“And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (‘Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!’) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.”

The Justice of the Lord

1. Justice Invited

“And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.”

It’s interesting that the demonic spirits of the Devil, his puppet the beast, and his puppet’s hype man the false prophet, are described as being like frogs, specifically coming from their mouths. Simply from a legal standpoint, frogs are unclean in the Jewish dietary custom, not fitting into the criteria given in Leviticus 11:9–12

“These you may eat, of all that are in the waters. Everything in the waters that has fins and scales, whether in the seas or in the rivers, you may eat. But anything in the seas or the rivers that does not have fins and scales, of the swarming creatures in the waters and of the living creatures that are in the waters, is detestable to you. You shall regard them as detestable; you shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the waters that does not have fins and scales is detestable to you.”

The unclean nature of the animal is relevant to today’s passage, but also consider that frogs are amphibians, living in the water and on land, they have a sort of dual nature. The dragon, the beast, and the false prophet have this symbolic amphibious nature – they serve a spiritual purpose, they lead a spiritual war, but acted out in the physical world, manipulating the peoples and powers across creation. Their mouths continually produce a kind of doublespeak, promising deliverance and power that actually guarantees complete destruction. Proverbs 18:21 tells us,

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.”

And what these three evil workers spread is most assuredly death. It’s an interesting connection that frogs were also the second plague that God brought against Egypt. Exodus 8:5–7 says,

“And the LORD said to Moses, ‘Say to Aaron, “Stretch out your hand with your staff over the rivers, over the canals and over the pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt!”’ So Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. But the magicians did the same by their secret arts and made frogs come up on the land of Egypt.”

We read that the Egyptian magicians were able to mysteriously bring forth frogs, but note that so far in each miracle they’ve imitated they’ve come up short – they turned their staffs into serpents like Aaron’s, but Aaron’s staff ate theirs. They managed to turn water into blood and bring forth frogs, but they couldn’t turn the water back or get rid of the frogs. And the plague of the frogs, which is only the second of the plagues, is the last one that the magicians are able to imitate in any capacity – here we see the limit of whatever dark power or deception they manipulate. Similarly, these demonic, frog-like spirits mark the outside threshold of what the dragon, beast, and false prophet are capable of. They’ve run roughshod over the world, they’ve been permitted to persecute and conquer the saints, the world has been deceived, has taken the mark, has bowed down and worshiped the beast and his image, and now, we see the final act of their worldly might. With all their power and cunning they travel the world to pull in the kings, to entice the rulers to stand in the day of battle against the Lord. It would be laughable if it weren’t so tragic for the fools who follow them, and offensive to the glory of God. Because all their power amounts to nothing before God, no more than the Egyptian magicians calling forth more frogs. And ultimately these dark three who conspire against the Holy One and His saints, and the wicked men of the world who chase the promise of their power are only screaming an invitation to the Lord of Hosts to pour out His judgment upon them. Proverbs 1:10–19 says,

“My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse’— my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.”

The dragon, beast, and false prophet, these are like the sinners that entice, and the world is the wicked fool that follows them so greedily – but to their own destruction. Because as we read last week, closing on Revelation 16:12,

“The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.”

God has set the stage, cleared a path, and the armies of the world with the dark three at their head march forward, their hearts set on war against the Almighty, but what they will find, the thing that they’ve invited upon themselves is a bitter draft of justice that will mean their end.

2. Justice Delivered

“(‘Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!’)”

