Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #29 of Revelation chapter 18 and we are going to read Revelation 18:20-22:

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her. And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;

I will stop reading there.  God is describing the judgment of this world, typified by the judgment upon Babylon.  We discussed verse 20 in our last study and before we move on, I just want to comment on the last part of Revelation 18:20:

… for God hath avenged you on her.

The Greek word translated as “avenged” is Strong’s #2919 and it is the Greek word “krino.”  It is a word translated as “judgment.”  There is also another word in the Greek that is not apparent in the King James translation and that is a related word, Strong’s #2917, which is also translated as “judge” or “judgment.”  Literally, the last part of this verse reads this way: “God judged your judgment on her.”  God is speaking of Babylon and Babylon was the instrument of God’s judgment on the corporate churches and God has judged their judgment, as Satan and his emissaries came against the corporate church according to the will of God; that is, God lifted his hand of restraint and loosed Satan and permitted Satan to do this and, yet, it was a sinful action on Satan’s part.  Therefore, God is judging them, as He says, “God judged your judgment on her.”  This is similar to what God stated earlier in Revelation 18.  Remember what He said in Revelation 18:6:

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.

This refers to the judgment which began at the house of God and now it is Babylon’s turn to be judged. 

Let us go on to Revelation 18:21:

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone…

The “mighty angel” is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.  We have seen this several times in the Book of Revelation.  We will just go to one verse in Revelation 10:1:

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:

Only Jesus can fit this description.  The Lord God is “a sun and a shield,” and Christ is the Light of the world, so He is the “mighty messenger” of God.  He is the Chief Messenger.  He is God Himself so, of course, He is mighty and this is who is in view, as it goes on to say in Revelation 18:21:

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea…

Then the statement is made that Babylon will be thrown down and found no more at all.  This is a picture of the judgment on Babylon.  There is no question about that.  If we go back to the Book of Jeremiah, it says in Jeremiah 51:61-64:

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words; Then shalt thou say, O JEHOVAH, thou hast spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate for ever. And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Here is a similar picture to what God is painting in our verse and Revelation 18 is actually commentary on what God said here in Jeremiah, chapter 51.  He is further expounding that this is the judgment of God and notice the connection between the “stone” and the “Bible.”  It said, “thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates,” and this typifies the judgment on Babylon through the Word of God.  It is the Word of God that has pulled Babylon down to the depths of the river Euphrates.  It says “sea” in our verse in Revelation 18, but it is the same thing because they are both picturing the wrath of God and “to sink into the depths of the sea” means that you have been destroyed by the anger of a vengeful God.  Just look at how Pharaoh and the Egyptian army sank into the depths of the sea and they were destroyed as the sea covered them.  It is a picture of Satan and his forces being destroyed, just as Babylon is a picture of Satan and his forces being destroyed.

Let us take a look at some of this language in Revelation 18:21: “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone.”  This stone that is being thrown into the sea is said to be “like a great millstone,” and we do read of God casting a mountain into the sea in a Gospel account and a mountain is made of stone.  It says in Matthew 21:17-22:

And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

We have gone over this historical parable before and we saw that the cursing of the fig tree represented Christ cursing national Israel.  Then He says that what He has done, they will do also and God’s people did do this when they proclaimed the judgment on the churches when the curse of God was upon all the churches and congregations of the world.  More than that, Christ said, “Ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea.”  As God opened up information from the Bible to show a spiritual judgment on the world (just as He showed there was spiritual judgment on the churches), His people not only cursed the fig tree, but we cast this mountain, which represents the kingdom of Satan, into the sea.  We pronounced the judgment written; that is how we go about executing or carrying out God’s judgment in the Day of Judgment.  It is part of our role in judging the world with Christ as we share these truths from the Bible.

