destruction of the fruit. If there is no fruit, the picture is that there is no salvation and this is one of the things that God points to here.

It said in Revelation 16:21:

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent…

We wonder why God tells us that the weight of the hail was “about the weight of a talent”. When we look in the Bible to try to find related information to what God might tell us about the weight of a talent, we do find some curious things. We find this kind of language in 2Samuel 12:29-31:

And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it, and took it. And he took their king's crown from off his head, the weight whereof was a talent of gold with the precious stones: and it was set on David's head. And he brought forth the spoil of the city in great abundance. And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them pass through the brickkiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon. So David and all the people returned unto Jerusalem.

Here, the crown that David took from the king’s head weighed a “talent of gold.” David puts on the crown as the conquering king and ruler. Notice how he rules over the people, as he puts them “under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under axes of iron.” It is very similar to Christ, as He rules with “a rod of iron” in this Day of Judgment, as He has conquered Satan and rules over all that Satan had ruled over. Yet, it is not a benevolent rule, but He is punishing the subjects He has conquered and ruling with “a rod of iron.”

We find language that relates to the “talent” in Exodus 25:31:

And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.

Then let us go down to Exodus 25:37-39:

And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it. And the tongs thereof, and the snuffdishes thereof, shall be of pure gold. Of a talent of pure gold shall he make it, with all these vessels.

So the candlestick was said to a “talent of pure gold” or the weight of the talent, just as the crown that was upon the king’s head. I have not been able to find too much other information about anything that is said to be the “weight of a talent.” So we have a crown and a candlestick and the crown relates to being a king and the candlestick ties in to light of the Gospel or the light of the Word of God. We can definitely see how it points to Christ judging the world with His Word, the Bible, and the Bible is bringing judgment upon mankind. It is a spiritual judgment and the judgment is being declared and brought forth through the “righteous revelation” of God as He opens up His Word to reveal these things in the day of His wrath.

We also know that God does at times relate “hail” to His Word. For instance, it says in Psalm 148:8:

Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word:

So these elements fulfill the Word of God as they are sent forth. So, too, God indicates that the hail weighs “about the weight of a talent” and I think this is a reference to help us understand that these things are coming about as a result of the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered Satan in the Day of Judgment; He has taken his crown and He has put all of Satan’s subjects under the “iron,” as He rules with a “rod of iron” over all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. The “hail” is a picture or illustration of this, as it fulfills God’s Word.

Then it goes on to say at the end of Revelation 16:21:

… and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

Again, the word “blasphemed” means to “speak evil of” something. And as people hear the information coming forth from the Bible that May 21, 2011 was Judgment Day and that the door is shut and the light of the Gospel is out and there is no more salvation, they speak evil of these things. They speak evil of the doctrine of God and the Word that comes forth in judgment upon them. This is the judgment written and the people of God execute that which is written by sharing these things and it could be that as we share these things, we will be “evil spoken of,” but it is for the Word’s sake. Ultimately, God is the one who is the target of their wrath and it is not us.

This is typical of what we have seen in previous verses in Revelation in the context of Judgment Day – men blaspheme God and speak evil of God. Again, this identifies with May 21, 2011 and all the time thereafter and we are living in that time period now when men speak evil of God “because of the plague of the hail.” The hail points to the Word of God. It is related to the candlestick and it is related to Christ being Lord and King over all since He has been triumphant in the Day of Judgment. This is the reason they are blaspheming God, because “the plague thereof was exceeding great.”

There has been a tremendous emphasis on the word “great” in these verses. It says in Revelation 16:18:

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God…

Four times the word “great” is used in this passage and then it says in our verse in Revelation 18:21:

And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven…

Everything is “great” and it is amplified. It is a huge thing and it is not the typical or normal judgment that God has brought upon men all through history. It is not even like the judgment in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell into sin and God judged them and they died spiritually. It is not the judgment that men have experienced throughout time, as they have died in their sins and ceased to be. That was a real judgment upon them, but this is the final and official judgment of God. It is the judgment upon all the rebels and upon the entire kingdom of Satan and it is the judgment upon Satan and the fallen angels. It is judgment upon every unsaved individual that is living today and upon every unsaved individual that has died throughout history, because at the completion of this judgment, even their bones or their dust will be burned up and destroyed for evermore. It is the judgment upon men in which the world will be taken from them and the world itself will be destroyed. All the contamination and corruption that the whole universe has experienced because of sin will, ultimately, be completely annihilated on that last day, plus every unsaved person along with it. That is a “great” judgment. It is an exceeding great judgment that God is bringing to pass at this time.