One of the most heavily discussed points in all of Revelation is the timing of the second coming of Christ, commonly called the rapture. In what we read today we find ourselves at the end of the seven year tribulation, and it’s the timing of the tribulation around which the second coming is anticipated. There’s the pre-trib crowd who believe that, before the first of the seven seals is ever broken, all of God’s people are snatched away. There’s the mid-trib group, who believe that at the exact three and a half year midway point in the tribulation we’ll be rescued by Christ. Then we have the pre-wrath folks, who carry some similarities to the mid-trib people, but rather than expecting Christ’s return based on an exact timeline, they look to the unfolding of God’s wrath. The belief is that while God’s people may be allowed to suffer through the tribulation, we would not be subject to God’s wrath. The interesting thing is that Scripture’s not clear on this, which is why there’s so much speculation. That’s not the Bible’s fault, we’re told what we need to know, what God desires us to know, and if we become too bogged down in theories about things that aren’t clearly communicated, if we miss the forest for the trees we have only ourselves to blame and certainly not the Word. It seems that to have an opinion on Christ’s return, a reading of the text that seems logical would be appropriate, but it also seems to be a great mistake to dig your heels in too firmly on any one opinion. There is Scripture that can be used to support each viewpoint, there’s a logic case to be made – some stronger than others, but none of them trivial. That being said, the one I have come to personally find most compelling, the one that seems most evident if we read Revelation through and take what this book says at face value, is the fourth opinion on Christ’s return, which is post-trib. This is, in many respects the least desirable of the four theories – after all, who would want to risk being present for the entirety of the tribulation? I find that it is also the path that requires the most faith. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with holding a pre-trib, mid-trib, or pre-wrath view, but what I’ve noticed, particularly with some who hold a pre-trib view with ironclad certainty, is that it causes an almost lax handling of the tribulation and sometimes Revelation as a whole. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, but there are those who read this amazing, brutal, transformative, glorious record, and for them it’s ultimately “the book that doesn’t apply to me.” There’s a sense of detachment because from the start of Revelation 5 up until Revelation 19, they don’t believe there’s a chance of them being present on the earth, it’s a sideline opinion. Again, before I offend anyone, I’m not saying this of everyone with a pre-trib view, but it’s definitely some people with a pre-trib view. And to a lesser extent, it’s some people with a mid-trib or pre-wrath view – it creates an opportunity to remove yourself from the events of the tribulation, to experience a sense of detachment with what is unfolding upon the world. I say that a post-trib view requires the most faith, because it’s a call to endurance beyond what any person can reasonably or rationally endure. It is a weight that is absolutely too great to carry, and so the dependence upon God that’s required is brutally, painfully obvious. Now, I don’t favor the post-trib view just because it’s the hardest to come to terms with – if that’s your only reason then that’s a dumb reason. I don’t care about which path is the easiest or the hardest, which is the most or least desirable, I care about what is true, and given the lack of specificity that Scripture provides here I don’t hold any of the four views with absolute conviction. But the reason that I find a post-trib view most likely, as I said, is because it seems that this is what Revelation communicates most clearly, right here in this parenthetical statement. We read that the kings of the world are assembled for battle, and that the place where they’re gathered is called, in Hebrew, “Armageddon.” But sandwiched between these two pieces of information there’s an aside from Jesus. Now admittedly it doesn’t say that this is Jesus speaking, John doesn’t name the speaker at all, but we can understand that this is Jesus because he’s quoting Himself from Matthew 24:42–44,

“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

The parenthetical statement in today’s passage also makes reference to 1 Thessalonians 5:3–6,

“While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.”

As well as 2 Peter 3:10,

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

Now to the pre-trib crowd who would say that there’s an early, unseen return, coinciding with a vanishing of the saints, I understand how they could read the imagery of “coming like a thief” tying into that, but consider that Jesus also says of His return in Matthew 24:23–28,

“Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

While warning of the coming antichrists Jesus also informs us that His return will not be discreet, but highly visible, like lightning streaking across the sky, undeniable as vultures gathered around a body. The tie-in of the thief is, as Paul put it, directing us toward the surprise of the return, the unpredictability of the timing, just as no one knows when a thief may come against them. As we see the armies of the world gathered together, the sign of the beast as their standard, to war against God their mission, Jesus addresses His church in an aside – the time is drawing near, He is coming. Now, even if you don’t hold a post-trib view, Jesus is still coming soon, His highly visible return in Revelation 19, riding a white horse into battle is close at hand. But I can’t quite separate this triumphant return from the second coming – the surprise, completely blindsiding the world who is asleep and unaware in the darkness of their sin, a blinding, glorious image for all to see, a rescuer, come to destroy the enemies of His bride. It seems that this coming rescue, the justice that approaches is what Jesus is reminding His battered and persecuted flock of here.

