16:17 This final judgment has the greatest impact of all since the air into which the angel pours his bowl is what humans breathe.535The loud voice is probably once again God's since it comes from the throne in the heavenly temple (cf. 16:1). With the outpouring of the final bowl God announced that His series of judgments for this period in history was complete. This statement is proleptic since it anticipates the completion of the seventh bowl judgment, which John had yet to reveal (cf. 21:6).
"The pouring out of the seventh vial into the air is probably a gesture pointing to the utter demolition of man's greatest final weapon in human warfare, when once the wrath of God is poured out in the great day of God Almighty."536
"Men would not have the Savior's It is finished!' on Calvary; so they must have the awful It is done!' from the Judge!"537
16:18 Lightning, thunder, and the greatest earthquake this planet has ever experienced will accompany, and to some extent produce, the desolation that follows. The storm theophany again appears at the end of another series of judgments (cf. 8:5; 11:19). These are signs of divine judgment, but this earthquake is much larger than any previous one (cf. 6:12; 8:5; 11:13, 19; Hag. 2:6; Heb. 12:26-27). It heralds the seventh bowl judgment and the end of the seals and trumpets judgments. All three series of judgments end at the same time.
16:19 A result of this unprecedented earthquake is the splitting of the great city into three parts. The "great city"could refer to Jerusalem (11:8), to Rome,538or to Babylon on the Euphrates (14:8; 17:18; 18:10, 21),539to which this verse refers explicitly later. Probably Jerusalem is in view.540It contrasts with the cities of the nations, and the phrase "the great"described it before (11:8). Zechariah's prophecy of topographical changes taking place around Jerusalem at this time argues for a geophysical rather that an ethnographic division (Zech. 14:4).541
Evidently the earthquake will destroy virtually all the cities of the world. Babylon on the Euphrates is the most significant of these cities (14:8). It is the special object of God's judgment, which the cup of wine that she receives symbolizes. Chapters 17 and 18 will describe the fall of Babylon in more detail.
"The fall of Babylon is the central teaching of the seventh bowl. It is an event already announced in 14:8 and prefigured in the harvest and vintage of 14:14-20. . . . Stages in Babylon's downfall come in 17:16 and 18:8 . . ., but her ultimate collapse is in 19:18-21"542
The government of Iraq has been trying to rebuild Babylon.543Interpreters have differed on the question of whether someone will rebuild the whole city completely or not. Some believe Iraq will rebuild Babylon mainly in view of what the prophets predicted would happen to Babylon in Isaiah 13 and 14, and in Jeremiah 50 and 51. They say this has not yet taken place.544Others hold that Scripture does not require the rebuilding of Babylon since they believe God has fulfilled these prophecies.545It seems to me that a literal city is in view in Revelation.
16:20 The earthquake will produce other effects. It will level mountains and cause islands to disappear.546As the Flood produced global topographical changes, so will this earthquake. It will prepare the earth for the Edenic conditions that the prophets predicted would characterize the earth during the Millennium. These changes will be a foreview of the final disappearance of the old creation and the creation of a new earth (cf. 20:11; 21:1-2).
16:21 The accompanying storm will include huge hailstones that will fall on the earth crushing people (cf. 8:7). Hail was often an instrument of divine judgment in biblical history (cf. Josh. 10:11; Job 38:22-23; Isa. 28:2, 17; Ezek. 13:11-13; 38:22-23). In spite of all these judgments the hearts of earth-dwellers will remain hard, as Pharoah's did during the plague of hail in Egypt (cf. Exod. 9:24). They will know that God sent this calamity, but rather than repenting they will shake their fists in God's face. God will stone these blasphemers with these huge hailstones (cf. Lev. 24:16).
"We cannot emphasize too strongly that in the three series of divine judgments--first the seals, second the trumpets, third the vials (or bowls) of wrath--we have those preliminary hardening actions of God upon an impenitent world, by which He prepares that world for the Great Day of Wrath--at Christ's coming as King of kings, as seen in Revelation 19:11-15. . . .547
J. Dwight Pentecost believed that the bowl judgments describe the second advent of Jesus Christ to the earth.
"Since the bowl judgments must span some period of time, we must view the second advent of Christ as an event that encompasses a period of time. In that regard, we find an interesting chronological note in Daniel 12:11-12: From the time that the daily sacrifice is abolished and the abomination that causes desolation is set up, there will be 1,290 days. Blessed is the one who waits for and reaches the end of the 1,335 days.' Twelve hundred ninety days span the second half of Daniel's seventieth week, and that time period brings us to the end of the Tribulation period. But the blessings of Messiah's reign are not enjoyed until some forty-five days later. Therefore, it is suggested that the forty-five day period is the period in which the judgments associated with the second advent of Christ are poured out on the earth. And that entire forty-five day period, then, could be called the second advent of Christ.
"Further, it is suggested that the 1,290 days come to their completion with the appearance of the sign of the Son of Man in heaven (Matt. 24:30). The judgments of Revelation 16 follow in a forty-five day period and are concluded with the physical descent of Jesus Christ to the earth. Hence, Revelation 11:15 brings us to the second coming of Jesus Christ back to the earth at which time He will experience the fulfillment of the Father's promise . . . [in Ps. 2:8-9]."548
It seems to me that the 45-day period may be the time of preparation for the beginning of the Millennium. It seems unnatural to describe the return of the Lord as taking this long to happen (cf. Acts 1:9-11). Therefore I prefer the view that the bowl judgments describe what happens before Jesus Christ returns rather than when He returns. These judgments then set the stage for the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.
Before recording that event in chapter 19, God led John to give more revelation concerning the fate of Babylon in chapters 17 and 18.549
