Rev 16:17-21 And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. (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. (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. (20) And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. (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.
Good morning! This is it! We are nearing the end of God’s wrath upon the earth and mankind. We will see what happens during this final vial! I find it interesting to see what/where the vials were poured out. Let’s take a quick look:
- First Vial: Poured upon the people on earth who took the mark of the beast and worshipped his image
- Second Vial: Poured upon the sea
- Third Vial: Poured upon the rivers and fountains
- Fourth Vial: Poured upon the sun
- Fifth Vial: Poured upon the seat of the beast and his kingdom
- Sixth Vial: Poured upon the Euphrates River.
- Seventh Vial: Poured into the air
The first six vials were poured out on specific things, but this seventh one is poured into the air. This gives the connotation that everything that needs air will be affected by this vial. We see that once this vial is poured out, a voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, says, “It is done.” The wrath of God is finished as far as the Tribulation period is concerned. This last vial is quite violent, as we will see in the following verses.
We see in Revelation 17:18 that nature is going to go ballistic, to say the least. Mankind will experience thunders and lightnings and the most severe earthquake ever to happen on planet Earth. Just how severe will this earthquake be? Well, to date, the worse earthquake has been the one in Chile in 1960, which was a 9.5. I love how scientists say that a 10.0 is not possible because there isn’t a fault line long enough to support that theory. Well, the Bible says that with God all things are possible so I don’t doubt in the least that this last earthquake will be far greater than anyone can imagine. How do I know this? The last half of verse 18 says: “and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.” Furthermore, it will be so great that verse 19-20 states:
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. (20) And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.
So we see from these two verses that the great city is divided into three parts. What is this great city? Babylon is mentioned 296 times (twice as Babel). Interestingly, six of those times in Revelation alone (six times mentioned in Matthew, Acts and 1 Peter). As well, 42 verses in Revelation speak of Babylon. This is the second most mentioned city, Jerusalem being the most mentioned. Jerusalem is found 814 times in the Scriptures. It amazes me that these two polar opposite cities depict good and evil. God created a beautiful Eden for mankind and a Lake of Fire for the devil. God is Truth, Satan is the father of lies. God’s city is Jerusalem, Satan’s city is Babylon (the birth place of the occult and all things demonically evil). I do believe that it is the great city of Babylon which will be destroyed, once and for all: Babylon, the physical city. In Chapter 17, we will see spiritual Babylon and chapter 19 will show us the world economic Babylon. All three equal a “demonic trinity,” if you will.
Babylon is more than just a city. It is located approximately 55 miles south of Baghdad along the Euphrates River in Iraq. In glory days, King Nebuchadnezzar had his hanging gardens there. This was known as one of the Seven Ancient Wonders. Babylon was representative of power and strength. The Greek historian, Heroditus, said the walls around it were 35 stories high and 87 feet thick! It was impenetrable, so the King thought. However, Jeremiah 51 and Isaiah prophesied in chapters 45-47 that it would fall, 150 years before it even fell. It was even foretold by name that King Cyrus would be the one to attack it and he did so in 539 BCE! It was conquered in a very unique manner. At the time, the Euphrates river was made to go around Babylon so it would be their “mote,” so to speak. As well, they channeled the water go below the city so they would have water within the city walls. Cyrus came up with the brilliant idea to damn up the river; it also caused the waters to no longer go under the city. On October 12, 539 BCE, Cyrus’ army walked right in beneath the city walls and seized it!! Brilliant! The same Bible that predicted its fall, predicts that it will be rebuilt and the Lord will destroy it in Revelation 16:19!
We also see in this verse that the cities of the nations will lay flat! Wow! That is a powerful earthquake! As if this isn’t enough, Revelation 16:20 says that every island and every mountain will disappear as the entire earth shakes! Can you imagine Mount Everest? Its height is 29,028 feet high 😮 and even this behemoth of a mountain will come down!
To top all of this, as if the above details aren’t enough, hail will come out of heaven weighing a talent! Depending on where you get your online information for the talent’s modern-day weight, it can range from 75-100 pounds! 😖😵 Either weight you look at, can you imagine being struck by one of these? It will mean certain death. The largest recorded hailstone was in Vivian, South Dakota in July 2010. It was about the size of a volleyball according to weather.com. This hailstone weight 1.9 lbs and was 8 inches in diameter!! It is said that the hailstones to come are going to weigh 75-100 lbs., which would make them approximately 29.8″ in diameter!!! Can you imagine how fast they will come down? According to NOAA:
For small hailstones (<1-inch in diameter), the expected fall speed is between 9 and 25 mph. For hailstones that one would typically see in a severe thunderstorm (1-inch to 1.75-inch in diameter), the expected fall speed is between 25 and 40 mph. In the strongest supercells that produce some of the largest hail one might expect to see (2-inches to 4-inches in diameter), the expected fall speed is between 44 and 72 mph. However, there is much uncertainty in these estimates due to variability in the hailstone’s shape, degree of melting, fall orientation, and the environmental conditions. However, it is possible for very large hailstones (diameters exceeding 4-inches) to fall at over 100 mph.
https://nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/
If the hailstones of Revelation 16 will weigh 75-100 lbs., you can expect the speed of their rate of descent would be more than seven times greater than the one exceeding 4 inches! Either weight, Reader, you do NOT want to be here for that! I can’t even imagine this in my finite little brain!
This last judgment is absolutely horrifying! I’m so thankful that I won’t be here, aren’t you? Reader, can you say the same? Have you received Christ as your Saviour? If no, your sins are not covered by His sacrificial offering of Himself. You have not been redeemed by His blood. It is no coincidence that God has placed you here for such a time as this so that you may be saved if you are not already. Please click here and the link will open up in a separate tab to You Can Be Born Again and Know It!