“And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.”

Armageddon is a word that, similar to apocalypse, has come to mean something more in our world today than what it actually means in Scripture. Admittedly, in comparing the two, the worldly definition of Armageddon is far closer. Apocalypse, as we’ve discussed before, is not some world ending event or disaster, but comes from the Greek “apokalypsis” which literally means “revelation.” It’s an unveiling, a revealing, not something related to massive destruction. Armageddon on the other hand, which again gets used by the world to describe various cataclysms or doomsday events, pertains to a location – one that is actually a significant location in the Old Testament. This gets overlooked sometimes (I know I certainly missed it), because the Bible will sometimes use different names for the same location or region. While this can lead to some confusion, it’s not out of intended misdirection. Consider something – imagine there’s a mountain and that mountain has a name. Beside that mountain there’s a valley, and the valley has a name as well. Finally there’s a river flowing through the valley, and the river has its own name too. In recounting an event that took place there I could accurately use any of the three names depending on what happened, and especially to someone familiar with the geography it would make perfect sense. That’s not even counting the fact that different places are given different names depending on who controls them – which is why for us today, what was known as “Lenapehoking,” by the native Americans, and called “New Amsterdam” by the Dutch is what we call New York. Armageddon, which is a transliteration of “harmagedōn,” means the hill (or possibly city) of Megiddo. This is a location that we also see referred to as “Jezreel,” and “Mt. Gilboa,” and it is a place where we see a theme repeated. It would verge on being overly simplistic to say that this is just where the righteous are delivered victory and the wicked fall (though that’s certainly applicable in many cases), and more accurate to say that this is a place where we see those who have disobeyed God defeated. This is first noted in Joshua 12:21, where Taanach, the king of Megiddo is one of the thirty-one listed kings that God granted Joshua victory over. But when we next see the location mentioned it’s at the start of the book of Judges as the first region where the complete conquest of the promised land was failed, Judges 1:27–28 saying,

“Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages, for the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not drive them out completely.”

This is a little bit like what king Saul would one day do, the final act that would turn the face of the Lord from him – told to wipe the Amalekites from the face of the earth, he instead captures their king to humiliate him and takes their livestock as spoils of war for the people of Israel. This act is what leads Samuel to communicate in 1 Samuel 15:22–23,

“… Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from being king.”

This same stumbling block was an issue well before Saul, and we see it played out in Judges as the people of Israel, rather than driving the Canaanites out as they have been commanded, keep them as forced labor, despite the warning that to share the land with them would mean ultimately adopting their practices. And that is what we see play out again and again, throughout the book of Judges and beyond. The people are obedient to the Lord, then the people stray, following the example of the pagans around them, then the Lord punishes them in their wickedness, they repent and turn again to the Lord. And so Megiddo (which remember, is the location known as Armageddon), is among the first sites listed where Israel falls short and begins to stumble in the book of Judges. We see Megiddo brought up again not long after in the song of Deborah and Barak in Judges 5:19,

“The kings came, they fought; then fought the kings of Canaan, at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo; they got no spoils of silver.”

This is the place where Deborah, the fourth judge of Israel, along with Barak whom God called to lead militarily were given victory over this particular army of Canaanites. We then see the region again under another name in Judges 6:33,

“Now all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the people of the East came together, and they crossed the Jordan and encamped in the Valley of Jezreel.”

This is where God famously delivers victory against the massive army of the Midianites and Amalekites to Gideon with his 300 men. But then, later in the Old Testament we see this place as a stumbling block for God’s people once again (though we could make the case that Gideon’s victory was its own stumbling block). 1 Samuel 31:1–4 says,

“Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua, the sons of Saul. The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was badly wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, ‘Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me.’ But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.”