The mountain is made of stone.  A mountain is not made of wood or other things, but of stone.  The mountain that is cast into the sea pictures the wrath of God upon the kingdom of Satan, just as Babylon represents Satan’s kingdom.  Now Christ is saying that He “took up a stone.”  By the way, the Greek word translated as “took up” is the same word translated as “removed” in Matthew 21:21, where it says, “If ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.”  God can use even a little word, as we compare Scripture with Scripture, to lead us in the proper direction.   So it says, “And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea,” and there is an emphasis on this word “millstone.”  It is the same word used at the end of verse 22, after it speaks of the voice of harpers and musicians and trumpeters not being found any more; and it says, “and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee.”  Of course, you are not going to hear the sound of a millstone because Christ had just taken it and cast it into the sea, so it is gone in that sense, but the word “millstone” leads us back to Jeremiah 25, where I think we can see a relationship.  It says in Jeremiah 25:10:

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

Further on in Revelation, chapter 18, we will see that same language, which means that the word “millstone” mentioned a couple of times in our chapter is the equivalent of this Hebrew word that is translated as “millstone.”  There are a couple of different Hebrew words translated as “millstone,” but this is the one we want to follow.  It is Strong’s #7347 and this word is translated as “mill” in Exodus 11:5:

And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant that is behind the mill; and all the firstborn of beasts.

It is translated as “millstones” in the context of Babylon, 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. Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.

Here, we are helped because it says, “Take the millstones, and grind meal.”  Now we have the word “grind” associated with “millstones” and that leads us to some interesting places.  For instance, it says in Matthew 24:37-40:

But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

Here, in the context of the coming of the Son of man (and the reference to the historical judgment of the flood that pictures the end of the world), God refers to two in the field and one is taken and the other left; and two are grinding at the mill and one is taken and the other left.  We know that in the Bible the “field” represents the world and it was in the world that God sent forth His people to evangelize and they were to go out into the world and bring the Gospel to all creatures, but now it is Judgment Day and it is the end of God’s salvation program, so “one is taken and the other left.”  This is restated in a parallel passage in Luke 17:34-36:

I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

There is a distinction made between the “two” that are in the bed, the “two” that are grinding” and the “two” that are in the field.   The field represents the world and “grinding” at the mill represents being involved in the Gospel because it produces meal or flour, which typifies the Gospel.  Remember that the number “two” in the Bible represents the caretakers of the Bible.  But what does “two in one bed” mean?  Revelation 2, verses 20 through 22, speaks of being cast into a bed of great tribulation.  So, “two” were in great tribulation; “two” were involved in getting the Gospel out into the field of the world; “two” were involved in grinding the meal or flour, which is the Gospel.  One of each of the “two” is taken and the other is left. 

The word “taken” is often translated as “received.”  It is translated this way in John 14:2-3:

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

The word “receive” is the same word translated as “taken.”  So the one “received” is “taken” by Christ. 

We also find the same word used in Hebrews 12:28:

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Christ said He will come again and take you.  That is what He did when He saved all His people when He brought them in salvation into the inner chamber where they were hidden in Christ in God.  Therefore, the kingdom is secure to each one of His elect people.  As of May 21, 2011 God received all His people into the kingdom and the kingdom was delivered up unto the Father but the others were “left.”  The word “left” is translated as “forsaken” elsewhere.  Where were they left?  They were left “in the bed,” which points to Great Tribulation.  They were left “in the field,” which points to those still attempting to get the Gospel into the world; and they were left “grinding” at the mill and we could look at them as those that are still attempting to get the Gospel of (ongoing) salvation into the world; they fail to recognize that God has ended the Great Tribulation and the day of salvation and He has brought about the Day of Judgment.  They believe God is still saving and they are insisting upon it in all of these cases, but they have been “forsaken” and, as a result, they do not have eyes to see what the Lord did, spiritually.  Therefore, they continue to be involved in a task that had previously been a good task, but when God ended His salvation program, then we ought not to be involved in that any longer.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next study, we will take a look at this interesting language in Revelation 18, verses 21 and 22, concerning the millstone being cast into the sea and how it involves the Day of Judgment.