REVELATION 16:17-21
By Mike Kurtz
Read Revelation 16:17-21.
The final final final judgment has now arrived: the seventh seal with the seventh trumpet with the seventh bowl. The angel cries out, “It is done!” and with that a great earthquake rocks the planet causing the great cities around the world to fall in destruction. If that wasn’t bad enough, huge hundred pound hailstones fall from the sky killing much of mankind (though numbers aren’t stated).
I think what it is interesting about this final judgment is the type of affliction that is executed. In the earlier judgments, we find the sea, land, rivers and lakes affected. The sun, moon, and stars are affected. People are afflicted with sores, the scorching sun, and so on. But here in the last judgment, it is a great earthquake and huge hailstones. What makes this judgment uniquely different and more severe than the previous ones? Why would this kind of judgment be the climax of God’s wrath?
Have you ever experienced an earthquake? I spent much of my life in the central valley of California where earthquakes are common. Before that time, I lived a few years in Nebraska – tornado country. Every year we would seek shelter in our basement whenever tornadoes threatened the area. In my few years there, we never actually experienced the effects of a tornado because they always moved through some other part of the town. If you’ve ever lived in flood areas, you know that you can escape the flood by evacuating to higher ground. Earthquakes on the other hand, there is no escaping them. The shaking and rumbling of the earth is experienced by everyone in the area. Running to higher ground doesn’t help – even if warning was possible. Obviously, running to the basement is of no help either. Let me suggest that this worldwide earthquake and the huge hailstones are worse than all the other judgments because there will be no escaping it. Where could one possibly run to and not experience this worldwide earthquake? What could stand up to one hundred pound hailstones? We’re not talking about one hundred pound rocks being tossed through the air. These are hailstones crashing to the earth at incredible speeds. This is a judgment from which no one can hide.
It reminds me of the Scripture from Jeremiah 23:24:
Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?”
declares the LORD.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?”
declares the LORD.
And Job says of God:
There is no dark place, no deep shadow, where evildoers can hide. (Job 34:22)
This is not an encouraging word for unbelievers during this time! But have you stopped to consider that there will be believers there as well? They, too, will be unable to hide from the worldwide wrath. It’s fairly safe to say that God will protect them through this time. But think about this: the very words of Scripture quoted above, while terrible news for the unbeliever, is very good news for the believer. We cannot hide from God. There is nowhere He doesn’t know where we are. That is true for us today as well.
There is nothing He cannot see or even feel that we are currently experiencing. He fills the heaven and the earth, and He sits beside us at all times. While it is a far cry from God’s wrath in this chapter of Revelation, let His sovereign power be an encouragement to you today knowing that we cannot hide from the love of God as His child.