Now, this was ultimately a defeat for God’s people, so you may wonder how this ties into His justice. Consider that there was never a time when the people of Israel were victorious where the reason wasn’t God blessing them to triumph. Consider also that there was never a time where they were defeated where God did not deliver them into the hands of their enemies because of their disobedience. Saul was the first king of Israel, raised up by God, anointed through Samuel, and given commands to follow from the Lord, and instead he insisted on doing things his own way. We can see this in his life, in the rash and disobedient choices he made as king, and even in how he died, choosing to take his own life. Saul’s death was tragic, but it was also just, and it is again a justice dispensed in this region of Armageddon. Our final example in tying this theme of justice to this geographical location is in the death of Josiah, the kind of Judah. This is an interesting case, because his death is not quite like that of Saul’s. We see an introduction for Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34:1–3,

“Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left. For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and the carved and the metal images.”

Putting is mildly, Josiah’s a good guy – he’s seeking God, he’s ridding the land of idols. Reading on we see as he discovers the book of the Law, reinstitutes the Passover, and overall serves the Lord in steering the people of Israel back toward Him. Josiah’s death then comes as a bit of a surprise. 2 Kings 23:29 tells us,

“In his days Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt went up to the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went to meet him, and Pharaoh Neco killed him at Megiddo, as soon as he saw him.”

2 Chronicles 35:20–24 gives us a bit more detail around the matter, saying,

“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out to meet him. But he sent envoys to him, saying, ‘What have we to do with each other, king of Judah? I am not coming against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war. And God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, lest he destroy you.’ Nevertheless, Josiah did not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight in the plain of Megiddo. And the archers shot King Josiah. And the king said to his servants, ‘Take me away, for I am badly wounded.’ So his servants took him out of the chariot and carried him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.”

Even with reading the entire passage this may still sound a bit strange. For greater historical context – Babylon and Assyria were at war with one another, and Egypt was marching to the aid of Assyria. Josiah attacking the Egyptians wasn’t just about relations between Israel and Egypt, it wasn’t anything that God had commanded – as we read, it was actually in opposition to what God had willed for Neco, the king of Egypt. Josiah’s aggression then was an act of allegiance with Babylon, it was a move to gain favor with the neighboring empire, and so God allowed him to fall in battle, further cementing this place, Megiddo, as a site of God’s unwavering, uncompromising justice. Put simply, the fact that the army in today’s passage assembles at Armageddon has nothing to do with, in and of itself, fire and destruction and the end of the world. Yes, this is where the rebellion of man will end, and there will most assuredly be destruction, but that’s not what the name of the place means. God drying up the Euphrates and permitting this army to assemble at Armageddon is ultimately the Lord of Hosts calling his shot – He’s telling us exactly what’s about to happen. Just as this has been the site of His justice unfolding again and again, so it is about to be once more. Now here’s the question – is this literally talking about the same specific geographical region, the mountain of Megiddo, the valley of Jezreel, Mount Gilboa, does this mean the actual place that lies north of Jerusalem, south of the Sea of Galilee, between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean sea? Maybe – I would even say probably, but this is a “forest for the trees” moment, a case where getting bogged down in the particulars is wholly unnecessary, because it’s what this place signifies that matters. Because regardless of exactly where the armies of the world gather in opposition to God, this is where the Lord has brought them and this is where His justice will be delivered upon them, and that is what matters far and above pinning the exact spot down on a map.

“The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.”

War is a process. It can be tempting to look at ancient conflict, clashes between sword and shield, bow and rider – times when troop transport was getting everyone into a fleet of wooden ships and sailing to the battle, or else marching the hundreds of miles on foot, and think of these wars lasting an unnecessarily long time. We can even think this way of the wars of the prior century – the world wars, Korea, Vietnam – and imagine them dragging out because of their comparatively archaic technology. And admittedly, I’m certain that there were some technological or logistical elements that slowed things a bit, but consider that the war between Russia and Ukraine has now been going on for over four years. I’m not asking you to weigh in on whether or not this conflict should still be going on, what you think would have ended it by now, or really any political elements around the matter – I just want you to consider that this very modern war, where both sides are deploying a fair degree of technological advancement is still grinding on after four years. We live in a time of expedience, or instant gratification. I can call someone on the phone, text, or email them and communicate with them instantly. With a few taps on a smartphone I can have food from a whole host of restaurants arriving at my home within the hour, or order something from Amazon and have it on my front porch before the end of the day. But war, be it fought in ancient times, or actively waged today shows itself to be a process – or rather, the wars of men show themselves to be a process. This doesn’t apply to war that is waged by God – there is no process to this, no battle that teeters back and forth before ultimate victory is claimed. God joining into battle means that things are over before they begin, and I mean that quite literally. Consider the timeline here – the seventh bowl is poured out and we hear from God, from the throne in the temple of heaven say, “it is done!” Now we could read a connection in the similarities between this and Jesus’ final words from the cross in John’s gospel, John 19:30 saying,

“When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.”

