Revelation Chapter 16
Verse 21 continued “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.”
“Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail.” During the anarchy the masses will not fully realize what is happening—what the judgment is all about —although they will know that the events are without parallel in scope. At first, they will blaspheme God, but later they will call for deliverance. After experiencing the judgment and the hail for a season, they will recognize the hopelessness of the situation, and the people will look up to heaven. “They shall fret themselves, and curse their king [civil rulers] and their God [religious rulers], and look upward [to the true God]” (Isa. 8:21). Today the various nations look to human leaders, but at that time they will be humbled and really cry to the Lord, asking for help like a drowning man. Then the Lord will step in and save them.
To state the matter again: The false Church will have to retract previous utterances of being the only true Church, of the gates of hell not being able to prevail against her, etc. When the supporters of Babylon see the system is falling, they will realize they have been deluded and will curse both God (in ignorance) and Babylon.
Those who have an ill-founded faith (one based upon errors, the doctrines and precepts of men) will lose all faith in God and be completely disillusioned when their false ideas and hopes perish (i.e., the belief that they would comprise the kingdom of God, that thy would be raptured away before the trouble started). Not being true Christians (but “tares”, nominal Christians), they will curse not only the system they formerly upheld and what they erroneously thought was of God, but the Bible as well. In anger and disgust, the people will renounce all religious pretensions for a while. However, when anarchy results and there is no law or order, they will see that nothing constructive in itself can come from anarchy. When they see the situation is futile and events have progressed beyond the point of any hope of human control, they will cry to the Lord for help.
The pouring of the seventh plague is the pronouncement of a message, but the repercussive effects of that message will occur later. The principle is the same as the pouring or seeding of the atmosphere by plane with sodium iodide crystals with the intention of producing rain under the right conditions. Here, as a result of the seventh plague being figuratively poured into the air (the ecclesiastical heavens), there will be great hailstones.
The hail is called the “plague of the hail” in the sense that it is one of the aftereffects of the seventh plague. Just as the seventh trumpet covers a period of time, so the seventh plague will last awhile though be relatively short in duration. At the start of this last plague, but prior to the fall of Babylon, the feet members will die. The first of the firstborn class, the Very Elect, were passed over at midnight when the destroying angel went through the land of Egypt. From another perspective, the familiar type of the Passover observance on the night prior to the Exodus represents the sudden passage or change of the faithful firstborn class to the spirit realm at the midnight hour of the age.
The hail of Verse 21 should not be confused with that which is to occur in conjunction with “Jacob’s trouble” (Jer. 30:7). The Ezekiel picture (Chapters 38 and 39) is less symbolic and more figurative and literal than this Apocalypse scene. The earliest phase of the battle of Armageddon of Revelation 16 deals chiefly with the religious aspect (Verse 19); next comes the political aspect (Verse 20), which eventuates in Jacob’s Trouble; and the last phase (Verse 21) pertains to individuals who survive the experiences of verses 19 and 20. In other words, in one sense the battle of Armageddon has successive stages (Verse 19 precedes Verses 20 and 21); but in another sense, in relation to other Scriptures, it comprehends all three verses.
The battle of Armageddon of Chapter 16 will initially precede Jacob’s Trouble, which will be the very last feature at the end of the age; the Lord’s deliverance of the nation of Israel will occur at the end of the Time of Trouble. Since the events will happen within such a short time period, many other Scriptures are required to understand the details.
Even the Great Company will be off the scene when Jacob’s Trouble occurs. “Two parts [classes] therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left [delivered] therein” (Zech. 13:8,9). The “third” will be the holy remnant—those Israelite's of meek quality. “Wherefore it shall come to pass, that when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his high looks” (Isa. 10:12). In this case the “king of Assyria” represents the forces of Gog and Magog of Ezekiel 38.
Continued with next post.