But tellingly, we actually see two different Greek words used between “It is finished,” and “It is done!” The word that Jesus used from the cross is “tetelestai” which means “to bring to a close, to finish, to end.” The root word for tetelestai, which is “teleō,” is used many times across the New Testament, but for context this is what we see used in Matthew 13:53,

“And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there…”

As well as 2 Timothy 4:7 when Paul writes,

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

It is a statement of conclusion that confirms that something has ended. However the word that is used in today’s passage for “It is done!” is “ginomai,” which means “to become, to come into existence, to come to pass, to happen.” Despite the fact that teleō is used with regularity, the use of ginomai in the New Testament is far more frequent – it’s a past versus future tense application, that which is completed compared to that which is assured to be done. Consider this – Satan, the beast, and the false prophet have ensnared the armies of the world, caught up the wicked in their dark glamour, and incited them as you would a frothing mob against God. They have marched and gathered, crossing the dried up Euphrates and collecting their host in this ancient place of justice, Armageddon. They line up full of fury, hating God and His people, and the seventh bowl pours out and God essentially says, “It’s done, it’s already over, my victory is complete, my power is perfect, and this battle is decided. Your defiance has accomplished nothing, your rebellion has gained you no ground, and your iniquity will be torn apart and justly punished.” The location, Armageddon, “harmagedōn,” the mountain of Megiddo, the valley of Jezreel, God has already used to illustrate what will happen, because His justice wins – it always wins. There is no partial victory for the hand of God, no retreat before the forces of darkness to regroup and attack again – there is only an outright conquering of the enemy, a complete destruction of the unrighteous. At God’s words we see as we’ve seen before, lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, this mighty, visible manifestation of God’s power, resembling His forces of nature which lie beyond the perceived control of man. And then, the earth shakes – under the weight of His declaration, under the weight of what will be the earth trembles with destruction as it never has before. Here’s the thing, I want you to consider for a moment what it meant for the seven churches, the first who would read the letter of Revelation, to see that there would be, “a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth,” brought against the enemy. It’s not that we don’t live in a world that has to contend with natural disasters, but in many ways, we’re coddled by our technology. We have radars and detection systems to help us anticipate everything from hurricanes to earthquakes, we build structures with materials that, depending on the part of the world you find yourself in, are more resistant to the more likely natural disasters. Don’t get me wrong, they’re still a problem – people die, homes are destroyed, lives are upended, but our overall relationship with these forces of nature looks different than it did in the first century. All of the seven churches were in a geographical location impacted by earthquakes – it’s actually part of Laodicea’s fame (adding to the image of their self-sufficient, lukewarmness), that they were so financially secure that after being ravaged by an earthquake they were able to rebuild independently, without Rome’s assistance. These are people who have an intimate understanding of what it’s like to wake up on any given day, and have their world shaken apart before the sun has set. And now they read that what they’ve seen and experienced pales in comparison to what God will bring to bear, that there is nothing that has ever been seen before like what will unfold when the world is shaken by the force of His mighty justice.

3. Justice Completed

“The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.”

While I know I can ramble a bit, I promise I’m not entirely blind to my own longwindedness – I know our second point was a bit full and so I’ll try to be concise as we move through our third and final point. It doesn’t take a seasoned theologian to understand the Biblical relevance of the number three, shown most extraordinarily in the Trinity. But what we see in the Trinity is a miraculous union, One that is also Three. The Father, Son, and Spirit are distinct, yet not separate, individual, yet not isolated. Deuteronomy 6:4 communicates quite clearly,

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

And yet we may also know and see God who is our Father in Heaven, in the Good Shepherd who is the Son, and in the Helper and indwelling power that is the Holy Spirit. They are Three, and they are One. What we see unfold against Babylon is the opposite – we’ll deal with Babylon in greater detail next week, but for now we can just look at what it represents broadly. It’s a global empire, it’s the picture of the self-deification of man, the rejection of God, and the flourishing of worldly wickedness – and it breaks. It fractures into three parts, dispelling the illusion of unity, and the world that has built itself up around her falls apart as well. This is part of what we can take away from what is said of the mountains and islands as well – remember what we read in Revelation 6:14–17 after the breaking of the sixth seal,

“The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’”

The movement of the islands and mountains has literal implications, creation is being shaken into chaos, but it also speaks to the stability that is sought in worldly institutions, the “mountains” that man has made, the structural hierarchy that we cling to in the world – it’s all thrown off balance. And in the literal and symbolic upheaval that the world finds themselves in after the sixth seal they cry out – they beg the world to hide them, or to kill them because God’s wrath has come and it’s too much to bear… And they were wrong. That was not the day of the wrath of the Lamb, not the full justice of the One seated on the throne – that was just a reduction of common grace, just a matter of giving the world a greater measure of what it already had and coveted. What we read today is the day of God’s wrath, and we can see the clear difference – the islands and the mountains aren’t just tossed out of place, they’re gone. The systems and structures that the world has sworn by, allied itself to, bowed down and worshipped before, aren’t just thrown into disarray, they’re thrown out of existence. The landscape, the hills and valleys, the mountains upon which we’ve blasphemed, the islands for which we’ve praised pagan gods, as though they’d created new land – it’s all gone, and all that is left is to contend with the wrath of God which is to be drained to the last.

“And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.”

Now, this isn’t the first time that hail has been relevant as a plague in Scripture. As with the frogs, the hail calls us back to Egypt where it was seen as the seventh plague. Exodus 9:22 says,

“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, on man and beast and every plant of the field, in the land of Egypt.’”

And Exodus 9:24–26 shows us,

“There was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very heavy hail, such as had never been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast. And the hail struck down every plant of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the people of Israel were, was there no hail.”

We also saw hail at the first trumpet in Revelation 8:7 which says,

“The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood, and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.”

However what we see in today’s passage is another unprecedented event, exceeding the hail we’ve seen before – the people cursed God after the fifth and sixth bowls, but now there’s an extra detail included, they curse God because the plague is so severe. More than the scorching sun, more than the darkened kingdom, one hundred pound chunks of ice plummeting from the sky bring a reaction from humanity that we haven’t seen before. We looked at how Scripture outlined Armageddon, the place where the armies have gathered against God, but what’s interesting is that I think we’re given foreshadowing concerning this hail as well. In Job 38:22–23 God rhetorically asks Job,

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?”

Now, you could read this and think that God is simply referring to ordinary snow and hail, as he makes reference to His command concerning other things we perceive as natural workings in His address to Job, and I’ll give you that as it pertains to the snow, but the hail is given a distinguishing feature that seems to set it apart – it resides in its own storehouse and has been “reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war.” Consider the foresight of God, the completeness of His omnipotence – opening an invitation for the armies of the world to bring their condemnation upon themselves, to invite His justice upon them. See how that justice is delivered perfectly, gloriously and without exception or compromise. Look finally on the completeness of it all – just as God had a plan of restoration for His people before we transgressed against Him, so too He had a plan to exact His justice against those who would make themselves His enemies, who would raise their hands against His saints. It reaffirms everything that we’ve seen – God is not pouring out wrath chaotically, He’s not scrambling for a response to the rebellion of mankind or the dark schemes of Satan and his minions. God is in control – absolute control – His hand is stretched out and His justice is completed to perfection, as it has been planned since before man was capable of comprehension – and it’s beautiful. Beautiful in its precision, in its purpose, beautiful because this illustrates how much we can trust in our Father, both to provide for His children and to bring justice, that no transgression against His holy name will go unanswered.

Pastor Chris’ sermon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WZxwb7-Gl0